Ethics comes from the Greek word ethikos, meaning "arising from habit." Ethics is a habitual way of behaving. In their efforts to build an environment that is conducive to making ethics a habitual way of behaving most organisations rely on ethics training as an important part of the initiative. The age-old question is however – can ethics be taught? This is not a new question and almost 2 500 years ago, the philosopher Socrates debated the question with his fellow Athenians. Socrates' position was clear: Ethics consists of knowing what we ought to do, and such knowledge can be taught and people can learn to behave ethically. Research to Support that Ethics can be Taught Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, SJ, and Michael J Meyer in an online article (http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/canethicsbetaught.html) summarise recent findings that support the notion that ethics can and should be taught. These findings are: · Dramatic changes occur in young adults in their 20s and 30s in terms of the basic problem-solving strategies they use to deal with ethical issues. · These changes are linked to fundamental changes in how a person perceives society and his or her role in society. · The extent to which change occurs is associated with the number of years of formal education (college or professional school). · Deliberate educational attempts (formal curriculum) to influence awareness of moral problems and to influence the reasoning or judgement process have been demonstrated to be effective. · Studies indicate that a person's behaviour is influenced by his or her moral perception and moral judgements · A person's ability to deal with moral issues is not formed all at once. Just as there are stages of growth in physical development, the ability to think morally also develops in stages. Ethics Training How do organisations then structure the ethics training to ensure maximum learning? Dale Curry (http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0106-curry.html) describes research by Baldwin and Ford (1988) that presents a useful framework for examining transfer of learning that can help to promote ethical competence. They emphasize the importance of individual trainee characteristics, the work environment, and the training design. Effective interventions to promote ethical practice on-the-job will incorporate individual and organizational / environmental elements into the training design. Low Road Transfer Some transfer of training occurs via incremental learning involving varied and extensive practice that gradually extends to ever-widening situations. The learner may “overlearn” certain crucial ethical content to the extent that it is displayed almost “automatically” when cued by the appropriate ethical situation. This is called “low road transfer” (Salomon and Perkin, 1989). Curry (http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0106-curry.html) highlights that this means that the training designer should: · Identify concrete ethical problem solving skills that can be practised in the training and work environments. Practise the demonstration of ethical problem solving with real case scenarios (or as close to real as possible). Learners need the opportunity to demonstrate skills and not just discuss ethical cases. · Identify and practice “key” ethical skills to the level of automaticity. Some behaviours can be “overlearned” to the extent that a worker routinely employs them with little conscious effort. · Practice with application in mind. Make connections between the learning and doing situations. For example, ask a learner to adapt a role play to make it as similar as possible to a typical work situation. You may ask them to choose another role player that most reminds them of someone in their work situation. · Use instructional strategies that closely approximate the ethical assessment, decision making, and implementation process that will occur on the job. For example, a worker may rehearse in training a consultation session regarding an ethical issue with a supervisor or colleague. · Increase the types of ethical practice scenarios to include increasingly ever-widening situations. This may involve the use of a variety of individuals and settings that workers encounter. Since the amount of time permitted in training is limited, a practice and participant feedback plan must be developed and implemented that extends beyond the training setting. · Use distributed practice with gradual removal of practice. Integrate the practice into the work environment. This may involve the use of trainers and coaches in team meetings, etc. Encourage supervisors and others within the work environment to promote ethical practice through discussion and ethical problem solving in team meetings. High Road Transfer While low road transfer strategies encourage the learning of key skills to the level of automaticity (to the extent that a behaviour occurs almost automatically, with little conscious effort), high road transfer involves very deliberate, conscious (mindful) thinking about the learning and implementation of an ethical skill. This is called “High Road transfer” (Salomon and Perkins 1989). High road transfer also involves the use of abstract principles (e.g., rules, labels, prototypes, schematic patterns). Transfer occurs by purposefully using general rules or principles that underlie the subject matter. A basic assumption behind the development of ethical codes is that individuals will recognize and transfer the appropriate general ethical principle to the specific situation / case in the actual practice situation. This is also the concept behind the use of ethical assessment and decision making models. Curry (http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0106-curry.html) identifies the following implications for transfer of ethics learning based on the high road approach: · Train underlying principles of ethical practice that transcend context. Help learners recognize these underlying ethical principles (mindful abstraction). · Train ethical assessment and decision making strategies that can be used with many different types of ethical problems. · Use parallel processing. For example, have the learners examine how the trainer-trainee, the supervisor-supervisee relationships are similar regarding the ethical use of power. · Use a variety of case examples for each ethical principle to strengthen a learner’s understanding of the principles. · Provide examples of when an ethical principle applies and when not. · Help learners cognitively store ethical information with retrieval in mind. Identify situations where ethical problems are likely to occur. Help learners identify cues that will signal the worker that an ethical problem may exist. · Teach meta-cognitive skills. Help the training participants learn how to learn and apply application principles regarding ethics. Help them learn to use the ethical codes to monitor and guide their practice. For example, provide suggestions and application aides that can serve as reminders to workers on the job that a case situation may have ethical implications similar to one that was previously discussed in training. · Help participants plan for application of learning. Help them think about how to overcome barriers to application as well as strategies to prevent or reverse the process of backsliding into old habits. Training Implications Curry (http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0106-curry.html) concludes in his article that to effectively promote the application of ethics learning in organisational settings, training and development professionals will need to incorporate both low and high road transfer approaches. In addition, interventions will need to extend beyond the “classroom” setting and involve key persons within the transfer milieu.