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This volume is dedicated to the memory of Patrick Primeaux. Of your editors, Michael knew him well, Howard knew his work. We both recognise his enormous contribution. Patrick was a very special individual who was unfortunately with us for far too short a time, but who in that time made a very unique contribution. The first three essays in this issue comprise a mini-festschrift issue to honour Patrick. They are by his American colleagues and good friends who knew Patrick well. A mini-festschrift seems particularly germane to Patrick. The festschrift or commemorative volume is deeply rooted in the culture of the Germanic universities, and Patrick, although having many attributes, could certainly not be construed as Germanic. We have no doubt that he would be as honoured by a mini-festschrift issue as he would be embarrassed by a full festschrift issue. The other essays are the result of the Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics 18th annual conference which was held in June 2011 at the University of Tasmania. The authors of these essays are academics in Australian universities who might not have known Patrick, but, as is discussed below, their essays reflect Patrick's contribution to applied ethics. There seems something very fitting about that conference being held at the University of Tasmania because their campus is in Hobart which is as far south as Australia goes. Patrick often spoke of visiting Australia but always ultimately dismissed it as too long a flight. It would, admittedly, have been a particularly long flight for Patrick who was a very heavy smoker. Nonetheless, we have no doubt that if Patrick had been able to embark upon the flight to Hobart and attended the conference, he would have enjoyed it. As it was his spirit was very much with us and pervaded many of our discussions about applied ethics.

Unethical behavior hurts everyone, including the offending person or organization. Unfortunately, the effects of unethical behavior are often long delayed, so the consequences are thus often attributed to the wrong cause. When librarians purchase automated systems, unethical practices—whether committed by consultants, vendors, or librarians—will cause significant harm to the libraries because they can not only acquire inadequate systems, but encounter many managerial and operational problems as well. In this symposium, five major consultants—Rob McGee, Howard Harris, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, Susan Baerg Epstein, and James Rush—share their experiences and thoughts on related issues.

The aim of this paper is to review two accounts of the history of workplace learning and training in the USA that emphasize issues of power and control in the determination of what training occurs, and place these issues at the center of their analyses.

The two texts are reviewed and a constructivist paradigm is considered to address issues raised in the texts.

It is suggested that a constructivist view by managers and workers can foster a positive approach to determining what training workers receive, allowing for worker training that meets the needs of managers as well as workers.

While these two works were the only ones identified through a literature search that focuses on the history of who determined worker training in the USA, and they prove insightful on this topic, this paper is limited in that these works are now respectively approximately one and three decades old.

Implementation of a constructivist view of determining training for workers can meet the needs of managers as well as workers, avoiding a zero‐sum game view.

By reviewing these two texts, and considering a constructivist paradigm in addressing issues raised by the authors, a vision of a constructivist approach to determining training is presented, with advantages to workers and managers.

National and international ethics associations serve an important purpose in the development of resources which can lead to ethical behaviour in organisations. They bring practitioners and academics together, promote discussion and foster excellence through the presentation and subsequent publication of papers. One purpose of this journal is to publish selected papers from the annual conference of the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics. Our intention is that each year there will be one issue devoted to a theme and one to papers from the conference. Volume 8 was the first themed volume under our editorship, the festschrift in honour of Patrick Primeaux; Volume 10 will have the theme moral saints, moral exemplars and moral heroes.