Ethical Decision Making in Everyday

Work Situations
What is an ethical decision making?
Ethical decision-making models
Ethical decision-making process

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What is the difference between Ethics
and Morals
The words "Ethics" and "Morals" are frequently used
interchangeably and relate to the "wrong" and "right"
conduct. Ethics refer to behaviour customary in a culture or
society, whereas Morals refer to personal standards of right
and wrong. Morals do not change as a person moves from one
society to the next, while ethics could change with the
addition and loss of community members. Business ethics is
associated with the creation and application of moral
standards in a business setting.

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What is an ethical decision making?
Ethical decision-making refers to the process of evaluating and
choosing among alternatives in a manner consistent with ethical
principles. In making ethical decisions, it is necessary to perceive
and eliminate unethical options and select the best ethical
alternative.
The process of making ethical decisions requires:
Commitment: The desire to do the right thing regardless of the
cost
Consciousness: The awareness to act consistently and apply moral
convictions to daily behaviour
Competency: The ability to collect and evaluate information,
develop alternatives, and foresee potential consequences and risks
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Good decisions are both ethical and effective:
Ethical decisions generate and sustain trust; demonstrate
respect, responsibility, fairness and caring; and are consistent
with good citizenship. These behaviours provide a foundation
for making better decisions by setting the ground rules for our
behaviour.
Effective decisions are effective if they accomplish what we
want accomplished and if they advance our purposes. A choice
that produces unintended and undesirable results is
ineffective. The key to making effective decisions is to think
about choices in terms of their ability to accomplish our most
important goals. This means we have to understand the
difference between immediate and short-term goals and
longer-range goals.

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Ethical decision-making models
When you're making a major decision for your company, it can
be tempting to choose the easiest or most cost-effective
course of action -- even if that option isn't the best from an
ethical standpoint.
The PLUS model, a set of questions designed to help you make
a decision from an ethical point of view, can ensure you're
doing the right thing.
The PLUS model is especially objective because it doesn't
focus on revenue or profit, but rather urges leaders to take a
legal and fair approach to a problem.

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PLUS Model:
P = Policies and Procedures (Does this decision align with
company policies?)
L = Legal (Does this decision violate any laws or regulations?)
U = Universal (Is this decision in line with core values and
company culture? How does it relate to our organizational
values?)
S = Self (Does it meet my standards of fairness and honesty?)
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.

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Ethical Decision Making Process
When you come across a difficult problem that threatens your
company's integrity or beliefs (or could be illegal), you'll want
to employ these six steps to make an ethical decision.
Step One: Define the Problem
Use PLUS filters to define your problem, and how it might
affect one of the PLUS acronyms. Is it illegal, or does it violate
your company's values? Make sure you've outlined the full
scope of the problem -- be honest with yourself about it, even
if you're partially at fault.

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Step Two: Seek Out Resources
It can be difficult, if not impossible, to reach an objective
solution on your own. To fairly evaluate your problem, you'll
want to seek out all available resources. These resources
might be mentors, co-workers, or even friends and family, but
they could also be professional guidelines and organizational
policies. Make sure you've armed yourself with knowledge to
understand the extent of the damage.

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Step Three: Brainstorm a List of Potential Solutions
When you're brainstorming a list of potential solutions to your
problem, you don't want to only consider what's been done
before. 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.

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Step Four: Evaluate Those Alternatives
Dive into your list of potential solutions, and consider all
positive and negative consequences of taking each action. It's
important you consider how likely those consequences are to
occur, as well. You'll again want to refer to resources,
guidelines, and standards. For instance, you might decide one
solution has only one negative consequence, but that negative
consequence has a high likelihood of happening. Another
solution has two negative consequences, but both are
extremely unlikely. These are important factors to weigh when
making your decision.

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Step Five: Make Your Decision, and Implement It
At this stage, you've got all the information you need to make
a fair and ethical decision. If you've made the decision alone
but need to share it with your team, create a proposal
outlining why you chose this route, and what alternatives you
considered, so they can understand your steps. Transparency
is key. Your team needs to understand you used appropriate
and objective measures to find a solution.

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Step Six: Evaluate Your Decision
Now that you've implemented your solution, decide whether
your problem was fixed or not. If there are unforeseen
consequences, perhaps you want to consider alternative
measures to combat the problem, or refer to outside
guidance.

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Role play
Situation 1
Your team misses an important deadline, and you're tempted
to tell your boss you reached it anyway.

Situation 2
Your co-worker is giving her sister a major discount on your
product.

Situation 3
You're close to finalizing a deal when you find out some of the
information you've provided the client isn't true.
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Questions?

Homework
Read on Information ethics

Next Lecture
Information ethics

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