The goal of this article is to augment the ethical discussion among nurses with the findings from empirical research on autonomy of older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus. There are many factors influencing autonomy. These include: health conditions, treatment, knowledge, experience and skills, personal approach as well as familial patterns, type of relationship, life history and social context. Fifteen older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus were interviewed in a nurse-led diabetes clinic. These participants perceive three processes which support (...) autonomy in responsive relationships: preserving patterns of concern and interaction, nurturing collaborative responsibilities and being closely engaged in trustful and helpful family relations. People with diabetes realize autonomy in various responsive relationships in their unique life context. Next, we performed a literature review of care ethics and caring in nursing with regard to relational autonomy. We classified the literature in five strands of care: attitude-oriented, dialogue-oriented, activity-oriented, relationship-oriented and life-oriented. According to our respondents, autonomy in responsive relationships is fostered when patient, nurses, professionals of the health team and family members carry out care activities supported by a relational attitude of care. They can best realize autonomy in relationships with others when several essential aspects of care and caring are present in their lives. Therefore, we advocate a comprehensive approach to care and caring. (shrink)

Effective public health nursing relies on the development of responsive and collaborative relationships with families. While nurse–family relationships are endorsed by home visitation programs, training nurses to follow visit‐to‐visit protocols may unintentionally undermine these relationships and may also obscure nurses’ clinical understanding and situated knowledge. With these issues in mind, we designed a home‐visiting intervention, titled Listening with Care, to cultivate nurses’ relationships with teen mothers and nurses’ clinical judgment and reasoning. Rather than using protocols, (...) the training for the intervention introduced nurses to narrative methods and therapeutic tools. This mixed‐method pilot study included a quasi‐experimental design to examine the effect of the intervention on teen mothers’ depressive symptoms, self‐silencing, repeat pregnancy, and educational progress compared to teens who received usual care. Qualitative data were collected from the nurses to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and therapeutic tools. The nurses endorsed the therapeutic tools and expected to continue using them in their practice. Despite the lack of statistically significant differences in outcomes between groups, findings suggest that further study of the intervention is warranted. Future studies may have implications for strengthening hidden aspects of nursing that make a difference in the lives of teen mothers. (shrink)

Although there is much research on the relationships of corporate social responsibility and employee-related outcomes, a systematic and quantitative integration of research findings is needed to substantiate and broaden our knowledge. A meta-analysis allows the comparison of the relations of different types of CSR on several different outcomes, for example to learn what type of CSR is most important to employees. From a theoretical perspective, social identity theory is the most prominent theoretical approach in CSR research, so we aim (...) to investigate identification as a mediator of the relationship between CSR and employee-related outcomes in a meta-analytical mediation model. This meta-analysis synthesizes research findings on the relationship between employees' perception of CSR (people, planet, and profit) and employee-related outcomes (identification, engagement, organizational attractiveness, turnover (intentions), OCB, commitment, and job satisfaction), thereby distinguishing attitudes and behavior. A total of 143 studies (N= 89,396) were included in the meta-analysis which was conducted according to the methods by Schmidt and Hunter (except of the meta-analytical structural equation model). Mean effect sizes for the relationship between CSR and employee-related attitudes and behaviors were medium-sized to large. For attitudes, the relationships were stronger than for behavior. For specific types of CSR, average effect sizes were large. Identification mediated the relation between CSR and commitment, job satisfaction, and OCB, respectively. Based on our results, we give recommendations concerning the design of CSR initiatives in a way that benefits employees. (shrink)

This study is an extension of our recent ethics research in direct marketing and information technology. In this study, we investigated the relationships among core organizational values, organizational ethics, corporate social responsibility, and organizational performance outcome. Our analysis of online survey responses from a sample of IT professionals in the United States indicated that managers from organizations with organic core values reported a higher level of social responsibility relative to managers in organizations with mechanistic values; that managers in both (...) mechanistic and organic organizations which were perceived as more socially responsible were also perceived as more ethical; and that perceived ethical attitudes and social responsibility were significantly associated with organizational performance outcome measures. Our article discusses research premises, conceptual framework, hypotheses, research methodology, data analysis, recommendations for further research, and conclusions. (shrink)

This paper supplies a critique of James Kellenberger’s thesis that relationships are deeper than principles because principles derive from and are determined by relationships. Relationships are admittedly sometimes normative, but it is implausible that an acceptable general theory of normativity can be based on this fact. The first section concerns Kellenberger’s initial thesis, which derives normativity from actual relationships. The following two sections concern his revised thesis, disclosed two-thirds of the way through his article, that normativity (...) is conferred by proper relationships and is not conferred by bad ones. I proceed to investigate in the following section the possibility that morality involves impersonal obligations as well as personal ones, and for this reason, if for no other, its nature fails to cohere with Kellenberger’s claims about relationships underlying morality in general. In a final section, I present a quite different account of the possible sources of normativity, which may help to explain the normativity of principles, and might even help explain that of relationships as well. (shrink)

Corporations are spending a substantial and increasing amount of money on corporate social responsibility. However, little is known about the effects on key stakeholders of these activities. This study investigates if CSR activities have an effect on employees’ affective commitment. Two models test to what extent employees’ CSR perception, involvement in decision processes, and demographic variables are related to their AC relative to their perception of positive organizational support. The analysis is based on a sample of 512 employees from 4 (...) Scandinavian companies; 3 Norwegian and 1 Swedish, randomly selected from a population of 6,710 mostly Norwegian and Swedish employees in those 2 countries. The results indicate that CSR perception is a significant predictor of AC, although how employees feel that the company cares about them has stronger explanatory power on AC. Contrary to the few other studies addressing AC and CSR, gender was not found to be a significant variable in the model. (shrink)

Since time immemorial, the phenomenon of leadership and its understanding has attracted the attention of the business world because of its important role in human groups. Nevertheless, for years efforts to understand this concept have only been centred on people in leadership roles, thus overlooking an important aspect in its understanding: the necessary moral dimension which is implicit in the relationship between leader and follower. As an illustrative example of the importance of considering good morality in leadership, an empirical study (...) is conducted in which a good performance of the "leader-follower" relationship is reflected when individuals perceive ethical leadership in higher hierarchical managerial levels. To be precise, findings of this study demonstrate that follower job response is improved through an ethics trickle-down partial effect from the Top Manager to the immediate supervisor, and also reveal both key aspects and managerial level on which the practice of ethical leadership should rest upon to have a stronger effect on the follower positive job response. Practical implications of these findings and directions for future research are finally presented. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) continues to gain attention atop the corporate agenda and is by now an important component of the dialogue between companies and their stakeholders. Nevertheless, there is still little guidance as to how companies can implement CSR activity in order to maximize returns to CSR investment. Theorists have identified many company-favoring outcomes of CSR; yet there is a dearth of research on the psychological mechanisms that drive stakeholder responses to CSR activity. Borrowing from the literatures on meansend (...) chains and relationship marketing, we propose a conceptual model that explains how CSR provides individual stakeholders with numerous benefits (functional, psychosocial, and values) and how the type and extent to which a stakeholder derives these benefits from CSR initiatives influences the quality of the relationship between the stakeholder and the company. The paper discusses the implications of these insights and highlights a number of areas for future research. (shrink)

This article analyses that state responsibility in international law is contractual liability, as a state infringes its obligations to another state (states), stemming out of international law. Member State liability in damages to a private party for breach of European Union law is, contrarily, non-contractual liability to a private party. Having analysed the elements of internationally wrongful act, it is stated that the elements of internationally wrongful act can be used to determine the elements of breach of the European Union (...) law. Thus if an international court declares that a state committed an internationally wrongful act, it would be possible to maintain that the elements of breach of the European Union law are met as well. The author of this article notes that it is very important to identify a particular state institution, which has infringed the European Union or international law, as not attributing to the state the acts of the state institution under the European Union or international law, there should be no possibility to apply state liability in damages to a private party for breach of the European Union law or state responsibility in international law – the state can be liable only for acts of its institutions. This article also analyses the cases where application of both Member State’s liability in damages to a private party for breach of the European Union law and state responsibility in international could be possible. In such case a private party can suffer damages if a Member State breaches an international agreement, concluded by the European Union, imposing particular obligations on that Member State. Therefore, it is ascertained that a private party should not have to prove the second condition of liability – sufficient seriousness of the breach1 – if an international court foremost states that a Member State commited an internationally wrongful act – breached its obligation arising out of an international agreement entered into by the European Union. Such an infringement would be considered to be as sufficiently serious per se. (shrink)

Background: Nurses’ perceived organizational justice is one of the factors influencing their social responsibility and conscientiousness. Social responsibility and conscience are major requirements for providing high-quality and standardized care. Objective: The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship of perceived organizational justice with work consciousness and the social responsibility of the nurses. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was performed on 380 nurses who had at least 1 year of job experience and willingness to participate in the study. (...) The study was conducted in Zanjan province, Iran, in 2018. The study subjects were selected via stratified random sampling. The data were collected using an organizational justice scale, corporate social responsibility scale, and consciousness scale. Questionnaires were completed through self-reporting. The data were analyzed using partial correlation coefficient and linear regression analysis. Ethical considerations: Research ethics approval (with the code of IR.ZUMS.REC.1397.47) was obtained from Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. Results: The results indicated that nurses felt injustice in all dimensions of organizational justice (2.66 ±.753). They feel the most sense of injustice in distributive justice (2.19 ±.798). In three dimensions, except the ethic dimension, the social responsibility was in a desirable range (2.79 ±.703). In two dimensions, work consciousness was in a desirable range. The results showed a significant and positive relationship between all dimensions of social responsibility and all dimensions of organizational justice (r =.072). However, no statistically significant relationship was observed between the dimensions of organizational justice and conscience (r = –.002). Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, social responsibility and the work consciousness of the nurses are affected by organizational justice. Therefore, nursing managers are suggested to change their management styles to reduce the sense of organizational injustice in nurses and have long-term productivity. (shrink)

Although it is now widely recognised by business leaders that their companies need to accept a broader responsibility than short-term profits, recent research suggests that as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social reporting become more widespread, there is little empirical evidence of the range of stakeholders addressed through their CSR programmes and how such programmes are reported. Through a CSR framework which was developed in an exploratory study, we explore the nature of stakeholder relationships reported across leading FTSE companies (...) and the importance they attach to communicating both social and business outcomes. It is evident from the hypotheses tested that the bigger FTSE companies, particularly extraction companies and telecoms, are more adept at identifying and prioritising their stakeholders, and linking CSR programmes to business and social outcomes. However, we draw the general conclusion that building stronger stakeholder relationships through CSR programmes – other than with customers – is not currently a priority for most companies. We also conclude that a limited sophistication in managing multiple stakeholders may compromise the impact of CSR upon business and social results. Finally, the managerial implications and the contribution of our study are discussed before closing with an acknowledgement of the limitations of this work and suggestions for further research. (shrink)

The global landscape in which we wrote this essay has fundamentally changed. Given how these changes have altered the rhythm of life, particularly the added responsibilities that many of you have a...

This response questions whether human relationships are morally basic in the manner the author suggests, and also whether reference to human relationships is necessary for explaining moral principles, obligations, and judgments. I argue that, often, those can be explicated without essential reference to human relationships, except perhaps in the respect that the moral issues concern human beings. Also, Kellenberger maintains that immorality is to be understood in terms of “violations” of human relationships. However, features other than (...) facts about human relationships often do the main explanatory work in accounting for the wrongness of immoral actions. Indeed, it is often the case that facts about human beings are the basis for ascertaining the moral significance of human relationshipsand actions. Translation of moral principles into an idiom of human relationships would not be illuminating in a significant, novel manner. We already possess conceptual resources for explicating the moral phenomena with which Kellenberger is concerned. Those resources include concepts of elements other than, and more basic than, human relationships. (shrink)

In this article, we explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and earnings management (EM). Our CSR index, using KLD data, incorporates information from the following issue areas: the community, corporate governance, diversity, the product, employee relations, the environment, and human rights. Results show that more socially responsible firms have higher quality accruals and less activity-based EM, both of which impact financial reporting quality.

Contemporary leaders are increasingly challenged to execute their leadership roles with a higher sense of responsibility. However, only a handful of studies have empirically examined the influence of responsible leadership on employee and organisational outcomes. Using Social Identity Theory and Psychological Contract Theory, this paper reports the findings of the relationship between responsible leadership and organisational commitment through the mediating role of employee turnover intentions. A web-based online survey was administered to collect data targeting a sample of 200 Australian employees (...) working full time. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. The results reveal that perceived responsible leadership significantly influences employees’ organisational commitment and their turnover intentions. Moreover, the direct relationship between responsible leadership and organisational commitment was found to be partially mediated by employees’ turnover intentions. (shrink)

Firm innovation creates an informational asymmetry between the firm and outside stakeholders. Since CSR activities have been shown to reduce asymmetries and risk we surmise that firms use discretionary CSR activities to reduce the asymmetries from innovation. We study an innovation intense industry and find results that support the hypothesis that firms use CSR to signal long term viability of innovative activities.

The practice of evidence based medicine has changed the role of the physician from information dispenser to gatherer and analyser. Studies and controlled trials that may contain unknown errors, or uncertainties, are the primary sources for evidence based decisions in medicine. These sources may be corrupted by a number of means, such as inaccurate statistical analysis, statistical manipulation, population bias, or relevance to the patient in question. Regardless of whether any of these inaccuracies are apparent, the uncertainty of their presence (...) in physician information should be disclosed to the patient. These uncertainties are not, however, shared by physicians with patients, and have caused a direct increase in patient responsibilities and mistrust. Only when disclosure of uncertainty becomes commonplace in medical practice will the physician/patient relationship evolve to a level of greater understanding and satisfaction for both the physician and patient. (shrink)

Firm–employee relationships are dependent on the wider societal context and on the role business plays in society. Changes in institutional arrangements in society affect the perceived responsibilities of firms to their personnel. In this study, we examine mass media discussions about firm–employee relationships from a social responsibility perspective via a longitudinal study in Romanian society. Our analysis indicates how the expected responsibilities of firms towards employees have altered with the changing role of firms in society since the early (...) 1990s. These transformations correspond to the ideological developments, from communist to market-based thinking, which have taken place in post-communist Eastern Europe. More specifically, our study shows how the diminishing expectations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are linked in mass media to increasingly important talk of human resource management (HRM). HRM is a modern business approach believed to address personnel needs and organisational objectives simultaneously. The congruency of goals in HRM may mistakenly lead to the conclusion that organisations are inherently responsible toward their personnel. We argue that this may not necessarily be the case. HRM, matching well the new free-market ideology in post-communist Eastern Europe, was eagerly embraced in that it defined firm–personnel relationships. In this study, we question whether this was an adequate theoretical perspective for Romanian firms to adopt as it lacks sufficient ethical grounding. We also call for a higher awareness concerning the role of mass media in the management literature, since its current role in constructing the ‘rightness’ and ‘wrongness’ in firm–personnel relationships is hardly considered. (shrink)

Jagiello et al.'s bifocal stance theory provides a useful theoretical framework for attempting to understand the connection between greater adherence to traditional norms and greater sensitivity to threats in the world. Here, we examine the implications of the instrumental and ritual stances with regard to various evolutionary explanations for traditionalism–threat sensitivity linkages.

Although we theorize that nurses ‘make a difference’ to patient outcomes and speculate that this happens because nurses ‘care’, there is so far little evidence to support this nebulous claim. Efforts to promote care as the defining characteristic of nursing, and an ‘ethic of care’ as the ethical basis of nursing, have sparked debate within the discipline. This debate has resulted in a polarization that has effectively stalled productive discourse on the issues. Moreover, the focus on care has been at (...) the expense of understanding the true nature of the relationship between caring and the broader base of ethical knowledge that underpins nursing and that must underpin nursing if it is a viable practice profession. This paper used the framework of philosophical argument to explore the moral and ethical foundations of nursing from the perspective of personal and public morals, and responsive nurse–patient relationships as the reflection of ethical nursing knowledge. The foundation of ethical nursing knowledge is the personal moral sense that resides within the individual and that nurses hold in common with others. Personal moral knowledge is transformed into disciplinary ethical knowledge specific to nursing through disciplinary consensus. Responsive relationships are conceptualized in the nursing literature as founded on three essential elements: respect, trust, and mutuality. These three elements are grounded in ethical nursing knowledge; therefore responsive nurse–patient relationships reflect both personal moral knowledge and disciplinary ethical knowledge. By facilitating the articulation of ethical nursing knowledge in practice, responsive relationships connect theory, ethical knowledge, and clinical outcomes. (shrink)

Background: Long working hours and mental health problems among teachers are a concern in Japan. More specifically, it has been reported that junior high school teachers tend to work overtime. In this study, examined the working hours of junior high school teachers in public schools and investigated the association between overtime work and stress responses across job titles.Methods: From June to December 2018, 54,772 teachers in public junior high schools completed a web-based nationwide survey regarding occupational stress and submitted self-evaluated (...) working hours per day of the previous month. Psychological and physical stress responses were assessed using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire.Results: Results showed that 59.6% of the participants worked 11 h or more per day. Additionally, the length of working hours significantly differed across job titles = 5295.8, p < 0.001, Cramér’s V = 0.14). With respect to tenured teachers, sex, age, taking charge of the class, number of working years in the same school, working hours of 10 to 11 h, 11 to 12 h, 12 to 13 h, and 13 h or more were significantly associated with high stress, compared to those who worked less than 9 h per day. Moreover, for fixed-term teachers, sex, age, working hours of 9 to 10 h, 10 to 11 h, 11 to 12 h, 12 to 13 h, and 13 h or more were related with more stress as compared to those who worked less than 9 h per day. On the other hand, there was no significant relationship between long working hours and stress response among vice-principals, even though they tended to work the longest hours.Conclusion: We verified that Japanese junior high school teachers work long hours. Long working hours were associated with stress responses in both tenured and fixed-term teachers, but not in vice-principals. However, vice-principals work the longest hours among teachers, and we suggest that these long working hours may be a hidden problem that is often overlooked. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a relationship between a person's degree of religiousness and corporate social responsibility orientation. A total of 411 managers and 506 students from seven universities were surveyed. The statistical analysis showed that religiousness does influence students' orientation toward the economic, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities of business. It does not, however, have a significant impact upon the managers' attitudes. When the "low religiousness" students and managers were compared, differences were found with (...) respect to the economic, ethical, and philanthropic components of corporate social responsibility. Similar results were obtained when the "high religiousness" students and managers were compared. The implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

While self-report data is a staple of modern psychological studies, they rely on participants accurately self-reporting. Two constructs that impede accurate results are insufficient effort responding and response styles. These constructs share conceptual underpinnings and both utilized to reduce cognitive effort when responding to self-report scales. Little research has extensively explored the relationship of the two constructs. The current study explored the relationship of the two constructs across even-point and odd-point scales, as well as before and after data cleaning procedures. (...) We utilized IRTrees, a statistical method for modeling response styles, to examine the relationship between IER and response styles. To capture the wide range of IER metrics available, we employed several forms of IER assessment in our analyses and generated IER factors based on the type of IER being detected. Our results indicated an overall modest relationship between IER and response styles, which varied depending on the type of IER metric being considered or type of scale being evaluated. As expected, data cleaning also changed the relationships of some of the variables. We posit the difference between the constructs may be the degree of cognitive effort participants are willing to expend. Future research and applications are discussed. (shrink)

The threat of malpractice litigation in the United States is encouraging physicians again to assume responsibility for their patients. The fundamental ethical problem, however, is that this approach denies the patient's moral agency. In this essay, responsibility to patients, rather than for them, is discussed as an alternative to the emerging neo-paternalism. Responsibility to avoids the ethical problems of assuming responsibility for moral agents and could reduce the threat of litigation as well.