Ethical Evaluation of Learning Organizations: A Conceptual Framework

A key assumption for recognizing knowledge society is the existence of learning organizations. As a result, literature has been fruitful in engaging a wide debate concerning its characteristics, dimensions, evolution, evaluation procedures, or ethical behaviour. Likewise, it is interesting to denote that research appears to pay little regard to the impacts of existing ethical and social dilemmas about knowledge creation, retention/use and sharing within organizational contexts. Therefore, the key purpose of this manuscript is to present a conceptual framework that denotes these dilemmas and their impacts in organizational strategy.For that, this contribution resumes an ongoing research project which intends to approach ethical and social dilemmas in learning organizations. Moreover, it suggests that these dilemmas impact on organizational strategy, as well as that existing evaluation models for learning organizations do not promote the ethical evaluation

A mosaic of personal ethical decision making in learning organizations

According to the Free Dictionary (2010), “a mosaic is a picture or decorative design made by setting small coloured pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface, or a composite picture made of overlapping, usually aerial or photographs”. Using the mosaic metaphor is the authors’ intention to discuss four levels of arguing: 1. personal ethical decision making in learning organizations; 2. construct the mosaic for each organizational group (top management, middle management and workers); 3. if it is possible to draw a behavioural pattern of the mosaic by organizational group (top management, middle management and workers); 4. to acknowledge the truthiness about organizational culture in knowledge environments not be a “spherical” concept (metaphorical symbolism for perfect and constant) (Costa, Prior & Rogerson, 2009a), which will reflect a comparison among groups behavioural patterns

Individual ethics and knowledge management: Arising conflicts

Knowledge management engages a strong personal dimension that enables a possible success or not regarding an organizational knowledge management project. Plus, it engages unforeseen ethical and moral dilemmas at an individual level. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to link philosophical systems and the knowledge management process allowing a comparison between Eastern and Western, regarding the ethical and moral dilemmas that arise at an individual level concerning knowledge workers. Moreover, we will demonstrate that such challenges are similar, and that Floridi’s information theory may provide important answers to that personal dimension of knowledge management

Socio-cognitive destruction: Reality or fiction?- And the imperative of ethics

The Web 2.0 has become a buzzword that is used to illustrate a wide range of online activities and applications. In fact, Web 2.0 enhances tremendously the chance to detect and re-examine cognitive, social psychological and interpersonal communication models. Moreover, cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers to discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to debate the following questions: do Web 2.0 create cognitive dissonance? In what extent? What are the consequences for younger people? And, does computer ethics may help

My kid’s are angels? – Internet and kids, a Portuguese case study

New information technologies provide tools and ways of thinking that shape every aspect of our lives. The Internet, taken as a tool, assists one in specific tasks associated with study, communication, or leisure. But taken as a whole technology, a unified world of systematic processes, they come to dictate one’s perception of reality and to dominate every sphere of life. The aim of this research is to understand the behavioural divergence between kid’s and adults as Internet users in Portugal, through out a field questionnaire, in order to address the theoretical gap regarding literature

Knowledge or content? The philosophical boundaries in e-learning pedagogical theories.

The evolution of educational technologies engages dissimilar pedagogical strategies; however, the existent work in e-learning seems to neglect hitherto an important discussion: what is knowledge, and what is content in the different pedagogical approaches? To promote such discussion e-learning definition and featured technologies will be under debate given their influence over the pedagogical choice. Afterwards, the attempt is to define knowledge and content, as well as to present their possible boundaries. Finally, we approach pedagogy and its theories to frame what is knowledge or content in each of those theories

Network tourism: A fallacy of location privacy!

This contribution aims to discuss if “locational” privacy in tourism is a fallacy! Nevertheless, the authors inform that the reason for this debate is 21st century tourist distinctive characteristic, constantly “wired” through ICT, leading to serious ethical issues as regards to personal privacy. Therefore, this paper is divided into five core sections: background (tourist, and ICT for tourism and tourist); control (etymology, the thin bound concerning security, and control and personal data); privacy (the concept, evolution, and dimensions); empirical evidences (overview, crime scene investigation, and keen exhibits); and finally, discussion (act 1 and act 2)

Knowledge versus content in e-learning: a philosophical discussion!

Historically education has been supported by technology; however, during the past three decades electronic technologies for educational purposes have been used to achieve better learning outcomes. In fact, there are two main issues in using computers for educational purposes; that is, people learn “from” or “with” technologies. The e-learning literature reveals that technological and instructional perspectives had been widely diffused, with ethical and cultural issues only being considered more recently. The aim of this paper is to discuss a blurred distinction, which entails into all these fields of research: how do we define knowledge and content in an e-learning project

Controlling Informational Society: A Google Error Analysis!

“Informational Society” is unceasingly discussed by all societies’ quadrants. Nevertheless, in spite of illustrating the most recent progress of western societies the complexity to characterize it is well-known. In this societal evolution the “leading role” goes to information, as a polymorphic phenomenon and a polysemantic concept. Given such claim and the need for a multidimensional approach, the overall amount of information available online has reached an unparalleled level, and consequently search engines become exceptionally important. Search engines main stream literature has been debating the following perspectives: technology, user level of expertise and confidence, organizational impact, and just recently power issues. However, the trade-off between informational fluxes versus control has been disregarded. So, our intention is to discuss such gap, and for that, the overall structure of the chapter is: information, search engines, control and its dimensions, and exploit Google as a case study

Business simulators and lecturers perception! The case of University of Algarve

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the usage of simulation/serious games in the University of Algarve (Portugal), because these novel learning environments are still on an early stage of adoption. Members of the Faculty of Economics (in a total 60 lecturers and their assistants) participated in this study through a mixed survey (closed and ask for agreement queries). The empirical evidences denote interesting results: (i) a response rate of 43 percent; (ii) these tools increase learning engagement; (iii) the lack of information and not sufficient alignment with the course unit hinders the uptake of these technologies within classrooms; (iv) lecturers have a positive perception and consider them as valuable for students’ better learning. Hence, this survey provides a good platform for future research and approaches how to promote a better exploration of simulation/serious games and their integration into course curriculum. To conclude, this paper will be divided into five sections: (i) research statement; (ii) research design (aims/objectives, research methodology and data collection/analysis); (iii) findings (lecturers’ profile, awareness, experiences and results summary); (iv) limitations and future work (methodological limitations and tools/analysis upgrade); and, (v) conclusions