The influence of culture and ethical ideology on ethical decision making process of Malaysian managers

The ethical decision making (EDM) process of individuals has proven to be very challenging due to the multitude of complex and varied factors that contribute to this behaviour. Nevertheless, many theoretical frameworks have been proposed to describe such behaviour. Despite the increasing number of EDM models and practices, reports of unethical incidents and illegal behaviour, especially in organizations, continue to appear. This problem is in part related to the failure of EDM models that do not adequately explain the antecedent factors of ethical behaviour by individuals in organizations. As a result, there is a gap between theory and practice. Hence, the main objective of this study is to address these shortcomings by exploring and empirically examining the antecedents in the EDM process and by developing a behavioural model that encompasses a fully functional model of individual ethical behaviour.Furthermore, most of the major frameworks have been formulated from a Western perspective. The current research was conducted in the Malaysian context, using a model that accounts for cultural differences. The most generally accepted concept is that culture is a key determinant of an individual's ethical ideology, which affects an individual’s inclination to behave ethically. In other words, culture acts as a guideline in determining whether certain practices are appropriate and acceptable. However, individuals in organizations also have an obligation to comply the culture in their work setting. Therefore, the culture of ethical practices in an organization is expected to play an important role in the process of EDM. In addition, literature has established the moderating effect of gender, age and level of education in such behaviour. Therefore, the current research also further investigated the relationship among the components of the EDM process, which has thus far not been given proper attention.A two-phase sequential mixed-method approach, consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches, was carried out in this research. In the qualitative part, a field study of semi-structured interviews was conducted with the objective of testing the applicability of the initial model besides exploring the dimensionality of the construct. The data was analyzed using content analysis through Nvivo software. Based on the analysis, the dimensionality of the constructs was identified and two more relevant antecedent factors were detected, namely parental values and religiosity. Thus, these two factors were added to the comprehensive research model. A survey was conducted among managers from Malaysia large organizations to collect quantitative data. The data was analyzed using a Partial Least Square (PLS) based Structural Equations Modelling (SEM) tool. In addition, multi-group analysis of PLS was also employed.The major findings of this research have confirmed the influence of ethical ideology as the major determinant of the EDM process. Furthermore, results have demonstrated the role of culture as the antecedent of an individual’s ethical ideology. Interestingly, the influence of parental values and religiosity, which was derived from the field study, was also confirmed. Findings also verified the moderating effect of the organizational ethical culture in enhancing a moral awareness of an individual’s EDM process. With regards to the relationship among the components of the EDM process, findings revealed sequential and interrelationship links between the components. On the other hand, the moderating effect of gender, age and level of education in the EDM process was not detected. Overall results confirm the multidimensional construct and the complexity of such a process. This research provides a significant contribution to the existing knowledge in the EDM area. Most importantly, an understanding of the antecedents and the processes of EDM provides guidelines for organizations in developing better ethical programs and policies in order to promote and encourage ethical behaviour. Perhaps a major contribution of this research is the implication for managers to enhance the process of EDM in organizations

Ethical research in indigenous contexts and the practical implementation of it

Research in Indigenous Australia has historically been controlled and dominated by non-Indigenous researchers. However, recent national research guidelines which have been developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and together with a number of other research guidelines that have been developed by other institutions, including the Australian Institute for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), have signalled a shift towards Indigenous ownership and control over research. However, despite these revised guidelines, researching in Indigenous contexts can still result in cultural insensitivities, neglect or disregard by researchers and mistrust by Indigenous participants. Similar issues have also been expressed by Indigenous academics such as Moreton-Robinson, Rigney and Nakata who advocate for further reforms in Indigenous research. This thesis presents a documentary study on the application of the NHMRC’s ethical research guidelines of research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A unique case study has been chosen to examine the adequacy of the 1991 and 2003 guidelines in conducting ethical research and best practice in Indigenous contexts. The case study evaluation reveals that good ethics practice can be compromised by third parties who are involved in the research process but are not subject to ethical conduct and secondly, by the absence of cultural competence training in research. To minimise risks and to develop effective relationships between researchers and participants, cultural competence training is advocated in this thesis

Addressing Issues of Trust and Power Gap by Empowering Middle Leaders in an Asian International School

This Organizational Improvement Plan explores trust, leadership, and power at True North Academy (a pseudonym), a Canadian-themed international school in Asia. The Problem of Practice (PoP) recognizes a gap between the school’s current collaborative practices and its aspirations being a cutting-edge learning organization. Recent events, especially the global pandemic, have highlighted the school’s reliance on traditional hierarchies and top-down decision-making. Unpopular decisions made without staff input have damaged teacher trust in the leadership, raised concerns of a staff exodus, and stalled ongoing improvement of school programmes. Within a theoretical framework of social constructivism, a plan is proposed to address the challenges posed by declining trust and the power gap by exploring alternate approaches to decision-making within the senior school. Using a hybrid of Lewin’s stage change model and Duck’s five-stage change curve, the role of middle leaders will be broadened, empowering them as members of a more robust leadership team and in their interactions with their own followers. The solution described in this OIP is for middle leaders to build capacity by engaging in an ongoing Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle in which they learn to work together effectively and model distributive leadership practices within their own professional teams. Supporting middle leaders in redefining their own roles will draw upon the principles of adaptive and situational approaches that focus on their individual readiness, capacity, and emotional needs to ensure a positive transition into a more dynamic and inclusive vision of school leadership

Global Citizenship Education and Heritage Preservation of Host National Students in GCC International Bilingual Schools

International private schools adopt Eurocentric accreditation and curriculum standards that aim at developing global citizens. However, global citizenship education is a problematic construct based on a colonial instrumentalist framework. Contextualized in Type C international schools for GCC host national students, the problem of practice is GIBS’s unmitigated adoption of international GCE accreditation and curriculum standards in a manner that erodes the students’ culture and heritage. Grounded in a transformative worldview, GIBS’s accreditation and curriculum coordinator is in a unique position to lead organizational improvement that restructures school systems in a way that prioritizes GCC host national students’ heritage while empowering teachers to enact equitable instructional change. To address the problem of practice, a framework of change was developed by integrating ISA’s (2017) accreditation framework with Schein’s (2017) model of change management and Cawsey et al.’s (2016) change path model while using transformative, instructional, and servant leadership approaches. Culturally responsive learning’s three dimensions of culturally responsive care, culturally responsive instruction, and curriculum indigenization and decolonization were identified as the key to solving the problem of practice. To monitor and evaluate GIBS’s embedding of CRL into formal school systems, organizational change management takes place at the macro and micro levels using the API Model and PDCA cycle respectively. Synchronous alignment of GIBS’s accreditation phases and strategic improvement cycle with the OIP’s change implementation plan leverages the school’s pre-existing systems to achieve successful transformation

The influence of a Teaching School Alliance on classroom staff's professional development

The research that I have reported in this thesis has produced the following key findings regarding classroom staff’s decisions to adopt or not to adopt the innovation of professional development opportunities offered by a teaching school alliance. My unique contribution to the field is to build an emergent theory from my case study, which I represent graphically in section 5.4 of Chapter Five. This explanatory framework constructs the influences on an individual’s innovation adoption decision as a ‘change ecology’ consisting of three levels: the micro-, meso- and macro-levels. The three key findings that emerge from my multi-strand, sequential, mixed-methods case study of the influence of a teaching school alliance on classroom staff’s professional development are: (1) Classroom staff report prioritising personal and individual considerations when choosing whether or not to take up professional development opportunities offered by the subject Alliance. These considerations include the relevance of the innovation to their own practice; the degree of agency they have in meeting individual needs and goals; the degree to which their beliefs about change can be aligned with behaviours; and the amount of time they have available to spend on change activity, most of which is directed by their school leaders. I locate this finding in my explanatory framework at the micro-level, equivalent in innovation diffusion terms to the dimension of the adopter (where the characteristics of actors influence the probability of adoption of an innovation). (2) Classroom staff report a positive perception of change in principle: they say they are willing to surrender the status quo, and they report an appetite for improvement. However, the management of change in schools can act as a barrier to the spreading of effective practice. Classroom staff need to feel that they own the change if they are to buy into it. If they do not perceive that their individual needs and goals are being addressed, then innovations are less likely to be embedded into their practice. I locate this finding in my explanatory framework at the meso-level, equivalent in innovation diffusion terms to the dimension of environmental context (where characteristics of the actors’ external settings modulate diffusion). (3) Classroom staff report a positive attitude towards collaboration for improvement, although this is chiefly at the level of their own school, subject department or team. System-level collaboration is seen more neutrally: while the strands of teaching school alliance activity are thought to be worthwhile in principle, classroom staff do not regard this Alliance as important to their own professional development. I locate this finding in my explanatory framework at the macro-level, equivalent in innovation diffusion terms to the dimension of the innovation itself (where characteristics of the innovation influence the adoption process). My overall finding is that my subject Alliance appears to have failed to spread and embed change via the professional development of classroom staff in its member schools. My emergent theory to explain this finding is founded on a case study of a single teaching school alliance, but is related to other forms of between-schools working and is framed by the existing literatures of change and of collaboration. It can thus be applied on a broader scale to the overarching concept of collaboration for educational improvement, not only to the teaching school alliance model itself. I suggest further that the levels of influence on classroom staff’s attitudes to change that I have identified could be considered when planning and implementing other change efforts in education, and that my contribution is therefore of interest to policy-makers, practitioners and researchers on a wider stage.Teaching Schools are an innovation in system-level leadership for educational improvement. Launched in 2010, they are intended to form partnerships or ‘alliances’ with other schools and providers to share learning, excellent practice and innovative ideas, principally in teacher education and development. But there has been, to date, no detailed, critical, empirical research into the influence of Teaching Schools on teachers’ attitudes and practice. Specifically, I raise the problem of whether this voluntary, multi-school collaborative grouping can reach the classroom staff who, policy-makers, practitioners and scholars agree, are the people who really matter in improving outcomes for pupils. This thesis uses a change management perspective to investigate the influence of a large Teaching School Alliance on the continuing professional development (CPD) of serving classroom staff in its member schools. I report on the findings from a longitudinal, collective case study of eight sample schools, which employed a multi-strand, sequential, mixed-methods research design over three years. This study reveals that, while a large majority of respondents say that they support change in principle, there is a fundamental gap between aspiration and practice which presents significant challenges for a Teaching School Alliance. The decision of classroom staff whether to adopt or not to adopt the innovation of collaborative CPD is shown to depend on their attitudes to their own professional development; and on their attitudes to change as it occurs in their workplaces; and on their attitudes to collaboration at system level. My research develops a new understanding of the complex ‘change ecology’ that classroom staff experience when faced with an innovation to their practice. I provide a robust analysis of why collaborative development work might be confined to relatively few early adopters. The key insights of my work will be useful to practitioners who are currently leading school systems; to policy-makers who are planning future collaborative action for improvement, both in England and around the world; and to researchers with a focus on change management in educational settings.Non