The Critical Employee.

‘A tool for ethics in tech companies’

How many times have we heard in the news that something is wrong again with intelligent innovations? A new fire to be fought, when the harm has already been done. Why can’t we prevent these fires at an earlier stage? Why is it too difficult to stand up to unethical situations and change them during the development process? This research project studies how concerned employees within a technology company can take action against ethical criticalities, through mechanisms that can fulfill needs and values such as safety, transparency and accountability.

This resulted in the The Critical Employee, a tool to start the conversation and make ethics part of the process. Unraveling complexity by making it an inviting and accessible topic, for any type of employee, to be critical of your own role and power in ethics. In this way, ethics becomes a topic that can bear the light, to protect the critical employee.

‘Four archetypes that represent companies commonly found in the technology sector’

Mechanism

‘Mechanisms are explored to find opportunities to empower the critical employee within these organizations’