According to the university tradition, a great amount of trust in the employees is necessary to build up the institution, teach, develop the education offers, perform research in a proper manner and manage and develop the university internally and in cooperation with society around it. With freedom and trust, employees experience a stimulus to creativity and responsibility. Freedom is also a necessary condition for the university to be critical, innovative and pave the way for new thoughts and ideas for society.
Trust is only possible if each individual in the organisation has an ethical standard that entails doing what is right without being forced by it because of regulations and threats of penalties.
Regulations can have two purposes in the organisation. One is to be coordinating and with the purpose of creating organisational order, predictability and efficiency. Such regulations are ethically neutral. The other purpose is to manage, control and monitor the organisation. This type of control is necessary, but it can also contribute to making the organisation less flexible and open and reducing employees’ feeling of having trust and room for creativity. A high ethical standard makes it possible to limit the scale of this type of control and offer larger room for freedom to the employees.
Not everyone lives up to the trust they receive. Such cases should be discovered and reprimanded. Still, the university wants such cases to not undermine the general principle of trust and freedom. Therefore, it is important that employees and students are encouraged to have an ethical attitude by making trust and thereby ethics a theme and an important and visible element when building the university culture. These ethical guidelines are a part of that visibility. The purpose is expressing what is expected from a university employee regarding relations with colleagues and students and as a representative of the university regarding communication and cooperation with the surroundings.
Guidelines are organised in the basic values integrity, responsibility, respect and transparency.
See also:
Integrity
Working at a university is working in a community of different academic groups of employees and students. The work we do always affect others and therefore has a fundamental moral dimension. How we do our work affects both our colleagues’ ability to work and enjoyment of it and the students’ ability to enjoy their student life and acquire knowledge. We are dependent on colleagues doing their work to the best of their ability and desire.
In that regard, a high degree of integrity is an important corner stone of the institution’s ethics and is the basis of several ethical terms like responsibility, trust and respect. The requirement for a high level of integrity applies to all sections and in all relations with organisations and others the university cooperates with. This requirement must be fulfilled in order to be able to provide students with good quality in the different services the university is required to offer regarding teaching, guidance or other services. Employees must be able to expect that their colleagues do their work in both a thorough and reliable way if the organisation is to be characterised by trust.
For an organisation tasked with contributing to the development and dissemination of knowledge, integrity is important for creating trust in the institution.
Employees at UiA are expected to
- keep themselves up-to-date academically
- contribute to the university maintaining a high level of quality regarding research, development, dissemination and teaching
- participate in the public and academic debate with their knowledge in a professional and proper manner
- do technical and administrative work in a professional way
Responsibility
Most students who come to the university spend some very important and forming years of their lives here. The relationship between an employee of the university and a student is an asymmetric relation where the former has the greater power and influence. The representatives of the administration, the teachers and the academic advisers who meet the students have a unique responsibility in this regard. Even though we state that the students themselves are responsible for their own learning, the university’s employees are responsible of facilitating this to the best of their ability.
Society has expectations for the university as an institution of knowledge. It is the university’s responsibility to meet these expectations, and this means all employees have a responsibility regarding seriousness and academic endurance when communicating with the surroundings.
Like all other organisations, the university has a general social responsibility. This means that the university is capable of defending its operations both in a global and environmental perspective. An important part of the university’s social responsibility is to be a critical voice regarding financial and political power structures.
Employees at UiA are expected to
- be conscious of the power of influence in the role they have as an employee of the university and be especially cautious when interacting with students they are teaching and advising
- be aware of the responsibility that comes with representing others, both internally and externally
- protect the university’s material and immaterial values against damage and misuse
- report wrongdoings. Routines for reporting
- be environmentally conscious when making decisions
Respect
The university is built on the view that all people have a fundamental right to be treated with respect. Therefore, it is expected of every employee to always show respect to students, colleagues and people they are in contact with because of their position. This obligation applies to all even if you personally feel that another person does not deserve respect or that person behaves rudely or disrespectful. Showing lack of respect as punishment, influence or emotional expression in relation to others at the work place is not accepted. By always showing respect, an employee will help to create an environment where respect is normal, and the students in this environment will be affected and adopt good manners.
Showing respect does not exclude criticism, reprimanding or correction when that is necessary, but such actions must be done in a way that makes the affected individual not feel devalued as a person.
Respect also means respect for diversity, recognising and accepting our differences, no matter if the difference is personal or part of a culture. Respect for diversity does not mean accepting behaviour that is bothersome or oppressing even if the behaviour is based on culture or life stance.
Employees at UiA are expected to
- show respect to their colleagues, students or cooperation partners through attitude, actions and when talking about them
- respect others’ academic fields and areas of work
- treat students with care and take them seriously
- respond to inquiries without unnecessary delays
- handle confidential and personal information about students and colleagues with respect and uphold the duty of secrecy
Transparency
Transparency is a fundamental requirement for developing and disseminating knowledge. For example, many instances of improper research activity would not exist if there was more transparency between researchers.
In any organisation, and especially a knowledge organisation like a university, it might be tempting to withhold information to strengthen your own position. A work environment marked by transparency conflicts with the action of holding information back.
Consideration for colleagues and students may limit transparency. The directive in such cases must be what is correct relating to the purpose and not the personal interests of the parties.
Employees at UiA are expected to
- contribute to knowledge becoming known and research results being published
- contribute to transparency in internal processes
- facilitate open dissemination of knowledge for students, colleagues and people outside of the university who would be interested in the knowledge, as long as the information is not bound to secrecy
- report to their manager at their own initiative about work outside of the institution that the manager should know about