A critical examination of ethical decision making models

This paper critically examines both the need for, and the use of, ethical decision making models (EDMMs). This paper suggests that EDMMs focus on arriving at the correct decision but ignore the action required to implement it and are therefore incomplete. In most “accounting” circumstances, finding the right decision is not what is required. Rather, a model which provides both a sound decision and, appropriate implementation would be more useful. In trying to establish a new/different EDDM that provides for this it is argued that a biblical model exists which addresses both decision making and action. This paper aims to encourage accounting ethics education to move beyond determining the right decision and focus on taking the right action.

The role of information and communication technology in the urgent decision making process : a work in progress report

This paper reports part of a study that examines how members of a senior management team in a public sector organisation make decisions under urgency. Four regional managers, who are geographically dispersed around New Zealand were interviewed, either face-to-face or via telephone, regarding their experiences of decision making under urgency.

Preliminary results indicate that only three out of a possible seven steps of a conventional decision making process are used during the urgent decision making process. The study also shows that participants do not fully utilise the information and communication technology available during the decision making process. The implications the findings have for practice and research are discussed.

Parental decision-making surrounding complicated births: the impact on parent-infant and infant-marital relationships

This paper reviews current research regarding the impact of birth complications on parental decisionmaking, and the resulting effects on parent-infant and infant-marital relationships. It discusses the importance of informed decision-making on parental satisfaction of the birthing experience, and the benefits of certain strategies, such as kangaroo care, in the facilitation of greater levels of attachment and improved relationships. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research areas to focus on finding better ways to prepare and support parents in these situations, thus improving the quality of relationships between parents and with their child.

Construction of aggregation operators for automated decision making via optimal interpolation and global optimization

This paper examines methods of point wise construction of aggregation operators via optimal interpolation. It is shown that several types of application-specific requirements lead to interpolatory type constraints on the aggregation function. These constraints are translated into global optimization problems, which are the focus of this paper. We present several methods of reduction of the number of variables, and formulate suitable numerical algorithms based on Lipschitz optimization.

Do knowledge and experience have specific roles in triage decision-making?

Accuracy of triage decisions is a major influence on patient outcomes. Triage nurses' knowledge and experience have been cited as influential factors in triage decision-making. The aim of this article is to examine the independent roles of factual knowledge and experience in triage decisions. All of the articles cited in this review were research papers that examined the relationship between triage decisions and knowledge and/or experience of triage nurses. Numerous studies have shown that factual knowledge is an important factor in improving triage decisions. Although a number of studies have examined the role of experience as an independent influence on triage decisions, none have found a significant relationship between experience and triage decision-making. Factual knowledge appears to be more important than years of emergency nursing or triage experience in triage decision accuracy. Many triage education programs are underpinned by the assumption that knowledge acquisition will result in improved triage decisions. A better understanding of the relationships between clinical decisions, knowledge, and experience is pivotal for the rigorous evaluation of education programs.

Impact of internationalisation on business decision-making: the Australian experience

The research considered the impact on the range of decision areas available to strategy setting for organisations internationalising part of their operations to reduce costs. The research utilised qualitative research data collected from interviews with 10 CEOs based on a structured interview guide formulated around the principal issues identified in the literature. Thematic analysis was used to extract evidence in relation to issues identified in the literature as well as new issues not currently identified .It found that internationalisation significantly reduced the range of decision areas available for strategic decision making. This affected the range of inputs to the formulation process, as well as the strategic choice options available. Organisations internationalising operations to reduce costs should increase levels of staff involvement through revolutionary strategy formulation processes, adopted more centralised corporate strategy processes and utilise a clearly differentiated and sequential relationship between corporate and business level strategies. The findings indicate that different strategy formulation processes are required for different levels of internationalisation of operations to reduce operating costs. Research into international strategy must recognize the change in the approach to strategy formulation that occurs as organisations increase their level of international operations. Future research to identify whether the currently generally adopted strategy formulation processes are adequate for all levels of internationalisation of operations should be pursued.

Harm reduction and decision making among recreational ecstasy users

Recent research indicates that 3,4-methylene-dioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), also known as ‘ecstasy’, is becoming increasingly popular as an illicit drug among young people. This study investigated risk and harm reduction practices among recreational ecstasy users. A semi-structured interview with 40 participants was designed to investigate how ecstasy users identify and manage the harms associated with their drug use, and the underlying decision-making process. Overall, the participants identified both positive and negative effects. The reported positive effects predominantly centred around enhanced psychological, physiological and social experiences. However, there were a number of factors that contributed to regulating ecstasy use. These included specific in-group and out-group practices executed within the peer group, preventative harm-reducing practices, shared decision making, and shared responsibility for harm prevention. Recommendations for promoting harm reduction strategies and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Decision making effectiveness in wildfire incident management teams

During large scale wildfires, suppression activities are carried out under the direction of an Incident Management Team (IMT). The aim of the research was to increase understanding of decision processes potentially related to IMT effectiveness. An IMT comprises four major functions: Command, Operations, Planning, and Logistics. Four methodologies were used to study IMT processes: computer simulation experiments; analyses of wildfire reports; interviews with IMT members; and cognitive ethnographic studies of IMTs. Three processes were important determinants of IMT effectiveness: information management and cognitive overload; matching component function goals to overall goals; and team metacognition to detect and counter task-disruptive developments. These processes appear to be complex multi-person analogues of individual Incident Command processes identified previously. The findings have implications for issues such as: creating IMTs; training IMTs; managing IMTs; and providing decision support to IMTs.