Ethical framework for directors – learning from the prophet

Purpose This paper aims to explore the director’s work ethics with particular attention given to the Islamic perspectives and prophetic character toward sustaining the performance of the business organizations. As at now, there is a limited code of ethics that can be a guidance for the business organizations and its leaders specifically. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines and reviews the foundation and prior studies on directors’ work ethics and Islamic work ethics. Then, briefly discuss and present a conceptual review of the directors’ work ethics based on prophetic characters, as well as its application in modern business activities. Findings Based on Quran and Hadith, this paper proposes that four fundamental moral characters of directors are siddiq (truthfulness), fatanah (intelligent), tabligh (deliver) and amanah (trust). Research limitations/implications This paper is conceptual in nature, thus further research needed to empirically test all the characters in actual practices. Practical implications The outcome of this paper contributes in way of it can be used and applied by the firm and policymakers to construct a comprehensive code of ethics that based on the Islamic values. Originality/value This paper is original as it attempts to suggest the appropriate constructs of directors’ work ethics from the religious studies in the ethics and management literature. These constructs able to increase the integrity and moral behaviors of the directors, which eventually preventing them from a commit in various unethical and malpractices that may obstruct the progress of the country’s economic development and growth.

Advances in the simulation of offshore heavy lifts from experiences in Bass Strait, Victoria

There has always been a clear need to demonstrate that project critical offshore heavy lifts can be conducted safely, within allowable criteria, for the metocean conditions likely to occur in-field. Extensive guidance is available in the design codes for lifts subsea but, for lifts in air, dynamic analysis of the response of a suspended mass is not fully addressed. Analyses generally yield results that do not agree well with operating experience and cannot easily be assessed against the limited code guidance available. Traditionally, operator skill and experience has thus been relied on to justify the operability of such lifts. Recent experience in engineering the lift of a 500 tonne module onto the Yolla Platform in Bass Strait, Victoria, has further underlined the deficiencies in analytical techniques and approaches available to the industry. This paper presents experience gained from the pre- and post-lift analysis of an instrumented lift operation recently conducted by the mono-hull vessel Sapura 3000 in the challenging environmental conditions of Bass Strait. This analysis was used to demonstrate that the lift could be conducted safely within tight operational constraints, meeting the codified criteria set. Subsequent analysis of data gathered during the lift was used to explore and refine modelling assumptions to aid the engineering of future challenging heavy lifts. The analyses conducted advanced state-of-the-art work in this field for the offshore industry. By enabling numerical techniques for heavy lifts, which are typical of many other offshore operations, safety will be improved, project contingencies can be properly estimated through more accurate prediction of downtime, and cost savings can be achieved by the selection of more effective vessels for the task.