Situational ethics

About: Situational ethics is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4023 publications have been published within this topic receiving 145379 citations.

Trusting the “Look and Feel”: Situational Normality, Situational Aesthetics, and the Perceived Trustworthiness of Organizations

Abstract: We conducted two studies examining how the “look and feel” of an organization shapes newcomers’ trust in that organization. More specifically, we examined the effects of situational normality—the d...

Situational Urgency and Conversational Retreat When Politeness and Efficiency Matter

Abstract: Conversational Constraint Theory posits that preferred levels of efficiency and social appropriateness for particular conversational encounters fluctuate in response to situational, relational, and personal factors, and these fluctuations alter and determine which behaviors are acceptable tactics for achieving goals in these encounters. This research examines the situational factor of urgency, its influence on minimally preferred levels of efficiency and social appropriateness, and its influence on the acceptability of tactics for unilaterally withdrawing from conversations. A three phase research process finds that (a) efficiency and appropriateness assessments of conversational retreat tactics are goal dependent and within-goal variant, stable over time and across subpopulations; (b) situational urgency increases the preferred level for efficiency only; and (c) situational urgency alters tactical acceptability such that appropriate though less efficient tactics acceptable in nonurgent situations are una...

The Illusion of Law: The Legitimating Schemas of Modern Policy and Corporate Law

Abstract: This Article is about some of the schemas and scripts that form and define our lives. It is about the knowledge structures that shape how we view the world and how we understand the limitless information with which we are always confronted. This Article is also about the "evolution of ideas" underlying corporate law and all of modern policymaking. It is about the ways in which schemas and scripts have influenced how policy theorists, policymakers, lawyers, and many others (particularly in the West) understand and approach policymaking generally and corporate law specifically. It is about both the invisibility and blinding effect of those schemas. It is about the battle over those schemas and the prizes of victory. And, finally, it is about how the now-dominant schemas render us the "unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades." We begin our discussion in Part II with the dominant knowledge structures underlying modern policymaking, describing the emergence of what we term the "meta script" of policymaking - or the schemas that frame our approach to policy analysis today. Part III turns to the law regulating large commercial interests - specifically, corporate law - and examines the emergence and dominance of the new "macro script" of corporate law. It examines the schemas that identify and legitimate the purpose of the law. Parts IV and V highlight the signs of illusion in those schemas and then begin to unveil the situational magician behind those illusions. Corporate law works, as all illusions work, by relying on a set of schemas that guide our attention and inferences and play into our intuitions and motives. Yet the outcome and response that this Article suggests is neither so benign nor light-hearted as that of a magic show. While its analysis is concentrated on corporate law, the Article's implications reach each of us, from law student to legal scholar, citizen to policymaker, and reveal something unsettling: all of us are susceptible to schematic sleight-of-hand, tricks that render us vulnerable to dangerous illusion. Where many have heretofore tended to see magic, this Article reveals the illusion of law and some of the unseen mechanisms that make it possible. This project's larger ambition, it should be noted, is not to encourage disillusionment with the purported goals of the law, but to provide insights that help tailor our means and to narrow the gap between our ends and our outcomes.

Reference Person Influence on Career Women's Dress:

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effect of situational and personality characteristics on the acceptance of normative and informational influence by career women from refe...

Theories of Practice: Understanding the Practice of Educational Leadership

Abstract: Introduction Argyris and Schon (1974) first articulated the concept of theories of practice, and elements of the concept have become standard vocabulary in literature on organizational learning. Relatively few empirical studies, however, have explored the legitimacy of this concept for understanding how educators approach problems in their professional practice (Lipshitz, 2000). As accountability pressures for school improvement mount, the imperative for understanding effective school leadership behaviors makes the concept of theories of practice more appealing. The purpose of this article is to examine the structure of theories of practice as understood by Argyris and Schon and the implications for understanding the cognitive processes and behaviors that constitute effective instructional leadership in schools. The authors discuss a recent case study of successful school principals that mapped the principals' theories of practice of instructional leadership. The study illustrates the usefulness of the theory of practice framework for both research and improving professional practice (Houchens, 2008). Conceptual Framework Argyris and Schon's book, Theories in Practice (1974), explored the concept of organizational learning by articulating a rather elaborate framework that explained the cognitive structure and processes of problem solving that all people--not just professional practitioners--engage in. According to Argyris and Schon, theories are "vehicles for explanation, prediction, or control" (p. 5). All humans, whether they are conscious of it or not, operate according to thousands of theories to explain their experience, predict future events, and control outcomes in various situations. All theories are situational, and based on an underlying set of values, beliefs and assumptions that frame an individual's perception of the world, which include assumptions about desirable outcomes for a variety of situations. Theories appear in an "if ... then" format: if the individual faces a particular situation, then based on the individual's core assumptions about this situation, the individual should take a particular action to either explain, predict or control the situation or outcome. Argyris and Schon called this if-then formulation a theory of action. "A full schema of a theory of action, then, would be as follows: in situation S, if you want to achieve consequence C, under assumptions a1 ... an, do A" (p. 6). Argyris and Schon went on to define theories of practice as "special cases" of theories of action that are rooted in problems arising in a professional's specific work context. Theories of practice describe routines, procedures and specific practices for dealing with problems common to the practice environment. "A practice is a sequence of actions undertaken by a person to serve others, who are considered clients. Each action in the sequence of actions repeats some aspect of other actions in the sequence, but each action is in some way unique. In medicine, for example, a typical sequence would be a diagnostic work-up, treatment of acute illness, a well-baby visit, chronic care, and consultation" (p. 6). A theory of practice consists of a set of interrelated theories of action that specify for the situations of practice the actions that will, based on relevant assumptions, yield intended consequences. In addition to the basic theory of practice framework, Argyris and Schon identified models of how effective and ineffective learning takes place within individuals and groups. Because theories in use are (a) so deeply entrenched in the individual psyche, (b) usually subconscious to the individual, and (c) often at odds with espoused theories of action (how we say we behave to others or how we rationalize our behavior to others), they deeply affect the way individuals learn. Argyris and Schon (1978) described the typical, reflexive way we learn as single-loop learning, in which the individual sees that his or her behavior has not successfully resolved a problem. …