Description des valeurs éthiques dans la politique de lutte contre le paludisme en Côte d’Ivoire

À l’instar de nombreux pays en développement, la prévention et la prise en charge du paludisme présente occupent une place centrale dans les politiques publiques en Côte d’ivoire. En vue de fournir des outils d’aide à la décision aux acteurs politiques, plusieurs études sur l’évaluation de l’efficacité et des coûts des programmes sont régulièrement engagées. Toutefois, très peu d’études se sont penchées sur les dimensions éthiques de ces programmes. En conséquence, nous avons choisi d’explorer dans une perspective éthique les programmes de prévention et de prise en charge du paludisme en Côte d’Ivoire à travers une analyse documentaire descriptive. La méthode qualitative fut retenue à cet effet. Ce mémoire vise à démontrer que la lutte contre le paludisme est une entreprise qui intègre des valeurs éthiques implicites notamment de solidarité et de promotion de la vie en santé. En outre, des mesures particulières notamment de gratuité d’accès aux services de prévention et de prise en charge sont prévues dans le but de prendre en compte les populations vulnérables face au paludisme. Le chapitre d’analyse nous permettra de montrer comment ces dispositions présentent des limites en ce qui concerne l’équité. Enfin, nous allons démontrer que ces dispositions spécifiques sont susceptibles in fine de générer voir d’accentuer les risques d’inégalités sociales.

Les sciences sociales devraient-elles être neutres? : le rôle des chercheurs(ses) face à la normativité du discours éthique et politique, de Weber à Putnam.

L'objectif de ce mémoire est de comprendre la neutralité axiologique non pas comme une exigence épistémologique, mais plutôt comme un idéal éducationnel. Max Weber propose une science basée sur la description factuelle, de laquelle on exclut la formulation de jugements de valeur. Pour l'auteur, il est préférable de séparer les jugements descriptifs des jugements évaluatifs dans le but de préserver l'autonomie intellectuelle des étudiants. Comme il serait contraire au principe d'autonomie de laisser le professeur influencer et convaincre ses étudiants, de façon partisane, d'adhérer à certaines thèses normatives, Weber propose un mécanisme pour éviter que le professeur n'influence ses étudiants de manière illégitime. Les critiques contemporaines de la neutralité axiologique, en particulier celles de Sen et Putnam, voient dans le critère de neutralité un rejet de l'entrelacement logique des faits et des valeurs. Ils critiquent la supposée subjectivité des valeurs et, ce faisant, défendent une conception enrichie de la science où les valeurs éthiques sont présentes. Weber n'a jamais défendu qu'il était impossible de mener une analyse à la fois descriptive et normative. Seulement, on doit s'interroger sur les lieux où s'exprime la normativité, et s'assurer que toutes les conditions sont présentes pour qu'une discussion normative tende réellement à l'objectivité.

Emociones y toma de decisiones éticas: desarrollo e implicaciones para la empresa

Los líderes organizacionales se deben enfrentar a retos ambientales del mundo de los negocios y diversas presiones que los ponen día a día en un alto riesgo ético. Sortear dichos riesgos ha demandado cambios sustanciales en las dinámicas de las organizaciones contemporáneas, por lo que las exigencias a los directivos de tomar decisiones acertadas en situaciones de alta complejidad moral son cada vez mayores. Estas decisiones involucran un comportamiento ético de quien las toma, lo cual a su vez está mediado por sus emociones.

Linking human and machine brains

A look is taken here at how the use of implant technology is rapidly diminishing the effects of certain neural illnesses and distinctly increasing the range of abilities of those affected. An indication is given of a number of problem areas in which such technology has already had a profound effect, a key element being the need for a clear interface linking the human brain directly with a computer. In order to assess the possible opportunities, both human and animal studies are reported on. The main thrust of the paper is however a discussion of neural implant experimentation linking the human nervous system bi-directionally with the internet. With this in place neural signals were transmitted to various technological devices to directly control them, in some cases via the internet, and feedback to the brain was obtained from such as the fingertips of a robot hand, ultrasonic (extra) sensory input and neural signals directly from another human's nervous system. Consideration is given to the prospects for neural implant technology in the future, both in the short term as a therapeutic device and in the long term as a form of enhancement, including the realistic potential for thought communication potentially opening up commercial opportunities. Clearly though, an individual whose brain is part human - part machine can have abilities that far surpass those with a human brain alone. Will such an individual exhibit different moral and ethical values to those of a human.? If so, what effects might this have on society?

On linking human and machine brains

A look is taken here at how the use of implant technology is rapidly diminishing the effects of certain neural illnesses and distinctly increasing the range of abilities of those affected. An indication is given of a number of problem areas in which such technology has already had a profound effect, a key element being the need for a clear interface linking the human brain directly with a computer. In order to assess the possible opportunities, both human and animal studies are reported on. The main thrust of the paper is, however, a discussion of neural implant experimentation linking the human nervous system bi-directionally with the internet. With this in place, neural signals were transmitted to various technological devices to directly control them, in some cases via the internet, and feedback to the brain was obtained from, for example, the fingertips of a robot hand, and ultrasonic (extra) sensory input and neural signals directly from another human's nervous system. Consideration is given to the prospects for neural implant technology in the future, both in the short term as a therapeutic device and in the long term as a form of enhancement, including the realistic potential for thought communication-potentially opening up commercial opportunities. Clearly though, an individual whose brain is part human-part machine can have abilities that far surpass those with a human brain alone. Will such an individual exhibit different moral and ethical values from those of a human? If so, what effects might this have on society? (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Upgrading humans via implants - why not?

In his forum paper, Prof. Kevin Warwick considers four different examples of how the use of implant technology is opening up the possibility of upgrading human abilities, particularly in terms of mental cognition. The main thrust is an overview of Prof. Warwick's own research, which led to him receiving a neural implant linking his nervous system bi-directionally with the internet. With this implant in place, neural signals were transmitted to various technological devices to directly control them, in some cases via the internet, and feedback to the brain was obtained from such stimuli as the fingertips of a robot hand, ultrasonic (extra-) sensory input and neural signals directly from another human's nervous system. A view is taken as to the prospects for the future, both in the short-term as a therapeutic device and in the long-term as a form of enhancement, including the realistic potential, in the near future, for thought communication – thereby opening up tremendous commercial potential. The therapy/enhancement dichotomy is considered here, as well as military and medical issues. Clearly though, an individual whose brain is part human/part machine can have abilities that far surpass those who remain with a human brain alone. Will such an individual exhibit different moral and ethical values to those of a human? If so, what effects might this have on society?

Look up, look around: is there anything different about team-level OCB in China?

Ethical leadership has been widely identified as the key variable in enhancing team-level organizational citizenship behavior (team-level OCB) in western economic and business contexts. This is challenged by empirical evidence in China and findings of this study. Our study examined the relationship between ethical leadership, organizational ethical context (ethical culture and corporate ethical values) and team-level OCB. Team-level data has been collected from 57 functional teams in 57 firms operating in China. The findings suggest that although ethical leadership is positively associated with team-level OCB, ethical context positively moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and team-level OCB. The higher ethical context is found to be, the greater is the (positive) effects of ethical leadership on team-level OCB and the opposite holds true when ethical context is low. Key implications are discussed on the role of contextual ethics for team level OCB, while managerial implications include how non-Chinese firms could improve team-level OCB in the Chinese business context.

Online data processing consent under EU law: a theoretical framework and empirical evidence from the UK

This article analyses the results of an empirical study on the 200 most popular UK-based websites in various sectors of e-commerce services. The study provides empirical evidence on unlawful processing of personal data. It comprises a survey on the methods used to seek and obtain consent to process personal data for direct marketing and advertisement, and a test on the frequency of unsolicited commercial emails (UCE) received by customers as a consequence of their registration and submission of personal information to a website. Part One of the article presents a conceptual and normative account of data protection, with a discussion of the ethical values on which EU data protection law is grounded and an outline of the elements that must be in place to seek and obtain valid consent to process personal data. Part Two discusses the outcomes of the empirical study, which unveils a significant departure between EU legal theory and practice in data protection. Although a wide majority of the websites in the sample (69%) has in place a system to ask separate consent for engaging in marketing activities, it is only 16.2% of them that obtain a consent which is valid under the standards set by EU law. The test with UCE shows that only one out of three websites (30.5%) respects the will of the data subject not to receive commercial communications. It also shows that, when submitting personal data in online transactions, there is a high probability (50%) of incurring in a website that will ignore the refusal of consent and will send UCE. The article concludes that there is severe lack of compliance of UK online service providers with essential requirements of data protection law. In this respect, it suggests that there is inappropriate standard of implementation, information and supervision by the UK authorities, especially in light of the clarifications provided at EU level.

Codes of ethics in corporate Sweden

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to examine and describe the use of codes of ethics in the top 100 companies operating in the Swedish corporate sector. This paper reports on the responses of those companies that possessed a code of ethics.

Design/methodology/approach – A three-stage research procedure was used. First, a questionnaire was sent to the public relations managers of the top 100 companies operating in the Swedish corporate sector (based on revenue). Companies were asked to answer up to 29 questions and to supply a copy of their code of ethics. The second stage involved content analysis of the codes of ethics supplied by survey respondents. The third stage involved a more detailed follow-up of a smaller group of firms that appeared to be close to best practice. Findings for Stage 1 of the research are reported in this paper. The areas of questioning were: how common are codes of ethics? Who was involved in the development of these codes? What are the reasons for the codes? How are they implemented? Do companies inform internal and external publics of the codes? What are the prescribed benefits of the codes?

Findings – It would appear that business ethics has only recently become a topic of interest in corporate Sweden and that many companies are in the early stages of code development and assimilation into company policies. The incidence of codes in the population (of 100) suggested by this survey (56 per cent) is lower than a US study finding (in 1995) that over 84 per cent of comparable US companies had codes of ethics. It would appear that Sweden today lags behind the US situation of 1995. When one investigates the special measures to support the inculcation of ethical values at the organizational level, there appears to be some shortfall. The supporting measures of ethics committees, ethics training committees, ethics training, ombudsman, an ethical audit and procedures to protect whistleblowers appear to be under-utilized in companies that possess codes. This lack of utilization tends to suggest that companies in Sweden, as yet, either have not developed a high commitment to supporting business ethics in their corporations, or they may have developed other methods to support their codes in their organizations that they view are as beneficial as the traditional methods practised in other western industrial democracies.

Research limitations/implications – This research was limited to internal ethical expectations. The commitment to business ethics is usually explored in terms of internal ethical expectations, but the simultaneous consideration of the external ethical expectations in the marketplace (e.g. among suppliers and customers or other publics) is desirable. A dyadic approach considering a company's internal ethical expectations and the external ethical expectations of a company's business activities may give a more balanced and in-depth approach.

Practical implications – Evidence is now available to show that codes of ethics are well developed in many of Sweden's largest corporations: organizations that, from their responses, appear to see a diverse range of benefits in developing the area of business ethics. Companies are beginning to implement not only a code of ethics, but other complementary initiatives that reinforce the need for the culture of the organization to be ethical. Codes of ethics are perceived by organizations to have assisted them in their dealings in the marketplace and many companies use their ethical values to underpin their strategic planning process. It appears that many companies now see the formalisation of business ethics as an integral part of their commercial practices.

Originality/value – This study is the first one of its kind on codes of ethics in corporate Sweden. It will enable all sectors of Swedish business to benchmark their efforts against the major companies in the Swedish corporate sector.

International standards of business conduct: framework and illustration

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to describe the insights and a proposal into the structure of standards of business conduct and its intended applications.

Design/methodology/approach: – The case study is based upon an inductive content analysis of corporate ethics artefacts.

Findings: – It is concluded that the standards of business conduct may be highly prescriptive in world wide corporations, but that there should be an explicit commitment to a flexible and dynamic approach to the application of standards of business conduct.

Research limitations/implications: – An examination of the actual behaviour of a corporation's operations was beyond the scope of the present research, but such a study has potential for future research. This would open up the wider question of how corporations can minimise the gap between corporate intentions and actual outcomes in business operations across national and cultural boundaries.

Practical implications: – These diverse national and cultural contexts that world wide corporations encounter must be taken into consideration in the content of their standards of business conduct.

Originality/value: – The authors emphasise the concern of recognising that the contexts surrounding standards of business conduct are dynamic. Corporate codes of ethics should be regarded as dynamic artefacts. A framework of application is proposed.

Cosmopolitanism, identity and recognition

An application of the social theory of Axel Honneth to global justice, arguing that development goals must include provision for the intersubjective recognition required for identity formation. In the disciplines of Political Philosophy and International Relations cosmopolitanism is often defined as the view that all people, no matter their national, ethnic or religious backgrounds and no matter what their gender, have an equal moral status. The most telling enunciation of this view is the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, the focus that is given to rights and a global form of legal equality by this document and by such theorists as John Rawls is not rich enough to capture all of the ethical demands that global society places upon well-to-do Westerners and developed nations. This paper makes use of a thesis by Axel Honneth to the effect that political thinking needs “a basic conceptual shift to the normative premises of a theory of recognition that locates the core of all experiences of injustice in the withdrawal of social recognition, in the phenomena of humiliation and disrespect.” Honneth identifies three spheres of recognition in modern societies: love, law, and achievement. I offer some exposition of his theory and then argue that global justice must be understood to embrace the substantive ethical values that arise in these three spheres as well as the procedural standards of moral rightness that belongs to the second of them. Such an expanded conception of global justice will yield an enriched conception of cosmopolitanism.

A conceptual framework of corporate and business ethics across organizations

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to introduce and describe a conceptual framework of corporate and business ethics across organizations in terms of ethical structures, ethical processes and ethical performance.

Design/methodology/approach – A framework is outlined and positioned incorporating an ethical frame of reference in the field of organizational chain management.

Findings – A number of areas and sub-areas of corporate and business ethics are framed in the context across organizations.

Research limitations/implications – The introduced framework should be seen as a seed for further development and refinement. It provides opportunities for further research of ethical concerns across organizations.

Practical implications – Organizations may benefit from the findings and insights presented and they may be used to enhance their ability to manage, monitor and evaluate ethical business practices across organizations.

Social implications – Changing societal and market patterns may enforce organizations to address ethical concerns across organizations. A myopic approach restricted to the judicial system may become insufficient and unsatisfactory from the perspective of other stakeholders of the organization.

Originality/value – The framework makes a contribution bringing in ethical concerns across organizations, providing a basis for their ethical values and culture, as well as asymmetric relationships in terms of power and dependence. The authors believe that a true learning organization needs to realise the importance of an extended view of its endeavors of corporate and business ethics in terms of ethical structures, ethical processes and ethical performance across organizations.

A ética em Smith nos neo-clássicos e suas implicações na ética em negócios

Esta pesquisa procurará discutir as relações entre ética em economia e administração. O enfoque adotado demonstrará que a ética da economia clássica representada pelo pensamento de Adam Smith é completamente diferente daquela encontrada nos pensadores neoclássicos representados por Hayek, Von Mises e Friedman. Decorre daí que apesar do mundo dos negócios adotar algumas perspectivas econômicas de Smith, os critérios de avaliação de desempenho empresarial decorrem da economia neoclássica e de forma subjacente incorpora seus valores éticos. Ao se ignorar este relacionamento entre economia e negócios, a discussão sobre ética nos negócios é conduzida por um caminho que impede qualquer consenso ou aplicação prática.

As pinturas de Waldomiro de Deus: signos e desejos a favor da educação na escola de ensino fundamental

O objetivo deste trabalho é propor um projeto com o intuito de levar o aluno de ensino fundamental da rede pública ao conhecimento e à reflexão acerca de um determinado período social e político da historia brasileira, conhecido como a ditadura militar da década de 1960, através da obra do artista popular Waldomiro de Deus. Para tanto, propõe-se a utilização da Abordagem Triangular (AT) para o ensino da arte, que consiste em uma metodologia baseada em três eixos principais: a contextualização da obra, a sua apreciação e a prática. A contextualização da obra de arte no projeto é para o aluno entender a época na qual foi criada, e estabelecer as relações sociais e culturais de forma integrada. A apreciação da obra é a leitura crítica das imagens, que ajudará ao aluno a formar seus próprios conceitos sobre os trabalhos artísticos a partir daí analisados. A prática refere-se ao trabalho no ateliê, a criação visual, a utilização dos materiais para composição dos trabalhos. Estes trabalhos serão elaborados a partir do estudo da obra do artista, não sendo uma cópia, e o aluno terá a liberdade para se expressar dentro de sua realidade. Este projeto pretende trazer para os seus beneficiários a discussão da arte e o seu papel no ensino fundamental. Compartilhar com as crianças um cotidiano educativo proposto por este projeto é envolver linguagens artísticas diferentes, como prática de dinâmicas entre professores e alunos, no processo de desenvolvimento e criação da arte e na apropriação de valores éticos. Espera-se ao final do projeto que os alunos conheçam a obra do artista Waldomiro de Deus, a temática que envolveu e a sua importância para o conhecimento desse período histórico do país.