Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Philosophy, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Patterns of moral judgment exhibited by institutional candidates and fellows in the American Council on Education Fellows Program in Leadership for Higher Education 1988/1989 and 1989/1990 were explored in this study. The fellowship program selection process produced a group of institutional candidates with the high level of moral judgment development necessary for successful leadership in higher education administration. The goals of the program may be best served by minor improvements which will enhance a sound process. The results indicate that moral judgment development was not a significant factor in the selection of fellows. Salary and years of administrative experience, however, were related to selection. Candidates with higher salaries were more likely to be selected as fellows and tended to have lower levels of moral judgment development. The study revealed that there are variables affecting the selection and further investigation is necessary to determine which variables affect the selection and if they contribute to the goals of the fellowship program. Participation in the fellowship program did not significantly affect the fellows' level of moral judgment development as a group. The fellowship program did, however, have a positive impact on the upper third subgroup of fellows and a negative impact on the lower third subgroup. The performance of the upper third indicated that they have the potential to make a significant contribution to higher education administration. The middle third subgroup's performance indicated it is in a position to benefit significantly from program adjustments which enhance the fellows' awareness and broaden their perspective of the social milieu, within which higher education functions. Performance of the lower third indicated that the fellowship program might be adapted to meet the needs of this subgroup. Further study of other variables separating these three subgroups is needed. A longitudinal study could be completed to determine if candidates in the three subgroups went on to make the contributions in higher education administration this study implied they were equipped to make.

The objectives of this study are: (1) to explore the personal value systems of Jordanian managers; (2) to examine the relationship between the personal values of Jordanian managers and their behavior (i.e., decision making); and (3) to compare the personal value systems of Jordanian and American managers. To achieve the first and the second objectives, England's (1967) Personal Value Questionnaire (PVQ) and the Behavioral Measurement Questionnaire have been respectively utilized. To achieve the final objective, the behavioral relevance scores derived from this study are compared with those in England's (1975) study. Finally, demographic and organizational data are used to describe the characteristics of Jordanian managers and serve as covariates in the statistical analysis. In reference to the statistical techniques, England's scoring methodology, factor analysis and multiple regression, are used to determine the relationship between the personal value systems of Jordanian managers and their behavior (i.e., decisionmaking). England's (1975) "rule of thumb" (adjusted to 15 percent difference) and the Chisguare test are used to test the significant differences between the personal value systems of the Jordanian and American respondents. The findings of this study are as follows: 1. The primary value orientation of Jordanian managers responding to this study is moralistic in nature, while their secondary value orientation is pragmatic. Concerning the value profile, Jordanian managers have 34, 3, 8, and 21 concepts of the PVQ as operative, intended, adopted, and weak values respectively. Behavior relevance analysis indicates that Jordanian managers have emphasized certain value concepts which reflect their perception of economic need and their social value structure. 2. According to England's procedure, there is a qualified relationship between the personal values of Jordanian managers and their reported behavior, while there is a partial relationship according to factor analysis and multiple regression. 3. There are similarities and/or differences between the personal value systems of the two managerial groups linally, a summary of the findings, along with conclusions, implications, and suggestions are offered for individuals and organizations doing business in Jordan.

Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 187 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The contemporary concept of wilderness, which is central to environmental theory and activism, is both a help and a hindrance to government policy and to popular environmental beliefs. The Judeo-Christian religious tradition and Locke's property theory provides much of the western cultural and historical basis of humans' environmental attitudes that basically engender exploitation. I argue that a more precise interpretation of Genesis and of Locke reveals that both sources actually promote environmental stewardship while decrying ecological abuse. Next I analyze the history and shortcomings of various wilderness concepts. These shortcomings are all forms of an exclusionist mentality and result in some harmful theoretical and practical applications. / ABSTRACT: Some of these applications include the separation of humans from nature, and the propensity of governments and the public to allow ecological degradation in non-wilderness areas. Yet there are beneficial aspects to wilderness that contribute to a deeper understanding of human nature and our place in the world. Wilderness helps us to remember our wild and primal aspects that provide a connection with nature. In light of the perils and power of wilderness I offer a new, radical, inclusive, and expansive notion of wilderness that I name "dwellness." Dwellness is a normative ethical position where all areas upon the earth ought to be viewed by people in the same way as wilderness areas are currently viewed, but with some modifications. Unlike wilderness, dwellness includes humans within nature and also contains the idea of sustainable living practices. To support dwellness I turn to Martin Heidegger. / ABSTRACT: By identifying the world as a place where we dwell and in which we belong, we come to a more profound understanding of Being, or existence, in general and of our own particular modes of being. By learning to look at the world in this new, yet old, way we may then understand how important and central is the world, a mode of Being, to the existence and maintenance of our Being. Finally, I answer some possible objections to dwellness. These objections revolve around problems of industrial pollution (waste), which, under dwellness, would have to be considered natural. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This study employs a modernization framework to advance the idea that there are three types of morality coexisting in contemporary America. These three types are traditional, modern, and late-modern. Data from the 1998 Middletown Area Survey are examined to test the hypothesis that individuals with higher levels of formal education will tend to characterize "moral decline" in more modern or late-modern terms. The relationship between religious affiliation and characterization of moral decline is also examined. Findings include support for all three types of morality. Education does not directly relate to more modern notions of morality. However it does decrease support for traditional ideas about moral decline. Religious affiliation strongly predicts traditional morality. An expansion of the concept of the late-modern morality is suggested based on the measure's unexpected relationship with issues such as abortion and homosexuality. / Department of Sociology

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To illustrate the intersection of ethical language and ethical frameworks within technical communication, this dissertation analyzes the history and documentation of the human radiation experiments of the 1940s through the 1970s. Research propositions included clarifying the link between medical documentation and technical communication by reviewing the literature that links the two disciplines from the ancient period to the present; establishing an appropriate historiography for the human radiation experiments by providing a context of the military, political, medical, and rhetorical milieu of the 1940s to the 1970s; closely examining and analyzing actual human radiation experiment documentation, including proposals, letters, memos, and consent forms, looking for established rhetorical constructions that indicate a document adheres to or diverts from specific ethical frameworks; and suggesting the importance of the human radiation documents for studying ethics in technical communication. Close rhetorical analysis of the documents included with this project reveals consistent patterns of metadiscourse, passive and nominal writing styles, and other rhetorical constructions, including negative language, redundancies, hedges, and intensifiers, that could lead a reader to misunderstand the writer's original ethical purpose. Ultimately this project finds that technical communicators cannot classify language itself as ethical or unethical; the language is simply the framework with which the experimenters construct their arguments and communicate their work. Technical communicators can, however, consider the ethical nature of behavior according to specific ethical frameworks and determine whether language contributes to the behavior.