Editorial

Excerpt

Ethics is a source of reflection on “right” or “wrong” behavior. The first four of five articles in this special issue on “Ethics in Academia and Management” deal with misbehavior and the motives that might underlie it––especially publication-related misbehavior and greed. The fifth article can be understood as an examination of the role economic models and model users (i.e., scholars, policy makers, business people, etc.) play and the positive or negative consequences for society that can arise as a result. The author’s demand for critical reflection on the models, including their quality and their usage, links this article to ethics. While ethics is about reflection and the bases of reflection, morals are concerned with what individuals actually believe is right or wrong and thus guides their practices. Thus, ethics is a reflection theory about the morals of individuals, groups, and societies. In the case of scientific communities, morals influence how scholars organize, understand, and practice their “business”, which consists of the production of knowledge, the accomplishment of academic education, and the advancement of scientific offspring. It is not only having functioning institutions, capable scholars, and talented offspring that affects the achievement of scientific aims; it is also a scientific community’s ability and will to reflect on the values, rules, or standards that are embodied in their practices and to act appropriately. This is in harmony with Cipolletta and Gius’ (2012, p. 10) call for “ethics in action”; that is, “ethics as knowledge that guides action”. This includes “to pay serious attention to the simultaneous convergence of two increasingly appreciated values; it is the necessity to improve the rational use of scientific research to favour action and the consideration of the human being as a cognizing being” (ibid. p. 8). …