INDIAN SOCIETY FOR
APPLIED BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE

The member of the standing committee present at an event (or in her/ his absence, Dean programmes) will constitute an ethics committee for the event. The event ethics committee will be primarily responsible for handling any ethical concerns that are raised during the event. Professional members who volunteer to be on the event ethics committee do so on the understanding that they are accepting responsibility for any follow up actions that may be necessary after the event.

PROCEDURE AND GUIDELINES FOR HANDLING ETHICS CONCERNS

Who can raise an Ethical concern?

Ethical concerns can be raised by:

1. Role holders of ISABS
2. Professional members
3. Participants in events
4. Members of the PDP stream
5. Client organizations, support organizations or vendors of service to ISABS

Procedure for raising an Ethical concern

1. An ethical concern should be raised in writing. If a person raising an ethics concern is unwilling to do so in writing, every attempt must be made to encourage her/him to do so. If the person is still unwilling to raise the concern in writing, she/he must be clearly told that while ISABS takes all ethical complaints seriously, it may not be possible to investigate and take appropriate action on the basis of a verbal complaint.
2. The person raising an ethical concern must be assured that every attempt will be made to maintain confidentiality, and no persons other than those directly involved (members of the Ethics Committee, the President, and those who are necessarily involved in the investigation) will come to know about the existence or nature of the complaint.
3. The concern can be addressed to any member of the Ethics Committee in the event or immediately after the event. If the concern is raised with any other professional member, he/she will encourage the concerned person to raise it directly with the ethics committee or, if that is not possible for any reason, to make a written report to the Ethics Committee stating all the relevant facts as told to him/her by the person making the complaint .
4. The professional member about whom the ethical concern is raised, as well as the person making the complaint, have a right to confidentiality. Professional Members who have any information about the existence or nature of an ethics complaint will respect this right and avoid any casual talk or gossip about the individuals and events.
5. The written complaint should contain the following minimum information:
1. Name of professional member/s in question
2. Nature of transgression with details
3. Factual details like date, time, other people present, context and so on.
6. The event ethics committee needs to decide the speed of resolution required. Some issues may have to be addressed in the event itself or can be explored within a reasonable time frame after the event. The investigations of the Ethics Committee and its final report and recommendations should normally be completed within a month and in no case more than two months after the complaint.
7. The Ethics Committee for the event, which will as far as possible include at least one member of the Standing Committee, will explore the issue in its entirety using the following norms:
1. Adopting the principles of natural justice of giving the member about whom the ethical concern is raised, an opportunity to be heard.
2. Listening to the aggrieved person and all other people involved in the issue in some form to collect as much data as possible.
8. The event ethics committee needs to dialogue among themselves on all the data that has been collected and come to a conclusion on the charge or complaint. Where the members cannot meet, the dialoguing can happen over phone or e-mail or chat.
9. The event ethics committee will submit its recommendations to the President of ISABS. The President may, in consultation with the Standing Committee on Ethics, accept the event Ethics Committee’s recommendations or may suggest certain modifications. In the latter case, the final course of action will be determined after full discussion between the members of the event committee, the standing committee and the President.
10. The President will initiate appropriate action, which may include communicating the decision to the concerned professional member, to the complainant (if necessary and appropriate), and to other role holder(s) if absolutely necessary for giving effect to the recommendations.
11. The Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Ethics will be responsible for following up and ensuring that the recommendations, corrective actions and other conditions of re-entry, if any, are complied with.

Possible actions that can be initiated

Depending on the nature and severity of the issue, the following broad actions are envisaged:

1. A warning of cautionary counsel to the member in writing
2. Temporary barring from specified number of events
3. Permanent barring from attending events and participating from the activities of ISABS