Eleven Steps for Ethical Decision Making

In a previous post (here), I talked about the six ethical lenses which Velasquez et al. (2009, 2005) have explored, and mentioned that in a future post I would explore the eleven steps/questions which are outlined in the Velasquez et al. (2009) framework for Ethical Decision Making. And this time we do just that! 

We begin by first identifying the ethical issues (Velasquez et al., 2009):

1. "Could this decision or situation be damaging to someone or to some group, or unevenly beneficial to people? Does this decision involve a choice between a good and bad alternative, or perhaps between two 'goods' or between two 'bads'?"
2. "Is this issue about more than solely what is legal or what is most efficient? If so, how?"

Then we need to collect evidence, to track down our ethical issues:

3. "What are the relevant facts of the case? What facts are not known? Can I learn more about the situation? Do I know enough to make a decision?"
4. "What individuals and groups have an important stake in the outcome? Are the concerns of some of those individuals or groups more important? Why?"
5. "What are the options for acting? Have all the relevant persons and groups been consulted? Have I identified creative options?"

Next we need to weigh up our alternative actions. We do that via the following:

6. "Evaluate the options by asking the following questions:
   Which option best respects the rights of all who have a stake?" (The Rights Lens);
   "Which option treats people fairly, giving them each what they are due?" (The Justice Lens);
   "Which option will produce the most good and do the least harm for as many stakeholders as possible?" (The Utilitarian Lens);
   "Which option best serves the community as a whole, not just some members?" (The Common Good Lens);
   "Which option leads me to act as the sort of person I want to be?" (The Virtue Lens);
   "Which option appropriately takes into account the relationships, concerns, and feelings of all stakeholders?" (The Care Ethics Lens)

Now we need to select one idea to test and to action, by asking ourselves:

7. "After an evaluation using all of these lenses, which option best addresses the situation?"
8. "If I told someone I respect (or a public audience) which option I have chosen, what would they say?"
9. "How can my decision be implemented with the greatest care and attention to the concerns of all stakeholders?"

Lastly we put our chose, tested decision into play, not forgetting to reflect upon and to measure our anticipated and actual outcomes once it is all over.

10. "How did my decision turn out, and what have I learned from this specific situation?"
11. "What (if any) follow-up actions should I take?"

Those of us familiar with the questions asked by Cavangh et al. (1981) will hear echoes in this work of those elements (here). However, this list of Velasquez et al. (2009) forms quite a handy list of points to work through, particularly if we are practicing ethical dilemmas. Like all these things, they can be overly long and complicated if we were trying to use them for the first time on the fly, but if we have more time to think about the ins and outs, they are great for training and rehearsal. 

However, this is not the six step process outlined in the CDANZ ethical scenarios webinar. That was definitely Bond (2005), which you can read about here. 

Sam

References:

Bond, T. (2005). Standards and Ethics for Counselling in Action (Counselling in Action series) (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Cavanagh, G. F., Moberg, D. J., & Velasquez, M. (1981). The Ethics of Organizational Politics. Academy of Management Review 6(3), 363-374. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1981.4285767

CDANZ. (2020, October 29). CDANZ Webinar: Ethical scenarios in career practice [video]. Career Development Association of New Zealand. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f7-cmGvGxUGK9KZraXheRaR6En2N57HE/view

Velasquez, M., Moberg, D., Meyer, M. J., Shanks, T., McLean, M. R., DeCosse, D., André, C., Kirk, O., & Hanson, K. O. (2009). A Framework for Ethical Decision Making. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/a-framework-for-ethical-decision-making/

Velasquez, M., André, C., Shanks, T., & Meyer, M. J. (2015). Thinking Ethically. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/thinking-ethically/