Paper #622

Title:

Ethics outside, within or beyond OR models

Authors:

Marc Le Menestrel and Luk N. Van Wassenhove

Date:

May 2002 (Revised: September 2002)

Abstract:

Since ethical concerns are calling for more attention within Operational Research, we present three approaches to combine Operational Research models with ethics. Our intention is to clarify the trade-offs faced by the OR community, in particular the tension between the scientific legitimacy of OR models (ethics outside OR models) and the integration of ethics within models (ethics within OR models). Presenting and discussing an approach that combines OR models with the process of OR (ethics beyond OR models), we suggest rigorous ways to express the relation between ethics and OR models. As our work is exploratory, we are trying to avoid a dogmatic attitude and call for further research. We argue that there are interesting avenues for research at the theoretical, methodological and applied levels and that the OR community can contribute to an innovative, constructive and responsible social dialogue about its ethics.

Keywords:

Ethics, models, processes, OR

JEL codes:

A13, C00, C60

Area of Research:

Business Economics and Industrial Organization

Published in:

European Journal of Operational Research, 153, (2004), pp. 477-484

Download the paper in PDF format