The Ethical Decision Making Process

Conditions: As a leader faced with a situation which requires you to make an ethical decision.

The method of ethical decision making which was developed by Dr. Cathryn A. Baird presented two components contained in all ethical decisions which are; The Four ethical Lenses and the 4+1 Decision process. The Four Ethical Lenses issue claims that different ethical theories and the means in which we tend to approach the situations which form part of our ethical traditions are looked at in four different perspectives. From each perspective there are different values on which to decide whether the action taken is either ethical or not and each lens also lays emphasis on determining whether the decision made is of ethical requirement. In the 4+1 Decision Process, people who are responsible for making final decisions in an organization do it

The issue of ethical decision making has become more important in recent years for a variety of reasons. An understanding of ethical decision making in organizations is more significant to the development of organizational science. Managers engage in decision-making behavior affecting the lives and well-being of others. The individual responds to an ethical dilemma with cognitions determined by his or her cognitive moral development stage.

Management is often faced with ethical dilemmas that have no clear cut correct answer. In our case study, (1)Desperate Air, George Nash, Vice President of Real Estate faces a conflict of values similar to the CEO in Seglin’s article, “How to Make Tough Ethical Calls”. They both want to tell the truth and they want to protect their companies, their investors, their employees, and their own livelihood. Neither Mr. Nash nor the CEO conducted a through examination of the problem they faced. I believe the decision to remain silent made by both Nash and the CEO to be short sighted, based solely on short term profit, and would not have been the route I would have taken.

In this paper, I am concerned with applied ethics and decision making using framework for a positive decision in presented scenario (Appendix) which guide the conduct for decisions based on theories about what is morally right or wrong (Reamer, 1993). How this situation dealt with relies on how I make sense of what I believe about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and what factors I believe are worthy of consideration.

Before beginning this class, I did not realize that there were so many ethical problems occurring on a daily basis, whether it is personal or business. Many problems that occur around my workplace seemed to be regular, everyday problems, and I never thought of them as being ethical or non-ethical. Unfortunately, this is probably the reason that so many ethical problems continue to occur within a company without being corrected; due to the fact that the issue at hand is not seen as an ethical problem, many people do not take the necessary steps to correct the problem. During this class, I gained knowledge on the 8-step decision making process that is described by Nelson and Treviño that helps an individual make the best decision when

One of the goals of education is to apply skills learnt in classroom to real world through one's critical thinking. However, there must be ethical code and guidelines to help resolve ethical concerns. This requires a deep knowledge of ethical decision making steps. These steps come from the ethical commitment to reach an effective ethical decision making (Fisher, 2013). The following is a synopsis of three cases selected for applying ethical decision making steps.

Throughout the last century, The Unites States of America has been affectionately dubbed, “the melting pot.” Although our Western culture was built on a multicultural foundation, we have nevertheless failed, “to embrace many of the needs, views, and perspectives specific to those not considered part” of the dominant White-Western culture. Only in recent decades have we truly started to address this gap and the needs associated with serving others from a culturally sensitive standpoint. The American Counseling Association (ACA) has slowly adapted to these needs by integrating culturally sensitive language in the ACA Code of Ethics; however, culture permeates every aspect and every level of the counseling process and does not stand alone.

I believe the initial considerations are related to Bill making a good faith effort to protect his client (the child) and provide confidentiality using a sound ethical decision-making model, his ethical identity, the code, and the agreed upon “informed consent”. He is now on the witness stand in a courtroom testifying. His role should be that he is a clinical mental health counselor in private practice and his client is the child. However, I believe Bill has made some mistakes along the way with his decision-making, the use of the code, and now his ethical identity is challenged in what could be a high pressure courtroom setting. It does seem that he is not actually sure what his role is at the moment.

The son of Mr. X called me and begged me to administer Euthanasia as a measure to alleviate his pain, but I refused to take this action. I was encouraged by my colleagues to take the action but I was heavily judged by my conscience. The ethical dilemma made me to delay making and decision. This matter requires further authorization from the senior officers, which was an ethical dilemma to them as well.

Making ethical decisions often requires a trade-off. Whether it be for an organizational formation or individual, there is always a cost. After a number of scandals from ethical misconduct within Enron, the proper course of action was once questionable, but now revealed. Nevertheless, organizations continue to struggle with moral decision-making on a daily basis as they consider the cost of making such decisions. Throughout this paper, I will discuss the key components of the ethical decision making process, the connection between Enron, and personal experience of making ethical decisions from employment history.

The foundation to any ethical decision making process is adherence to the principles of independence and beneficence. The Ethical decision making is a process that can be refined and used in addressing any ethical dilemma. An

Every individual is faces with ethical decisions every day in both their personal and professional lives. To avoid making unethical decisions, one must know what leads to poor decision making. Once a person knows what leads to the poor decision, they must find ways to resist making an unethical act. A person cannot make the right choice if they do not know how to avoid it. A leader must also know how to inspire ethical decisions within their staff. This paper covers ways to avoid making poor decisions and ways to making ethical ones.

Can we improve the effectiveness of decision-making in the workplace; absolutely, but the question remains, how, and by what measure, if we take the ethical decision tree as an example, it narrows the deciding factor down to four ethical questions and from there we can make an intelligent decision, first is it legal, secondly, will maximize shareholder value, thirdly, is the proposed action ethical, and fourthly, would be ethical not to take action.

It is a relevant ethical dilemma because it is a situation in which an ethical decision needs to be made by a businessman (CFO of Gabriel Resources) where viable options to this case are available which will be judged further in this essay by applying ethical theory and concepts.