The Admethics research group maintains this channel of dialogue with the public as a way of sharing reflections on issues that cover moral issues within organizations. Today, in a complementary way, we present a summary of articles published recently in academic journals and articles approved for presentation at conferences produced by our students and teachers.
Starting with a short presentation, we bring summaries of the articles approved in magazines or for presentation at events. This includes the following works:
I. Values and Public Administration: a discussion on rationality and parenthetical attitude
II. Analysis of the Scales and Measures of Moral Virtues Associated to the Area of Administration and Business Ethics: A Systematic Review
III. Dynamics of the Abortion Policy Agenda in the Federal Senate from 1988 to May 2018
IV. Knowing-how to care through actual caring: the case of civil society organizations that work in the protection of pregnant women and infants
V. Practical Wisdom: A Systematic Review on Phronesis Education, Teaching, and Learning
1. Title: Values and Public Administration: a discussion on rationality and parenthetical attitude
Authors: Santos, Laís S., Leal, Fernanda G., Serafim, Maurício C. and Moraes, Mário C.
Journal: RAM – Revista de Administração Mackenzie. Disponível em: www.scielo.br
This article aims to discuss how individuals working in public organizations may deal with individual and organizational values in their action, based on a dialogue among a contemporary notion of values, the concept of rationality and the parenthetical atitude. The possibility of a reflexive attitude triggers a discussion about concrete possibilities for human behaviors to be aligned according to instrumental patterns. Based on such assumptions, this work contributes to the discussion about action in the face of conflicts of values that emerge in public administration.The reseaches suggest that parenthetical attitude, which characterizes the rational agent, individuals can distance themselves from their own circumstances, guide their action according to their own judgment of values, and to bear the inherent tension of the life of reasoning. This argument is presented as a possibility to deal and to act responsibly in the face of conflicting values that emerge in public administration.
Keywords: Values; Organizational values; Public administration; Rationality; Parenthetical attitude
2. Title: Analysis of the Scales and Measures of Moral Virtues Associated to the Area of Administration and Business Ethics: A Systematic Review
Authors: Ames, Maria Clara F., Serafim, Maurício C. and Martins, Felipe Flôres.
Conference: XLII EnANPAD 2018 – Encontro Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração. 03-06 October, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. (Enanpad 2018).
This article aims to investigate how the scales for the construct moral virtues are constructed and measured in the studies associated with Administration and business ethics. For this, a systematic review based on the proposal of the Main Items for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes, by Moher, Liberati, Tetsla & Altman (2009), establishing criteria for search, selection and analysis. A sample of 21 papers uses scales of moral virtues, 15 of which measure general and individual moral virtues (personal level). The results reveal a variety of virtue scales associated with leadership, as well as scales in the administrative context in general, applied predominantly to students of Management. Among the emerging factors are 38 moral virtues, such as temperance, justice, and prudence. The statistical analysis allows us to recommend a deeper theoretical understanding of the perspective of virtue ethics, its elements and related constructs, for a better elaboration of items and later test of convergent and discriminating validity. The study shows, according to the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes, the need for adaptation and exploratory studies for the application of scales in different contexts.
Keywords: moral virtues, scale development, scales analysis, virtues, business ethics
3. Title: Agenda Dynamics in Abortion Policy in Federal Senate from 1988 to may of 2018.
Authors: Ames, Maria Clara F., Serafim, Maurício C., Zappellini, Marcelo Beckert and Colonetti, Andrei.
Conference: II International Conference of Public Sector Performance – CIDESP 2018, August, 27-29, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. (Cidesp).
The subject of abortion is a complex philosophical and moral issue, and in the area of public policy its treatment is termed as morality policy or simply abortion policy. The foreign terms “pro-life” and “pro-choice” are often used by actors and interest groups to position themselves about them. Although previous studies consider the arguments most used for the issue in the Chamber of Deputies, a Brazilian research on the dynamics of the governmental political agenda of abortion is still unprecedented. This article starts this study, analyzing the preferences of the political agenda according to the pronouncements, bills and public hearings that took place within the Federal Senate between 1988 and May 2018. The theoretical-empirical approach follows the proposals for analysis by Baumgartner and Jones (1993), in an exploratory research using qualitative data, through documentary and content analysis. By limiting the analysis to the bills, pronouncements and public hearings, the results allow to analyze the positions and arguments of the Senate agenda and the attention paid to the question, especially in electoral years and in moments in which the “favorable” positions surpass positions “contrary to abortion. Recent developments suggest a change in the institutional path for the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which is used as a way to discuss new elements that may allow for the imputability of the abortion penalty.
Keywords: abortion, agenda formation, Federal Senate, morality policy.
4. Title: Knowing-how to care through actual caring: the case of civil society organizations that work in the protection of pregnant women and infants.
Authors: Ames, Maria Clara; Serafim, Maurício Custódio.
Conference: Association for Moral Education Conference, 08-10 November, Barcelona, Spain. https://www.amenetwork.org/2018/
No artigo Knowing-how to care through actual caring: the case of civil society organizations that work in the protection of pregnant women and infants, tentamos compreender as práticas organizacionais e as relações pessoais de cuidado de organizações que atuam com o propósito de proteger gestantes e bebês. Para isso, propomos investigar alguns elementos discutidos pelos teóricos da ética do cuidado, como respeito, empatia, atenção, prática e fortalecimento das relações.
The complementarity between the ethics of care approach and the ethics based on norms, rules and justice is a present discussion in the areas of philosophy and moral education, initiated from the contributions of Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan. Based on relationships, care also permeates group and institutional practices (Tronto, 2010), as well as civil society initiatives (Held, 2006). Care is considered a relevant aspect of public policies (Stensöta, 2015) and for Public Administration. It is necessary to reflect on practices of caring conducted in the public sphere, in order to provide a basis for teaching ethics. However, the empirical approach to care that sustains civil society actions is still a field to be explored. This paper aims to understand the care involved in protecting and assisting pregnant women and infants carried out by voluntary civil society organizations. The research is conducted in the light of the ethics of care and intends to reflect on possible related virtues, starting from the discussion of key points in the approaches of Noddings (1984), Gilligan (1997) and Slote (2007), and presenting the concept of respectful care proposed by Dall’Agnol (2016) in the field of bioethics. The research aims to study initiatives which help pregnant women and babies from poor communities in the municipality of Florianópolis, in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. This delimitation has allowed the selection of two Brazilian organizations, both with more than 30 years of existence. Using a qualitative exploratory and descriptive approach, we use a multiple case study strategy, applying documentary research, participant observation, use of field notebooks, as well as semi-structured interviews. The interpretation of the data suggests that two care networks are enriched by volunteers from civil society organizations. The first network contributes to teaching care among community members, through periodically repeated organizational practices, training, and communitarian meetings as required by respectful care; the second one strengthens the care in the personal relationships between volunteers and pregnant women and children. The research sheds light on “learning how to care, caring”, illustrating that caring is a form of know-how, suggesting the experiential character of care learning.
Keywords: caring, ethics of care, pregnant women, civil society organizations.
5. Title: Practical Wisdom: A Systematic Review on Phronesis Education, Teaching, and Learning
Authors: Ames, Maria Clara. F. and Serafim, Maurício Custódio.
Conference: XLII EnANPAD 2018 – Encontro Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração. 03-06 October, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. (Enanpad 2018).
The purpose of this systematic review is to investigate how the concept of phronesis is related to education, teaching and learning in Administration and organizational studies. Phronesis is defined as practical wisdom, or prudence, present in processes of deliberation, decision and action. The search for articles on Scopus, Ebsco and Web of Science found 37 articles on the subject. The analysis of these works reveals the most referenced authors, the main definitions and the main research topics regarding teaching and learning in Administration. It is approached according to five main definitions: (1) disposition for judgment or deliberation; (2) perception of context and actual situation; (3) type of practical knowledge; (4) phronetic social reasearch, and, (5) multiple definitions. The themes are: (a) Teaching and curriculum related to Administration and business ethics; (b) teacher education and training; (c) teaching and elements of phronesis; (d) philosophy of education and phronesis; (e) occupations and other higher education; and, (f) early childhood education. Its relation with the moral virtues could be more explored, since definitions related to experiential learning predominate. Future studies could discuss practices, praxis, and action-oriented approaches.
Keywords: phronesis, education, administration, teaching, learning.
The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the AdmEthics Group