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Text by: Marie Stebner, Student Assistant at RWTH Aachen University; Vera Rick, Research Assistant at RWTH Aachen University

Pictures from: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/tafel-kreide-feedback-bewertung-3700116/

The sustainable integration of ethical, legal and social implications into the daily work of research and innovation (R&I) is an important, yet also difficult challenge that our society must face. Aside from laying the focus on the innovation itself (e.g. functionality, reliability, and safety), the interaction between the innovation and the stakeholders (e.g. environmental protection, protection of personal data, and social implications) has to be considered during the R&D process as well, in order to avoid further undesirable effects.

The WAOW tool enables employees to not only work productively but also stay healthy in the long term. However, the collection of individual data can create feelings of insecurity, of being observed or the possibility of comparison with other employees. Therefore, it is important to tackle these problem areas early in order to address potential problems directly and thus be able to consider and solve them already in the development phase.

Within WorkingAge, two methods were used to weigh ethical, social, and legal aspects of using the WAOW tool: a questionnaire study based on the MEESTAR model and a workshop based on AMICAI. The MEESTAR model is one way of systematically breaking down the ethical problem areas of a research project. In general, MEESTAR does not serve to provide ready-made solutions, but rather represents a heuristic instrument to be able to locate socio-technical systems ethically in a structured dialogue so that ethical reservations and concerns in the use of the systems can be identified. AMICAI is a method for the systematic analysis of a system with the aim of identifying possible types of faults, their causes as well as their effects on the determined system behaviour. First, the failure types are determined, then the most probable causes of failure and finally the failure effects are determined, which act because of a failure mode regarding the operation, function or condition of a system. Usually, through the use of an interactive workshop, the identification and solving of ethical concerns can be done on a collaborative effort, allowing people from different disciplines and in different professional roles to work together. This time we conducted a digital solution and still managed to get great results to significantly improve the WAOW tool.

Both the questionnaire based on the MEESTAR model and the AMICAI procedure provided exciting insights and results for the social, ethical and legal aspects of the use of the WAOW tool. Not only were the point of views of the users represented, but also those of supervisors and personnel responsible persons. Topics such as data protection were discussed, and possible compensation measures were worked out. Through this, it was once again possible to significantly reflect on the views of potential users and integrate them into the further R&I process, so that a tool can be developed that prioritises the safety and wellbeing of its users.

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