One of the Ethics Forum's most significant activities is an annual study, to be presented at a public conference, on a topic of particular relevance in the national context, with the aim of increasing knowledge about organisational ethics in the Portuguese context.
In 2021, the annual study coincided with the triennial study, Ethics at Work | Survey of Employees, by the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE), of which we have been a National Partner since 2018. The presentation of the 2024 edition is already scheduled for November. Find out more here. In 2023 the theme was Ethics and Generational Diversity at Work and in 2022 Ethics and Hybrid Labour.
Ethics and Generational Diversity at Work (2023)
"Ethics and Generational Diversity at Work" was the theme of the Ethics Forum's annual study in 2023. Initially, the study resulted in a survey report "Ethics and Generational Diversity at Work: Views from Four Generations" and then a new collective book "Generational Diversity: (Dis)Encounters?".
The first results of this study were released at the Annual Conference of the Ethics Forum, which took place on 17 October 2023 at the Católica Porto Business School.
"Do multigenerational teams improve productivity? Does turning 50 bring new concerns at work? Are there differences between generations in terms of perceived age and real age? What does each generation value most in the workplace? Do the different generations know what ‘ageism’ is?"
These were some of the questions debated during the presentation of the Ethics Forum's annual study on "Ethics and Generational Diversity at Work".
Among the preliminary data presented, the answers collected among the participants revealed, for example, that the majority of young adults (18 to 30 years old) feel pressure to show their worth because of their age (70 per cent). Among those over 60, almost half (43 per cent) have worked harder to exceed people's expectations of them as representatives of a particular generation.
To complement this enquiry and give thickness to ethical reflection through the integration of different voices, spaces and times underlying the narratives, we have published "Generational Diversity: (Un)Encounters?", the second Collective Book of the Ethics Forum. It is "a book designed as a laboratory for thought experiments, as a space for critical reading and as a tool for promoting ethical reflection in organisations". The first presentation of the book took place on 23 May 2024, watch the video below.