Impact case study database

Borg and Hooker’s work on what private sector organisations owe to society has had a material impact on business thinking and practice. It has helped raise ethical standards across the Reading Borough area and informed the national understanding of these issues. At a macro-level, changes have been made to expected standards for all firms operating in the Reading area and at a micro-level changes to practice within specific firms have taken place.

A. Dissemination of theoretical ideas behind ethical business to industry groups

Borg and Hooker consulted with a significant number of potential stakeholders in 2015 and ‘16, including financial services (Barclays, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and the Bank of England), legal services (Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer), politics (Jesse Norman MP) and third sector institutions (the Banking Standards Board, UK Finance, Institute of Business Ethics, the Financial Services Consumer Panel at the Financial Conduct Authority, and the St. Paul’s Institute). Representatives of these stakeholders were invited to the ‘Trust in Banking’ workshop in June 2016, hosted by the leading City law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer (E1). Borg and Hooker ran the event and presented at it, helping both to disseminate their ideas outside of academia and, crucially, providing feedback from non-academics on their research. Their findings were then delivered to other stakeholders, including at the concluding panel discussion for the ‘Centre for Competition Policy annual conference (2016)’ and via invited briefing papers for the Banking Standards Board.

B. Collaboration with Ethical Reading

As a result of these engagement activities and following discussions with the Institute of Business Ethics in London, Borg and Hooker initiated contact and collaboration in March 2018 with a social enterprise organization – ‘Ethical Reading’. Ethical Reading exists to make Reading a better place to live and work through helping organisations do the right thing by each other, the wider community, and the environment. Currently, Ethical Reading has over 1000 individual members plus over 40 business partners, including large organisations such as Santander, Boyes Turner LLP, Shoosmiths LLP, Litchfields, and the Unite Union, together with small–medium sized (SME) organisations such as Reading Football Club, London Irish, and Jacobs the Jewellers. Ethical Reading’s reach with SMEs is particularly significant given that about 60% of the UK workforce is employed in this size of organization according to the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Reading Borough Council, Thames Valley Police, and the University of Reading are also recognized supporters (E2).

The directors of Ethical Reading are leading business experts with many years of experience, but none have specific expertise in ethics. Through a range of collaborative projects, Borg and Hooker provided the foundational research needed by the organisation, influencing the thinking and practice of Ethical Reading. In turn, this has influenced the thinking and practice of their business partners. Hooker is now a Director of Ethical Reading (providing day-to-day thought leadership for the organization) and leads on the Ethical Cities operational guide (aiming to roll out the blueprint of Ethical Reading to other cities worldwide); Borg sits on their Advisory Council (meeting 4 times a year to decide overall direction and focus) and has spoken at business breakfast briefings and other events. Borg, Hooker and several academic colleagues from the University’s Philosophy Department delivered a programme of 13 lunchtime webinars for business partners, on topics such as ‘What is right and wrong in business?’, ‘What role do managers play in creating an ethical workplace?’, and ‘What is implicit bias and what does it mean for ethics at work?’ In addition, the ideas articulated in output 4 on ethical training have influenced the form and content of Ethical Reading’s ‘Healthy and Ethical Workplaces’ training course. The Directors state that Borg and Hooker have become ‘a go-to resource’, contributing to the ‘content, thinking and rationale’ of the organization and adding ‘weight and credibility’. Furthermore, their work is ‘definitely valued by [business] partners’, who find them ‘credible and effective’ (E3).

C. Ethical Reading/Reading Borough Council’s ethical recruitment charter

One of the most significant collaborations with Ethical Reading concerns Ethical Reading’s Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Implementation, based on Borg and Hooker’s research (E4). Consultation took place at an intensive half-day workshop involving Borg, Hooker, representatives of Ethical Reading and a number of their Partners. This collaborative process resulted in Borg and Hooker writing the Code of Ethics which has now been formally adopted by Ethical Reading. Since then Ethical Reading has provided the Code to its business partners as a primary resource on business ethics. A launch event for the Code in 2019, was attended by key local stakeholders, including members of Reading Borough Council. The CEO of Reading Council noted the Code of Ethics will ‘encourage everybody that’s involved to act and think ethically in how they go about their business, so we can build a town we’re really proud of’ (E5). Impressed with the Code, the Council approached Ethical Reading to co-produce an Ethical Recruitment Charter. This Charter utilizes three of the key values set out in the Code of Ethics (respect, transparency, and fairness) and sets a gold standard for recruitment practices across the Borough. As one Reading Councillor noted ‘It’s not that people are trying to treat applicants badly, they just don’t know how to treat them well. So that’s what [the Charter] does really simply and clearly – this is what you need to do to treat people well’ (E6).

The Charter was launched in March 2020, with the Council becoming the first signatory. The COO of The Association of Professional Staffing Companies called the Charter ‘a fantastic initiative’. It has served to codify and embed best practice for organisations in the Reading area, with signatories reviewing recruitment practices to bring them in line with the demands of the Charter. Its influence on recruitment practices is set to continue, with the Associate Director of recruitment agency Eximius Group commenting: ‘We believe as a Charter it can become a trademark for the Reading area’ (E6).

D. The WorkInConfidence ethical metrics tool

One of Ethical Reading’s partners, WorkInConfidence (a firm that has adopted the Code of Ethics, E7) has collaborated further with Borg and Hooker, following the attendance of the COO at the public lecture given by Borg (‘Doing Business Better: Should Reading Firms have a Social Purpose?’, 2019). The COO said ‘things in the talk resonated with what [our organization is] trying to do’ and the firm subsequently invited Borg to work on the co-production of a new business survey tool for assessing organisations along ethical dimensions and improving performance on key indicators. Borg’s work has included applied research, co-production of draft materials for the tool, and supervision of a Philosophy PhD student on an internship working on the project. The theoretical elements have now been delivered and WorkInConfidence are stress-testing the product with key members of their client base (which includes NHS foundations, alongside private sector companies such as Hobbes). WorkInConfidence’s COO has stated that Borg and the intern have ‘done more to move [this project] forward than I could possibly have hoped for…We wouldn’t have been able to get this far this fast’ without their input and expertise. The product will ‘help [WorkinConfidence] deliver greater value to the organisations we sell into’ and, once rolled out, will enhance firms’ ability to identify ethical problems and raise performance against these measures (E8).

E. Impact on national debate on ethics in business

Borg and Hooker’s work has helped to inform public understanding of ethical issues in business. Public dissemination of their research has occurred through numerous blog posts for ‘Ethical Reading’ and the University of Reading. Borg’s University of Reading public lecture (2019) resulted in several members of the public contacting Borg subsequently to discuss the issues raised in that presentation. Their work has also contributed to the national business ethics conversation, in particular through Borg’s invited role on the Steering Committee of AcaBEN (an academic-business network run through the Institute of Business Ethics) and the invited talk she gave to their conference (December 2019). Their work is playing a significant role in advancing political and regulatory debate in this area. For instance, they held a series of meetings with, and submitted invited briefing documents to, principal sector-specific organisations, such as the Banking Standards Board (2015-16). They also briefed representatives of the Liberal Democrat party during 2018, including discussions with their Chief Economic Advisor; E9), exploring potential changes to regulatory frameworks.

Borg and Hooker continue to influence change, currently with a project funded through a British Academy Special Research Grants: Covid-19 award – ‘Reshaping relations between the state and the private sector post-COVID-19?’ (July 2020-April 2021). As part of this project Borg and Hooker have produced a briefing document on the social licence framework, which is aimed at politicians, regulators and think tanks; they have also submitted evidence to the EU Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative, the UK Tax Inquiry and the UK Greening post-Covid Recovery Inquiry. As a result of this activity, Borg has been invited to take up a post as an Independent Advisor on the newly formed HMRC Professional Standards Committee. This post will commence in January 2021 and will enable Borg to continue raising the profile of the social licence framework as a model for reshaping state and business relations at a government level (E10).

Borg and Hooker’s collaborative research partnership has had a significant impact on business thinking and practice, resulting in deep rooted changes in the Reading area but also extending to the national debate. Through the collaborative creation of the Ethical Recruitment Charter, those applying for jobs in the Reading area will be treated in line with core ethical values. Through co-creation of the WorkinConfidence ethical metric tool, the business practices of that company have been influenced and, once rolled out, the tool will raise ethical standards across WorkinConfidence’s client organisations. Through webinars, public lectures and briefing documents, Borg and Hooker have advanced public and regulatory understanding of the role that philosophical ideas about fairness and social purpose have to play in bringing about better business practices. Starting locally, Borg and Hooker have shown how embedding awareness and understanding of ethical issues, alongside practical support for creating more ethical structures and behaviours, can help to improve the way we do business.

The seminal US Supreme Court case of “Burwell v. Hobby Lobby” (2014) concerned the extent of protection for freedom of conscience among certain kinds of corporation that were required by the Affordable Health Care Act (“Obamacare”) to provide insurance cover for the purchase of contraceptives that were potential abortifacients for use by employees. The plaintiffs sought protection from state coercion in respect of their religious and ethical beliefs, arguing amongst other things that they were being required to co-operate with what they conscientiously believed to be wrong. In its majority judgment for the plaintiffs, the Court cited Oderberg’s 2004 article on the ethics of co-operation (E1), which set out general principles for assessing the ethics of cases involving forced co-operation. It is clear from the official summary of the case that Oderberg’s article influenced the judgment reached by the Court (E1).

It is unusual for a court – let alone the US Supreme Court – to cite a technical philosophical research article. The footnote in which Oderberg’s work was cited was described by an eminent legal scholar, Jeffrey Rosen in a book on the case, as “one of the most philosophically sophisticated footnotes I’ve seen in a Supreme Court decision recently” (E1). For the article to play a role in helping the Court reach its decision is, possibly, unique.

The US Supreme Court’s recognition of Oderberg’s research, and the messages from lawyers that followed, inspired Oderberg to develop his work on conscience and co-operation, with special reference to medicine. The first major output was Oderberg’s JME article (2017), which he complemented with a British Medical Journal blog post that was reposted by the Kenendy Institute of Ethics, one of the world’s leading ethics research centres.

A justice of the US Supreme Court read the JME article with great interest, asking several detailed questions about the theory of conscience and co-operation defended in the piece. Oderberg was able to give equally detailed responses. The judge said: “Your article has given me much to think about, and I am sure that it will be helpful if similar issues come before my court in the future”. It was evident that both the JME article and follow-up correspondence had an impact on the judge’s thinking, as had Oderberg’s original article cited in the “Hobby Lobby” case (E2).

Oderberg was invited by a leading UK think tank – the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) – to write a 30,000 word policy monograph on the topic, which was published in 2018 (output 4). In the monograph, Oderberg set out in detail sensible policy recommendations backed by legal and ethical analysis, in order to convince policymakers at the IEA of the importance of medical conscience (E3).

Having developed the policy recommendations, Oderberg streamlined them into a package to attract the interest of medical professionals and the wider public. This led to publication in early 2018 of his Declaration in Support of Consciencious Objection in Health Care (E4), a direct reply to the “Consensus Statement” opposing medical conscience published by fifteen academics in 2016. Oderberg’s purpose was twofold: (i) to give a voice to the many medical professionals and other concerned people who wanted publicly to show solidarity in support of medical conscience; (ii) to leverage the Declaration in his promotion of the issue with judges, politicians, and policy makers (see below concerning Canada).

The Declaration has attracted over 500 signatures from medical professionals in many fields, including surgeons, consultants, general practitioners, nurses and midwives, as well as concerned lay members of the public across the world. Signatories include one of the midwives in the famous Doogan case (UK Supreme Court 2014) in which two midwives lost their jobs, and their subsequent court case, for refusing on conscience grounds to manage an abortion ward in a Scottish hospital.

Since 2015 Oderberg had been following the fate of the Conscientious Objection (Medical Activities) Bill , introduced into the House of Lords as a private member’s bill. He identified an opportunity for his research to influence the content and direction of the proposed legislation, so he approached the sponsors to offer consultation on the process. Oderberg collaborated in several ways: composing a short speech for one of the peers; writing several memoranda for the nine peers supporting the Bill; advising on revisions to the draft; responding to objections from the Bill’s critics, including amendments tabled by its leading opponent (E5). Oderberg publicly explained many of the key points in a blog post for the Journal of Medical Ethics. The peers sponsoring the Bill were delighted with Oderberg’s expert assistance, using his points in the debate and persuaded by his suggestions for improvement to the language of the Bill (E5).

In 2018, Oderberg was invited to join the Advisory Board of the Protection of Conscience Project (PCP) in Canada – the leading policy and advisory body in Canada promoting conscience in health care. The director told him his “expertise, energy and dedication would be exceptionally valuable” (E8). Oderberg now advises the director regularly, across a range of projects. He helped the director to improve the “complainant worksheet” used by health care workers denied conscience protection, and persuaded the director to formulate an explicit policy on the role of co-operation in conscience cases. Oderberg also advised PCP in the revision of submissions to the Canadian Medical Association and World Medical Association on freedom of conscience, including emphasis on co-operation. He has also brought about significant improvements to the Model Statute on the freedom of conscience in health care – a seminal resource used by Canadian legislators to draft new legislation (E6).

Oderberg has been involved, both as adviser to PCP and as an independent consultant, on draft medical conscience legislation planned for the legislatures of Alberta and Ontario. He has worked closely on both draft bills, advising their promoters on how best to formulate the provisions. For example, text from the preamble to Oderberg’s Declaration (output 5) was included in the preamble to the Alberta bill, and other suggestions incorporated into the main text of the bill. The PCP’s Model Statue, on which Oderberg was a lead adviser, informed drafting of the Ontario bill. In particular, Oderberg’s research defending the importance of co-operation informed both bills.

Oderberg’s research has also influenced legislation in Europe. In 2018 he was commissioned by Nikolaus Copernicus University, Poland, to write two comprehensive reports on the legal status of freedom of medical conscience in Scandinavia and in the UK. The Polish social policy project was initiated by the Ministry of Justice, and the reports were published in 2019. Their stated purpose is to “educate Polish and foreign lawmakers, as well as public opinion about possible [legal] reforms” (E7). The MP promoting the Alberta legislation also used them to provide him with much needed information on other jurisdictions; Oderberg supplied his reports to the MP via his legislative consultant (E8).

Oderberg’s work promoting medical conscience extends to articles and interviews for mainstream media and has stimulated reaction from various sources. Oderberg publicised his Declaration with an article for The Conversation (4707 reads) which was reprinted in the popular ethics blog Mercatornet (for which Oderberg was also interviewed) and the news blog News Weekly. This led on to a piece in The Guardian (circulation 109,533). The Declaration was covered by articles in The National Review, America, First Things, and the leading bioethics blog Bioedge. Oderberg publicised his IEA monograph with an article for the new blog Freer UK, and both the Declaration and monograph with an article for The Daily Globe and an interview with cnsnews.com. He also gave an invited video lecture on Opting Out and conscience in medicine to lawyers and interested non-specialists at the Caroline Chisholm Library seminar in Melbourne, and a more specialist talk to nurses at the Royal College of Nursing.

Oderberg’s objective from the outset has been to promote and influence debate on conscience in medicine at an international level, focusing on those jurisdictions where he could have most effect. He has aimed his work at health care professionals, politicians, lawyers, judges and policy makers, and has supplemented this with material aimed at a wider audience in order to generate popular interest. Overall, his research in a sensitive and challenging aspect of health care – one that will only increase in prominence and urgency with the development of medical technology – has had a deep effect on supporting the idea of freedom of conscience in medicine. In particular, he has been a leading influencer of developments in law and policy in the UK, USA, and Canada.