Ethical decision making

To make an ethical decision, it is not enough to simply describe what is happening or has happened or even to make the decision itself. It is important to be able to also explain and justify your decisions. 

*Some of the approaches you may take to do this include :

Virtue based: illustrate which virtues are enhanced by the proposed action (they can be your own or other people's virtues).

Results based: establish the good which will come from your position and how it is a greater good than occurs from alternatives.

Rules based: establish which rule applies and include a logical discussion in your argument (emotion and passion can also be included).

Rights based: explain the basis for the rights you are claiming

*This overview of different approaches to ethical decision making is based on materials developed by Howard Harris, for the course, International Management: Ethics and Values (IMEV) at UniSA.

Details on the 'Describe, Explain and Justify' process and how this is connected to the stages of reflection listed by Hatton and Smith (1995) are available here.

Next: Activity 5