Thinking Ethically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making

between two sets of human values, both of which are judged to be “good” but neither of

Every day people make decisions that may have profound effect on their personal and/or professional lives as well as the lives of others. The decision people make have a foundation on their personal, cultural, and perhaps organizational values. When these values are in disagreement, an ethical dilemma occurs.

Every day we are faced with certain situations that challenge us with how to act in an ethical manner. It can be human nature to feel unsure or conflicted with the correct moral choice. Some can say that one should know how to handle such dilemmas and others may say that there should be a reference of some sort to help guide through such conflicts. Sometimes we know the answers and sometimes we are unsure of how to handle certain situations. Most times we go through life wondering what we should do. As I become further educated on the different theories of ethics, I believe there are answers that are available in guiding one through an ethical dilemma and or judgment. I will discuss Vincent Ruggiero’s three basic criteria, Robert Kegan’s order of consciousness, the three schools of ethics and the correlation between all three.

For a given ethical dilemma, there is usually a dominant pair. Frequently, more than one must be considered, and sometimes all four. But, as Kidder

This research focuses on the importance of moral behavior and its relations with critical thinking. In order to do this I chose to view a certain situation that occurred and had the qualities to prove and discuss my main topic. I chose to use a recent story that occurred during the 2016 NFL Draft, in which a player by the name Laremy Tunsil was publicly humiliated due to him going against his moral behavior. His agent, family, and himself all had to find a way to quickly and critically think how to fix their problem. Through social media and television Mr. Tunsil found himself defending his moral behavior and redeeming himself in order to be drafted.

Ethical dilemma is often defined as a situation involving two choices that will both have a negative result or both have a positive result. Knowing this, ethical dilemma is found in your every day lives and is illustrated in ways that might not be recognizable at all times. Remember the Titans is a film produced in 2000 about two high schools, one white and one black school, which are combined and integrated. The movie is shown through the eyes and ways of the high school football team where the teams is forced to integrate and they learn to depend on each other. Ethical dilemma is found in this movie several times, but there is one that is found in the basis of the movie, racism.

Right versus right moral dilemma causes conflict which is recognized in the two cases and each case, a person considers themselves as having moral intentions. The moral dilemma is about an attorney’s emotional conflict with his professional obligations. “A right versus right situation occurs when one is faced with an urgent and intricate situation that makes you make choices about your integrity and moral character” (Badaracco Jr., 2009). The essential features of a moral dilemma are that people are required to do one of two or more actions. When people are given a choice it creates a moral dilemma. “If the people seems condemned to moral failure, no matter what he or she does, they will do something wrong or possibly fail to do something that he or she ought to do.”(MCConnell 2014)

An ethical dilemma is a situation that will often involve an apparent conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another. This is also called an ethical paradox since in moral philosophy, paradox plays a central role in ethics debates. For instance, an ethical admonition to "love thy neighbour as thy self" is not always just in contrast with, but sometimes in contradiction to an armed neighbour actively trying to kill you: if he or she succeeds, you will not be able to love him or her. But to pre-emptively attack them or restrain them is not usually understood as loving. This is one of the classic examples of an ethical decision clashing or conflicting with an organismic decision, one that would

An ethical dilemma is an incident that causes us to question how we should react based on our beliefs. A decision needs to be made between right and wrong. I have experienced many ethical dilemmas in my lifetime, so I know that there is no such thing as an ethical dilemma that only affects one person. I also know that some ethical dilemmas are easier to resolve than others are. The easy ones are the ones in which we can make decisions on the spot. For example, if a cashier gives me too much change, I can immediately make a decision to either return the money or keep it. Based on Kant’s, categorical imperative there are two criteria for determining moral right and wrong. First, there is universalizability, which states, “the person’s

The ethical decision making process is based on moral rules and unchanging principles that are derived from reason and can be applied universally. These universal rules and principles must be considered separate from the consequences or the facts of a particular situation. (McWay, 2014). Health care workers face ethical issues and have to use the ethical decision making process to determine what is best for their patients.

“Brad is a production engineer at a bicycle company and part of his job includes inspecting broken bikes and drafting the design repairs for their repair” (Bartlett). Brad is considering replacing a broken brake cable with a more durable material, even though the customer did not request it in their order and specifically requested that “No aesthetic changes be made to the bike” (Bartlett). Brad’s manager suggests that his considered actions would go against the company’s policy of “The customer is always right.” Should Brad disobey the manager and the customer to possibly lose his job or go along with

Management constitute amongst major components of a company, organization or a business. As such, management oversees employees interactions with their supervisors and also control of people within a particular organization. Also, it includes critical and ethical decision-making process so as to address various ethical dilemmas experienced by employees while undertaking their respective assigned duties within the company. Ethical dilemmas are hereby to stay as issues usually arise now and then and place a variety of options that bear different repercussions. Therefore, it calls for ethical and critical decision-making skills so as to make the most appropriate option that bears more benefits in comparison to other options presented. While making ethical decisions, it 's substantially important to play heed to a certain ethical decision-making theory. This would enable an individual making the decision to ripe best possible consequences rather than living to regret. Moreover, ethical decision making is typically important in business as making a wrong decision may result not only in huge losses but also poor relationship amongst colleagues and miserable life for employee(s) working in a particular company or business in question.

The ethical dilemma is a situation by which it’s difficult to determine whether a situation is can be handled without disappointing both sides. Therefore, an ethical dilemma exists when the right thing to do is clear or when members of the healthcare team cannot agree on the right thing to do. Ethical dilemmas require negotiation of different points of view (potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall 2011pg 78).

Before a good outcome to an ethical dilemma is achieved obstacles must be overcome through argumentation and analyzing the

Nurses often encountered various ethical dilemmas in the practice setting. Both virtue ethics and caring ethics support good ethical decision making for nurses (Park, 2012, p. 149) but these are inadequate to assist in solving an ethical dilemma (Park, 2012, p. 149). For that reason an ethical decision making tool is helpful for the nurses or clinicians to come up with an ethical decision (Kelly, 2012, p. 571) that allows them to gather information, identify any gap of understanding on the issue or the disagreements between the involved parties through a clear communication (Park, 2012, p. 140). Several authors presented an ethical decision making processes (Park, 2012, p. 141), here presented the two processes that can be applied in resolving an ethical dilemma. One example of ethical decision making process is the DECIDE model by Thompson, Melia & Boyd (Allen, Chapman, Francis, & O’Connor, 2008, p. 5) and the Integrated ethical decision-making model which was derived from the combination of the different ethical decision-making models strengths (Park, 2012, p. 140). These two ethical decision-making model steps are identical to each but differ on the detailed instruction on how the steps are to be done or used in actual case. By comparing the two models the integrated ethical decision-making model have a detailed instruction. The