Integrity tests have become a widely used tool in modern-day selection systems. These instruments are generally designed to predict dishonest and counterproductive attitudes/behavior. A group of participants who had quit a job without notice was found to have higher scores on an Integrity/Pessimism scale (indicating low integrity and highly pessimistic attitudes) than an involuntary turnover group of those who had been fired or laid off. Post hoc analyses also found supporting evidence in that the quit without notice group also had higher expressed exit intentions scores (indicating negative attitudes toward current occupation/industry) and shorter average tenure than the involuntary (fired and laid off) group. The potential benefits of developing a predictive Integrity/Pessimism scale are discussed.

Since 2015, the Canadian government has made recurrent assertions that Canada has a feminist foreign policy. A policy, according to certain critics, that is hypocritical because of the government’s continuation of arms exports to countries deemed unsavory from a human rights standpoint. This context makes for a fertile exploration of the nexus between ethical foreign policy aspirations and the realities of foreign relations policy implementation and impact. By assessing these circumstances, I attempt to understand how hypocrisy functions within Canadian foreign policy. Through a method of discourse analysis, I evaluate the official discourses from the government and responses by civil society in relation to the Liberal Government’s handling of the Canada – Saudi Light Armoured Vehicle contract. In addition, by analysing Canadian foreign policy, via departmental reports, I highlight how the government attempts to infuse Canada’s foreign policy with ethical considerations. By tracing the rise of ethical considerations in Canada’s foreign policy, I argue that hypocrisy is intertwined with ethical considerations, thus systematically embedding hypocrisy within established Canadian institutions. Moreover, I show that Canada is committed to the concept of risk transfer, the doctrine of double effect and need for ‘proof grounded in evidence’ when assessing arms exports. These concepts shift the risks associated with hypocritical action away from the government and onto the people it purports to aid.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Applied Ethics for Professionals, Johannesburg 2018 / In this research report I address the question: Do journalists have a moral duty towards those they report on beyond the objectivity requirement of their job? I use the famous example of freelance photojournalist Kevin Carter and his iconic photograph of a starving Sudanese child, seemingly on death’s door and being stalked by a vulture. He was roundly condemned for shooting the image but doing nothing to save the child’s life. I examine this classic example of the observance of the journalistic standard of objectivity and non-intervention, against the Kantian imperative to respect human life. I contrast this with two examples in which, in my view, journalists acted correctly in terms of Kantian ethics by putting human life above their own, narrow professional roles and interests. / XL2019

As increasingly intelligent and autonomous robots continue to proliferate into every area of modern life, there is no doubt that society has to think deeply about the potential impact, whether negative or positive, that this will have on ordinary everyday contexts. One of the most urgent societal expectations for these robots is the need for them to behave in a manner that is respecting of human moral values. In response to this challenge, the field of machine ethics began with the goal of developing robots capable of making moral decisions. This work addresses the challenge by proposing that Exemplarist Virtue Ethics (or simply exemplarism), an ethical theory based on virtue ethics, is a viable, suitable and alternative framework for building ethical robots. Exemplarism is a moral theory that grounds key moral concepts (e.g. virtue, right act, etc.) by direct reference to exemplars of moral goodness. Essentially, it proposes that agents can develop their moral character by following the example of morally admirable agents in society. This work will demonstrate how an exemplar- ist machine ethics framework presents several advantages to building ethical robots over traditional approaches based on consequentialism and deontology. Specifically, exemplarism not only helps us formalise the concept of artificial moral agency more coherently, but it also lends itself to be a technically feasible approach for building ethical robots. This thesis will, therefore, also demonstrate the technical feasibility of actually building an exemplarist AMA and suggest ways in which it could be further improved. Since exemplarism has scarcely been applied to this area in prior literature, this thesis will provide an alternative perspective to the machine ethics project, which, in some small way can help to advance the field forward. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Philosophy / PhD / Unrestricted

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Zululand, 2003. / The study investigates the extent to which communication is used as a management tool for Corporate Social Investment (CSI) programmes. To this end, the following objectives were formulated; To (a) determine if communication between funding business organisations and communities facilitate the realisation of mutually beneficial goals, (b) determine if communication between funding business organisations and communities is regular, (c) determine if communication between funding business organisations and communities is empowering to communities, (d) determine if corporate social investment managers find a difference in communication efficiency between corporate social investment programmes in education and training on the one hand and other forms of CSI programmes on the other hand. In order to investigate the aims of the study two instruments were used viz, a closed-ended questionnaire and an interview schedule. There were two samples for the study which were corporate social investment practitioners (Public Relations Managers, Community Affairs Managers, Corporate Communications Managers or any other person designated to perform such a role) and the community members who are recipients of CSI funding. The close-ended questionnaire was administered to corporate social investment practitioners and the interview schedule was used, to solicit data from recipients of funding. For the analysis of data a chi-square one sample test was used for the first four research objectives. After the analysis and interpretation of data was done, the study came to the following conclusions (a) Communication within CSI programmes facilitates the realisation of mutually beneficial goals between funding business organisations and the community (b) Communication between funding business organisations and communities is regular because there are scheduled dates for meetings and both parties observe these scheduled meetings (c) Communication between funding business organisations and communities is empowering to communities, and (d) There was a difference in communication efficiency between education and training programmes on the one hand and other sectors on the other hand.

Ethical codes and principles, and laws govern the behavior of health-care professionals. Yet, the impact that ethical codes and laws have on the actual moral behaviors of health-care professionals is relatively unknown. A survey on the ethical beliefs and practices of health-care professionals was sent to the United States membership of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. AAPB's heterogeneous membership offers a unique opportunity to compare the ethical beliefs and behaviors of professionals across various health-care professions, educational levels, licensure and certification statuses, age, years in practice, and gender. The survey examined the respondents' ethical beliefs and practices in the domains of confidentiality, dual relationships, and professional practice. Five hundred thirty-six surveys were returned completed. The results of the survey indicate that all respondents have substantially the same reported ethical beliefs and practices across the three domains. There were no statistically significant differences between the reported ethical beliefs or practices when compared across disciplines, educational levels, licensure or certification statuses, age, or years in practice. Statistically significant gender differences were found.

Research report submitted in accordance for partial requirements for the degree of Masters in Interdisciplinary Global Change Studies in the Faculty of Science at the University of the Witwatersrand, 2018 / The vision for this project is to aid in approaching climate change by providing an improved understanding of environmental concern. There are two missions. First, to develop heuristic models of environmental concern, and to utilize their constructs to assess environmental behaviour and environmental concern in a population. The model is intended to provide a depiction to aid in better understanding environmental concern and may aid in framing and developing intervention strategies to mitigate harmful effects of climate change. Broadly, assessments of environmental concern have been operationalized in two ways, as a unidimensional construct, ranging from high concern to low concern, or as multidimensional constructs demonstrating underlying reasons for environmental concern. Examining two multidimensional assessments reveals limitations of both and gaps between their underlying constructs. A reading of value-orientated theories from environmental ethics literature identifies six constructs for use in a multidimensional assessment of environmental concern. Utilizing equivalent constructs to the previous multidimensional assessments and expanding “nature” and natural entities into three separate categories results in six constructs intended to fill the gaps of the previous multidimensional assessments and may addresses some of their limitations. This reading also provides a theoretical foundation for designing items to relate to the six constructs. A theory map is presented which demonstrates constructs relating to an expanded narrative for use in multidimensional assessments. Climate change is a complex and often poorly understood phenomenon. Furthermore, it is clear that human behaviours are the underlying causes of climate change. Cross-disciplinary research and integration of several disciplines and fields of inquiry are necessary for developing sound approaches to climate change. Experimental philosophy and empirical ethics are discussed as guiding methodologies for this project. Meta-ethical fallacies and two considerations from the philosophy of science aid in contextualizing this research and provide epistemological limits for deriving ethical conclusions from facts about the world. A survey consisting of 11 sociodemographic items, the revised NEP scale’s 15 items, an existing 17 item environmental behaviour scale, and six 10 item original scales relating to six constructs based on value-orientated theories from environmental ethics and presented in the heuristic models, was drafted. An electronic version was designed and emailed to firstyear Life Science and Economics students. The environmental behaviour scale and the revised NEP scale are significant and correlate moderately positively, corroborating the hypothesis, that there is a relationship between environmental behaviour and environmental concern. While three of the six original scales (egocentrism, sociocentrism, and sentiocentrism) were unreliable, did not have many significant relationships with other variables, and require further development, the other three (nihilism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism) succeeded in corroborating the hypothesis, that there are underlying dimensions of environmental concern, and that they are significantly related to environmental behaviour. The project’s implications and recommendations discusses different intervention strategies in response to climate change as well as environmental communications and education, and how the heuristic models may aid in these topic’s endeavours. The project concludes by identifying a lack of environmental concern in two South African President’s State Of the Nation Addresses and stresses the need to improve environmental concern and increase the frequencies of people engaging in environmental behaviours. Key words: nature; natural entities; environment; environmental concern; environmental behaviour; value; environmental communication; environmental education; nihilism; anthropocentrism; egocentrism; sociocentrism; sentiocentrism; biocentrism; ecocentrism; experimental philosophy; empirical ethics; quantitative research. / XL2019

A research article submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration Johannesburg, 2018 / MT 2019

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