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Promoting Ethics in Community through Research, Education and Leadership - The Williams Institute for Ethics and Management

Promoting Ethics in Community through Research, Education and Leadership - The Williams Institute for Ethics and Management


For over 20 years, The Williams Institute for Ethics and Management (TWI) has been dedicated to raising ethical awareness and promoting transparency, integrity, and accountability across industries and communities.


TWI’s mission is promoting ethics in community through research, education and leadership.


Ethics is about people and their relationships with one another, it is not about rules, regulations and policies. Ethics is about having the will and decision-making skills to do what is right.


Through TWI's personal and organizational ethics assessments and training programs, TWI equips people with the tools and skills to do what is right – and make better, more consistent ethical decisions, both professionally and personally. This approach unlocks the positive transformative potential of ethical awareness and behavior.


TWI has three main tools to help fulfill its mission: The Ethics Awareness Inventory (EAI), the Ethics Essay Contest for students, and Ethical Leadership Programs.


In 2012, TWI created The Ethics Awareness Inventory (EAI), a personal ethics assessment tool in booklet form. An online version was created in 2017. The EAI helps individuals discover how they are likely to approach ethical issues and why. The assessment provides an “ethics score” and analysis of an individual’s perspective towards ethics, ethical decision-making style, and articulation on how to work with others having different perspectives. The EAI has been completed by over 700,000 individuals and used by high schools, universities, government agencies, and businesses to provide sound ethical learning and research. For more information or to complete an assessment, click here. https://www.ethics-twi.org/products/onlineassessments/


TWI is partnering with Purdue University to support research on ethical decision-making. The research compares two different ethical decision-making instruments and determines at what point in a student’s courses the EAI is most effective as an ethical decision-making instrument for long-term decisions. During 2022 the original 4-year study was completed and results were revealed at a conference for university ethics professors. TWI is now participating in a new 4-year longitudinal study to follow up on the results from the original study.


To promote ethical awareness among young people, TWI held an annual ethics essay contest for high school juniors and seniors for 23 years. Over 38,000 students submitted essays on several different issues reflecting on the role of ethics in their lives. TWI has awarded over $165,000 in scholarships to winning high school juniors and seniors. TWI also partnered with the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University in sponsoring the essay contest. During COVID this essay contest was suspended but we are currently looking for scholarship sponsors for the 2025 calendar year. Learn more about scholarship sponsorship here. https://www.ethics-twi.org/essaycontest/sponsorascholarship/


TWI provides services to California Fire departments and other government agencies as part of its commitment to promote ethical leadership. In addition to training courses on Ethical Leadership TWI has provided advice in course development for Ethical Leadership In the Classroom and has a variety of ethics training courses including Communicating with Values available for the community. Learn more about our ethics training programs here. https://www.ethics-twi.org/Training/#values_trainingindex.cfm 


The Williams Institute for Ethics and Management 

6619 N Scottsdale Rd. Scottsdale, AZ 85250   |    480-517-1891   |    www.ethics-TWI.org

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