WINNERS OF THE BRILOFF PRIZE

FOR 2010 (awarded spring 2011)

Faculty Winner

Daniel W. Williams, School of Public Affairs, for his paper, “Is it Mutiny?” The Briloff Committee wrote: “This essay applies classical ethical theory to answer the question of when employees should be allowed to defy orders from their employers. Foundational work by Kant and Locke is analyzed to illuminate the role of the bureaucrat in following orders. The author draws examples from the time of the Third Reich to the more recent issue of issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. The well-known debate between the public administration scholars Finer and Carl Friedrich is also tapped.  Probing the components of human dignity, the article explores the many aspects of a complex ethical issue.”

 

Student Winners

The student prize (undergraduate) was awarded to Hyun Hwang, Rhett Kikuyama, and Danny Zeng, co-authors of “Privacy in the Workplace.” This paper was written for Prof. Grace Zhao, an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Statistics and Computer Information Systems, who encouraged the students to submit their work. The Briloff Committee described this essay as “a well-researched and critical examination of the legal and ethical issues related to an employee’s private use of the company’s computer. In presenting the tension between the employee’s rights and the employer’s oversight responsibilities in the workplace, this paper makes a coherent argument for the recommendation that the employer engage in greater transparency and disclosure so that the employee is alerted to his company’s policy.”