Is there an ethical operational research practice? And what this implies for our research?

Abstract

The ethical dimension of Operational Research and Decision Aiding, although not a new subject, has become more of a concern, both for the large public and the OR community, because of the wide spread of autonomous artefacts endowed with decision capacity thanks to the use of models, methods and tools developed within our field. The paper addresses the question of whether there exists an “Ethical Operational Research practice”, identifies the ethical questions which are specific to our professional community and suggests research topics which, although independently developed, are relevant for handling such questions.