A Framework for Ethical Decision Making
Developed by the Markulla Centre for Ethics at Santa Clara University, USA.
Introduction: “Ethics provides a set of standards for behaviour that helps us decide how we ought to act in a situation. In a sense, we can say that ethics is all about making choices…..”
Recognise an ethical issue:
Assess what exactly is the ethical issue. What are the implications of what’s proposed or being considered? For whom? What, in your judgement, would make it a right or wrong choice?
Consider the Parties involved
: Who may be affected by your choice or decision? Which of them would be the most important and why? Who would be negatively affected or harmed? Who would benefit? How fair/unfair is it to each? On what basis do you decide what is fair or unfair, right or wrong?
Gather all the relevant information:
Why wouldn’t you want all the information you can get, and that includes contrarian or alternative views? Surely having the fullest possible picture would be the sensible thing. You do that in Financial Risk Assessment, so why not in Ethical Risk Assessment?
Formulate Actions and Consider Alternatives
: Evaluate your options. And remember that you may be faced with conflicting choices based on the three mentioned Ethics theories or others. So, can you clearly stand over your reasons for whichever you choose?
Make a Decision and Consider it
: Which choice option that you examined presents the “best” option and don’t forget how you define what is “best”. After all that, how do you feel about your choice decision?
Act:
Many choice situations are uncomfortable because we may not have been able to get all the information possible. But don’t leave out something simply because you don’t like it. At the end of it all, you have to choose, you have to select an action. And stand over it.
Reflect on the outcome:
What are the outcomes that seem to be emerging? Are there unintended consequences (as well as intended)? Would you change anything after you have seen emerging consequences or outcomes? Are they as fair as you had planned?