The Human Act: Decision Makeing

SCDDCCM

7-step moral reasoning model

Determine facts

Be sure you have adequate information to support an intelligent choice.

Clarify goals

Before you choose, clarify your short-term and long-term aims.

It's just part of the job

Conscientious people who want to do their jobs well often compartmentalize ethics into two categories: private and job-related

Monitor and modify

Ethical decision-makers monitor the effects of their choices.

Consider consequences

Filter your choices to determine if any of your options will violate any core ethical values, and then eliminate any unethical options.

ethical and effective

Good decisions are both ________ and ________

Consider consequences

Identify who will be affected by the decision and how the decision is likely to affect them.

perceive and eliminate unethical options

In making ethical decisions, it is necessary to ________ and _________ and select the best ethical alternative.

Stop and think

It prevents rash decisions, prepares us for more thoughtful discernment, and can allow us to mobilize our discipline.

Choose

Make a decision

The false necessity trap

Necessity is an interpretation and not a fact

Develop options

Once you know what you want to achieve and have made your best judgment as to the relevant facts, make a list of actions you can take to accomplish your goals.

I've got it coming

People who feel overworked/ "minor perks"

Competency

The ability to collect and evaluate information, develop alternatives, and foresee potential consequences and risks

Consciousness

The awareness to act consistently and apply moral convictions to daily behavior

Commitment

The desire to do the right thing regardless of the cost

Commitment, consciousness, competency

The process of making ethical decisions requires these three

ethical decisions

These behaviors provide a foundation for making better decisions by setting the ground rules for our behavior.

If it's necessary, it's ethical

This approach often leads to ends-justify-the-means reasoning and treating non-ethical tasks or goals as moral imperatives.

Everyone's doing it

This is a false "safety in numbers" rationale that often confuses cultural, organizational, or occupational behaviors and customs as ethical norms.

It's for a good cause

This is a seductive rationale that loosens interpretations of deception

I'm just fighting fire with fire

This is the false assumption that promise-breaking, lying, and other kinds of misconduct are justified if they are routinely engaged in by those with whom you are dealing; integrity

It's OK if I don't gain personally

This justifies improper conduct for others or for institutional purposes.

It doesn't hurt anyone

This rationalization is used to excuse misconduct when violating ethical principles so long as no clear and immediate harm is perceived.

I was just doing it for you

This rationalization pits values of honesty and respect against the value of caring

If it's legal and permissible, it's proper

This substitutes legal requirements for personal moral judgement.

Effective decisions

effective if they accomplish what we want accomplished and if they advance our purposes

Ethical decisions

generate and sustain trust

Ethical decision-making

process of evaluating and choosing among alternatives in a manner consistent with ethical principles

I can still be objective

rationalization ignores the fact that a loss of objectivity always prevents perception of the loss of objectivity.

Effective decisions

this means we have to understand the difference between immediate and short-term goals and longer-range goals.