(Caution! Expect upcoming revisions of module content as it is tested in the course, the Environment of the Organization, during the spring semester of 2009.) Business by its very nature is a risky venture. This module will help students to become sensitive to the different areas in which risk functions, the dimensions of risk, the associated ethical issues, and how business practitioners can ethically manage and communicate risk. While financial risk is important, businesses are also developing methods to identify and assess ethical and legal risks. This module expands even this broader paradigm to include risks that threaten health and safety as well as environmental values. It is currently being tested at the University of Puerto Rico in the course, "The Environment of the Organization," and has been developed as a part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation, "Collaborative Development of Ethics Across the Curriculum Resources and Sharing of Best Practices," NSF-SES-0551779.
These links will help you to explore different topics related to this module's contents.
- Epidemological studies are "natural" experiments. But allowing
naturally occurring harms to continue without abatement and withholdinginformation from risk bearers creates serious ethical problems.
Read the Tuskegee case as presented at the Western Michigan UniversityEthics Center to learn about a nororious case in which
patient rights were egregiously violated for the sake of "continuingthe experiment."
- Risk has meaning only in relation to the socio-technical systemin which it operates. Click on the link above to find out more
about STS analysis and how it can be used to anticipate problems.- Informed consent is a fundament right in the responsible
management of risk. Click on the link to the Belmont Report tofind out more about this right and its historical importance.
- The Online Ethics Center's definition of informed consentincludes the conditions necessary for fulfilling this right.
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Introduction
Tilting at windmills in puerto rico
The company, Windmar, has purchased land adjacent to the Bosque Seco de Guanica in Puerto Rico. Their plan is to build a small windmill farm to generate electricity that can be sold to the public utility, the Autoridad de Energia Electrica. Windmill technology is considered desirable because wind is an abundant, clean, and renewable resource. But local opposition has stalled this effort. Concerned citizens object, first of all, to being excluded from the public hearings that were held to assess Windmar's windmill project. Opponents also claim that windmill technology can kill birds on the endangered species list and damage the fragile ecosystems protected in the Boseque Seco de Guanica, an important nature preserve in Puerto Rico. They also suspect that the windmill project has the ulterior motive of attracting industrial development into southern Puerto Rico. What risks accompany windmill technology, and how can they be dealt with ethically?
