Search

Copyright of Zoon Politikon is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many ethics initiatives have stipulated sets of principles and standards for good technology development in the AI sector. However, several AI ethics researchers have pointed out a lack of practical realization of these principles. Following that, AI ethics underwent a practical turn, but without deviating from the principled approach. This paper proposes a complementary to the principled approach that is based on virtue ethics. It defines four "basic AI virtues", namely justice, honesty, responsibility and care, all of which represent specific motivational settings that constitute the very precondition for ethical decision making in the AI field. Moreover, it defines two "second-order AI virtues", prudence and fortitude, that bolster achieving the basic virtues by helping with overcoming bounded ethicality or hidden psychological forces that can impair ethical decision making and that are hitherto disregarded in AI ethics. Lastly, the paper describes measures for successfully cultivating the mentioned virtues in organizations dealing with AI research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability problems often seem intractable. One reason for this is due to difficulties coordinating actors' efforts to address socially responsible outcomes. Drawing on theories of bounded ethicality and incorporating work on communicating shared values in coordinating action this paper outlines the lack coordination as a matching issue, one complicated by underlying heterogeneity in actors' moral values and thus motivation to address socially responsible outcomes. Three factors contribute to this matching problem. First, we argue it is not actors' simple cognitive awareness, but their moral awareness of social issues that explains why certain actors move to address problems while others do not. In other words, actors may recognize sustainability problems, but are not motivated to solve them as they are not understood as moral problems. Second, we posit that progress requires alignment in issues that some actors find worth addressing whereas others do not, thus explaining how heterogeneity in moral perceptions interrupt coordination towards socially important goals. Finally, we propose that progress is undermined if actors myopically focus on level-specific outcomes in ways that elucidates why institutional responses often fail to address individual outcomes and vice versa. We use the existing literature on the socially important issue of food waste to examine our theoretical contribution and develop a typology that explains conditions that inhibit (or promote) coordination. Thus, our work proposes a psycho-structural view on matching and coordination toward sustainable outcomes, highlighting how psychological and structural constraints prevent effective coordination in addressing sustainability goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to the Radical Behavioral Challenge (RBC) to normative business ethics. According to RBC, recent research on bounded ethicality shows that it is psychologically impossible for people to follow the prescriptions of normative business ethics. Thus, said prescriptions run afoul of the principle that nobody has an obligation to do something that they cannot do. I show that the only explicit response to this challenge in the business ethics literature (due to Kim et al.) is flawed because it limits normative business ethics to condemning practitioners' behavior without providing usable suggestions for how to do better. I argue that a more satisfying response is to, first, recognize that most obligations in business are wide-scope which, second, implies that there are multiple ways of fulfilling them. This provides a solid theoretical grounding for the increasingly popular view that we have obligations to erect institutional safeguards when bounded ethicality is likely to interfere with our ability to do what is right. I conclude with examples of such safeguards and some advice on how to use the research findings on bounded ethicality in designing ethical business organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we investigate a philosophical problem for normative business ethics theory suggested by a phenomenon that contemporary psychologists call “bounded ethicality,” which can be identified with the putative fact that well-intentioned people, constrained by psychological limitations, make ethical choices inconsistent with their own ethical beliefs and commitments. When one combines the idea that bounded ethicality is pervasive with the idea that a person morally ought to do something only if she can, it raises a doubt about the practical relevance of the moral principles that business ethics theory prescribes. We call this doubt the Radical Behavioral Challenge. It consists in the idea that people cannot generally conform to the normative ethical principles that business ethics theorists prescribe, and that these principles are therefore practically irrelevant. We answer the Radical Behavioral Challenge and explore normative implications of our answer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Therapeutic working has long been considered a fundamental part of the educational psychologist's (EPs) role. Yet, little attention has been given to the ethical ambiguity which exists between the terms therapeutic practice and therapy, and the implications this has for practice. This paper starts with a definition of therapeutic practice, identifying three different approaches and exploring the practical and ethical differences between them. It is proposed that these approaches sit within a therapeutic continuum, which presents a range of nuanced, ethical complexities for consideration. Those issues are explored further, with a focus on ethical blind spots (EBS). The paper concludes with illustrative examples of EBS, bringing together dilemmas in initial decision-making along the therapeutic continuum and the practice-based issue of contracting with children and young people (CYP) and how these might be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the premise that people are rational maximizers of their own utility, economic analysis has a fairly successful record in correctly predicting human behavior. This success is puzzling, given behavioral findings that show that people do not necessarily seek to maximize their own utility. Drawing on studies of motivated reasoning, self-serving biases, and behavioral ethics, this article offers a new behavioral foundation for the predictions of economic analysis. The behavioral studies reveal how automatic and mostly unconscious processes lead well-intentioned people to make self-serving decisions. Thus, the behavioral studies support many of the predictions of standard economic analysis, without committing to a simplistic portrayal of human motivation. The article reviews the psychological findings, explains how they provide a sounder, complementary foundation for economic analysis, and discusses their implications for legal policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel supply chain role‐play activity designed to improve ethical awareness and pricing negotiation decisions in business capstone courses. Participants negotiate prices between five levels of an international coffee supply chain: Farmers, Processors, Importers, Roasters, and Retailers/Cafés. Using results from 141 participants, data analysis supports the conclusion that this role‐play significantly increases self‐reported mastery of supply chain management, business ethics, and negotiations. In this manuscript, we also introduce the concept of bounded ethicality and how it is incorporated into the role‐play scenario debrief phase. Self‐reported scores reflecting ethical awareness significantly increase after participation in the role‐play activity. While statistically significant results are discussed, we also generalize about the advantages of this type of experiential education. Methodology and details of the role‐play itself are shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theoretical analysis based of virtue ethics. We examine the individual internal predispositions related to non-virtuous behavior in the context of an ethical dilemma. For Aristotle, the virtuous state of being requires certain dispositions, but the difficult context of a "genuine dilemma" can generate interference and obstacles to achieving a virtuous state. The genuine dilemma is a symptomatic situation that disrupts our ethical identity by the potential biases that affect our personality traits and moral acts. These disturbances cause a phenomenon described by philosophers as "akrasia". We propose that this "weakness of will" influences the ethical decision-making process, thereby leading to non-virtuous acts. Within the empirical literature, we identify three types of disturbances that feed akrasia: bounded ethicality, denial, and moral cowardice. These ethical biases disrupt one's moral conscience by moving the individual away from the pursuit of virtue. Understanding these ethical errors contributes to enhancing ethical decision-making models, especially in terms of examining the failure of one's will to act according to one's values. We propose a conceptual model that explains non-virtuous attitudes to ethical dilemmas in management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews research on sexual harassment, particularly that pertaining to academia, to understand its underlying causes. Arguing that sexual harassment is an ethical issue, we draw on the field of behavioral ethics to structure our review. We first review ethical climate antecedents at the individual, leader, organizational, and environmental levels and examine their effects on both the occurrence of and responses to sexually harassing behaviors. This discussion is followed by an exploration of research that speaks to the cognitive processes of bounded ethicality—including ethical fading, motivated blindness, and the slippery slope—and their role in facilitating and perpetuating sexual harassment. We conclude by highlighting the value to be gained from integrating research on sexual harassment with research on behavioral ethics and identifying several practical steps that can be taken to curb sexual harassment in academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines behavioral ethics propositions, cognitive distortions, and bias reduction techniques. This is followed by the practitioner and academician response of the public administration profession to this nascent, intriguing field. The purpose is to review critical components of behavioralism and to examine the present status of behavioral decision science in the practice and study of public service ethics. How people think about thinking is important, because to address problems effectively, there must be an understanding of why individuals believe what they believe, how they think about issues, and why decisions are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deception is pervasive in negotiations, and proponents of bounded ethicality propose that the decision to use deception reflects the influence of (unconscious) implicit processes. In this article, we empirically explore the bounded ethicality perspective. In the first experiment, we found that an implicit association between business and morality interacted with the competitive and cooperative characteristics of a negotiation to influence both negotiators' attitudes toward deception and their intentions to use deception. But in a second and third experiment, we found that these did not interact to influence negotiators' actual deception decisions. The results of our studies provide important insights into the deception decision process and complicate our understanding of bounded ethicality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to self-maintenance theory, people notice their dishonest acts and thus experience ethical dissonance between their misconduct and their positive moral self. In this view, dishonesty is facilitated by justifications that redefine moral boundaries. By contrast, the bounded ethicality approach suggests that biased perception prevents people from becoming aware of their dishonesty. We tested the key process assumptions behind these accounts using pupillary responses and fixation data and found physiological evidence for both kinds of mechanisms. In particular, physiological arousal increased at the initial stage of cheating responses. This suggests that people are on some level aware of their wrongdoings. At the same time, however, we found attentional biases that can reduce the likelihood for detecting potentially disadvantageous information. We suggest that dishonest acts come at the internal cost of increased tension, which people aim to avoid by pre-emptive biased processing as well as post hoc justifications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corporation is a legitimate subject of philosophical inquiry. Economics has always had a background including a philosophical content and in construing its patterns of economic cooperation, it implicitly carries ethical (moral) assumptions. In order to succeed in their activity, both individuals and companies must necessarily behave according to moral requirements, although experience often shows phenomena of "bounded ethicality". This means a moral failure caused by lack of the ability of "practical wisdom" (phronesis): corporate leaders under pressure of conflicting motifs are unable to develop solutions acceptable for the long run or compatible with the perspective of "good life". Building out corporate ethics can only take place in a conscious and deliberate manner. Therefore, besides formulating the company vision, the main task of the ethical corporate governance is to develop the company's culture in which the management can relay on several means and procedures (organizational structures, "ethical documents", "organizational ethics policy and procedures", internal ethics trainings). Each company should have its own ethical management and value communication features according to its various fields of activity, its different structure and the corresponding business environment as well. Understanding this plurality and adopting the appropriate perspectives the ethical management requires is, above all, a philosophical issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers who generate financial reports often rely on subordinates who possess private information to provide inputs. When managers have incentives to manipulate reports, they may request biased inputs from subordinates. However, subordinates can act as informal controls and constrain managers' opportunism. We experimentally examine two potential determinants of subordinates' willingness to serve as informal controls: their perception of the subordinate-manager relationship quality and their beliefs about the ethical nature of the task. Subordinates who perceive a high-quality relationship with their manager provide more bias, despite a compensation scheme that makes compliance costly. This result suggests that managers who cultivate close working relationships with subordinates may undermine the control system. Subordinates' beliefs about the ethical nature of the task also reduce compliance, but more so when the manager requests income-increasing estimates. Our findings contribute to the management accounting literature by providing insights into the role of subordinate employees as informal controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most negotiators think of themselves as good people, and most negotiators act in ethically questionable ways at times. How can these two descriptions be reconciled? This paper follows Bazerman and Tenbrunsel (2011) in arguing that good people often engage in unethical acts without their own awareness of doing so. This paper specifically explores how negotiators may be prejudiced, favor in-groups, and overclaim in negotiation, without knowing that they are doing anything wrong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single case of a tempting-decision task involving financial gain is reported. The subject showed a prosocial Social Value Orientation and applied a profit-maximizing strategy. Differential brain activation patterns for self-serving and other-serving decisions were observed. Results provide new insight into the design of paradigms on bounded ethicality and self- and group-serving behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]