A Code of Digital Ethics: laying the foundation for digital ethics in a science and technology company

The rapid and dynamic nature of digital transformation challenges companies that wish to develop and deploy novel digital technologies. Like other actors faced with this transformation, companies need to find robust ways to ethically guide their innovations and business decisions. Digital ethics has recently featured in a plethora of both practical corporate guidelines and compilations of high-level principles, but there remains a gap concerning the development of sound ethical guidance in specific business contexts. As a multinational science and technology company faced with a broad range of digital ventures and associated ethical challenges, Merck KGaA has laid the foundations for bridging this gap by developing a Code of Digital Ethics (CoDE) tailored for this context. Following a comprehensive analysis of existing digital ethics guidelines, we used a reconstructive social research approach to identify 20 relevant principles and derive a code designed as a multi-purpose tool. Versatility was prioritised by defining non-prescriptive guidelines that are open to different perspectives and thus well-suited for operationalisation for varied business purposes. We also chose a clear nested structure that highlights the relationships between five core and fifteen subsidiary principles as well as the different levels of reference—data and algorithmic systems—to which they apply. The CoDE will serve Merck KGaA and its new Digital Ethics Advisory Panel to guide ethical reflection, evaluation and decision-making across the full spectrum of digital developments encountered and undertaken by the company whilst also offering an opportunity to increase transparency for external partners, and thus trust.

Developing an Effective Strategy for the Enforcement of the Constitutional Mandate of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions

The Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions (ECCPP) is one of the committees of the Senate of Nigeria’s National Assembly. The Committee was one of the earliest Special committees established under Order XIII of the Senate Standing Orders 2015, as amended (SSO 2015). It is one of the committees through which the Senate conducts legislative investigations in fulfilment of its constitutional and statutory role under section 88 of the 1999 Constitution, as altered. The major challenge of the ECCPP Committee in the exercise of its investigation power is the refusal by some chief executives of government agencies and corporate organisations to honour its invitation. This study finds that among the reasons for this are the absence of ethical prescriptions in the SSO 2015 to guide the conduct of honourable members against unethical conduct that undermine their integrity, and absence of prescribed fine for failure to honour the Committee’s summons. To strengthen the enforcement capacity of the Committee, the study recommends, among others, that members of the Committee eschew unethical tendencies that undermine their integrity and conduct the business of the Committee in a manner that avoids conflicts of interest or its appearances.

The The Implementation of Ethical Journalism Based on Teleological Approach in TVRI Jakarta

The article aims to find out how the teleological approach is used by journalists who should, of course, adhere to the journalistic ethics code at TVRI Jakarta. And in the field of journalism is the ethical code of journalism is important?. This research method employs qualitative methods and uses interview instruments with two sources from the TVRI station in Jakarta. The result is that this teleological approach is often used by journalists at TVRI Jakarta in carrying out its duties, and of course, its use should be consistent with a journalistic code of ethics.

Mitigating Gig and Remote Worker Misconduct: Evidence from a Real Effort Experiment

Employee misconduct is costly to organizations and has the potential to be even more common in gig and remote work contexts, in which workers are physically distant from their employers. There is, thus, a need for scholars to better understand what employers can do to mitigate misconduct in these nontraditional work environments, particularly as the prevalence of such work environments is increasing. We combine an agency perspective with a behavioral relationship-based perspective to consider two avenues through which gig employers can potentially mitigate misconduct: (1) through the communication of organizational values and (2) through the credible threat of monitoring. We implement a real effort experiment in a gig work context that enables us to cleanly observe misconduct. Consistent with our theory, we present causal evidence that communication of organizational values, both externally facing in the form of social/environmental responsibility and internally facing in the form of an employee ethics code, decreases misconduct. This effect, however, is largely negated when workers are informed that they are being monitored. We provide suggestive evidence that this crowding out is due to a decrease in perceived trust that results from the threat of monitoring. Our results have important theoretical implications for research on employee misconduct and shed light on the trade-offs associated with various potential policy solutions.

Failure of Lehman Brothers

This study assessed the failure of the Lehman brothers. The aim was to evaluate the causes of Lehman's bankruptcy and determine the strategies that could prevent bankruptcy in the banking sector going forward. Findings indicated a close relationship between regulations and the actions of management. In particular, the failure of Lehman showed that regulation and supervision are critical to the success and continuity of the banking sector. The analysis also showed that the demise of Lehman was a result of complex factors. These included unethical management practices, deregulation, excessive risk-taking, poor corporate governance structure, fraud, and lack of a robust ethics code. Keywords: Derivatives, Hedging, Subprime Mortgage, Bankruptcy.

A Pedagogy for Inculcating Professional Values in Accounting Students: Results from an Experimental Intervention

Research has shown that rankings of personal values significantly differ between accounting professionals and accounting students in the United States and other countries. This difference implies a lack of Person-Organization (P-O) fit between students and the accounting profession. This study presents an educational pedagogy, using both a Curriculum Modification (CM) Intervention and a Value Self-Confrontation (VSC) Intervention, that highlights professional values and can lead to value change in accounting students. Experimental results indicate that this pedagogy can have a significant impact on converging student values with those of the profession (AICPA ethics code). This finding suggests that a Curriculum Modification Intervention combined with a VSC Intervention could be used by educators globally to converge values of accounting students with those of professional accountants, thereby improving ethical decision-making by individuals, as well as having positive impacts on accounting firms' hiring, socialization, and retention of employees.

Identifying and prioritizing the factors affecting the Iranian Sports Refereeing Ethics Code

El propósito de esta investigación fue compilar un código de ética del arbitraje deportivo en Irán. El método de la presente investigación fue mixto (cualitativo y cuantitativo). Se entrevistó a un total de 15 expertos en el campo de la ética del arbitraje deportivo mediante el método de muestreo de bola de nieve. Los resultados obtenidos en la entrevista dieron lugar a un cuestionario válido y fiable que se distribuyó aleatoriamente entre los árbitros y árbitros asistentes de las principales ligas iraníes de deportes de equipo (fútbol, voleibol, balonmano y baloncesto) y deportes individuales (taekwondo, kárate, lucha libre y natación), con una muestra total de 224 personas. El análisis y la codificación se realizaron utilizando los softwares Max Kyoda, SPSS y Smart PLS. Los hallazgos de la investigación mostraron que en este campo se extrajeron 8 temas y 61 subtemas, que incluyen los componentes de comportamiento, corrupción, comunicación, aspecto sociocultural, familia, respeto, legalidad y justicia, en este orden de importancia. En general, prestar atención a los aspectos de comportamiento y corrupción juega un papel importante en la mejora del estatus ético de los árbitros deportivos en Irán. The purpose of this research was to compile a sports refereeing ethics code in Iran. The method of the present research was mixed (qualitative and quantitative). A total of 15 experts in the field of refereeing ethics in sports were interviewed by the method of snowball sampling. The results obtained from the interview led to a valid and reliable questionnaire that was randomly distributed among the referees and assistant referees of the Iranian premier leagues of team sports (football, volleyball, handball and basketball) and individual sports (taekwondo, karate, wrestling and swimming), with a total sample of 224 people. Analysis and coding were performed using the softwares Max Kyoda, SPSS and Smart PLS. Research findings showed that 8 themes and 61 sub-themes were extracted in this field, which include the components of behavior, corruption, communication, sociocultural aspect, family, respect, legality and justice, in this order of importance. In general, paying attention to the behavioral and corruption aspects plays an important role in improving the ethical status of sports referees in Iran.

The Face of the General Elections Commission in The Case of the Code of Conduct 2018-2020

The course of the implementation of the General Election can never be separated from all kinds of ethical and criminal matters that always color in the course of the electoral stage in Indonesia. Several cases of violations of the ethics code and corruption committed by the Commissioners and Secretariat of the KPU at all levels resulted in sanctions imposed by the DKPP against the KPU. Therefore, the results of this study will look at the case of the KPU code of ethics in the DKPP decision for the 2018 to 2020 period, as well as the impact of this decision on election organizers at the KPU. This study using a qualitative descriptive research design. The data used in this study were obtained from literature studies in the form of documents of the results of the verdicts that have been issued by the DKPP obtained through the official portal website of the DKPP, with a period from 2018 to 2020. The document of the decision of the DKPP ethics case was then carefully processed by the author using the application of qualitative data processing Nvivo 12 Plus. The data processing results found that enrichment of the electoral code of conduct by-election organizers in the KPU is still felt less. All parties should highly praise preventive efforts to violate the code of conduct.