Question

What is an Ethical Decision Making (EDM)?

How does the four-step namely, 1) Recognition/Moral awareness, 2) Judgement, 3) Intent, 4) Behaviour, are affected by person, issue and situation?

Answer 1

An ethical decision making is a model/process of decision making where the outcome and/or the process adheres to the following guidelines

• It provides benefit for most parties
• It minimizes negative impact for the most parties
• It preserves the right of the parties involved
• It is fair and balanced

These are the old pillars of ethics and they drive the ethical decision making model.

A person’s moral views, personality, and attitude along with the problem situation and the external environment plays major role in ethical decision making process. While there are various models and frameworks to apply ethics in decision making process, it is not that straight forward.

Moral awareness: moral awareness of a decision maker is developed during his/her upbringing. As a result, there is a long term and cultural association with such factors.

Judgement: a judgement on what decision to make stems from one’s moral values. Since the moral values may be affected by culture, situation and external circumstances, judgement for the same problem may vary by the same decision maker.

Intent: intent is strongly influenced by the situation and possible options. The decision maker who uses ethical model, may want to maximize the benefits but the options will limit his/her hold on the matter.

Behavior: the behavior of a person in decision making role is mainly affected by his/her culture and thus the moral values.