Ethics in Performance Management of Future Industrial Systems: Weak and Strong Views

This study deals with ethics in performance management of future industrial systems, as depicted by the Industry 4.0 principles. Industry 4.0, with its advanced technologies, induces autonomous systems and data profusion, offering thus scenarios putting ethics at stake. The aim of this paper is to discuss the way ethics can be incorporated in the (efficiency-effectiveness-relevance) performance triangle in order to mitigate the ethical risks associated with the management of industrial systems of the Future. Depending on the situations, compromises between ethics and conventional performance criteria may be made, leading to a weak view of ethics, while a strong view of it does not admit any compromise. Companies that are aware of the urgent need to consider the ethics dimension in Industry 4.0, may implement initiatives to improve their level of integration of ethics in performance management. This is the case of a bearing manufacturer, partner in this study, whose practice, based on the deployment of the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) framework, faces situations where the integration of ethics is urgent to consider. The conclusion of this study is that extending the (efficiency-effectiveness-relevance) triangle allows only a weak view of ethics and that it needs to be supported by operational tools which allow ethics to be taken into account systematically.