Process for Making Ethical Decisions

There are six steps to ethical Decision making.
1. Define the Problem
A. Describe why a decision is needed and identifying the most desired
outcome.
B. How one defines a problems drives how you define the cause and where we
search for the solution.
C. How you define the problem determines where you look for the solution.
2. Identify Alternatives
A. Don't limit yourself to what is obvious or what has worked in the past.
B. Be open to new ides and better alternatives.
C. You are better off identifying as many alternatives as possible.
D. Five alternatives is a good threshold to use.
E. Prevents limiting your choices to opposing views.
3. Evaluate the Alternative
A. Look for the positive and negative outcomes of each alternative.
B. Ensure you differentiate between what you know and what you believe.
C. Determine what results each alternative could yield and how probable it is
that those results will occur.
D. The more the evaluation is fact based, the more confident he/she can be
That the expected outcome will occur.
4. Make the Decision
A. This is the next natural step whn acting alone.
B. When acting as a team this is when a proposal is made to the team.
1. Include complete difinition of the problem.
2. Clear list of the alternatives that were considered.
3. A clear justification for the proposed solution.
5. Implement the Decision
A. The action of implementing the solution is the first real tangible step in
changing the situation.
B. A decision only counts when it is implemented.
6. Evaluate the Decision
A. Every decision is intended to fix a problem.
B. Need to determine if the problem was fixed.
C. Did your resolution fix the problem.
D. Did your resolution create any new problems?