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This paper aims to investigate the ethical challenges within same-day delivery (SDD) operations in the gig economy, focusing on promoting fairness and justice for independent contractors by applying Rawlsian justice principles.

Adopting a philosophical and theoretical methodology, the authors synthesize insights from business ethics, corporate governance and Rawlsian ethical theories. This study critically examines the application of these theories within SDD business models through a comparative analysis of seminal and contemporary ethical discussions. Importantly, the authors reverse the traditional antecedents, decisions and outcomes framework to start with outcomes, offering a novel methodological execution that enhances the study’s approach to ethical research.

The analysis identifies pronounced ethical deficiencies in treating SDD contractors, emphasizing the need for systemic reforms. The study proposes a series of hypotheses to rectify these issues, including recommendations for enhancing algorithmic transparency, ensuring equitable compensation and fortifying worker protections. These proposed changes advocate for restructuring corporate policies to foster a fairer SDD business environment.

By interweaving Rawlsian ethical principles with practical corporate responsibilities specific to the gig economy, this paper enriches the discourse on business ethics. It introduces a novel framework for analyzing the ethical treatment of gig workers, proposing actionable strategies that bridge theoretical ethics with real-world applications. This approach advances academic understanding and guides industry practices toward more ethical and sustainable models.

Organizations working in high-hazard environments contribute significantly to modern society and the economy, not only for the valuable resources they hold but also for the indispensable products and services they provide, such as power generation, transportation and defense weapons. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to develop a framework that outlines future research on systems safety and provides a better understanding of how organizations can effectively manage hazard events.

In this research, we developed the high hazard theory (HHT) and a theoretical framework based on the grounded theory method (GTM) and the integration of three established theoretical perspectives: normal accident theory (NAT), high reliability theory (HRT) and resilience engineering (RE) theory.

We focused on the temporal aspect of accidents to create a timeline showing the progression of hazard events and the factors contributing to safety and hazards in organizations. Given the limitations of the previous theories in providing a coherent explanation of hazard event escalation in high-hazard organizations (HHOs), we argue that the highlighted theories can be more complementary than contradictory regarding their standpoints on disasters and accident prevention.

A proper appreciation of the hazard nature of organizations can help reduce their susceptibility to failure, prevent outages and breakdowns of systems, identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to enhance performance.

By developing HHT, we contribute to systems safety research by developing a new, refined theory and enrich the theoretical debate. We also expand the understanding of scholars and practitioners about the characteristics of organizations working in high-hazard environments.

This study aims to examine differences in the self-perception and value of four traits associated with trustworthiness: transparency, credibility, accountability and honesty to find out whether these traits are more likely to be adopted by female leaders during episodes of disruption.

Regression estimation of perceived trustworthy leadership values using a survey of full-time employed men and women in management working for various organizations.

Honesty emerged as the highest rated trait overall, both in the respondents’ self-measure and in their reflected level of desirability. However, women described their honesty as higher than how men relayed their honesty score. Both genders rated their own transparency as their lowest scoring trait and treated it as the least important of the desired traits. Relative to men, not only do women espouse to greater levels of honesty and value it more but they also appear to embrace honesty in their desired behaviors more highly.

A natural extension of this study is to design a longitudinal study to show causality or whether socialized gender differences, in fact, play a role in measuring the value of trustworthy leadership during disruptions.

Understanding self-perceptions of leaders’ efficacy and desired expectations helps prepare both current and future leaders to regain followers’ trust, especially during disruptions. Lessons learned to date require investments in building awareness of leaders’ perceptions of trustworthiness and developing relevant skills for dealing with disruptions.

This research adds further insight to leadership studies by establishing a linkage between characteristics of trustworthy leadership and the ability to lead in challenging times. Cultivating traits of transparency, accountability, credibility and honesty enables leaders to develop the skills needed to be viewed as trustworthy and be prepared for the unexpected.