Different Approach to Ethical Decision-Making

Different Approach to Ethical Decision-Making

Several approaches to decision-making can guide a person’s actions when faced with an ethical dilemma. More than one approach can be used for the same dilemma, depending on the dynamics of the situation. In this essay, a different ethical approach is used to solve an ethical dilemma that was solved using a different approach to determine how the decision will be affected. The ethical approach is to be used in virtue ethics, which uses individual virtues as the guidelines for decision-making.

Summary of the Ethical Dilemma

The ethical issue evaluated in assignment 3 is of a junior employee who has just discovered that the immediate boss is stealing from the company. The employee confronted the superior with the issue but was threatened. He now faces the dilemma of determining the right approach to use to solve the problem because there is a risk of losing his job if he reports the superior engaging in fraud. The approach that was used to solve this ethical issue before is the philanthropist approach. This approach balances between self-interests and achieving justice for all. When using this approach of decision-making, the employee will end up choosing to report the superior to the organization because it is the just thing to do, even if it puts their job at risk. Instead of choosing the decision to protect themselves, they will end up choosing to protect the whole organization from the detrimental effects of the actions of the boss. This decision can also be arrived at using the virtue approach to ethics, as shown below.

Virtue Ethics

Virtue ethics is an ethical decision-making approach that bases decisions on personal virtues such as honesty, integrity, and truthfulness (Weiss, 2014). This ethical decision-making model puts its emphasis on building moral character and strong moral values, which support a just and happier society. The approach is based on the philosophy that the essence of life is to do good and avoid evil (Van Hooft, 2014). Therefore, a person who uses this decision-making approach will end up choosing the option that reflects positive moral values. The reason why this approach has been selected for the ethical dilemma summarized above is because it reflects the nature of the ethical issue. The employee faces the challenge of choosing between what is obviously the moral decision to make and picking his own self-interests. By reporting the boss to the organization’s authorities, he will be making a decision that reflects honesty and integrity. If he decides to pick his interest in saving his job, then he will be choosing a value that is inherently immoral.

Using Virtue Ethics to Solve the Issue

If someone else had solved this ethical issue by using the virtue approach, they would have arrived at the same decision as when using the philanthropist approach. When using the virtue approach, one will prioritize the positive virtues over the negative virtues to help determine the right decision to make (Woiceshyn, 2011). Two possible decisions can be made in this scenario; first, the employee might choose to keep the issue to himself to protect the boss as well as his job. Secondly, he might choose to get the secret out either directly or with the help of another person within the organization. Each of these decisions is associated with different kinds of virtues. The first decision reflects honesty, integrity, selflessness, sincerity, and truthfulness. On the other hand, the latter decision can be associated with selfishness, deceit, dishonor, and corruption. The obvious decision to make when using this ethical decision-making model is the first decision. Virtue ethics will lead a decision-maker to choose to disclose the suspicious activity that has been done by the boss in question, even at the expense of the job position that the perpetrator has threatened.

Comparison with the Philanthropic Ethical Decision-Making Model

The philanthropist approach described in the Unit 3 Assignment is a community-based ethical decision-making model. This model chooses the option that will benefit the people, like a community, rather than considering one’s own self-interests in making the decision. In the case of financial mismanagement by the boss, the employees involved will be guided by their moral conviction to choose the decision that will be beneficial to the whole organization rather than pick their own self-interests as the guiding principle for the decision-making. This model of decision-making leads to the same result as the virtue ethical model in this particular case. The decision to report the mismanagement case is a reflection of positive virtue and is also the decision that is beneficial for most people in the situation. Hence, the effects that might be experienced if the virtue model is used are the same as what will be experienced if the philanthropist approach is used. In the same way, mentioned in Unit 3 Assignment, the relationship between the employee and the boss might influence the kind of decision they make. If there is a negative relationship between the two and the employee reports the boss just to achieve a negative effect on them, then that would not be a decision guided by virtue or philanthropy. It would be an unethical choice that is guided by self-interests.

How Virtue Ethics may be Beneficial or Cause Problems

As described above, virtue ethics is a beneficial approach to this ethical dilemma. It leads to a positive decision that helps to save the organization as a whole rather than one employee’s interests. However, there are some situations where virtue ethics may not be the right approach in this case because of the potential problems it might cause. For instance, if an organization does not have very strong moral values, the best decision to make maybe not to report the incident. An employee gets the confidence to be a whistleblower from the kind of support that they get from the organization. If the organization has a history of not supporting whistleblowers, then choosing virtues over self-interests can cause problems for the employee. Say, for example, if the organization favors the boss because they are superior to the employee and fails to take serious action. The employee will have to work with an immediate boss who does not like them. It will make the workplace uncomfortable and might eventually lead to the loss of the job opportunity even if the employee needs it. For virtue ethics to be effective, the organization must also be committed to expressing positive examples to the employees. People tend to express the kind of ethical culture that is demonstrated by the organization that they work for. Therefore, ethical decision-making should not be something that puts pressure on employees only but also the organization as a whole.

Conclusion

The comparison between the two ethical approaches shows that ethical decision-making can be done using more than one approach. As seen in this case, the use of different ethical approaches may lead to the same decision, provided that the decision is the moral one in the situation. In this case, both the virtue-based approach and the originally used philanthropist approach led to the decision to report possible mismanagement of funds taking place in the situation. The virtue approach chooses this decision because it reflects positive values of honesty, truthfulness, and integrity. The philanthropist approach makes the same decision because it leads to helping the organization as a whole rather than the self-interests of the employees. Just like in this case, it is important to always be aware of the kind of ethical approach that is appropriate given the factors relating to the ethical dilemma.

References

Van Hooft, S. (2014). Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge.

Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Woiceshyn, J. (2011). A model for ethical decision making in business: Reasoning, intuition, and rational moral principles. Journal of Business Ethics, 104(3), 311-323.

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Different Approach to Ethical Decision-Making

Chapter 2 of your course text discusses several different approaches for ethical decision making. For the Unit 3 assignment, you decided which of these ethical approaches most closely matched your own method for approaching an ethical dilemma.

For this assignment, you will test out a different ethical approach. Consider the options presented in Chapter 2 once again, and choose an approach which you did not explore in the Unit 3 assignment. Then, write a paper that responds to the following questions:

Different Approach to Ethical Decision-Making

• State the ethical approach you selected. Explain why.
• Imagine someone had worked to resolve the ethical issue (the same one you discussed in the Unit 3 assignment), this time using the approach you have just described. What would be involved in using this approach?
• Compare this to what you described in the Unit 3 assignment. What might have happened differently if a person used this approach?
• Explain how this alternate approach might have been beneficial. To whom? In what ways might it have caused problems?

Support your choices with cited concepts from course readings.

Review the A Different Approach to Ethical Decision Making Scoring Guide to understand the grading criteria for this assignment.

Submission Requirements

Your paper should meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: References and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting guidelines.
• Length of paper: 750–1,500 words, or 3–6 typed, double-spaced pages.
• Font and Font Size: Arial, 10 point.