Otherness and empathy—implications of Lévinas ethics for social work education

This paper examines the concept of otherness in Lévinas’ ethics and raises related issues regarding the limits of empathy on philosophical grounds. This study also identifies and discusses a number of linguistic, social and cultural barriers that can establish such limits on practical grounds. This paper raises various considerations for social work educators teaching empathy. Such considerations suggest that social work educators could adopt a stance of ‘understanding and not understanding’ and a dialectical approach in using knowledge and skills. Furthermore, this study challenges the common assumption that empathy leads to compassionate action. Apart from empathy, moral commitment is necessary to engage in such action. This article discusses such moral commitment in relation to Lévinas’ notions of face and responsibility that place ethics before knowledge. Hence, the present study brings the attention of social work educators back to the importance of nourishing virtue and the moral character of students.     

From Codes to Contextual Collaborations: Shifting the Thinking About Ethics in Social Work

In this article, the authors argue that the current emphases in social work on codes, standards, and decision-making models are insufficient to the task of ensuring ethical relationships between workers and clients. Three fundamental assumptions that underpin codes and standards are analyzed. The authors then explore the nature of ethical relationships and demonstrate how codes and standards, in their current form, do not address the complexity and contextuality of the social work relationship. After considering why the profession relies so heavily on codes and standards, they call for a re-thinking of ethical relationships, offering ideas and recommendations for those relationships.     

边远县域公民道德建设研究——以西充县为例

边远县域具有比较独特的文化态貌，其道德状况也呈现一些与发达区域道德状况相异的特征。以四川西充县为样本，解析边远县域公民道德和公民道德建设现状，分析在县域公民道德建设中存在的一些问题，提出县域公民道德建设思路。认为边远县域公民道德建设可以采用伦理、教育、政治和文化四种方式，按照《公民道德建设实施纲要》的要求，结合区域文化特点与优势道德资源，全方位把握公民道德建设的目标、内容及实施过程。     

The Subpoena of Ethnographic Data

This essay outlines the author's experience of having his ethnographic data subpoenaed. It outlines the challenges of subpoena's to research, and suggests four solutions: (1) Apply for and utilize the National Institutes of Health certificate of confidentiality by asking health‐related questions over the course of one's research; (2) Establish a task force that articulates clear ethical guidelines for ethnographic research, with attention to the conditions wherein ethnographers can break confidentiality (and might also comply with subpoenas). These ethical guidelines should then be made clear to research subjects as a part of informed consent processes; (3) Demand that institutions (institutional review boards) that require confidentiality as a condition of research be required to defend that confidentiality through the office of the general counsel; (4) Socialize the cost of subpoenas, wherein scholars can be part of an insurance pool that will defend them in the event of a subpoena and thereby defend the general enterprise of ethnographic research.     

Making Professional Decisions in Research: Measurement and Key Predictors

The professional decision-making in research (PDR) measure was administered to 400 National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded and industry-funded investigators, along with measures of cynicism, moral disengagement, compliance disengagement, impulsivity, work stressors, knowledge of responsible conduct of research (RCR), and socially desirable response tendencies. Negative associations were found for the PDR and measures of cynicism, moral disengagement, and compliance disengagement, while positive associations were found for the PDR and RCR knowledge and positive urgency, an impulsivity subscale. PDR scores were not related to socially desirable responding, or to measures of work stressors and the remaining impulsivity subscales. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, lower moral disengagement scores, higher RCR knowledge, and identifying the United States as one’s nation of origin emerged as key predictors of stronger performance on the PDR. The implications of these findings for understanding the measurement of decision-making in research and future directions for research and RCR education are discussed.     

What drives a tough call: Determining the importance of contingency factors and individual characteristics in communication executives’ stance decision-making through a conjoint analysis

To further the understanding of how communication executives make tough calls in times of organizational-public conflict, we use a conjoint analysis to identify key drivers for organizational stance decision-making. This is the first-ever conjoint analysis applied to advancing the contingency theory of strategic conflict management by examining the relative importance of key contingency factors as determined by practitioners with varied individual characteristics. This study investigates: 1) the relevant importance of and dynamics between three key contingency factors (i.e., external threats, organizational characteristics, and dominant coalition characteristics); 2) the influence of individual characteristics (e.g., gender, experience, and personal ethics) in stance decision-making process; and 3) how different types of organizational stances (i.e., general stance, action-based accommodation, and qualified-rhetoric-mixed accommodation) are determined by these contingency factors and individual characteristics in different conflict situations. Results generated among our communication executive participants include: individual characteristics (i.e., gender, ethics and social responsibility, whistleblowing tendencies, and over 20 years in the communications field) are influential for their strategic conflict management decision-making. Implications for refining the contingency theory and unearthing complex public relations decision-making processes via novel statistical techniques are discussed.     

Anticipated Ethics and Regulatory Challenges in PCORnet: The National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network

PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, seeks to establish a robust national health data network for patient-centered comparative effectiveness research. This article reports the results of a PCORnet survey designed to identify the ethics and regulatory challenges anticipated in network implementation. A 12-item online survey was developed by leadership of the PCORnet Ethics and Regulatory Task Force; responses were collected from the 29 PCORnet networks. The most pressing ethics issues identified related to informed consent, patient engagement, privacy and confidentiality, and data sharing. High priority regulatory issues included IRB coordination, privacy and confidentiality, informed consent, and data sharing. Over 150 IRBs and five different approaches to managing multisite IRB review were identified within PCORnet. Further empirical and scholarly work, as well as practical and policy guidance, is essential if important initiatives that rely on comparative effectiveness research are to move forward.     

杜甫亲情诗的情感特征和情感渊源

杜甫的亲情诗不仅数量多，而且颇有个性色彩，其情感的广阔性、深重性、真挚性非常鲜明。这一特色的形成，一方面是因为杜甫深受儒家文化尤其是儒家传统伦理道德观的影响，另一方面，也与其漂泊的人生经历和每况愈下的健康状况有关。     

Saints and sinners: Competing identities in public relations ethics

Public relations ethics is confused and often superficial in its approach, relying heavily on traditional theory, with only occasional reference to more recent developments in professional ethics, particularly feminist and global ethical perspectives.     

企业推进消费文明的路径探索

应对＂消费—生态＂悖论,缓解生态危机,促进消费文明走向生态文明,企业应提高企业家和员工的生态道德素质,加强企业伦理建设,从而牢固树立生态消费理念,践行＂合度＂、＂合宜＂、＂合道＂的客观要求,实现经济合理性、生态合理性、伦理合理性的价值诉求,遵循环境友好,可持续发展,以人为本等基本原则,实施绿色、低碳的生态化模式,推进消费文明的发展。