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The role of job automation technology within the financial services sector has gained prominence recent years. Decision-makers are faced with questions from the external and internal environment relating to the future of work and career outlook of human capital. While the benefits of job automation are undoubtedly a key driver towards adopting this technology, ethical questions on responsible and ethical leadership have been put under a lens so as to understand what this means for employees within the financial sector. The study explores the ethical considerations made by decision-makers within the financial services sector in South Africa in relation to the employees disrupted by job automation adoption. The findings of this qualitative study were obtained through eighteen semi-structured interviews with decision-makers from the financial services sector and consulting firms with exposure to the financial services industry. The study found that the intent of job automation technology adoption goals coupled with the predominant mindset of decision makers was influenced the nature of considerations made decision makers. These consideration categories were largely aligned to the extant literature and the study contributed to the business ethics domain by sharing specific considerations made by decision makers in industry. Communication, transitions services, change management, shared value framing, empowerment through custodianship, an analysis of transferable skills and skills profiling were the main emergent findings found in the study. / Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Today, there are several media-related companies that work to process and publish news using only artificial intelligence and algorithms, completely without any type of human intervention. The industry as a whole has seen a trend of replacing human journalists' daily tasks with generative AI, this in terms serves a greater sustainable economic resource management for many media companies. Although, debatably AI has been a blessing in the editorial office in terms of saving journalists time for repetitive, tedious and time consuming tasks, that otherwise would have been used on something more creative. However to leave such responsibility to artificial intelligence poses a potential risk of maintaining journalistic integrity. It rises into question on how much responsibility the editorial office should hand over to AI. Therefore, to understand the balance between technological innovation, the role of journalism and its social responsibility will be the main focus in this thesis.  Using a qualitative research method and semistructured interview will provide a deep understanding of interviewees ideas and opinions, as well as dive into various theories, such as social responsibility theory, managerialism and fourth estate. Theories will be used as the foundation for analyzing the results and the conclusion. Using thematic analysis where we were able to identify results in three categories: i) understanding AI, ii) implementing AI, iii) attitude towards AI. Six journalists from different media companies were interviewed in this thesis and all showed signs of basic knowledge of what artificial intelligence is but only two of them had understanding of what artificial intelligence is trying to achieve. All journalists use AI as tools to get through time consuming and repetitive tasks and half of them use AI for inspiration and ideas. Overall the attitude towards AI has been positive, although all six journalists pointed out that AI-generated content should be monitored and the quality must be ensured by humans. This thesis hopes to contribute to the ongoing discourse in the field by elucidating the need for a balanced approach to AI integration in journalism. One that in hope harmonizes technological advancement with the core principles of ethical journalism. Not only underscores the importance of the ethical considerations in adopting AI in journalism, but also paves the way for future research, emphasizing the need of adaptive and responsible journalistic practices in this rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence.

No / In the UK, one third of the 850,000 people with dementia live in care homes. This article explores the process of carrying out research in nursing homes, identifying barriers and enabling factors, and making recommendations for researchers. The authors’ experiences derive from an ongoing study investigating the effect of educational interventions to promote and embed person-centred care, designed for nurses caring for the people with dementia in nursing homes. Design issues arose from the need to use cluster randomisation which requires a large sample size, implementation fidelity, poor compliance and high numbers of participants lost to follow up. Further difficulties included gaining ethical approval, recruitment, raising concerns and the practicalities of participant retention. There are many benefits of conducting research in care homes, for the homes themselves, their staff and residents. These include training and education, networking and empowerment of staff and subsequent improved standards of care. For the research team, benefits include opportunities to contribute to an underserved setting, to advance care standards and improve nurses’ working lives. / The authors would like to acknowledge the Burdett Trust for Nursing who funded the study

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Women and their bodies are at the very centre of a prevailing cultural obsession regarding strict standards of body weight, shape and image. The pressure to achieve unattainable body-beautiful standards has given rise to women having a negative relationship with their bodies. This preoccupation with body image has resulted in an increasing sense of body dissatisfaction, chronic dieting and anxieties associated with self-worth and appearance. The primary aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship a group of female participants have with their bodies. The major thrusts of this study are: to explore on a deeper level how they make personal meaning of the concepts of body and body image within their own lives. To explore the way in which women understand their broader social context, as playing a role, in relation to their perceptions and attitudes of their bodies. In this respect, a closer examination of their awareness of the more complex gender issues, will be undertaken, by means of the emerging discourses within the research process. Whilst this study generally locates itself within a social constructionist understanding of body image, it actively draws from feminist theories. The literature review outlines empirical, feminist and social constructionist approaches to body image and explores the social constructionist approach more broadly. It utilises discourse analysis and therefore positions itself within a qualitative paradigm. Three one-and-a-half-hour focus groups were conducted with eight women who are psychology honours students. A discourse analysis was carried out on the transcriptions of the three focus groups. The findings revealed that the participants were aware of the way in which the wider cultural context impacted on their perceptions and attitudes regarding their bodies. They understood the way in which body image is socially constructed and specific to the current cultural context. They identified the current body ideal (norm), to be waif like and very slender. Despite this understanding of the body ideal as socially constructed, they continued on a personal level to evaluate themselves against the body ideal, giving rise to personal feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction.

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the media industry is examined in this thesis study. A full understanding of the effects of AI integration in many dimensions of the media landscape is provided through a methodical review of the literature that highlights key themes and ideas. The study examines labour dynamics, historical evolution, content generation and curation, media distribution and consumption, advertising and marketing strategies, the theoretical foundations of AI in the media sector, and ethical concerns. The study shows how AI has changed the media industry by making automated data analysis possible, enhancing content creation and curation, personalising user experiences, maximising advertising techniques, altering workforce dynamics, and creating substantial ethical issues. While efficiency, customisation, and creativity are advantages of AI, privacy issues, job displacement, and algorithmic bias all require careful study. The results highlight the need for moral guidelines, skill-updating techniques, and ethical AI practises. The effort contributes to the corpus of existing knowledge and shapes the course that AI will take in the media industry by flagging research gaps, methodological developments, and policy implications.

Business ethics is a fragmented and well covered scientific field. This Master thesis study concerns two type of organizations, namely family businesses (FB’s) and venture capital firms (VCF’s), in relation to the ethical decision-making process, which is a relatively undiscovered field. The study is conducted in the way it sheds a light on the influences on a manager when taking decisions concerning ethical considerations. Important scholars such as Colby and Kohlberg (1987) and Rest et al. (1999) framed the field of moral development of individuals, and what makes managers unaware of their unethical decisions (Bazerman, 2008). However, a manager’s possibility to take decisions is also influenced by organizational factors and actors. The type of management and ownership structure, and the expectations these actors have with regard to profits, as well as situational factors such as business strategy, maturity of the company, human and financial resources and market position are shaping the environment and possibility for managers to pursue ethical behavior because they affect the decision-making process.The purpose of this study is to understand how managers in FB’s and VCF’s manage ethical considerations. The creating of the conceptual framework was used as a foundation to visualize how ethical behavior is constructed, while the focus laid on the influences and possibility to take decisions including ethical considerations and content. While performing this research, we have conducted eight semi-structured interviews with managers in three VCF’s and two FB’s in Sweden. The respondent companies and interviewees remain anonymous. We did that to increase the chance of honest and unbiased answers since we saw a risk to receive adjusted and image improving responses.The empirical findings show that the VCF’s do not pay attention to ethical considerations in the same extent as FB’s do. Discovered reasons were lack of time and know-how, financial and human resources, business maturity and the fact that they were to generate a high ROI to the venture capitalist. Such a relationship makes the managers focus on profit maximization and short term objectives rather than ethical considerations. The two FB’s did have an ethical code of conduct with the employees and was constructed in order to fulfill acceptance, integration and efficiency with this management tool. The ethical codes of conduct were created with the goal to steer behavior and ensure ethical commitment in certain areas of interest. The major finding is that situational factors either suffocate or give room for ethical considerations in companies when taking decisions.In particular, this research contributes to the field of business ethics and VCF’s in general, but also with regard to FB’s. The results of this thesis are constructed in the decision-making model which is different than the ethical decision-making model we constructed based on the theoretical research. However, reality did not allow us to recognize the fragmented patterns we interpreted from the theory. We therefore created a new top-down model which takes the need for a decision in companies into account, the actors and factors in the organization, the situational factors that influence the happenings in the organization and the outcome of the decision, which possibly contains ethical considerations and content. With the improved model we visualize the decision-making process while taking influences towards ethical decision-making into consideration and visualize organizational reality as we discovered it.Key words: business ethics, ethical considerations, ethical code of conduct, moral awareness, ethical decision-making, ethical behavior, family business, venture capital firm, profit maximization, shareholder preferences.

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This thesis projct examines the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Project Management, focusing on its impact on the working personnel. AI has the potential to improve management processes, increase efficiency, and enhance decision-making. This thesis aims to explore the implementation of AI in project management with a focus on the impact on working personnel. The study analyzes the benefits and challanges of AI implementation, the impact on the role of project managers and team members, and the ethical considerations of using AI in project management. The research incorporates a literature review and semi-structured interviews conducted with project managers from Greece and Sweden to gather comprehensive insights. The findings suggest that the integration of AI in project management can significantly benefit working personnel by reducing workload, increasing accuracy, and providing better insights. However, the implementation of AI requires careful consideration of ethical issues and proper training of personnel. / Detta examensarbete undersöker implementeringen av artificiell intelligens (AI) i projektledning, med fokus på dess inverkan på arbetsgivare. Studien innehåller en literaturgenomgång och semistrukturerade intervjuer med projektledare från Grekland och Sverige för att smala in omfattande insikter. AI har potential att förbättra projektledningsprocesser, öka effektiviteten och förbättra beslutsfattandet. Studien analyserar fördelarna och utmaningarna med AI-implementering, inverkan på rollen för projektledare och teammedlemmar, och de etiska övervägandena av att använda AI i projektledning. Resultatet tyder på att integrationen av AI i projektledning avsevärt kan gynna arbetande personal genom att minska arbetsbelastningen, öka noggrannheten och ge bättre insikter. Men implementeringen av AI kräver noggrant övervägande av etiska frågor och korrekt utbildning av personal.

In the context of designing and implementing ethical Artificial Intelligence (AI), varying perspectives exist regarding developing trustworthy AI for autonomous cars. This study sheds light on the differences in perspectives and provides recommendations to minimize such divergences. By exploring the diverse viewpoints, we identify key factors contributing to the differences and propose strategies to bridge the gaps. This study goes beyond the trolley problem to visualize the complex challenges of trustworthy and ethical AI. Three pillars of trustworthy AI have been defined: transparency, reliability, and safety. This research contributes to the field of trustworthy AI for autonomous cars, providing practical recommendations to enhance the development of AI systems that prioritize both technological advancement and ethical principles.