The Elements and Impact of Ethical Decision Making

1440 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ethical dilemmas

The Elements and Impact of Ethical Decision Making We must first examine the thinking process and define the meaning of morality. We continually make decisions without regard to ethics or moral values on a daily basis. We can define morality as a system of shared rules, or values that dictate specific behavior during the interaction of people. Morality or moral value is about doing the right thing and brings up questions on how we ought to act in any given situation. According to John Wilcox and Susan Ebbs, in The Leadership Compass, "Moral behavior is concerned primarily with how we treat one another individually and in groups… - the key then is that morality brings us in contact with others and asks us to consider the quality of that contact" (Shanks, 1997). This paper will discuss the elements of an ethically defendable decision and the impact of ethics on decision-making.

Elements and Ground Rules

As in problem solving, we must first identify the problem, so to in morally sound decision-making, we must first identify or recognize a moral issue. We do this by asking questions that determining whether an action is right or wrong according to the standards of a given society. What is acceptable in one society may not be morally acceptable in another; however, the ethical relevancy of the behavior does not change. Questions like, Will this behavior cause harm to someone? Could this b...

... middle of paper ...

...ion today? Did I do more good than harm? Was I fair and just? There are more, but I think you get my point. The impact of ethics in decision-making is that it challenges us to become better individuals all around, by making us aware of our own actions and behavior. We are really talking about expectations and we should not expect more than we are willing to put back into society.

References

Shanks, Thomas S. J., (1997). Markula center for applied ethics. Everyday Ethics. Retrieved on

January 30, 2004, from: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v8n1/everdayethics.html.

Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, Thomas S. J., & Meyer, M. J., (no date). Markkula center for

applied ethics. Thinking Ethically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making. Retrieved on

January 24, 2004, from: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/thinking.html

Show More
Related

  • Kroger Ethical Decision Making

    465 Words  | 1 Pages

    Ethical decision-making is the responsibility of everyone, regardless of position or level within an organization. Interestingly, the importance of stressing employee awareness, improving decisions, and coming to an ethical resolution are the greatest benefits to most companies in today’s world (Weber, 2015).

    Read More

  • Essay on Character, Symbolism, and Language in Linda Pastan's Ethics

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pastan has created a vivid example of the difficulty of making choices in "Ethics."  People seldom realize the repercussions their choices may make.  As people grow older and learn more, they tend to see how ignorant some of their choices were.  The same can be said of society.  Although a great many wrong choices have been made along the way, it is not too late for society to once again put value on what it already has instead of what it might have.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Ethical Decision Making

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bush, S. S., Connell, M. A., & Denney, R. L. (2006). Ethical Practice in Forensic Psychology: A Systematic Model for Decision Making. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11469-001

    Read More

  • Ethical Decision-Making: A Case Study

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    On April 24th, 2014, one simple recording released by TMZ made Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, the most hated man in America. In this recording, Sterling ranted over the fact how he did not want V. Stiviano, his partner, to be affiliated with any African Americans. As a result of his racist statements, fans, athletes, and sports organizations/members, voiced their opinions on the matter, flourishing social media. Many star players such as LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and a majority the Clippers players acknowledged that something had to be done, and that the NBA is no place for racism. In the end, after team owners took a vote, NBA commissioner Adam Silver held a press conference enlightening the public

    Read More

  • The Beneficence Of Ethical Decision Making In Healthcare

    1710 Words  | 4 Pages

    Making the moral right decision is never seen on paper. What could be seen as the right thing to do, may not be the right thing for other people. Also, making decisions and then having to face them later on, can impose a difficult problem for many people. Many of us have made a decision that we end up regretting later on. In the healthcare field, decision making could be life and death of a patient

    Read More

  • The Ethics Decision Making Framework: The Ethical Decision-Making Framework

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    Workplace ethics engages in judgements and collective agreements regarding a suitable guide of behaviour. The ethical decision making framework (EDM) presents, business decision is ethical or unethical.EDM provides an indication of traditional decision making process and issues that manipulate ethical decisions. Employees tend to fraud because they can experience the unfair treatments or situation that they face. Manages may ask employee to work long hours, and then they can take additional time off. Good performance leads to remunerations and appreciation managers than workers.

    Read More

  • What is Good?

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... morality is more important in making a decision than anything else and it is important for one to understand that he/she should uphold his/her personal standards before anyone else's wants, desires, or beliefs are adhered to. An ethical decision that does not uphold one's personal moral beliefs is not a good decision and shouldn't be made. Something that will bring good into one's life is a decision that is made upholding their personal moral beliefs, whether or not that decision agrees with the ethical stance on the issue. It is the individual's responsibility to make a moral decision regardless of the ethical standing in order to achieve this good. Society wants most of the people to do what is right most of the time, encouraging the people to be moral in their decisions, causing good in our everyday life, even concerning the most minute details of our lives.

    Read More

  • Common Ethical Approaches

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ethics refers to the standards for human behavior which are being accepted by society. It can be said in order to be ethical the human beings behave as per standards. Ethical decision making refers to the process of making decisions in which the most ethical alternative is being selected. There are various approaches in determining the ethical standards. Various approaches for determining ethical are: - Common moral benefits, Virtues based, Rights, Justice, Theological, Utilitarian, Deontological etc(Larry, Chobanian, & Wong, 2001). This paper provides the detailed analysis of Rights, virtue, feminist, and common morality theories, and their impact on ethical decision.

    Read More

  • Immanuel Kant's The Quinlan Case

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    What is ethics? Ethics are the philosophical principles of good verses bad moral behavior. It is a guideline to help people make decisions or make a judgment calls. There are two main types of ethical principles that will be discussed in this paper, and how they are applied to the decision making process. They are Deontological and Utilitarian. Deontological ethics are based on the righteousness or wrongness of the action-taking place. It does not base itself on the bad or good consequences that come from the action. Immanuel Kant introduced deontological ethics in the 18th century. Kant believed that every decision or action made by a person had to be evaluated by his or her moral duty. He stated that humanity shouldn’t side on its

    Read More

  • The Case Study Concerning Joelle

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ethics plays a very important role in one social system and basically on how the people will make their actions or decide on a particular thing on whether it is the right or the wrong thing. Ethical consideration is very important. It helps a person or a group of person understands whether the actions are right or wrong. Ethics is a very critical factor most especially when considering where the ethical standards are to applied. Aside from it, weighing results of actions or decision is also another major concern because of the fact that a person has critically analyze whose side is needed to satisfied. There are instances that moral obligations are also considered, in which moral is defined as a universal accepted personal human behavior that allows a person to decide whether an action or decision is good or bad.

    Read More

  • Ethics in Business Decision Making

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior (Fieser, 2009). Many of the decisions one faces in a typical day could result in a multitude of outcomes. At times it can be hard to determine whether or not the decision you are making is an ethical one. Many philosophies have been devised to illustrate the different ways of evaluating moral decisions. Normative ethics focuses on assessing right and wrong behavior. This may involve reinforcing positive habits, duties we should follow, or the consequences of our behavior (Fieser, 2009). Of the many normative philosophies two stand out to be most accepted; teleology and deontology. Although they oppose each other in how actions are evaluated, they uphold many similar characteristics under the surface.

    Read More

  • Ethics And Ethical Systems

    1378 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, arranging moral precepts into ethical systems facilitates understanding of well-defined values, norms, and beliefs adopted by a group. In turn, groups express these beliefs by codifying them through rules, laws, and codes of conduct intended to influence decision-making, especially when a poor decision would lead to corruption, and loss of professional trust. More importantly, ethical systems provide moral justification for activities that appear to defy innate human instincts. Lastly, ethics provide insight into the cause and effect of a potential action or decision, allowing the group to determine what is right (ethical, effective, and efficient) within an established framework. All of these ethical characteristics are important to understand because they can compel an individual or group to act contrary to a universal human

    Read More

  • The Importance of Critical Thinking and Ethical Decision Making on Social Work

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Ethical Decision Making

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    Generally, ethics is defined as standards of performance that explains how human beings should opt to react during many circumstances in which they meet with friends, citizens, parents, teachers, children, professionals, and businesspeople among others. However, ethics is different from feelings, as feelings make significant information’s available for our ethical preferences. Although some people posses highly mature behaviors that formulate them to feel awful when they get involved in the wrongdoings, most of the people normally enjoy doing bad things.

    Read More

  • The Seven Step Model Of Moral Decision Making

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    How do we make ethical decisions? Each of us are faced with this question at some point in our lives. Often, an individual will act impulsively, and without thinking, in regards to their decisions. Rae (2009) has devised a seven step model in regards to moral decision making. This model allows and individual to use their own moral rules to come to a justly option in regards to their ethical dilemma. This model works with any religious or world viewpoint, Rae states that “given the ethnic and religious diversity of our society, the model used for making ethical decisions should be able to accommodate a variety of different moral and ethical perspectives” (p.105). Therefore, regardless of ethnicity or religious backgrounds anyone can be comfortable

    Read More

More about The Elements and Impact of Ethical Decision Making

Open Document