Ethical Expertise, Leadership and Organisational Culture (5 cr)

Evaluation scale

Pass/Fail

Content scheduling

1.9.2025:
Ethical dilemmas, moral issues, controversies, and work-related problems occurring in social and healthcare.
Ethical principles and a set of standards in student’s own area of expertise.
9.9.2025:
Importance of ethical expertise and moral resilience and strategies for developing them.
Ethical leadership and organisational culture.
Impact of leadership and organisational culture on individuals’ and teams’ ethical decision-making.
16.9.2025:
Strengths and limitations of different approaches to ethical decision-making.
7.10.2025
Methods and strategies for creating a sustainable, ethical organisational culture.
Implications of ethical expertise, leadership, and organisational culture for social and healthcare settings.
28.10.2025
Students' presentations

Objective

The purpose of the course is to strengthen your ethical awareness, knowledge, and skills by identifying and analysing ethical dilemmas and controversies that arise in organisations, leadership, and professional practice. The purpose is that you are able to integrate diverse perspectives and take into account the individual, social and cultural context when assessing ethical dilemmas and promote ethically sustainable activities.

Competences: Ethics, Developing working community, Professional leadership

By the end of the course, you can evaluate the impact of organisational culture and leadership on the ethical climate of social and healthcare settings and teams’ performance, and critically appraise the strengths and limitations of different approaches to ethical decision-making. You can examine general ethical principles and a set of standards adopted by professional communities in social and healthcare and recognise how they affect on different levels. You are able to discuss a wide variety of issues related to ethical dilemmas within your own expertise area. You can foster ethical awareness, accountability, and collaboration to create an organisation that supports safe client care and collaborative practices.

Content

Definitions and examples of ethical dilemmas, moral issues, controversies, and work-related problems occurring in social and healthcare.

Ethical principles and a set of standards in student’s own area of expertise.

Importance of ethical expertise and moral resilience and strategies for
developing them.

Ethical leadership and organisational culture.

Impact of leadership and organisational culture on individuals’ and teams’ ethical decision-making.

Strengths and limitations of different approaches to ethical decision-making.

Methods and strategies for creating a sustainable, ethical organisational culture.

Implications of ethical expertise, leadership, and organisational culture for social and healthcare settings.

Location and time

Mandatory participation in all webinars:

1.9.2025 Online webinar 12-14.30 Helsinki time
9.9.2025 Online webinar 12-14.30 Helsinki time
16.9.2025 Online webinar 12-14.30 Helsinki time
7.10.2025 Online webinar 12-14.30 Helsinki time
28.10.2025 Online webinar 9-14 Helsinki time

Materials

Barak-Corren, N. & Bazerman, M. (2020). Inaction and decision making in moral conflicts. Organizational Dynamics, 49, 100703.

Kuenzi, M., Mayer, D. M. & Greenbaum, R. L. (2020). Creating an ethical organizational environment: The relationship between ethical leadership, ethical organizational climate, and unethical behavior. Personnel psychology, 73(1), 43-71.

Leino, K. H., & Henderson, A. (2022). Leadership: Directions for sustaining ethical practice. Journal of Nursing Management 30(7), 2105–2106.

Simha, A. & Parboteeah, K. P. (2019). The Big 5 Personality Traits and Willingness to Justify Unethical Behavior - A Cross-National Examination. Journal of Business Ethics, 167, 451–471.

Monrouxe, L., & Rees, C. E. (2017). Healthcare Professionalism: Improving Practice through Reflections on Workplace Dilemmas. Wiley-Blackwell. (e-Book)

Teaching methods

Flipped learning (tasks prior to webinars)
Active participation in webinars
Independent work

Student workload

Student's workload, altogether 135 hours (5 credits):

Attending webinars: 17 hours
Home tasks prior to webinars: 25 hours
Assignment, presentation: 81 hours
Peer review and self-assessment: 12 hours

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

Pass, fail

To pass the course, students are able to demonstrate an understanding of ethical principles and standards adopted by professional communities in social and healthcare, and how they affect decision-making processes at different levels of organisation. Students can evaluate the impact of organisational culture and leadership on the ethical climate of social and healthcare settings and teams' performance and propose strategies for promoting an ethical and sustainable environment. Students can appraise different approaches to ethical decision-making and demonstrate the ability to apply these approaches in complex ethical dilemmas and controversies. Students can integrate diverse perspectives and consider individual, social, and cultural contexts when assessing ethical dilemmas and propose ethical solutions that promote safe client care and collaborative practices. Students demonstrate an ability to discuss a wide variety of ethical issues related to the student's own area of expertise, and propose strategies for fostering ethical awareness, accountability, and collaboration. Students participate in webinars and do tasks and assignments according to instructions.

Further information

The course will be evaluated pass/fail.
Successful completion of three home tasks (prior to webinars) and one assignment and its presentation.
Active participation in webinars.