Ethical Decision Making Process Unit 6

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Ethical Decision Making ProcessUnit 6
Ethical Awareness
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What is Ethical Decision Making?

• An ethical decision that is essentially a
  difficult decision to make because of your honor
  system coming into conflict with something else.
• People usually choose one of ethical approaches
  to take an ethical decision.
• What is the difference between ethical dilemma
  and ethical decision making?
• A dilemma is the problem itself. The decision
  making is the course to resolution.

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What Ethics is NOT

• Is there a difference between ethics and
  feelings?
• Ethics is not the same as feelings. However,
  ethics depends on feelings sometimes. Feelings
  provide important information for our ethical
  choices. Some people have highly developed habits
  that make them feel bad when they do something
  wrong, but many people feel good even though they
  are doing something wrong. And often our feelings
  will tell us it is uncomfortable to do the right
  thing if it is hard.

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Is Ethics a religion?

• Ethics is not religion. Many people are not
  religious, but ethics applies to everyone.
• Ethics is not following the law. A good system of
  law does incorporate many ethical standards, but
  law can deviate from what is ethical.
• Law can become ethically corrupt, as some
  totalitarian regimes have made it. Law can be a
  function of power alone and designed to serve the
  interests of narrow groups. Law may have a
  difficult time designing or enforcing standards
  in some important areas, and may be slow to
  address new problems.

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Is Ethics Cultural Driven?

• Ethics not always following culturally accepted
  norms. Some cultures are quite ethical, but
  others become corrupt -or blind to certain
  ethical concerns (as the United States was to
  slavery before the Civil War).
• "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" is not a
  satisfactory ethical standard.

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Making Decisions

• Making good ethical decisions requires a trained
  sensitivity to ethical issues and a practiced
  method for exploring the ethical aspects of a
  decision and weighing the considerations that
  should impact our choice of a course of action.
• Having a method for ethical decision making is
  absolutely essential. When practiced regularly,
  the method becomes so familiar that we work
  through it automatically without consulting the
  specific steps.

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A Framework for Ethical Decision Making

• 1. Could this decision or situation be damaging
  to someone or to some group? Does this decision
  involve a choice between a good and bad
  alternative, or perhaps between two "goods" or
  between two "bads"?
• Is this issue about more than what is legal or
  what is most efficient? If so, how?

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• 2. What individuals and groups have an important
  stake in the outcome? Are some concerns more
  important? Why?
• 3. What are the options for acting? Have all the
  relevant persons and groups been consulted? Have
  identified creative options?
• 4. Evaluate the options by asking the following
  questions
• Which option will produce the most good and do
  the least harm? (The Utilitarian Approach)
• Which option best respects the rights of all who
  have a stake? (The Rights Approach)
• Which option treats people equally or
  proportionately? (The Justice Approach)
• Which option best serves the community as a
  whole, not just some members? (The Common Good
  Approach)

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• Which option leads me to act as the sort of
  person I want to be? (The Virtue Approach).
• Make a Decision and Test It.
• Considering all these approaches, which option
  best addresses the situation?
• If I told someone I respect-or told a television
  audience-which option I have chosen, what would
  they say?

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• Example 1 A week or two ago, an employee was
  put on suspension because he supposedly stole
  some goods from your company's warehouse. Your
  friend and coworker Joe just confessed to you
  that the aforementioned employee didn't steal
  anything, but that he had to borrow some items
  because he and his wife are going through
  economic difficulties. Should you report Joe or
  keep it secret? 

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Example 2 
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• Example 3 The principal of your middle school
  tells you that in order to get more funding from
  the state, you have to incorrectly report the
  income amounts of each of your students'
  families.
• Should you be honest in your paperwork, or should
  you just do as your principal tells you? 

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Act and Reflect on the Outcome

• 5. How can my decision be implemented with the
  greatest care and attention to the concerns of
  all stakeholders?
• What are stakeholders? Are they the same as
  stockholders?

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• A stockholder is same as shareholder, shareholder
  owns part of a company through stock ownership,
  while a stakeholder is interested in the
  performance of a company for reasons other than
  just stock appreciation.Stakeholders could be
• employees who, without the company, would not
  have jobs.
• customers who may rely on the company to provide
  a particular good or service.
• suppliers who may rely on the company to provide
  a consistent revenue stream.
• employees, students, teachers in a
  university.Although shareholders may be the
  largest stakeholders because shareholders are
  affected directly by a company's performance, it
  has become more common place for additional
  groups to be considered stakeholders, too.

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Main influencing factors in ethical decision
making

• 1. The personality of the decision maker
• The differences between peoples character and
  manners plays an important role in decision
  making (impulsive, calm, reckless..etc).
• 2. Behavior of managers and leaders
• This could have a direct effect on employees when
  acting ethically or unethically.
• 3. Values and beliefs
• As much as we awareness of ethical values and
  religious beliefs that urge for ethical behavior,
  the much we have more ethical sound decisions.
• 4. age
• Major studies proved that older people tend to
  have more ethical decisions than younger people.

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Consistency and Ethics

• Consistencythe absence of contradictionshas
  sometimes been called the (hallmark) of ethics.
  Ethics is supposed to provide us with a guide for
  moral living, and to do so it must be rational,
  and to be rational it must be free of
  contradictions.
• Ethics requires consistency in the sense that our
  moral standards, actions, and values should not
  be contradictory. Examining our lives to uncover
  inconsistencies and then modifying our moral
  standards and behaviors so that they are
  consistent is an important part of moral
  development.

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• End of Chapter 6