Five Sources of Ethical Standards. The Utilitarian Approach. ... The Rights Approach. Other philosophers and ethicists suggest that the ethical action is the one that best protects and respects the moral rights of those affected. ... The Fairness or Justice Approach. ... The Common Good Approach. ... The Virtue Approach.
The most widely known is the one introduced by Beauchamp and Childress. This framework approaches ethical issues in the context of four moral principles: respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice (see table 1).
Ethical frameworks are designed and implemented to ensure that the choices and actions of an organization or company reflect and uphold its ethics. Rather than providing step-by-step processes, frameworks outline the key aspects of ethical solutions to routine problems.
In brief these are: 1) modify human practices when possible; 2) justify the need for control; 3) have clear and achievable outcome-based objectives; 4) cause the least harm to animals; 5) consider community values and scientific information; 6) include long-term systematic management; and 7) base control on the ...
Ethics is traditionally subdivided into normative ethics, metaethics, and applied ethics.
These three theories of ethics (utilitarian ethics, deontological ethics, virtue ethics) form the foundation of normative ethics conversations.
These questions help individuals reflect and relate to the various approaches for making ethical decisions, which include utilitarian, rights, justice/fairness, common good and virtue. Apply relevant laws and regulations.
Sources of Ethics Religion: 6. Genetic Inheritance: 8. Philosophical Systems: 8. Cultural Experience: 8. The Legal System: 9. Codes of Conduct: 9.
Ethical behavior suggests someone is honest and forthright in communications whether written or oral. A salesperson explaining potential problems with a product is being honest. A customer service representative taking responsibility for failing to follow through with a service action is making an ethical decision.
Nine Basic Steps to Personal Ethical Decision MakingPractice ethical behavior actively. ... Beware of "new" ethics programs. ... Define the ethical problem when it arises. ... Formulate alternatives. ... Evaluate the alternatives. ... Seek additional assistance, as appropriate. ... Choose the best ethical alternative.More items...
Ethical decisions generate and sustain trust; demonstrate respect, responsibility, fairness and caring; and are consistent with good citizenship. These behaviors provide a foundation for making better decisions by setting the ground rules for our behavior.
Step 1: Identify the Facts Given that ethical issues often arise because of a lack of sufficient information or evidence, as well as disagreements about the facts, the first step in the ethical decision-making process is an explicit call for identification of the facts.
Nurses are advocates for patients and must find a balance while delivering patient care. There are four main principles of ethics: autonomy, beneficence, justice, and non-maleficence. Each patient has the right to make their own decisions based on their own beliefs and values. [4].
These questions help individuals reflect and relate to the various approaches for making ethical decisions, which include utilitarian, rights, justice/fairness, common good and virtue. Apply relevant laws and regulations.
1) Democratic accountability of administration, 2) The rule of law and the principle of legality, 3) Professional integrity and 4) Responsiveness to civil society.
Being trustworthy: honouring the trust placed in the practitioner. Autonomy: respect for the client's right to be self-governing. Beneficence: a commitment to promoting the client's wellbeing. Non-maleficence: a commitment to avoiding harm to the client.
MAKING CHOICES: A FRAMEWORK FOR MAKING ETHICAL DECISIONS. Decisions about right and wrong permeate everyday life. Ethics should concern all levels of life: acting properly as individuals, creating responsible organizations and governments, and making our society as a whole more ethical. This document is designed as an introduction ...
Making ethical decisions requires sensitivity to the ethical implications of problems and situations. It also requires practice. Having a framework for ethical decision making is essential. We hope that the information above is helpful in developing your own experience in making choices.
Obviously, this framework is useful in situations that ask what sort of person one should be. As a way of making sense of the world, it allows for a wide range of behaviors to be called ethical, as there might be many different types of good character and many paths to developing it. Consequently, it takes into account all parts of human experience and their role in ethical deliberation, as it believes that all of one’s experiences, emotions, and thoughts can influence the development of one’s character.
Ethics is sometimes conflated or confused with other ways of making choices, including religion, law or morality. Many religions promote ethical decision-making but do not always address the full range of ethical choices that we face. Religions may also advocate or prohibit certain behaviors which may not be considered the proper domain of ethics, such as dietary restrictions or sexual behaviors. A good system of law should be ethical, but the law establishes precedent in trying to dictate universal guidelines, and is thus not able to respond to individual contexts. Law may have a difficult time designing or enforcing standards in some important areas, and may be slow to address new problems. Both law and ethics deal with questions of how we should live together with others, but ethics is sometimes also thought to apply to how individuals act even when others are not involved. Finally, many people use the terms morality and ethics interchangeably. Others reserve morality for the state of virtue while seeing ethics as a code that enables morality. Another way to think about the relationship between ethics and morality is to see ethics as providing a rational basis for morality, that is, ethics provides good reasons for why something is moral.
Others reserve morality for the state of virtue while seeing ethics as a code that enables morality. Another way to think about the relationship between ethics and morality is to see ethics as providing a rational basis for morality, that is, ethics provides good reasons for why something is moral. 2.
This even-handedness encourages treating everyone with equal dignity and respect.
Among the advantages of this ethical framework is that focusing on the results of an action is a pragmatic approach. It helps in situations involving many people, some of whom may benefit from the action, while others may not.
An ethical decision-making model is a framework that leaders use to bring these principles to the company and ensure they are followed.
Leaders have to develop ethical standards that employees in their company will be required to adhere to. This can help move the conversation toward using a model to decide when someone is in violation of ethics. There are five sources of ethical standards: Utilitarian.
A virtue approach requires leaders to base ethical standards on universal virtues such as honesty, courage, compassion, tolerance, and many others. Principles that are chosen should cause people to strive to be their better selves and wonder if an inappropriate action will negatively impact their inherent desire to be kind to others.
The intent is for people to be treated fairly and with dignity and not as a means to an end. Fairness.
This ethical standard puts a lot of emphasis on relationships, and how compassion for the fellow man should drive people to do good by others.
A general definition of business ethics is that it is a tool an organization uses to make sure that managers, employees, and senior leadership always act responsibly in the workplace with internal and external stakeholders.
It might also be helpful to take a look at the mistakes the leader’s company and other organizations have made and learn from them. Everyone does not always get it right 100 percent of the time. Therefore, it is essential to see the good and bad side to become even more informed about a decision that should be made.
Based upon the three-part division of traditional normative ethical theories discussed above, it makes sense to suggest three broad frameworks to guide ethical decision making: The Consequentialist Framework; The Duty Framework; and the Virtue Framework.
Making ethical decisions requires sensitivity to the ethical implications of problems and situations. It also requires practice. Having a framework for ethical decision making is essential. We hope that the information above is helpful in developing your own experience in making choices.
This document is designed as an introduction to making ethical decisions. It recognizes that decisions about “right” and “wrong” can be difficult, and may be related to individual context. It first provides a summary of the major sources for ethical thinking, and then presents a framework for decision-making.
Ethics is sometimes conflated or confused with other ways of making choices, including religion, law or morality. Many religions promote ethical decision-making but do not always address the full range of ethical choices that we face. Religions may also advocate or prohibit certain behaviors which may not be considered the proper domain of ethics, such as dietary restrictions or sexual behaviors. A good system of law should be ethical, but the law establishes precedent in trying to dictate universal guidelines, and is thus not able to respond to individual contexts. Law may have a difficult time designing or enforcing standards in some important areas, and may be slow to address new problems. Both law and ethics deal with questions of how we should live together with others, but ethics is sometimes also thought to apply to how individuals act even when others are not involved. Finally, many people use the terms morality and ethics interchangeably. Others reserve morality for the state of virtue while seeing ethics as a code that enables morality. Another way to think about the relationship between ethics and morality is to see ethics as providing a rational basis for morality, that is, ethics provides good reasons for why something is moral.
In the Consequentialist framework, we focus on the future effects of the possible courses of action, considering the people who will be directly or indirectly affected. We ask about what outcomes are desirable in a given situation, and consider ethical conduct to be whatever will achieve the best consequences. The person using the Consequences framework desires to produce the most good.
Many ethical situations are uncomfortable because we can never have all of the information. Even so, we must often take action.
In the Duty framework, we focus on the duties and obligations that we have in a given situation, and consider what ethical obligations we have and what things we should never do. Ethical conduct is defined by doing one’s duties and doing the right thing, and the goal is performing the correct action.
The key is to understand the reasoning that we employ in ethical decision making so we can become more proficient. Ethical frameworks are perspectives useful for reasoning what course of action may provide the most moral outcome.
Care-based Ethics : What is moral is that which promotes healthy relationships and the well-being of individuals and their interdependence. The videos below provide a description of these.
Deontology : What is moral is what follows from absolute moral duties.
In many cases, a person may not use a reasoning process but rather do what they simply feel is best at the time. Others may reflexively use a principle they learned from their family, peers, religious teachings or own experiences. The study of ethics has provided many principles that can aid in ethical decision making.
If we combine these five standards, we can develop a general framework for ethics (or ethical decision making). This framework consists of five steps:4. Make a decision and test it
states that an ethical action is the one that provides the most good or does the least harm. The ethical corporate action would be the one that produces the greatest good and does the least harm for all affected parties—customers, employees, shareholders, the community, and the physical environment.
states that the morality of an action is based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather than based on the consequences of that action. An example of deontology is the belief that killing someone is wrong, even if it was in self-defense
Privacy rights apply to individuals, groups, and institutions.
code of ethics. Most universities publish a set of rules about handling academic problems such as cheating and plagiarism. Students who violate these rules are often referred to the university's Honor Committee that evaluates the charges and decides what, if any, punishment is appropriate. This set of written rules is an example of a (n)
When marketers work in controversial or polluting industries such as tobacco or fossil fuels, their central activities largely bar them from becoming conscious marketers.