Ethics and governance资料.doc

Ethics and governance
The first reading consists of an excerpt from a study published by the mission of Canada, "The Governance of Health Research Involving Human Subjects." The principal investigator for this study was Michael McDonald. McDonald is also the editor of ERH and ethics education consultant to CGA-Canada.
The reading provides a conceptual framework for thinking about governance. That is, governance is portrayed as second-order oversight in anization of its first-order activities. For example, General Motors produces and sells automobiles, trucks, and related products. Production and sales involve numerous first-order activities: manufacturing, purchasing of supplies, marketing, and the like. To ensure that these activities are properly conducted, GM has in place a number of second-order personnel including internal auditors, managers, heads of divisions, senior management, and ultimately its board of directors.
Conceptualizing governance as a tiered relationship allows McDonald to address two important issues. The first is about whether a second order or tier is needed at all, and if it is needed how much of it is necessary. McDonald says that if anization can reliably count on things going well in the first order, then imposing a second order or tier would at best be redundant and perhaps even counter-productive.
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