DEVELOPING SCENARIOS FOR THE VIRTUAL SIMULATION OF MORAL DILEMMAS

Authors

  • Åžtefania Bumbuc „Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy, Sibiu

Keywords:

moral values, moral dilemma, military leadership

Abstract

The paper presents a preparatory phase of a more ample
research project: designing an interactive educational
software meant to support the development of the leadership
competences of the military students. This software could be
used by future military leaders for practicing different ways to
approach and solve moral dilemmas. The first phase of the
project refers to designing a set of scenarios of some
professional situations with controversial moral potential. We
were focused on the relationships in the military, the ways of
exercising leadership in different contexts, and the decisions
making process in case of ambiguous ethical conditions. In
order to set some possible courses of action for the interactive
virtual simulations, we conducted a qualitative research on the
ground, applying structured interviews. At first we collected a
lot of stories related to the leadership in Romanian Army, and
then we made a qualitative analysis of them, using the Atlas.ti
software. These led us toward several suggestions and clues
concerning the moral values which should guide the virtual
scenarios. Likewise, there were outlined some alternatives for
splitting the possible course of action in the key points. In the
next stage of the project, the scenarios shall be validated
through the focus group method, in order to strengthen their
veracity and their scientific basis, before converting them into
an effective virtual simulation.

References

***Ethics in Canadian Forces. Making Tough Choices, Canadian Forces

Leadership Institute, 2006, p.12.

Ibidem, pp.12-13.

J., Piaget, Judecata morala la copil, Codex Publishing House, 2012.

L., Kohlberg, Essays on Moral Development, Harper & Row Publishing

House, 1981, 1984.

J., Rest, D., Narvaez, Moral development in the professions: Psychology

and applied ethics, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994, pp.1-26.

T., Jones, Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An

issue-contingent model, in “Academy of Management Reviewâ€, 16/1991,

pp.366-395.

J., Haidt, The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist

approach to moral judgment, in “Psychological Reviewâ€, 108(4)/2001, pp.

-834.

A., Mucchielli, Dicionar al metodelor calitative în stiinele umane si

sociale, Polirom Publishing House, 2002, p.74.

U., Flick, An Introduction to Qualitative Research, the 4-th edition, Sage

Publications, London, 2009, p.115.

E., Stanciulescu, Observaia cantitativa si calitativa. Esantionarea

calitativa, pp.24-25, online: http://elisabetastanciulescu.ro/wpcontent/

uploads/2011/03/Observatia-cantitativa-si-calitativa_Esantionareacalitativa_.

pdf

Downloads

Published

2017-04-12