chapter 3 practicing individual ethics in organizations personal ethical development

Findings from over 800 studies:

Moral reasoning ability generally increases with age The total college experience (inside or outside the classroom) increases moral judgment Those who love learning, taking risks, and meeting challenges generally experience the greater moral growth while in college Ethics courses boost positive effects of college When education stops, moral development plateaus No difference between men and women

Moral Motivation

The motivation to follow through on choices Component 4: Moral Character Executing the plan requires character Must persist in a moral task or action despite obstacles

Emotion in Moral Decision Making

Traditional Perspective: focuses on reason and rejects emotion Contemporary Perspective 1: We cannot make decisions unless we engage our emotions and cognition Evidence from brain damage Cannot make good decisions if emotional capacity is destroyed Evidence from neuroimaging When presented with an ethical dilemma, MRI examinations show that both cognitive and emotional areas of the brain are activated

temporal immediacy

issues are more intense if they are likely to generate harm or good sooner rather than later.

Moral sensitivity

the recognition that an ethical problem exists, such recognition requires us to be aware of how our behavior impact others, to identify possible course of action and determine the consequences of each potential strategy.

Emotion in Moral Decision Making

Components of Ethical Behavior (Rest) Component 1: Moral Sensitivity (Recognition) Component 2: Moral Judgment or Reasoning Kohlberg's Stage Model Rest's Schema Model Component 3: Moral Motivation Component 4: Moral Character *Decision-Making Formats Not covering in class but will be on exam

Components of Ethical Behavior

Component 1: Moral Sensitivity (Recognition) Definition: The recognition that an ethical problem exists We can't solve a moral dilemma unless we know one is present Moral intensity Self-assessment 3.1 Is there an ethical violation? Was harm caused?

Components of Ethical Behavior extended

Component 2: Moral Judgment Definition: After determining that there is an ethical dilemma, we must determine the right or wrong thing to do. Cognitive moral development theories help us understand moral judgment: Kohlberg's Stage Model Rest's Schema Model

Emotion in Moral Decision Making extended

Contemporary Perspective 2: Emotion plays the dominant role in decision making Social Intuitionist Model - Jonathon Haidt: We quickly make ethical determinations based on intuition and social norms and then use logic after the fact to justify our choices The elephant represents automatic processes and the rider represents logic and cognition The elephant is more power and goes wherever it wants but the rider can occasionally steer the elephant in a different direction

The DIT-2 includes:

Five hypothetical moral dilemmas 12 issues that could be involved in making a decision about the dilemma Participants rate each issue and choose the first, second, third, and fourth most important issues for each of the five dilemmas. Participants are also asked what decision they would make in each moral dilemma. These responses are scored to find which moral schema students follow in making moral decision

Components of Ethical Behavior Rest's Schema Model

Kohlberg assessed underlying moral behaviors via interviews Rest replaced the hard stages in Kohlberg's model with developmental schemas Rest's Schema Model Schemas are knowledge and experiences stored in your brain throughout your life that help prepare you to understand new situations and information Personal interests schema: considering what will benefit me and help others to like me Maintaining norms schema: considering what will maintain the law and social order Post-conventional schema: considering human rights and other moral principles Decision makers shift upward adopting more sophisticated moral schema as they develop

Components of Ethical Behavior extended plus

Kohlberg' Stage Model https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7pQJ0ptjk0&feature=related Level I: Pre-conventional (young children) Decisions are made on the basis of direct consequences Stage 1: Obey and avoid punishment Stage 2: Follow rules to meet self interests Level II: Conventional (where most adults fall) Look to others for decision making Stage 3: Strive to live up to expectations Stage 4: Follow laws of society

coalition

is employed when society recognizes that there is a legitimate ethical issues but imaginative decision makers have little power to address the problem.

concentration of effect

causing intense suffering violates our sense of justice and increase moral intensity.

moral muteness

like lack of moral imagination, interferes with the recognition of moral issues.

social consensus

moral issues are meow intense if there is widespread agreement that they are bad or good.

probability of effect

probability of effect is a joint function of the probability that the act in question will actually take place and the act in question will actually cause the harm predicted.

proximity

refers to social cultural psychological or physical distance.

moral imagination

takes different forms depending on wether or not there is general consensus that an ethical problem exists and how much power decision makers have to address r=the problem

magnitude of consequences

the moral intensity of an issue is directly tied to the number of harms or benefits it generates.