<p> Savvy and opportunistic fraudsters increasingly target smaller governmental organizations. Insufficient transparency and disjointed accountability over controls nurture the hidden nature of occupational fraud and allow wrongdoing to escalate during decades of routine operations. Criminal sentencings confirm local government and education officials misusing their positions and placing their own interests above those of their communities. Both primary case studies&mdash;a municipal crime in the City of Dixon, Illinois and corruption inside Roslyn, New York&rsquo;s Union Free School District&mdash;illustrate how embezzling more than $65 million remained undetected over thirty years until tip disclosure. The extension of unmerited trust created insufficient segregation of duties among employees and low monitoring left public resources vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption. The project holds ternary importance for risk management since one-third of small entities experience fraud, traditional external auditing identifies fraud in less than five percent of instances, and receiving anonymous tips through reporting hotlines improves detection by up to 20% and reduces losses (ACFE, 2016). The project examined stakeholder speak-up strategies including whistleblower protections and tips hotline (WP&amp;TH) initiatives to understand how organizational context, willful blindness, information access, and citizen engagement affect local government&rsquo;s focus on fraud detection and remediation. Case studies show WP&amp;TH initiatives to be financially and operationally superior in identifying risk and promoting transparency in small local governments. Third-party, 24/7 call centers and anonymous, two-way dialog web/text are underutilized tools for recognizing fraud precursors and stopping them before they aggregate, escalate, or become institutional norm.</p><p>

The best-interests principle is a widely used ethical, legal and social basis for policy and decision-making involving children [italics added] (Kopelman, 1997). In response to modern ethical leadership, a growing number of academics have examined the relationship between the best interest principle and decision making (Cranston, 2006; Tirri, 1999, 2001, 2002). Shapiro and Stefkovich (2001) and Stefkovich (2006) responded to this interest with two educational ethical decision making models where best interests are central. The models incorporated foundational works like Starratts (1994) multidimensional ethical framework and Walkers (1998) jurisprudential and ethical perspectives. Additionally, Stefkovich (2004, 2006) sought to include jurisprudential constructs such as rights, responsibilities and respect . However, despite the academic attention for best interests, only a small number of empirical studies have been conducted (Frick, 2006; Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2001; Stefkovich, 2006). The purpose of this research was to examine the best interest(s) principle through an investigation of theory, practice and professional praxis and thus to identify the common use and understanding of the best interests principle in Canadian in-school administrative practice. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study. Research methodology consisted of self-report, structured questionnaires including both closed attitudinal and open ended questions and a semi-structured focus group interview. A best interests questionnaire was embedded in a larger study entitled Moral Agency and Trust Brokering: Challenges of the Principal and distributed to a stratified sample of Canadian in-school administrators. The data was subjected to both descriptive statistical and thematic analysis.<p> The findings revealed a compelling image of the best interests principle in educational administrative practice. Analyses of the data revealed two categories of thought: (a) broad conceptualizations and general perspectives toward defining best interests and (b) general methodological considerations or approaches to applying best interests principle. The best interests of the student(s) was broadly conceptualized and defined as three major categories of thought: best interests as core good, best interests as good pedagogy, and best interests as holistic.<p> Additionally, three methodological considerations were identified as contributing toward the application of the principle: stakeholders influence, contextual considerations and relational aspects. Respondents preferred to define best interests in caring and collective terms. Analysis revealed simultaneously narrow and broad interpretations of interests. Implications for theory supported a modified professional ethic and best interests model that balances the ethical paradigms of care, critique, justice and community with the jurisprudential constructs of responsibility, respect and rights. Two central dichotomies emerged within interpretations of the best interests principle in the ethical and jurisprudential literature forming a matrix of best interests: individual v. collective and subjective v. objective. This study placed the respondents centered on the continuum between individual and communal and subjective and objective.<p> The findings of this study indicated that continued best practices in ethical decision making pedagogy would serve to augment the findings of this study. Likewise, continued research in the area of multiple ethical paradigms, ethical leadership and ethical decision making among in-school administrators would serve to extend the findings of this study.

The best-interests principle is a widely used ethical, legal and social basis for policy and decision-making involving children [italics added] (Kopelman, 1997). In response to modern ethical leadership, a growing number of academics have examined the relationship between the best interest principle and decision making (Cranston, 2006; Tirri, 1999, 2001, 2002). Shapiro and Stefkovich (2001) and Stefkovich (2006) responded to this interest with two educational ethical decision making models where best interests are central. The models incorporated foundational works like Starratts (1994) multidimensional ethical framework and Walkers (1998) jurisprudential and ethical perspectives. Additionally, Stefkovich (2004, 2006) sought to include jurisprudential constructs such as rights, responsibilities and respect . However, despite the academic attention for best interests, only a small number of empirical studies have been conducted (Frick, 2006; Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2001; Stefkovich, 2006). The purpose of this research was to examine the best interest(s) principle through an investigation of theory, practice and professional praxis and thus to identify the common use and understanding of the best interests principle in Canadian in-school administrative practice. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study. Research methodology consisted of self-report, structured questionnaires including both closed attitudinal and open ended questions and a semi-structured focus group interview. A best interests questionnaire was embedded in a larger study entitled Moral Agency and Trust Brokering: Challenges of the Principal and distributed to a stratified sample of Canadian in-school administrators. The data was subjected to both descriptive statistical and thematic analysis.<p> The findings revealed a compelling image of the best interests principle in educational administrative practice. Analyses of the data revealed two categories of thought: (a) broad conceptualizations and general perspectives toward defining best interests and (b) general methodological considerations or approaches to applying best interests principle. The best interests of the student(s) was broadly conceptualized and defined as three major categories of thought: best interests as core good, best interests as good pedagogy, and best interests as holistic.<p> Additionally, three methodological considerations were identified as contributing toward the application of the principle: stakeholders influence, contextual considerations and relational aspects. Respondents preferred to define best interests in caring and collective terms. Analysis revealed simultaneously narrow and broad interpretations of interests. Implications for theory supported a modified professional ethic and best interests model that balances the ethical paradigms of care, critique, justice and community with the jurisprudential constructs of responsibility, respect and rights. Two central dichotomies emerged within interpretations of the best interests principle in the ethical and jurisprudential literature forming a matrix of best interests: individual v. collective and subjective v. objective. This study placed the respondents centered on the continuum between individual and communal and subjective and objective.<p> The findings of this study indicated that continued best practices in ethical decision making pedagogy would serve to augment the findings of this study. Likewise, continued research in the area of multiple ethical paradigms, ethical leadership and ethical decision making among in-school administrators would serve to extend the findings of this study.

<p> The primary focus of this study was to learn how ethical leadership behaviors impacted employee organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and to propose a theory related to the relationship between ethical leader behaviors and employee OCB. This qualitative grounded theory study investigated specific types of leader behaviors and other, non-leader related factors that contributed to employee OCB. Seven female and 10 male engineers, working in a variety of engineering disciplines at various levels of leadership in their organizations, provided important perspective from their experience. The study discovered specific leader behaviors that can be traced back to ethical leadership theory encourage employee OCB. <i>Role model-employee relationship theory</i> or RMER was developed from analysis of the data. There are three constructs to RMER: <i>the ethical leader,</i> in which three distinct leadership behaviors of mentoring, supporting, and role modeling appear to promote employee OCB, <i>growing into leadership, </i> which describes the phenomena found in this study where employees who have role models early in their careers in turn choose to become role models once they become leaders, and <i>employee characteristics promote employee OCB,</i> in which employee characteristics of psychological ownership, self-esteem, and employee voice were each found to be important to promoting employee OCB, especially when combined with leader behaviors that promoted employee OCB.</p>

<p> The purpose of this historical case study was to explore how individual moral identity can influence leadership ethics in decision making. By focusing this case study on former U.S. Presidents Kennedy and Nixon, this study examined how moral identity influences of education, family, peers, and religion from childhood through college could affect ethical decision making. Using NVivo^&reg; 10, data analysis determined emergent themes from the four key moral identity influences for both study subjects. Analysis of each emergent theme established positive or negative moral identity development. For this study, positive moral identity demonstrated a close alignment with a concern for the welfare of others; whereas, negative moral identity development demonstrated alignment with concern for oneself. Results showed that President Kennedy demonstrated greater moral identity development because of education and family influences than President Nixon. Closer analysis of moral identity core themes revealed that President Kennedy possessed a higher number of high moral identity core themes to support ethical decisions made during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Conversely, President Nixon possessed a higher number of low moral identity core themes to support unethical decisions during Watergate. Study results contributed to the literature by showing how moral identity can affect ethical and unethical decision making. Suggested recommendations showed the need for further qualitative studies of leader moral identity as well as the need to establish reliable testing mechanisms to determine and measure individual moral identity.</p>

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 114).

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114) Also available in print.

Environmental governance is a challenging topic in development contexts. On the one hand, the traditional development paradigm is based on economic growth through environmental exploitation; on the other, environmental degradation reduces vulnerable populations’ options for development. In the last thirty years numerous attempts to integrate environmental concerns in development policies have proved unsuccessful, raising questions as to whether the current governance system can address the challenge. The literature on environmental management has focused on identifying rules for successful governance, leaving little space to explore the complexities of the interactions between actors and their environments, wherein the reasons for sustained degradation might lie. The questions that this thesis asks are: How do diverse groups of actors rationalize and interact with degraded ecosystems? And what role does the governance system play in codifying these interactions? To answer these questions, the thesis engages in an institutional study of Lake Titicaca, between Peru and Bolivia. The lake has witnessed a degradation of its bay in the last thirty years, as a result of urban and mining development in the region. A complex web of organizations that go from the bi-national to the community level manages Lake Titicaca. The investigation of the questions asked is particularly relevant in the current context, as the countries to which the lake belongs put forward significantly different visions of the environment. By drawing on the strengths of social-ecological systems frameworks proposed by the two mains schools – the Resilience Alliance and Bloomington Workshop – and filling some of their deficiencies using insights from the sociological literatures on negotiation and justification, I hope to have created a composite framework with which to give an insightful account of the complexity and diversity at play in the field. The thesis adopts a broad range of qualitative methods (observation, interviews, document analysis) completed with descriptive statistics for budget analysis. The thesis argues that the actors’ approaches to the ecosystem are complex, diverse and constitutive of social-ecological systems wherein relationships are negotiated between actors, between actors and the ecosystem and ‘within’ actors as they hold competing visions and strategies. Some of the variables shaping these negotiations are crafted through the interaction between social and ecological elements, which also influence the actors’ understanding of the system. Others are determined by parameters crafted in the social sphere, and the ways in which social-ecological interactions fit with those. Policy interventions to improve the condition of Lake Titicaca need a more sophisticated understanding of these social-ecological systems.

This Diploma thesis deals with the topic of ethical codes in the state administration of the Czech Republic. This issue is very important for good and efficient functioning of the state administration, but it is still neglected and under-discussed. The diploma thesis aims at explaining the importance of ethical codes in the state administration and conducting a research probe of a specific ethical code. The theoretical grounding of the text is based on the concept of good governance and its principles, the principles of ethics, the definition of the principles of an effective ethical code and the approximation of the current state of functioning of ethical codes in the Czech republic´s administration. The practical part - research probe of a specific ethical code, analyses its quality and effectiveness. The Czech Republic is actively committed to the concept of good governance and its governing bodies are very active in adopting specific ethical codes. However, as the diploma thesis explains, the individual ethical code is not always effective, up-to-date and specific.

The "Ethical standards of Public Administration" diploma thesis looks at the application of the Code of Ethics in central government administration and the civil service. The objective of the thesis is to evaluate the collected data, to determine the level of use of a single document, which addresses the ethical values within the administrative authorities, to identify problem areas and to propose possible solutions. The problem is defined and graphically displayed using a structured tree chart in the introductory part of the thesis. The next part of the thesis is dedicated to the subsequent identification of the problem and to the theoretical solutions, including the outline of a problem of applying ethical standards within the context of reform in government administration. This is followed by a brief description of the changes in the employment of civil servants in the government (public) administration authorities in neighbouring countries. The empirical part of the thesis is dedicated to an assessment of the research of the Code of Ethics implemented in individual government administration authorities and using interviews conducted with experts, the problem areas of implementing ethical standards are identified. By comparing current problems with theoretical starting points, solutions which...