The psychology of ethical leaders

The collateral damage to companies caused by unethical behaviour can be enormous, especially when it is perceived to be systemic within an organisation. We look to leaders to set an example. So how can they be encouraged to set aside selfinterest and provide an ethical role model for those they lead

On The Psychology of Displaying Ethical Leadership: A Behavioral Ethics Approach

Given the abundance of ethical scandals in businesses, sports, governments and religious organizations, it should come as no surprise that social scientists have increasingly put ethical leadership on the forefront of their research agenda. However, the literature on ethical leadership has primarily taken a normative approach, suggesting what leaders should do. This approach does not help in explaining why leaders sometimes deviate from such moral standards. In fact, little empirical work has been conducted on the question of when or why leaders actually engage in (un)ethical behavior (a behavioral ethics approach). The research presented in this dissertation aims to take a first step in filling this gap in the literature by identifying and examining antecedents of several ethical leader behaviors. I aim to answer important empirical questions such as: When do leaders go beyond their self-interest? When do leaders treat their followers in a fair manner? And, do leaders consistently take action against unethical followers, or do they sometimes condone unethical follower behavior? In answering such questions, I will show that aspects of leaders themselves (motives and dispositions), aspects of their followers (motives and actions) and aspects of the environment in which leaders operate interact in determining whether leaders engage in eth

Procedural fairness and the power of giving voice to employees

__Absttract__ A perennial question faced by managers is how much they should listen to their employees. Let no employee have a say and you encourage foot-dragging, hurt morale, and develop a reputation as an unfair manager. Listen too much and you may paralyse the organisation, still hurt morale, and earn a reputation as an ineffective leader

Een onderzoek naar moreel leeroverleg binnen Dienst Justitiële Instellingen

This is a summary of the final report of a study on moral learning consultation (‘moreel leeroverleg’) within Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen (DJI). In general, work at DJI is experienced as stressful. This is mainly due to the population that employees work with - prisoners can act in unpleasant and/or unpredictable ways. The proposed pilot project is intended to help individuals in avoiding both moral pitfalls. The project focuses on stimulating moral awareness, but also on acquiring techniques to better cope with unwanted effects of automatic processes.Om professionals te ondersteunen in hun oordeelsvorming wil het Opleidingsinstituut van de Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen (DJI) in een aantal inrichtingen een pilot organiseren met een effectieve methode om tot een weloverwogen keuze te komen. Als voorbereiding hierop wil dit instituut laten inventariseren welke methoden van morele oordeelsvorming bestaan, hoe ze werken en wat bekend is over hun resultaten en effectiviteit. DJI denkt momenteel aan een vorm van moreel leeroverleg, waarbij professionals in overleg en op een systematische manier ingaan op moeilijke situaties en leren om daadwerkelijk moreel te handelen. De doelstelling van dit onderzoek was drieledig: De inventarisatie van de inhoud, doel en effectiviteit van bestaande morele trainingsprogramma's. De inventarisatie van organisatie-gerelateerde randvoorwaarden voor een effectieve implementatie van morele trainingsprogramma's. Een voorstel voor een pilot project met een effectieve methode. INHOUD: 1. Algemene inleiding 2. Interviews en inventarisatie bestaande trainingsmethoden 3. Morele besluitvorming 4. Moreel leervermogen 5. Organisatie-gerelateerde randvoorwaarden 6. Voorstel pilot-project 7. Conclusi

Pseudo-arthrosis repair of a posterior cruciate ligament avulsion fracture

A pseudo-arthrosis repair of a 4-year-old bony avulsion fracture of the PCL using a minimally invasive technique, screw fixation, and bone grafting is reported. The case presented seems to be rather unique due to the fragment size and the approach for pseudo-arthrosis repair. There was a good functional result following minimally invasive pseudo-arthrosis repair of a posterior cruciate ligament avulsion fracture. There are no previous reports of similar pseudo-arthrosis repairs, and other authors report good results of delayed refixation of PCL avulsion fractures. Therefore, refixation and pseudo-arthrosis repair should be considered as a viable treatment

Monitoring van nationale ammoniakemissies uit de landbouw; op weg naar een verbeterde rekenmethodiek

De huidige rekenmethodiek voor het berekenen van de nationale ammoniakemissies uit landbouwkundige bronnen is aan een kritische analyse onderworpen. Aanleiding hiervoor was het grote verschil tussen de op directe wijze berekende ammoniakemissie uit deverschillende landbouwbronnen en de op indirecte wijze berekende emissie, afgeleid uit concentratiemetingen van ammoniak in lucht. De ammoniakemissies van de volgende bronnen zijn behandeld: de N-excretie van diergroepen, stal en buitenopslag van mest, mesttoediening op het land, kunstmest, beweiding en gewassen. Daarnaast is aandacht besteed aan de mestlogistiek, die van belang is voor de verdeling van geproduceerde mest over het bedrijf, binnen de regio en naar andere delen van Nederland. Aanbevelingen zijn gedaan voor de aanpassing van de huidige rekenmethodiek op de korte termijn en voor onderzoek dat na een aantal jaren moet leiden tot een structurele verbetering van de rekenmethodiek

Development and Validation of a New Method to Measure Walking Speed in Free-Living Environments Using the Actibelt® Platform

Walking speed is a fundamental indicator for human well-being. In a clinical setting, walking speed is typically measured by means of walking tests using different protocols. However, walking speed obtained in this way is unlikely to be representative of the conditions in a free-living environment. Recently, mobile accelerometry has opened up the possibility to extract walking speed from long-time observations in free-living individuals, but the validity of these measurements needs to be determined. In this investigation, we have developed algorithms for walking speed prediction based on 3D accelerometry data (actibelt®) and created a framework using a standardized data set with gold standard annotations to facilitate the validation and comparison of these algorithms. For this purpose 17 healthy subjects operated a newly developed mobile gold standard while walking/running on an indoor track. Subsequently, the validity of 12 candidate algorithms for walking speed prediction ranging from well-known simple approaches like combining step length with frequency to more sophisticated algorithms such as linear and non-linear models was assessed using statistical measures. As a result, a novel algorithm employing support vector regression was found to perform best with a concordance correlation coefficient of 0.93 (95%CI 0.92–0.94) and a coverage probability CP1 of 0.46 (95%CI 0.12–0.70) for a deviation of 0.1 m/s (CP2 0.78, CP3 0.94) when compared to the mobile gold standard while walking indoors. A smaller outdoor experiment confirmed those results with even better coverage probability. We conclude that walking speed thus obtained has the potential to help establish walking speed in free-living environments as a patient-oriented outcome measure

Influence of personalized extended interval dosing on the natalizumab wearing-off effect - a sub-study of the NEXT-MS trial

Background and objectives: Wearing-off symptoms during natalizumab treatment in multiple sclerosis are characterized by an increase of MS-related symptoms prior to natalizumab administration. The influence of extended interval dosing (EID) on wearing-off symptoms are important to consider, as this might cause hesitancy in initiating or continuing EID. Methods: Participants of the NEXT-MS trial, in which treatment intervals are adjusted based on drug concentrations, were divided into two groups: an extended group containing participants with at least one week of additional interval extension, and a group with a fixed interval during the trial (range 4–7 weeks). Changes in the occurrence, frequency, onset, and severity of wearing-off symptoms were evaluated. Results: 255 participants were included (extended group n = 171, fixed group n = 84). The odds on occurrence of wearing-off symptoms in the extended group did not increase after extending the treatment interval. Additional analyses for frequency, onset, and severity of wearing-off symptoms showed no changes over time. Mean decrease in natalizumab drug concentration did not influence the frequency of wearing-off symptoms. Discussion: Wearing-off symptoms were not reinforced by further extending the natalizumab interval. Wearing-off symptoms might increase in a minority of patients after EID, although our data support the view that wearing-off symptoms appear to be unrelated to the decrease in natalizumab trough drug concentrations.</p

Reliability of serum neurofilament light and glial fibrillary acidic protein for detecting disease activity upon discontinuation of first-line disease-modifying therapy in stable multiple sclerosis (DOT-MS)

BACKGROUND: Neurofilament light(NfL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein(GFAP) are associated with disease activity in multiple sclerosis(MS), however use in monitoring remains limited. The ability of these biomarkers to detect disease activity upon treatment discontinuation was studied.METHODS: Long-term stable relapse-onset MS patients were to continue or discontinue their first-line disease-modifying therapy(DMT) to study the safety of DMT discontinuation(DOT-MS trial NCT04260711). "Significant" disease activity was defined as clinical relapse, ≥3 new lesions or ≥2 contrast-enhancing lesions. MRI and sampling were performed at baseline, month 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24. Associations of delta biomarker levels and NfL z-score(age and body mass index derived) with "significant" disease activity were tested. Cut-off values for biomarkers to detect disease activity were calculated.RESULTS: 45(50.5%) participants discontinued their DMT. Eight(all discontinued DMT) had "significant" disease activity, which was associated with an increase in NfL levels(OR:1.13 [1.03-1.33], p = 0.04) and NfL z-scores(OR:2.17 [0.98-5.22], p = 0.06), but not with GFAP(p = 0.52). Delta NfL had the highest ability to detect "significant" disease activity(AUC:0.88 [0.76-0.99]), with the best calculated cut-off of 46.4% increase(AUC:0.68, sensitivity 0.57, specificity 0.96).DISCUSSION: NfL may be useful to identify, but not predict, disease activity after DMT discontinuation in MS. GFAP levels were not discriminatory for disease activity.</p