Case Study: Urban Planning and Development Issues
ETHICS IN URBAN PLANNING 10
Case Study 3: Ethics in Urban Planning
Helms School of Government, Liberty University
PADM 708 B01
Submitted: June 13, 2021
Author Note
I have no conflict of interest to disclose.
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INTRODUCTION Comment by Author: Need an analysis of what is in the Wachs’ article.
The social fabric of city public spaces is a considerably subtlesubtle and complex issue. Ideally, it needs to offer people physical security and necessary privacy as required to grow smart. The objective of ethics in urban planning is to promote good urban governance, transparency, and accountability in practice. Fundamentally, it helps eradicate sleaze dealings, conflicts of personal interests, and the misuse of power to uphold public trust and justice in local government accomplishment. Mostly, disputes between private and professional ethical frameworks create cognitive and emotional dissention to varying levels of seriousness affecting urban planning undesirably (Lauria & Long, 2019). Frequently, Planning planning issues frequently comprise a conflict of values. Habitually, there are substantial private interests in the balance. These issues emphasize the significance of the maximum standards of justice and honesty amongst all contributors. In this paper, a case study is discussed concerning an article by Wachs (1989) - When Planners Lie with Numbers, as a basis for the case study work. Comment by Author:
Wachs’ article explores possible lawfully espoused strategies upsetting how employees can show discord from designated executives or forecasting commission and determination of public interest. Ideally, it discusses moral standards used for data and scrutiny based on the Code of Ethics and Proficient Conduct of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Furthermore, the author highlights a tale of two cities in planning leadership context to show how developers have retorted in various ways to the decent predicaments ascending in public plan decision-making (Wachs, 1989, p. 479). Besides, the paper encompasses dialogue and analysis of ethics in data use in keeping with the American Institute of Certified Planners. Additionally, it discusses and analyzes descriptive ethical matters tangled in exploiting statistics, statistical methods, and data. Primarily, the article discusses and analyses the analytical, moral disputes convoluted in misusing statistics, statistical methods, and data, including why ethical issues occur. Furthermore, ethical prescriptive problems will explore recommendations of what can be done accomplished to correct the issues with all the aspects of the discussions and analyses incorporating relevant Biblical viewpoints concerning planning based on scriptures.
ETHICS IN DATA USE
Data ethics move around moral problems associated with data from its generation to use. The current American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Code of Ethics holds two applicable references regarding evidence controlling that describes ethics in data use (Schweitzer & Afzalan, 2017). For instance, the segment concerns the profession’s responsibilities to the civic, stating that it protects against deliberate or irresponsible indifference failure to give adequate, reasonable, clear, and accurate information about planning matters. Secondly, information management is related to long-lasting criticisms against revealing personal information and ideologies widely across all careers. This can range from wellbeing to improvement, which can use material regarding persons and organizations.
The code Code protects against personal advantage ensuring customer or company data acquired in a certified association that the customer or boss has demanded detained unaltered. According to Schweitzer and Afzalan (2017), the code protects against information that should be recognized as confidential since its disclosure could lead to humiliation or other disadvantages to the customer or company. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (The King James Version, 2020) argues that all evildoers shall inherit the kingdom of God as the bible discourages acting against ethical standards of the human being. This accentuates the need for honesty in a biblical perspective for Christians with good ethics. Comment by Author: The course is urban planning in state and local government rather than business
AICP Code of Ethics holds that reliable statistics should not be revealed except when obligatory by the law procedure or in case the information is required to avert a blatant violation of the law. This makes it clear that the court of law has the power over the ethics practices only. Additionally, the code specifies an exception when the information is mandatory to dodge a considerable grievance to the community. Besides, exposé, according to the above articles, shall not be made until after verification of the facts and matters surrounding a case and utilizedused efforts to reevaluate the matter in feasible scenarios. Furthermore, the code requires seeking separate views on the matter from other qualified experts working for the organization in question.
DESCRIPTIVE ETHICAL ISSUES IN MISUSING STATISTICS, METHODS & DATA
There are numerous possible waysways in which unethical issues or conduct can occur in misusing statistics, methods, and data. One of the ethical issues is corrupt leadership. For instance, breeding a personal problem with one’s superior at the workplace is different from reporting to someone acting unethically to the top management. Biblically, we should seek spiritual counseling and guidance to avoid unnecessary damages to both physical and spiritual life. Proverbs 15:22 (The King James Version, 2020) says, “Without counsel, purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselorscounselors, they are established."
In most cases, a lack of ethical practices may present in a clear form like manipulating numerical values in a report or spending corporate funds on unsuitable activities. However, it can also occur more skillfully in the manner of bullying, enduring inappropriate gifts from customers, or asking for a favor that violates a standard procedure merely once. With research findings showing that managers are accountable for mainstream workplace misbehavior, the misuse of leadership authority is an unfortunate reality (Linstead, Maréchal & Griffin, 2014; Forester, 2004).
Using statistical methods, procedures, or models to generate distorted or false results through fabrication can result in descriptive misuse of statistics, processes, and data in planning. Gardenier and Resnik (2002) state that the federal government and the scientific community have changed to a thin explanation of misconduct that centers on fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism (p. 257). However, the new federal policy stipulates that the misuse of statistics can be categorized as an indication of misconduct when it comprisesincludes deliberate deception. Mainly, fabricationFabrication occurs when planners incorporate falsifying data, information, or results. Besides, falsification if the missuses encompass manipulation, alteration, or ignoring data or products within the planners' descriptive statistics. Mismanagements of figures data that does not contain connote deliberate dishonesty could be regarded as an authentic blunder, ineptitude, partiality, or grave eccentricities from adequate exercise. Nonetheless, an individual who makes many errors through haste, ignorance, or disorder may be described as a neglectful person or deficient of the desirable level of competence, statistical or something else.
Failing to discloseNot disclosing vital information regarding statistical methodology to researchers is a defining ethical issue in misusing statistics, methods, and data (Gardenier & Resnik, 2002). Misuses of statistics can at some point violate several moral obligations and sometimes not. An example is the obligation to be candid, the responsibility to be impartial, the burden of evading fault, and the commitment to be uncluttered in statistical planning activities. In addition, disclosing vital information on statistical methods can promote transaction transparency. If an individual's data is used, they need to be granted transparent access to the algorithm design applied in the generation of aggregate data sets. Comment by Author: Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of what people believe to be right and wrong and why they believe it. Descriptive ethics describes how people act according to their moral standards. This is different from prescriptive ethics that concerns how people should act. Planners who study descriptive ethics are concerned with human behavior because of beliefs about what is right or wrong, or good or bad, based on whether that behavior is effective. These planners are concerned with ethics of a group, society, or a culture and what is performed by them. Different groups, peoples, and cultures have different morals and ethics.
ANALYTICAL ETHICAL ISSUES IN MISUSING STATISTICS, METHODS, AND DATA
Unethical leadership occurs because of inadequate or lack of previous research. This can pose a challenge to the organization as the company's bank on evidence as a basis for strategy and policy formulations. The most innovative methods to organize strategies are entrenched in justification from previous studies. When the body of research is missing, organization leaders would be compelled to create and implement strategies based on a trial-and-error approach. In preventing unethical acts by leaders in companies, the organization cannot successfully avoidavoid unethical issues in practice. This occurs when factors promoting or enticing its leaders to be engaged in unethical practices are unknown. Mainly, corruptCorrupt leadership is caused by a near-total control for project managers who capitalize on the lack of process, accountability, and penalties for behavior in an organization. Furthermore, there are chances that leaders fail todo not uphold employee expectations which amount to psychological contract violation.
Using statistical methods, procedures, or models to generate distorted or false results through fabrication is mainly causedcaused by undue pressures to publish information. Kingori and Gerrets (2016) state that data fabrication, inappropriate collection approaches, and poor data management are disadvantageous to high-quality scientific research. Data fabrication revolves around inventing data,. Often, or case scenarios are often described as scientific misconduct with a common trademark feature that manipulates research outputs. It encompasses data falsification and plagiarism measures. Falsification of data includes distortion of data or findings to yield desirable outcomes, contrary to get the actual result. On the other hand, plagiarism involves failure to acknowledge sources of copied words, philosophies, or data. Resnik (2014) reports that experts have rubrics relating to data production and forgery, which should be observed and imposed with substantial punishments like loss of funding, termination of service, among others.
Failure to disclose vital information regarding statistical methodology to researchers is a defining ethical issue in misusing statistics, methods, and data and is caused by distrust and avoidance of misused statistics. The significant reasons for skepticism of statistics incorporate the possibility of figures being manipulated using comparative methods by dishonest persons to convey an incorrect picture of the shreds of evidence. It also aims to avoid unnecessary confusion to third parties who do not know much about statistics and methodologies. Comment by Author: Analytical ethics is concerned with the origin and meaning of ethical principles. Scholars who study analytical ethics are researching ethical terms and theories and their application. They seek answers to the linkages between values, reasons for action, and motivation through an assessment of asking how morality guides people to select reasons to make decisions or not to make decisions. Analytical ethics answers many questions about “the nature of freedom” and its significance for moral responsibility. Urban planners that follow the principles of analytical ethics seek to find the cause of right and wrong.
PRESCRIPTIVE ETHICAL ISSUES IN MISUSING STATISTICS, METHODS, AND DATA
Statistics play a significant role in several aspects of contemporary post-industrial societies. Even though statistics are occasionally discharged as froth or fuzzy math, doubted as partial, or unswervingly associated with lying, but remain inevitably significant. Fixing unethical leadership begins with the hiring process, which should be made thoroughly since the primary step in solving any problem prevents it from ever occurring. The hiring team should believe in the guidance of God and the Holy Spirit to get the right candidate for the job. In 1 Thessalonians 1:5 (The King James Version, 2020), it says, “... not only in word but also in power and the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” As a result, an organization should ensure its business does not hire unethical behavior in the workforce as God entrusts His servants, according to Isaiah (42:1).
The solution requires an effort to check if the existing hiring system is satisfactory concerning ethics. Even though qualifications and experience are unquestionably central, human resource management should also consider the candidates' values. The organization needs people with values and strong morals to run the business processes, necessitating suitable screening in background checks before recruiting new staff. Where necessary, the recruiting organization needs to contact the candidate’s former employers as they will be a dependable source to know more about the prospective candidate’s character and work ethics in detail.
Using statistical methods, procedures, or models to generate distorted or false results through fabrication can be counteracted by reducing the undue pressures to publish information. Researchers and statisticians, through ethical planning, should consider initiating their plans early enough. Piccolo (2016) states that ethics is treated as a value that everybody must observe irrespective of their job or field of studies, making a reasonable person act ethically and apparently. This turns out to be much more significant when dealing with urban planning as a subject strictly connected with the public interest (Piccolo, 2016). Furthermore, it should begin with drafting a timeline of events and necessary tools to accomplish the objectives since this approach makes them organized and strategic.
Failure to disclose vital information regarding statistical methodology to researchers can be resolved through fostering cooperation and doing things right according to the code of ethical research. Gillam and Guillemin (2018) claim that relationships between investigators and research ethics committees have been uptight for a long time. Current empirical research indicates a continuous sense of mistrust between some investigators and the committee members. Although researchers generally see consider the ethics review process as necessary in principle, they also know the process as antagonistic and generate unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles. Investigators from various disciplines and methods, both quantitative and qualitative, are irritated, misconstrued, and distrusted by the committee. Comment by Author: Prescriptive ethics is a form of normative ethics used by urban planners to learn about moral standards that must be followed to yield behaviors that will be morally correct. Urban planners are prescriptive in their ethics because they want to develop standards or norms for their conduct and to investigate how planners should act. Prescriptive ethics includes a critical analysis of primary moral principles including what is good, correct, and genuine. An important prescriptive ethics question that urban planners address concerns whether planners’ actions are judged morally correct only on their outcomes.
CONCLUSION
Lastly, this paper has discussed a case study based on the article by Wachs entitled - When Planners Lie with Numbers as a basis of the work. Findings revealed that Wachs’ article outlines ceremoniously accepted rules touching how staff can show disagreement from elected officials or development commission and public interest determination. Moral principles used for data and examination in line with the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct of the American Institute of Certified Planners concur with the discussion and analysis of ethics in data use. It further explored unethical leadership, using arithmetical systems, procedures, or simulations in ways that generate slanted or false consequences and fading to divulge vital info regarding the statistical approach to scholars as descriptive ethical issues. Analytical and prescriptive ethical issues were discussed and explained causes and remedies to the cases under review. Therefore, instituting an ethical culture in a workplace environment and addressing the matters discussed in this paper can lead to good urban planning. Consequently, it will resolve immediate needs while determined to accomplish a city's sole vision of the future in urban planning ventures.
References
Gardenier, J. S., & Resnik, D. B. (2002). The misuse of statistics: concepts, tools, and a research agenda. Accountability in Research, 9(2), 65-74. https://doi:DOI:10.1080/08989620212968
Gillam, L., & Guillemin, M. (2018). Reflexivity: overcoming mistrust between research ethics committees and researchers. In The sage Sage handbook of qualitative research ethics (pp. 263-274). SAGE Publications Ltd, . https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781526435446
King James Bible. (2020). King James Bible Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org
Kingori, P., & Gerrets, R. (2016). Morals, morale, and motivations in data fabrication: Medical research fieldworkers views and practices in two Sub-Saharan African contexts. Social Science & Medicine, 166(2016), 150-159. https://doiDOI.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.08.019
Linstead, S., Maréchal, G., & Griffin (2014). Theorizing and researching the dark side of an organization. Organization Studies, 35(2), 168-188. https://doi:DOI: 10.1177/0170840613515402
Piccolo, F. (2016). Ethics and planning research. Routledge.
Resnik, D. B. (2014). Data fabrication and falsification and empiricist philosophy of science. Science And Engineering Ethics, 20(2), 423–431. DOIhttps://doi:..org/10.1007/s11948-013-9466-z
Schweitzer, L. A., & Afzalan, N. (2017). 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0: Four reasons AICP needs an open data ethic. Journal of the American Planning Association, 83(2), 161-167. https://doi:DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2017.1290495
Wachs, M. (1989). When planners lie with numbers. Journal of the American Planning Association, 55(4), 476-479. URL?
WHEN PLANNERS
LIE WITH NUMBERS.pdf
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Wachs, Martin. (1989). When planners lie with numbers. Journal of the American Planning
Association, 55(4), 476-479. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235360557_When_Planners_Lie_with_Numbers
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.