Teaching social work online: dilemmas and debates

The stampede towards delivering tertiary education online has been well documented in the academic literature and newspaper media. A great deal of this writing has been characterised by an acute division between those who support and those who deplore this paradigm shift in the way education is offered to students. Not withstanding a few notable exceptions, social work as a discipline has yet to fully engage in this debate, watching, as emerging technologies radically change the way education and social services are delivered. This article provides an overview of the literature related to online learning in social work. In particular the global context influencing the delivery of education is investigated; the major themes emerging from the literature are highlighted; the opportunities and obstacles for teaching and learning social work online are examined, and finally questions relating to the cultural implications for delivering social work education online are identified using a constructivist framework.

The relevance to international mergers of the ethical perspectives of participants

International mergers are becoming more widespread among medium-sized companies that for decades have held a prime position in their home country market, but who now feel threatened that they may not be of a significant size to continue to be viable in the international marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to examine the merger of one Australian company and one of its former competitors in the international marketplace from the perspective of the congruence between their espoused ethical cultures in business prior to the merger. A questionnaire comprising 46 questions was sent to the public relations manager of each organization prior to the merger. These managers were asked to fill in the questionnaire and to provide a copy of their code of ethics. The research found that organizations need to not only have a code of ethics, but also need to focus especially on the area of code augmentation to ensure that they communicate the ethos of their code to their employees.

Australian law students' values: how they impact on ethical behaviour

This paper focuses on the values that underpin legal practitioners' behaviour. In a globalising legal profession information about the values bases' of lawyers is critical to understanding the ways in which a "justice agenda" (arguably, a primary responsibility of the profession) may be sustained into the 21st century. However, there has been a dearth of research into the value systems of lawyers or law students. This paper attempts to investigate what values are characteristic of the mass of Australian lawyers in their last year of law school. It is part of a larger longitudinal study, now nearing completion, which aims to provide longitudinal information about the value sets of these same law students, as they become early-career lawyers and to understand how their values develop or degrade over time.

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.

Ethical behaviour: the foundation stone for entrepreneurial activity in arts organisations

Entrepreneurship is being touted as the way forward for arts organisations unsure of the level of continued government funding available and confronted with the need to ever improve. At a time when leadership and governance in cultural organisations have changed in line with cultural expectations, how is their ethical stance assessed? In an age of globalisation, economic restructuring and technological change, museums are sometimes seen to be something of a contradiction. Traditionally seen as temples for the muses, today's museums are being challenged to be ethical for society. As a solution, this paper proposes a Cooperative Model of Cultural Organisational Ethics that attempts to provide a framework by which arts organisations can put in place ethical artefacts that enhance organisational performance, rather than detract from it.

The ethical outlook of micro business operators

This paper reports the findings of an investigation into the ethical outlook of micro business operators. The study was conducted in Australia and is the first such examination of ethical perspectives in this segment of the business population. Micro business is internationally recognizable, economically significant, and strongly entrepreneurial, and it has a high level of control over the values it enacts. The study indicates that ethical considerations are important to Australian micro business operators. While no one single ethical perspective was dominant, nonreligious beliefs and principles were found to be the most important determinant of their ethical values. Some variation was discovered in operator attitudes based on age, gender, and education.

Investigating socio-economic status and chronic illness: directions and dilemmas

In Australia, chronic illness is increasing being recognised as more important. Yet there is relatively little discussion of the nature of the role played by socio-economic status (SES) plays in its prevalence. This paper argues there are two effects of SES. The first is that lower SES can lead to an increase in chronic illness, as evidenced by a number of epidemiological studies. The second is that chronic illness can contribute to lower SES. Examples are provided of the different types of relationships. Difficulties associated with SES analyses and its relationship to chronic illness are discussed, and specific conditions such as HIV/AIDS are referred to as examples. In addition the work of Marmot on SES and chronic illness is drawn on. The authors identify a number of areas that require further research, and recommend that in studies of chronic illness, SES may be a contributing variable, and outcome, or both.