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.