Press release 29 November 2021
Corporate responsibility requires ensuring that the whole work community has the competence, support and daily working conditions needed to act in an ethically sustainable manner. This is the initial goal of a pioneering development project between Gofore and ethics expert CoHumans. The project will develop – for the first time in Finland – an ethical capability building model for work communities in the technology sector. A grant awarded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund is also proof of this development work’s novelty value and importance to society.
Gofore and CoHumans aim for a comprehensive understanding of what is meant by the work community’s ethical capability in the context of a technology company and how it can be enhanced. The result is a model for building ethical capability, which will be used to enhance Gofore’s skills and knowledge of ethics, but also to establish community and structural level conditions for ethical sustainability. The project will also be used to strengthen Gofore’s position as a responsible and visionary forerunner and to support the quality of working life at Gofore.
Ethical sustainability of technology companies has significant social impact
Digital transformation experts have a huge ethical responsibility to bear. It does more than just combats the ethical threats that are often linked to digitalisation in public debate. To the people at Gofore, ethical digital transformation is also about seeking solutions to the sustainability challenges threatening our global society.
“Luckily, technology companies are already debating the ethics of artificial intelligence and data. However, this debate has rarely gone beyond making declarations and preparing guidelines, to actually coming up with the practical application of ethics in technology. As an organisation, Gofore is committed to making our brand promise Pioneering an ethical digital world part of our daily lives and work. I am especially proud of the project’s interdisciplinary cooperation with the ethics experts at CoHumans. In my opinion, big global challenges can only be solved through multi-sectoral cooperation,” says Gofore’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kristiina Härkönen.
The ethical capability building project is a continuation of previous cooperation between Gofore and CoHumans, in which the companies prepared a Code of Ethics for Gofore. The companies have also cooperated to create, for example, new content for training on the ethics of artificial intelligence, and analysis tools for the ethical evaluation of new customer projects and advanced analytics.
Ethical capability building and responsibility work
CEO of CoHumans, ethicist Anna Seppänen finds that the project provides solutions to many challenges in working life.
“Gofore has a pioneering way of approaching ethical capability building as a way of engaging all Gofore staff in responsibility work. This is exactly the right way to approach responsibility in an organisation comprised of professionals who work independently in their own areas of expertise.”
In addition to responsibility work, the ethical capability of a work community is also closely linked to the quality of working life. Building ethical capability also means, for example, developing a culture of interaction that is respectful and creates psychological safety.
“CoHumans and Gofore are together building concrete paths towards a meaningful, humanely sustainable working life,” says Anna Seppänen.
