Analyze alternatives using ethical reasoning methods (moral judgment) Evaluate the ethics of each alternative. Determine which ethical considerations best address the dilemma. Decide on a course of action. Apply rational tests to the decision as a final step [i] (moral motivation)
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Evaluate the ethics of each alternative. Determine which ethical considerations best address the dilemma. Decide on a course of action. Intuition test. If you have an uneasy feeling about the decision or course of action, chances are you are not 100 percent convinced it’s the proper course of action.
1 Identify the ethical issues. Ethical issues exist, in a broad sense, whenever one’s actions affect others. ... 2 Identify alternative courses of action. Every dilemma affords more than just one opportunity. ... 3 Using ethical reasoning to decide on a course of action. Ethical reasoning skills are essential to making ethical decisions. ...
Using ethical reasoning to decide on a course of action. Ethical reasoning skills are essential to making ethical decisions. A variety of methods exist including: Egoism: Egoism looks at each decision by considering the effects of a decision only as it relates to the individual decision-maker.
We should not select just one method and ignore the others since there may be more than one right answer. The ethical decision making process described below provides a foundation for systematically reasoning through ethical dilemmas and summoning up the courage to act on one’s ethical intentions.
The Leader's Choice: Five Steps to Ethical Decision Making....Assessment: Make sure you have all the facts about the dilemma. ... Alternatives: Consider your choices. ... Analysis: Identify your candidate decision and test its validity. ... Application: Apply ethical principles to your candidate decision. ... Action: Make a decision.
A rudimentary framework for how managers engage in the decision making process contains four steps.1) Identify the problem.2) Generate alternatives.3) Decide on a course of action.4) Implement.
Consider this three-step process for solving an ethical dilemma: (1) analyze the consequences; (2) analyze the actions; (3) make a decision.
with a potential ethical dilemma:Gather the facts, and specify the dilemma.Analyze possible courses of action, taking into. account both a set of principles and potential. consequences.Select and implement a course of action.Evaluate the results of the action. Regardless.
The rights approach follows the belief that individuals have the ability to make their decisions freely. It believes that if the act does not respect everyone’s moral rights, it is wrong to act.
Prepare yourself by considering your decision making process. Imagine this: You are riding on a trolley one day when it loses its path and heads toward five workers. The trolley is moving quickly and headed downhill with no chance of stopping. However, you realize you are standing right next to a lever, which can change the course.
Unethical decisions can lead to cover-up and more unethical decisions down the road. Remember, ethics is about what you do when no one is looking. In other words, you are what you do and ethical people are motivated to do the right thing, not make a decision based on selfishness – egoism.
Using ethical reasoning to decide on a course of action. Ethical reasoning skills are essential to making ethical decisions. A variety of methods exist including: Egoism: Egoism looks at each decision by considering the effects of a decision only as it relates to the individual decision-maker.
Most ethicists dismiss this method because it fails to consider the consequences on the stakeholders. For example, if a CEO or CFO is dealing with financial statement reporting and wants the statements to look as good as possible regardless of the rules and effects on others, then egoism rules the day.
Ethical issues exist, in a broad sense, whenever one’s actions affect others. In the workplace, a manager’s decisions might affect employees, customers, suppliers, creditors and shareholders. These are the stakeholders of an organization. Identify alternative courses of action.
Values-based decision making can be a complimentary thought process because the ethical values to be emphasized in the workplace mirror the rights and obligations approach. Decision makers should act in accordance with certain virtues of behavior, or character traits, such as truthfulness, trustworthiness, respect, fairness, responsibility, ...
Utilitarianism: Here the decision-maker evaluates harms and benefits of alternative decisions using a calculus/weighting approach. Under act utilitarianism, the decision would be to select the act where the benefits to the stakeholders exceed the harms (i.e. , net benefits are greater than any other act I might take). The problem here is a decision-maker might weigh the alternative to manipulate the statements as having greater value than conforming to the rules. An alternative is to apply rule-utilitarianism where regardless of utilitarian benefits certain rules should never be violated, such as always follow proper accounting rules regardless of the consequences on others.
An alternative is to apply rule-utilitarianism where regardless of utilitarian benefits certain rules should never be violated, such as always follow proper accounting rules regardless of the consequences on others.
Ethical decision making is the process in which you aim to make your decisions in line with a code of ethics. To do so, you must seek out resources such as professional guidelines and organizational policies, and rule out any unethical solutions to your problem.
Practicing ethical decision making can help you maintain an honest, supportive, and fair workplace culture, but it's also necessary to ensure your company doesn't get into legal trouble or face major losses down the road.
Lying could destroy your reputation as a leader and employee if your team or boss finds out, and it will be difficult to then prove your integrity. Figure out the guidelines or steps you need to take, and follow those. 2. Your coworker is giving her sister a major discount on your product.
Once you've considered potential solutions using these questions as a guide, you're ready to implement the six necessary steps to make your decision.
Stay open to new and different ideas, and urge other people to share their advice. Consider outside resources , including what other companies have done. Ultimately you'll want a list of at least three to five potential solutions. This way, you avoid feeling like it's an either/or situation.
When you encounter so many diverse viewpoints on a daily basis, your wrong can seem right to someone else, and vice versa . In these instances, it's critical you and your team knows how to make ethical decisions for the company.
Unfortunately, you could get into legal trouble for lying in a contract, and you don't want to set a precedent of lying and essentially stealing from clients to close deals. Be upfront and own up to the misinformation, and then work with the client to create a new deal. Ideally, the client will appreciate your honesty.
Have a conversation: With the exception of extreme ethics violations, confronting the individual directly first is often the best way to manage a situation. Provide an opportunity for the person to explain his actions or to correct the behavior first. If a direct conversation doesn’t resolve the issue, you may need to inform your manager, HR department or a company ethics hotline.
Unfortunately, when an organization’s leadership makes unethical decisions or even asks employees to conduct business in an unethical matter , this can permeate the company culture and the ethical decision-making process of the entire organization.
Gain perspective: Try to understand what is motivating the unethical request or action. This perspective can help form a response, particularly if there is an ethical way to achieve the same goal.
Focus on your manager’s best interests: If you can’t convince your supervisor yet, it may be time to point out that this will “look bad if it gets out,” writes Anne Fisher in Fortune. Pointing out the disadvantages this unethical action will have on your manager’s career will help your hands stay clean and portray your loyalty.
Common rationalizations may include statements like, “this isn’t a big deal,” or “this is just the way it’s done,” or “this is not my responsibility.” Examine those assumptions to ensure they aren’t simply a way to avoid feeling bad if you don’t take action.
Escalate: If the situation isn’t resolved by clarifying, you’ll need to determine the next person to inform. Depending on your organization, this may be your boss’s leadership, general counsel, a compliance officer, a hotline, an auditor, or an HR representative.
While this may put an economic burden on you, in the long run, you don’t want to stay in a position where you’re asked to violate your morals or where advancement requires unethical behavior.
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.
According to the utilitarians one can determine the ethical significance of any action by looking to the consequences of that act. It Focuses on the philosophy of maximizing the overall good i-e “The greatest good for the greatest number”. It tries both to increase the good done and to reduce the harm done.
For a business to be ethical, its leaders at the top level must demonstrate ethical practices. The true test of this leadership is in the decision-making process when there is a choice between what is ethically responsible and what will result in profit or gain. When the culture is solid at the top of the organization, it trickles down to all lower areas in organization.
An ethical business has concern for anyone and anything impacted by the business. This includes customers, employees, vendors and the public. Every decision made by the business is based on the effect it may have on any one of these groups of people, or the environment surrounding it. (Phillips)
Today we use this idea to say that ethical actions treat all human beings equally-or if unequally, then fairly based on some standard that is defensible. We pay people more based on their hard work or the greater amount that they contribute to an organization, and say that is fair. It looks that whether the decision is defensible or not.
[sky] 2. Rights. This approach believes that humans have a dignity based on their human nature or on their ability to choose freely what they do with their lives. On the basis of such dignity, they have a right to be treated as ends and not merely as means to other ends.
The list of moral rights -including the rights to make one’s own choices about what kind of life to lead, to be told the truth, not to be injured, to a degree of privacy etc. Also, it is known that rights imply duties-in particular, the duty to respect others’ rights. 3. Justice.
Here are the six steps I used to effectively manage this ethical dilemma and can help you handle one, as well: 1. Never Lie. It’s immoral and could cause a bigger problem for you than the original situation. 2. Don’t respond more quickly than you need to.
The reason is that when you agreed to the secrecy there was no direct downside to you or others but the facts on the ground have shifted and had you known that they would you never would have agreed to keep it quiet in the first place. As such, it's morally appropriate for Gamma to release you from the agreement.”.