Steps of The Ethical Steps of The Ethical

STEPS OF THE ETHICAL STEPS OF THE ETHICAL
DECISION
-MAKING PROCESS MAKING PROCESS
EESE Faculty Development Workshop
Douglas R. May, Professor and Co-Director
International Center for Ethics in Business
SUMMARY OF THE STEPS OF THE
ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
1. Gather the facts
2. Define the ethical issues
3. Identify the affected parties (stakeholders)
4. Identify the consequences
5. Identify the obligations (principles, rights, justice)
6. Consider your character and integrity
7. Think creatively about potential actions
8. Check your gut
9. Decide on the proper ethical action and be prepared to
deal with opposing arguments.
1 - GATHER THE FACTS
 Don’t jump to conclusions without the facts
 Questions to ask: Who, what, where, when, how, and
why.
 However, facts may be difficult to find because of the
uncertainty often found around ethical issues
 Some facts are not available
 Assemble as many facts as possible before proceeding
 Clarify what assumptions you are making!
2 – DEFINE THE ETHICAL ISSUE(S)

 Don’t jump to solutions without first identifying the ethical
issue(s) in the situation.
 Define the ethical basis for the issue you want to focus on.
 There may be multiple ethical issues – focus on one major
one at a time.
3 – IDENTIFY THE AFFECTED PARTIES
 Identify all of the stakeholders
 Who are the primary or direct stakeholders?
 Who are the secondary or indirect stakeholders?
 Why are they stakeholders for the issue?
 Perspective-taking -- Try to see things through the eyes
of those individuals affected
4 – IDENTIFY THE CONSEQUENCES
 Think about potential positive and negative consequences for affected
parties by the decision (Focus on primary stakeholders to simplify
analysis until you become comfortable with the process).
 What are the magnitude of the consequences and the probability that
the consequences will happen.
 Short term vs. Long term consequences – will decision be valid over
time.
 Broader systemic consequences – tied to symbolic and secrecy
 Symbolic consequences – Each decision sends a message.
 Secrecy consequences – What are the consequences if the decision
or action becomes public?
 Did you consider relevant cognitive barriers/biases?
 Consider what your decision would be based only on consequences –
then move on and see if it is similar given other considerations.
5 – IDENTIFY THE RELEVANT PRINCIPLES,
RIGHTS, AND JUSTICE ISSUES
 Obligations should be thought of in terms of principles and rights involved
 A) What obligations are created because of particular ethical principles
you might use in the situation?
 Examples: Do no harm; Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you; Do what you would have anyone in your shoes do in the
given context.
 B) What obligations are created because of the specific rights of the
stakeholders?
 What rights are more basic vs. secondary in nature? Which help protect
an individual’s basic autonomy?
 What types of rights are involved – negative or positive?
 C) What concepts of justice (fairness) are relevant – distributive or
procedural justice?
 Did you consider any relevant cognitive barriers/biases?
 Formulate the appropriate decision or action based solely on the above
analysis of these obligations.
6 – CONSIDER YOUR CHARACTER &
INTEGRITY
 Consider what your relevant community members would
consider to be the kind of decision that an individual of
integrity would make in this situation.
 What specific virtues are relevant in the situation?
 Disclosure rule – what would you do if the New York Times
reported your action and everyone was to read it.
 Think about how your decision will be remembered when
you are gone.
 Did you consider any relevant cognitive biases/barriers?
 What decision would you come to based solely on
character considerations?
7 – THINK CREATIVELY ABOUT POTENTIAL
ACTIONS
 Be sure you have not been unnecessarily forced into a
corner
 You may have some choices or alternatives that have not
been considered
 If you have come up with solutions “a” and “b,” try to
brainstorm and come up with a “c” solution that might
satisfy the interests of the primary parties involved in the
situation.
8 – CHECK YOUR GUT
 Even though the prior steps have argued for a highly
rational process, it is always good to “check your gut.”
 Intuition is gaining credibility as a source for good
decision making – knowing something is not “right.”
• Particularly relevant if you have a lot of experience in
the area – expert decision-making.
9 – DECIDE ON YOUR COURSE OF ACTION AND PREPARE
RESPONSES TO THOSE WHO MAY OPPOSE YOUR POSITION
 Consider potential actions based on the consequences,
obligations, and character approaches.
 Do you come up with similar answers from the different
perspectives?
 Do the obligation and character help you “check” the
consequentialist preferred action?
 How can you protect the rights of those involved (or your
own character) while still maximizing the overall good for
all of the stakeholders?
 What arguments are most compelling to you to justify the
action ethically? How will you respond to those with
opposing viewpoints?
1 Identify the Ethical Problem The decision maker must be able to determine:
• if there is a possible violation of an important ethical principle, societal law, or

organizational standard or policy.
• if there are potential consequences that should be sought or avoided that emanate from an
action being considered to resolve the problem.
2 Collect Relevant Information.
• The decision maker should seek to gather as much information as possible about which rights
are being forsaken and to what degree.
• A consequential focus would prompt the decision maker to attempt to measure the type,
degree, and amount of harm being inflicted or that will be inflicted on others.
3 Evaluate the Information.

• Once the information has been collected, the decision maker must apply some type of
standard or assessment criterion to evaluate the situation.
• The decision maker might use one of the predominant ethics theories—utilitarianism, rights,
or justice.
4 Consider Alternatives The decision maker needs to generate a set of possible action
alternatives, such as:
• confronting another person’s actions,

• seeking a higher authority, or
• stepping in and changing the direction of what is happening.
5 Make a Decision
• The decision maker should seek the action alternative that is supported by the evaluation
criteria used in Step 3.
• A decision maker selects a course of action that is supported by all the ethics theories or
other evaluation criteria used in the decision- making process.
6 Act or Implement
• The decision maker, if truly seeking to resolve the problem being considered, must take
action.
• Once the action alternatives have been identified in Step 4 and the optimal response is
selected in Step 5, the action is taken in Step 6.
7 Review the Action
• Once the action has been taken and the results are known, the decision maker should review
the consequences of the action.
• If the optimal resolution to the problem is not achieved, the decision maker may need to
modify the actions being taken or return to the beginning of the decision-making process.

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STEPS OF THE ETHICAL STEPS OF THE ETHICAL

2 – DEFINE THE ETHICAL ISSUE(S)

• if there is a possible violation of an important ethical principle, societal law, or

3 Evaluate the Information.

• confronting another person’s actions,

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