Models in Ethical Decision Making

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Models of ethical decision-making


Stages in ethical decision-making

Recognise moral issue

Make moral judgement

Establish moral intent

Engage in moral

behaviour

Ethical decision-making process

Source: Derived from Rest (1986), as depicted in Jones (1991).


Relationship with normative theory

• The role of normative theory in the stages of ethical decision-making is primarily in relation to moral judgement.– Moral judgements can be made

according to considerations of rights, duty, consequences, etc.

• However, the issue of whether and how normative theory is used by an individual decision-maker depends on a range of different factors that influence the decision-making process


Influences on ethical decision-making

• Two broad categories: individual and situational (Ford and Richardson 1994)– Individual factors. The unique characteristics

of the individual actually making the relevant decision. • birth factors • acquired by experience and socialisation

– Situational factors. The particular features of the context that influence whether the individual will make an ethical or unethical decision. • the issue itself (such as the intensity of the

moral issue) • the ethical framing of the issue.


Framework for understanding ethical decision-making

Recognise moral issue

Make moral judgement

Establish moral intent

Engage in moral

behaviour

Situational factors

Individual factors


Limitations of ethical decision-making models

• Useful for structuring our discussion and seeing the different elements that come into play but…– Not always particularly straightforward (or

sensible) to break down various elements into discrete units

– Various stages related or interdependent– National or cultural bias

• Must be aware that the model is intended not as a definitive representation of ethical decision-making, but as a relatively simple way to present a complex process


Individual influences on ethical decision-making


Individual influences on ethical decision-making

Factor Influence on ethical decision-making Age and gender

Very mixed evidence leading to unclear associations with ethical decision-making.

National and cultural characteristics

Appear to have a significant effect on ethical beliefs, as well as views of what is deemed an acceptable approach to certain business issues.

Education and employment

Somewhat unclear, although some clear differences in ethical decision-making between those with different educational and professional experience seem to be present.

Psychological factors:

Cognitive moral development

Locus of control

Small but significant effect on ethical decision-making. At most a limited effect on decision-making, but can be important in predicting the apportioning of blame/approbation.

Personal integrity

Significant influence likely, but lack of inclusion in models and empirical tests

Moral imagination

A new issue for inclusion with considerable explanatory potential


National and cultural characteristics

• People from different cultural backgrounds likely to have different beliefs about right and wrong, different values, etc. and this will inevitably lead to variations in ethical decision-making across nations, religions and cultures

• Hofstede (1980; 1994) influential in shaping our understanding of these differences – our ‘mental programming’– Individualism/collectivism– Power distance– Uncertainty avoidance– Masculinity/femininity


Psychological factors• Cognitive moral development (CMD)

refers to the different levels of reasoning that an individual can apply to ethical issues and problems– Criticisms of CMD

• Gender bias• Implicit value judgements• Invariance of stages

• An individual’s locus of control determines the extent to which they believe that they have control over the events in their life


Psychological factorsStages of cognitive moral development

Level Stage Explanation IllustrationI Pre-

conventional

1 Obedience andpunishment

Individuals define right and wrongaccording to expected rewards andpunishments from authority figures

Whilst this type of moral reasoning is usuallyassociated with small children, we can also see that businesspeople frequently make unethicaldecisions because they think their company wouldeither reward it or let it go unpunished (seeGellerman 1986).

2 Instrumentalpurpose andExchange

Individuals are concerned with theirown immediate interests and defineright according to whether there isfairness in the exchanges or dealsthey make to achieve those interests.

An employee might cover for the absence of a coworker so that their own absences mightsubsequently be covered for in return – a “youscratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” reciprocity(Treviño and Nelson 1999).

II Conventional

3 Interpersonalaccord,conformity andMutualExpectations

Individuals live up to what isexpected of them by their immediate peers and those close to them

An employee might decide that using companyresources such as the telephone, the internet andemail for personal use whilst at work is acceptablebecause everyone else in their office does it.

4 Social accordand systemmaintenance

Individuals’ consideration of theexpectations of others broadens tosocial accord more generally, ratherthan just the specific people aroundthem.

A factory manager may decide to provideemployee benefits and salaries above the industryminimum in order to ensure that employees receive wages and conditions deemed acceptable by consumers, pressure groups and other socialgroups.


Psychological factorsStages of cognitive moral development

(cont…)Level Stage Explanation Illustration

III Post-Conventional

5 Socialcontract andIndividualrights

Individuals go beyondidentifying with others’expectations, and assessesright and wrong accordingto the upholding of basicrights, values and contractsof society.

The public affairs manager of a foodmanufacturer may decide to reveal which of the firm’s products contain genetically modified ingredients out of respect for consumers’ rights to know, even though they are not obliged to by law, and have not been pressurised into by consumers or anyone else.

6 UniversalEthicalprinciples

Individuals will makedecisions autonomouslybased on self-chosenUniversal ethical principles,such as justice, equality,and rights, which they believe everyone shouldfollow.

A purchasing manager may decide that it would be wrong to continue to buyproducts or ingredients that were testedon animals because he believes thisdoesn’t respect animal rights to be freefrom suffering.Source: Adapted from Ferrell et al. (2002); Kohlberg (1969); Trevino and Nelson

(1999)


Personal integrity & moral imagination

• Personal integrity– Integrity is defined

as an adherence to moral principles or values

• Moral imagination– Concerned with

whether one has “a sense of the variety of possibilities and moral consequences of their decisions, the ability to imagine a wide range of possible issues, consequences, and solutions” (Werhane, 1998:76)


Situational influences on decision-making


Situational influences on ethical decision-making

Type of factor

Factor Influence on ethical decision-making

Moral intensity

Reasonably new factor, but evidence suggests significant effect on ethical decision-making.

Issue-related

Moral framing

Fairly limited evidence, but existing studies show strong influence on some aspects of the ethical decision-making process, most notably moral awareness.

Rewards

Strong evidence of relationship between rewards/punishments and ethical behaviour, although other stages in ethical decision-making have been less investigated.

Authority

Good general support for a significant influence from immediate superiors and top management on ethical decision-making of subordinates

Bureaucracy

Significant influence on ethical decision-making well documented, but actually exposed to only limited empirical research. Hence, specific consequences for ethical decision-making remain contested.

Work roles

Some influence likely, but lack of empirical evidence to date

Context-related

Organizational culture

Strong overall influence, although implications of relationship between culture and ethical decision-making remain contested.


Moral Intensity• Jones (1991:374-8) proposes that the

intensity of an issue will vary according to six factors:– Magnitude of consequences– Social consensus– Probability of effect– Temporal immediacy– Proximity– Concentration of effect


• The same problem or dilemma can be perceived very differently according to the way that the issue is framed– Language important aspect of moral

framing• Moral muteness (Bird & Walters

1989) because of:– Harmony– Efficiency– Image of power and effectiveness

Moral framing


Systems of reward• Adherence to ethical principles and

standards stands less chance of being repeated and spread throughout a company when it goes unnoticed and unrewarded– “What is right in the corporation is not

what is right in a man’s home or in his church. What is right in the corporation is what the guy above you wants from you. That’s what morality is in the corporation” (Jackall, 1988:6)


Authority • People do what they

are told to do – or what they think they’re being told to do

Bureaucracy• Bauman (1989,

1993) and ten Bos (1997) argue bureaucracy has a number of effects on ethical decision-making– Suppression of

moral autonomy– Instrumental

morality– Distancing– Denial of moral

status

Authority and Bureaucracy


Work roles and organisational norms & culture

Work roles• Work roles can

encapsulate a whole set of expectations about what to value, how to relate to others, and how to behave

• the group norms which delineate acceptable standards of behaviour within the work community

Organisational norms and culture


National and cultural context

• This differs from individual’s national and cultural characteristics

• Instead of looking at the nationality of the individual making the decision; now we are considering the nation in which the decision is actually taking place, regardless of the decision-maker’s nationality

• Different cultures still to some extent maintain different views of what is right and wrong

Documents

Models in Ethical Decision Making