Undercover agency?—Ethics, responsibility and the practice of OR

Questions of ethics, responsibility and standards of professional practice arise in all settings in which OR studies take place. In this paper I explore some of the ethical dilemmas I have encountered as an OR practitioner, focusing particularly on my work in community OR settings, and examine the relevance of professional codes of conduct or practice to these. The paper argues that where such codes attempt to be prescriptive they are doomed to failure, and concludes that what is required instead is the assumption by OR practitioners of the responsibility for undertaking a process of critical self-reflection on ethical issues at all stages of the OR process.