Is there an Ethical Operational Research?

TL;DR

This paper explores the ethical considerations in Operational Research, emphasizing the importance of ethical practices in autonomous decision-making tools and proposing future research directions for ethical issues in the field.

Contribution

It identifies specific ethical questions in OR and Decision Aiding and suggests relevant research topics for addressing these ethical challenges.

Findings

Recognition of ethical concerns in autonomous decision-support systems

Identification of key ethical questions for the OR community

Proposal of research topics to address ethical issues

Abstract

The ethical dimension of Operational Research and Decision Aiding, although not a new subject, turns to be 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", 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.