Designing for Dignity: A Human-Centered Ethical Systems Framework for Institutions with Public Impact Version 3

Abstract

Abstract Purpose:This paper proposes the Human-Centered Ethical Systems Framework (HCESF), a conceptual framework for designing and evaluating institutions with public impact through human dignity, equity, transparency, accountability, and intergenerational responsibility. Design/methodology/approach:HCESF is developed conceptually through synthesis of human-centered design, systems thinking, organizational and institutional studies, sustainable development, and normative ethics, including Islamic ethical thought. It translates ethical principles into institutional design constraints, governance mechanisms, and evaluative considerations. Findings:HCESF identifies structural sources of ethical risk, including concentrated discretionary power, opaque procedures, weak feedback, and short-term performance logic. It organizes eight ethical design principles and connects them to mechanisms including bounded discretion, staged decision-making, transparent criteria, functional separation of authority, feedback loops, ethical training, and stewardship. Illustrative applications across HR, public service delivery, and healthcare demonstrate framework use without constituting empirical validation. Research limitations/implications: The study is conceptual and uses illustrative applications rather than empirical testing. The framework requires validation through quantitative, qualitative, and longitudinal research across institutional, cultural, and regulatory settings. Practical implications: HCESF provides a system-level approach for embedding ethical safeguards into recruitment, performance management, service delivery, healthcare, training, and accountability before harm becomes normalized. Social implications: The framework links institutional design to human dignity, equitable access, public trust, sustainable social benefit, and responsibility toward future generations. Originality/value:HCESF contributes an integrated human-centered ethical systems perspective that treats ethics as a preventive design concern rather than solely a compliance or post-hoc corrective function, connecting institutional design with lived human consequences and intergenerational responsibility. Keywords: human-centered ethics; institutional design; ethical governance; systems thinking; human dignity; intergenerational responsibility; sustainable development. AI Disclosure Statement: Artificial intelligence (Chat GPT by Open AI) was used to support language refinement, editing, restructuring, and improvement of clarity and readability during manuscript preparation. All conceptual development, theoretical contributions, interpretation, and final content were developed, verified, and approved solely by the author, who assumes full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the work. Author Note: The author is an independent researcher with professional experience in human resources and organizational administration across healthcare, power, construction, media, and technology sectors. This professional experience informs the author's interest in organizational systems, institutional governance, human-centered design, and the development of sustainable Human-AI collaboration.