Universities, Cultural Diversity and Global Ethics 87- Top-down moralizing is fatal to an ethics project; instead it is
essential to appeal to and involve the ethical strengths and
experiences of the members of the university on a voluntary,
respectful basis. - All parts of the organization must be involved, including the
leadership.
With these principles to guide the implementation of the ethics
project envisaged in this chapter, here are practical steps that can be
taken.
- Constitute and authorize a task group with ethical and related
expertise - to drive and manage the process under a respected leader.
- Invite and enable all members to participate in discussing and
defining the core ethical values and ethical nature of their
institution, e.g. by means of sending inputs to the task group in
response to drafts created by the task group. The drafts are then
revised and a second version is sent to members. - Develop a careful, academically and ethically sound method of
fostering moral motivation – i.e. the will to do the right thing at
all times and communicate this to all members of the
institution. A way to do this is summarized in the next
paragraph.
From human brain science we learn that there are powerful structures
in the brain-stem, the limbic system and hippocampus which drive (but
do not coerce) us to actions that keep us alive and help us thrive, such as
our pleasure, memory and feeling centres (Ashbrook and Albright 1997:
78-84). Uncontrolled by conscience, they easily lead to selfishness and
even violence by those equipped to use it. A realistic institution must
recognize this reality and curb its harmful potential by understanding the
following. Policing, metaphorically understood as that which protects