Widening the Industrial Competence Base

Amidst the macroeconomic, social, and industrial trends altering the industrial operating environment, calls have been made to shift attention from specialized but narrow technical content of engineering education to a broader competence base that better accommodates societal demands. This chapter focuses on the micro-level ethical conduct that materializes in face-to-face interaction in engineering teams. The chapter serves three aims: first, it defines the key concepts employed in the discussion. Second, it offers an account of the worth and impacts of investments in emotive skills in the engineering world. Finally, it describes a pedagogic experiment in incorporating ethics into engineering degree studies at Aalto University, Finland. The ultimate objective is to propose a teaching practice that would turn the currently marginal attempts to include ethical topics in engineers' syllabi into a mainstream mindset and philosophy that dictates decisions and drives conduct in future engineering communities.

Mind Mapping for Critical Thinking

Mind mapping is a visual technique that exploits the way we actually think—through synaptic connections and non-linear associations. Because mind mapping gives practitioners, be they professional or student, access to subconscious observations and connections, it is a powerful thinking tool, useful in a variety of situations in business and in education. This chapter focuses on how mind mapping fosters the kind of flexible and organic thinking vital to critical thinking and the creative problem-solving process. It explains what is at work in the brain as we create new knowledge and how mind mapping exploits these processes to gain intuitive and concrete understanding in situations requiring critical thinking. A step-by-step outline of how to mind map in both individual and group settings is followed by examples of mind maps from both business and education.

Medical Ethics and Undergraduate Training

The study of Medical Ethics [ME] is mandatory for health practitioners because there is hardly an area in medicine that doesn't pose an ethical dilemma. There is lack of awareness among physicians. Training of medical students should equip them to provide the best care to patients in an ethical manner without harm. The aim of this chapter was to assess the awareness of undergraduate students to ME and take inputs about curricular changes as they are important stake holders. A prospective, cross sectional, observational study through a confidential questionnaire was utilized. 86 proformas were fit for analysis. Majority [68.6%] failed to define ME. Most had been exposed to ME in the college or through the print or visual media. Majority could not recall any incident of professional misconduct witnessed by them, while others recounted incidents such as taking gifts from pharmaceutical companies, rudeness to poor patients, mis-diagnosis due to casual approach towards patients, becoming personal with female patients, organ trafficking, conducting sex determination tests etc. Most were unaware about the existence or purpose of an institutional ethics committee. Regarding the need for studying ME 86.04% said they thought it is important. Majority suggested be interactive case presentations as a method of teaching ME. There is gross unawareness among medical students about the definition, scope and purpose of teaching ME. A drastic change in the medical curriculum is required and new and interesting teaching learning methods need to be evolved in order to train our students in ME.

Libraries at the Crossroads

This chapter discusses the various ethical challenges librarians face as they provide library services through the use of social networking technologies. Specifically, the chapter identifies the major ethical issues being encountered by librarians in the use of social media, the implications to professional practice, and the mitigation strategies that can be used to address these issues. The first section is a brief introduction to social networking tools and their uses in the provision of library services. It also discusses the benefits of adoption of social media in libraries. The second section discusses the major ethical challenges being faced by libraries as they integrate social media in their outreach programmes. The third section discusses implications of use of social media in the provision of library services and attempts to recommend measures and practices librarians should undertake to ensure ethical use of social media in their operations. The fourth section is a conclusion to the chapter.

Becoming Teacher Researchers

Drawing on three years of data, we show how an embedded university research team and eleven K-8 educators reorganized learning and negotiated innovative curricular activities for English learners (ELs) in spite of restrictive curricular mandates in an urban Midwestern district. We analyze how participating teachers appropriated theoretical constructs such as cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), third space, funds of knowledge, as well as using discourse analysis to design curriculum aimed at improving language learning through mathematics, science, and community-based problem solving. The learning of teachers was purposefully designed to develop new professional identities. The learning was also designed to move teachers from deficit views of multilingualism to dynamic stances grounded in polyglot language ideologies. We examine the challenges and opportunities of participants' movement from resistant, procedural, and ethnographic identities towards teacher researcher identities.

Management as a Limit to Organizational Change

Acquisitions inherently involve change, but the success of desired change varies. This reflects the inherent difficulty of organizational change and attempts to maintain a fit with an organization's environment. A possible limitation to successful change is that the managers responsible for it face conflicting demands. This chapter develops multiple ways that acquisition circumstances and involved managers can limit organizational change. For example, middle managers can have information about organizational challenges but not the authority to direct change, while top managers have the authority but face implementation constraints. Acquisitions may also offer a solution to these challenges through the reconfiguration of a firm's management to increase management perspectives and to update organizational identities. Implications for management research and practice are discussed.

Teamwork Assessment and Self/Peer Evaluation in Higher Education

This chapter examines the challenges and opportunities associated with fostering students' learning skills through teamwork assessment and self/peer evaluation in the Business Technology 2 (BT2) undergraduate unit at an Australian university. This assessment will encourage students to promote skills in teamwork, communication (writing, interpersonal interaction and cultural awareness, and presenting), critical and creative thinking (problem-solving and solving and decision-making), Information Technology literacy, and information literacy, and is intended to increase their self-confidence in both their studies and in the future workforce. This chapter provides empirical evidence from 267 students, based on quantitative and qualitative data derived from two sources. The first consists of anonymous informal feedback collected during the semester, while the second (formal) source of students' evaluations and attitudes towards the BT2 unit and teaching is “eVALUate.” The students indicate that they are satisfied with this form of assessment as it assists them to develop specific skills and understandings, including time management, problem solving, decision-making, cultural awareness, oral presentation, communication, and meeting a deadline.

The Role of Performance Management Practices on Organizational Performance

This chapter introduces the framework and causal model of leadership style, organizational culture, performance management practices, and organizational performance. It argues that dimensions of leadership style, organizational culture, and performance management practices have mediated positive effect on organizational performance. Performance management practices positively mediate the relationships between leadership style and organizational performance and between organizational culture and organizational performance. Leadership style is positively correlated with organizational culture. Understanding the theoretical learning is positively beneficial for organizations aiming to increase organizational performance and achieve business goals.

Manifestation of Ethical Consumption Behaviour through Five Precepts of Buddhism

Consumption is an essential everyday process. By very nature, it is a means of expressing our moral identities and an outlet for ethical obligations. In more recent years, ethical aspects of consumption have come under greater scrutiny with the emergence of ethical consumption discourses, and are currently associated with a range of consumer behaviours and responsible business practices. To this end, religion is considered an undeniably powerful and concurrently the most successful marketing force that can shape the ethical behaviour, yet under-investigated in consumption practices despite the Corporate Socially Responsibility provoked ethical behaviour. Ethical consumption practices are regularly characterised as consumption activities that avoid harm to other people, animals or the environment where basic Buddhist teachings become more pertinent and practiced in Buddhist communities. This Chapter aims to conceptualise the importance of religious beliefs in ethical consumer behaviour and present the findings of a study that explored whether and how ethical consumerism is reflected through Five Precepts of Buddhism [i.e. (1) abstain from taking life, (2) abstain from stealing, (3) abstain from sexual misconduct, (4) abstain from false speech, and (5) abstain from intoxicants that cloud the mind]. The content of the Chapter contributes to the theory and teaching in the marketing discipline by linking how religious beliefs enhance ethical consumerism that remains largely unexplored.

Engineering Ethics Education

In this chapter, the importance of engineering ethics education in engineering programmes is discussed, involving major elements that build ethics education. Definitions and concepts of engineering ethics are introduced, along with an engineering code of ethics. Ethical education in engineering programmes is analyzed, focusing on teaching approaches and the effect of science and technological development on engineering socio-ethical issues. Survey results are presented, which illustrate students' attitudes toward engineering ethics, where it is found that students' attitudes were poor. Some strategies are suggested to improve engineering ethical education in engineering programmes.