Ethical Decision - Making

Ethical Decision - Making Paper

Dawn L. Coffinberry

September 16, 2003

Making ethical decision - What is Ethics anyway? The dictionary defines it: ethics refers to standards of conduct, standards that indicate how one should behave based on moral duties and virtues, which themselves are derived from principles of right and wrong. I would define it as an individual s own judgement, and how they view right and wrong. The problems that we run into is that everyone has their own views and making their decisions based on those views, which brings us to ethical decisions. Ethical decisions get us to ask questions and to look at the actions of right and wrong, with the main focus of traits such as compassion, fairness and honesty.

Dimensions

Decision-making and action between the client and the professional are changed by their organization influence. Each organization has a different way of working with, dealing with decisions. Each organization has a different way of handling with, dealing with, or making decisions. Each organization chooses how it will work in terms of ethical behavior. Each persons values and morals are different then others. The way they look at social rules or expectations is processed and highly individualized manor. Professional boundaries, personalities and environment are also a big part of deciding a course of action. These variables might influence some one to act different then others if put in a situation. In reality all of these variables and others not mentioned are factors in the day by day work adjustment professional. The current economic and political real adds to the complexity of this. It is now very difficult to make good decisions that will not be questioned because of ethical situations or appropriateness. When there is a problem that causes people to be torn between two or more actions or decisions an ethical dilemma exists. Work professionals must do their best and with their entire effort try to move forward to serve their client effectively. You must remember successful accomplishments of effectiveness will be enhanced if you use all three dimensions, the client, the professional and the organizational perspective.

Decision Styles

When making a decision there are four different styles of making an action: democratic, autocratic, collective - participative, and consensus. Democratic is a style that lets the group to vote. The advantage of this style is that you are able to get a fast decision and get group participation. The disadvantages of this style are that there is no responsibility individually or group wise. Autocratic is a style, in which the leader maintains the full control making the decision from their own information and perception. The advantage of this style is that you get a fast decision and that the leader is responsible for the negative or positive out comes. The disadvantages of this style is that you find less effort from persons who implement the decision and if a employee is effected but not included in the decision process morale and effort my be low, as well as lose of creditability for the leader. Collective - Participative is a style in which they make a joint decision involving the leader and all the workers. The advantage of using this style is that you get group participation, but the disadvantage (which I believe really is not one) is that the leader still has full control even with the impute from the group, the leader still gets to make the final decision. The last style is consensus, where the leader is left out and the group makes the decision completely. The advantage of this style is that you gain group commitment, responsibility, teamwork and high probability of success. The disadvantage of this style is that there is no leader responsibility, very slow decision process and time consuming with lost of work. All four of these different styles are use at one point or another. One style does not always fit all situations.

Rules or Framework

Even before a decision is even thought of or made, one must first stop