Charter

What is its purpose? The broad purpose of the AAPAE is to encourage awareness of applied ethics as a significant area of concern, and to foster discussion of issues in applied ethics. It provides a meeting point for practitioners from various fields together with academics with specialist expertise. It welcomes everyone who wants or needs to think and talk about applied or professional ethics. The AAPAE also attempts to foster connections with special interest groups. The AAPAE does not endorse or support any particular viewpoint, but rather aims to promote a climate in which different and differing views, concerns, and approaches can be expressed and discussed.

The formal aims of the AAPAE, as stated in its constitution, are -

• To facilitate networking between individuals and institutions working or interested in the area of professional and applied ethics.
• To foster community discussion of issues related to professional and applied ethics.
• To encourage a focus on the teaching of professional and applied ethics.
• To facilitate the organisation of conferences, meetings and other events in order to fulfil the above aims.
• To develop and distribute publications, including a newsletter and conference proceedings.

 Rationale

Why an association? Ethics has had a high profile in Australia over the last decade. There is now a growing recognition of applied ethics as a multidisciplinary field, encompassing a wide variety of disparate areas, investigation of which has an important role to play in public, academic and professional life.

 Organisation

How is the AAPAE run? The AAPAE is an incorporated body administered by an executive committee under a constitution. In addition, a Conference Committee is appointed to organise an annual conference. The AAPAE aims to have office bearers from throughout Australia.

 History

The Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics (AAPAE) grew out of a conference on Teaching Applied Ethics held in Sydney in 1992.Academics and professionals from many different backgrounds met together, found a great deal of common ground, profited from their interchanges, and were eager to meet again on a regular basis. The next step was to form an association which could bring together people normally separated by traditional discipline boundaries. Hence the formation in 1993 of the AAPAE, a non-partisan, non-profit national umbrella organisation for all those concerned with applied ethics in its many forms.

 Executive Committee

The members of the 2006-2007 Executive Committee of the AAPAE are:

  President:

Howard Harris
School of International Business
University of South Australia
Adelaide, SA 5000
Phone: (08) 8302 9309
Fax: (08) 8302 0512
Email: howard.harris@unisa.edu.au

Profile: Howard had a career in industry before completing a PhD in applied ethics and joining the staff of the University of South Australia, where he now teaches international management ethics and values in Adelaide, Singapore and Hong Kong. He has an interest in management virtues, collaboration and the implementation of new management systems in organisations.

  Vice-President:

Michael Schwartz
School of Marketing
RMIT
GPO Box 2476 V
Melbourne, Vic 3001
Phone: (03) 9925-5515
Email: michael.schwartz@rmit.edu.au

Profile: Michael is an associate professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where he is the program leader for the Bachelor of Business in Marketing. He lectures both on that undergraduate program and to postgraduates. His research is in business ethics has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, and Business Ethics: A European Review.

  Secretary:

Peter Bowden

Research Associate
Department of Philosophy
University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW 2006
Phone: 0418 166 577
Email: peter_bowden@usyd.edu.au

Profile: Peter's career expertise is in institutional analysis and strengthening. Formerly Professor of Administrative Studies at the University of Manchester, he has worked for and consulted to a number of major organisations, including the World Bank and the United Nations, as well as the governments of several countries, including Australia. His work interests over recent years, in both theory and practice, have been concerned with the institutional implications of moral behaviour in different organisational environments.

  Treasurer:

Kay Plummer
School of Accounting
Charles Sturt University, Bathurst Campus
Phone: (02) 6338-4447
Fax: (02) 6638-4405
Email: kplummer@csu.edu.au

Profile: Kay is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting at Charles Sturt University. Before joining CSU, Kay lectured in financial accounting and auditing for six years at the University of Technology, Sydney. She has held senior positions in TAFE NSW, worked for the Corporate Affairs Commission and audited for a Big 4 Chartered Accounting firm. Kay has worked in an honorary for a number of charitable organisations and has undertaken two volunteer assignments with the Austrailan Executive Overseas Program.

  Newsletter Editor:

Ian Richards
School of Communication, Information and New Media
University of South Australia
Magill Campus
St Bernards Road
Magill, SA 5072
Phone: (08) 8302 4526
Email: ian.richards@unisa.edu.au

  Committee Members:

Betty Chaar
Faculty of Pharmacy
University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW 2006
Phone: (02) 9036 7101
Fax: (02) 9036 7097
Email: betty@pharm.usyd.edu.au

Profile: Betty is a lecturer in Pharmacy Practice at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney with a special interest in professional ethics in pharmacy. Her career before academia was in clinical/geriatric pharmacy at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; community pharmacy proprietor and the pharmaceutical industry. Betty is an active member of the Pharmacy Board of NSW Peer Review Panel, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Post Graduate Committee (PGTC), the International Association of Bioethics (IAB) and the Pharmacy Law and Ethics Association of UK (PLEA).She has ongoing research in moral reasoning, professional ethics and education of applied ethics in health care in general and pharmacy in particular.

Stephen Cohen
School of Philosophy
University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW 2052
Phone: (02) 9385 2320
Fax: (02) 9385 1029
Email: s.cohen@unsw.edu.au

Profile: Stephen is a Past President of the AAPAE. He is in the School of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, where he directs the University's Graduate Programs in Professional Ethics. Aside from his academic work, Stephen consults to businesses, professional bodies, public sector organisations, and peak bodies in matters of ethics and development and maintenance of ethical systems. His recent work includes The Nature of Moral Reasoning: The Framework and Activities of Ethical Deliberation, Argument and Decision-Making (2004), and Business Ethics: Problems and Cases, 3rd edition (co-authored with Damian Grace) (2005).

Kate David
Quasar Constructions Pty Ltd
Forest Lodge, NSW
Email: kate.david@unsw.edu.au

Profile: Kate is a graduate of Philosophy (BA Hons) from the University of NSW, and has both lectured and tutored Philosophy for the past 5 years. She currently teaches Professions & Society, part of the University's Graduate Program in Professional Ethics. Kate is also now Ethics Officer for Quasar Constructions, a construction management company in Sydney. Along with her work to formulate the company's Values Statement and Code of Conduct, Kate works to promote dialogue with Directors and Employees alike with respect to the ethical dimension of decision-making.

Stephan Millett
Director, Centre for Applied Ethics and Philosophy
John Curtin Institute of Public Policy
Curtin Institute of Technology
Perth, WA
Email: s.millett@curtin.edu.au

Profile: Stephan is Associate Professor and foundation Director of the Centre for Applied Ethics and Philosophy at Curtin University, Senior Research Fellow with The John Curtin Institute of Public Policy, Executive Officer for Human Research Ethics at Curtin University and is the Adviser on Research Integrity for the University. He is a former newspaper editor, journalism academic and school teacher. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from Murdoch University for work on environmental ethics and metaphysics. Stephan is known internationally for his work on philosophy and ethics in schools and was the writer of a new Year 11 and 12 course of study in Philosophy and Ethics for the Western Australian Curriculum Council. In the past two years he has increasingly specialised in ethics and values for large organisations, including state government departments and instrumentalities. He is Chair of the Association for Philosophy in Schools (WA), president elect of the WA branch of the Australian College of Educators and is a regular public voice on ethics. He lives with his wife and two children in the Hills east of Perth. In his spare time he builds things in wood and surfs.

  Conference Convenor 2007:

Michael Segon
Graduate School of Business
RMIT
Melbourne, Vic
Phone: (03) 9925 5950
Fax: (03) 9925 5580
Email: michael.segon@rmit.edu.au

 Recent & Past Presidents

Members who have served as presidents of the AAPAE are --

  Immediate Past President (2004, 2005):

Chris Provis
School of Management
University of South Australia
City West Campus
North Terrace
Adelaide, SA 5000
Phone: (08) 8302-0748
Fax: (08) 8302-0512
Email: chris.provis@unisa.edu.au

Profile: Chris studied and taught philosophy, then worked for some years in industrial relations. In 1990 he was appointed to teach industrial relations and related subjects in the then South Australian Institute of Technology. He is now Associate Professor in the School of Management at the University of South Australia, and leader of the Group for Research on Employment and Workplace Change (GREWC). His book Ethics and Organisational Politics was published by Edward Elgar in 2004.

  Past Presidents:

 

Chris Provis (2004, 2005)
John Morgan (2002, 2003)
Bruce Langtry (2000, 2001)
Stephen Cohen (1998, 1999)
Noel Preston (1996, 1997)
Simon Longstaff (1994, 1995)