ABSTRACT
In order to manage ethical challenges in organizations and the workplace, moral sensitivity (MS)-the ability to identify and ascribe importance to moral issues when they arise in the workplace-is seen as the key prerequisite by researchers and professionals. However, despite the importance of MS, satisfactory reliable and valid measures to assess this competence are to date lacking. The present research tests the psychometric qualities of a revised MS measure for the business domain (R-MSB) that is designed to assess individual differences in moral and business-related value sensitivity. We present three different analyses with two heterogeneous samples of Swiss and German employees (total N = 1168). The first two studies provide good evidence of the measures' factorial structure, its construct, and criteria-related validity. The third study examines how affective and empathic responses are associated with MS and business sensitivity (BS). The results support the view that empathic responsiveness enhances MS. The instrument's theoretical and practical strengths, limitations, and avenues for future research are discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-01926-x.
ABSTRACT
Ethics teaching in medicine, nursing and other health care professions does not only consist of knowledge transfer that can be easily implemented digitally. Rather, it focuses on specific ethical competences (such as arguing and articulating one's own moral position) and attitudes (such as empathic patient orientation, critical self-reflection, and ambiguity tolerance), for whose development interactive formats are superior. Competence-oriented ethical learning goals are important for the development of professionalism, but require time, space and personal exchange. Due to contact restrictions and the widespread cancellation of (face-to-face) courses in the wake of the corona pandemic, ethics teaching was forced to keep its distance in many places, which posed great challenges. This article is based on an exchange of experiences from members of the working group ethik learning of the Academy for Ethics in Medicine about ethics teaching in times of physical distancing. Recommendations will be given on how ethical competence can be successfully taught in the context of exclusively digital teaching. Starting with the question what is at risk of being lost in digital teaching, the potentials of digital formats are explored and illustrated with concrete practical examples. Beyond ethics teaching, the article also aims to provide ideas and suggestions for other specialist and cross-sectional areas where interactive formats are central.
