Chemistry as a Network Activity

Abstract

Every network of people is, almost necessarily, also a network of interests. Sometimes, these interests overlap, and people pull in the same directions. Yet, at other times, interests clash, and collaborative work becomes inefficient, exhausting, or unfair. Throughout one's career as a chemist, whatever that career looks like, every chemist faces various situations that bear risks of conflicts and dilemmas. For most of us, the first time is the research work in a professor's group as graduate or PhD students. Besides conflicts arising from personality dispositions and competition, an important aspect is the power imbalance between mentor and student. Both mentor and student need skills in professional communication and conflict solving to reach their goals to the satisfaction of both. At all stages of the chemical career, multi-, trans- and inter-disciplinary collaborations, nowadays, are rather the rule than the exception. These span a wide variety of experts, non-experts, interest groups and stakeholders, posing different challenges on the conduct of the chemical practitioner. This chapter attempts to apply the scientific virtues of Chapter 5 to this realm of professional integrity. Necessarily, we will extend the scope of research ethics to issues of business ethics and professional ethics.