Ethical Decision-making Model Research Articles

Ethical decision-making in the Internet context: Development and test of an initial model based on moral philosophy

This paper proposes an ethical decision-making model in the Internet context based on moral theories and then empirically tests the model. The model posits that five moral philosophy variables—justice, relativism, egoism, deontology, and utilitarianism—affect ethical judgment; ethical judgment, in turn, affects behavioral intentions. To empirically test the model, four scenarios, real-life situations containing an ethical dilemma on the Internet, were developed and empirically analyzed by structural equation modeling with data from 111 university students. The results showed the five moral philosophy variables affected ethical judgment, each having different effects according to the particular ethical situation. Also, justice, utilitarianism, and ethical judgment were found to influence behavioral intentions in ethical dilemma situations on the Internet.

Digital piracy intention: a comparison of theoretical models

Digital piracy intention research has yielded different sets of piracy intention determinants based on various theoretical models. In this study, we reviewed the digital piracy literature and empirically compared two theoretical models, which are the models most often used: the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the Hunt–Vitell ethical decision model. Data were obtained from university students in South Korea, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to examine and compare the two competing theoretical models in terms of explanatory power, overall model fit and paths' significance. The findings of this study revealed that the TPB is a more appropriate model for predicting digital piracy than the Hunt–Vitell ethical decision model.

International contributions of the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists: Voices from abroad.

Jean L. Pettifor University of Calgary Alfred Allan Edith Cowan University Fred Seymour University of Auckland Ann D. Watts Psychological Society of South Africa, Capetown, South Africa Andrea Ferrero San Luis University Laura Hernandez-Guzman Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico An-Magritt Aanonson and Torleiv Odland Norsk Psykologforening Yesim Korkut Bahcesehir University Kenneth Pope Norwalk, Connecticut In this article, eight psychologists from different parts of the world (Argentina, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States) comment on the international significance of the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists. The most common themes expressed about the Canadian Code were the value of the foundational moral framework, the value-based ethical decision-making model, the positive aspirational focus, and the conceptual clarity. The Code that was developed nationally for Canadian psychologists 25 years ago is now acclaimed internationally. In a troubled and globalizing world, the need for strong worldwide humanizing ethical principles has never been greater. Keywords: CPA Code, international, psychology Work on the development of the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists (Canadian Psychological Association, 1986, 1991, 2000) was motivated by a need to serve Canadian psychologists. By the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, through publications and presentations at international conferences, many psychology organisations outside Canada (and sometimes members of other professions) became aware of the then-new Canadian Code. Those in the process of developing or revising their own codes began to consider and evaluate the Code as part of that process. In a 1998 Special Issue of Canadian Psychology regarding the Code, comments by psychologists from the following countries were included: the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations, Geoff Lindsay; Ireland, Richard Booth: New Zealand, Brian Dixon; and South Africa, Doug Wassenaar. Today, entering the second decade of the 21st Century, not only has the Code received continuing international attention and acclaim, but new ethical issues on the world stage have surfaced. Such issues range from questions about the use of computer technology to the consequences of internationalization and globalization. In the current Special Issue, commentaries by psychologists from around the globe have again been included, each reflecting on the significance of the Canadian Code on psychologists' ability to meet these new ethical challenges. Several themes appear throughout the following commentaries. First, the most valued contribution of the Canadian Code appears to be the formulation of an explicit moral framework or foundation of ethical principles that are defined separately but linked to specific conduct and behaviours. The second theme seems to be the delineation in the Code of a process for value-based decisionmaking in contrast to an emphasis on complying only with rules about what psychologists must or must not do. It is recognised that rules cannot cover all possible situations, and especially cannot be used to negotiate solutions to dilemmas. The third valued contribution is the emphasis in the Code on positive aspirations rather than on the bottom line for acceptable behaviour. Fourth is the conceptual clarity, user-friendly language, and practical approach, which are thought to enhance the effectiveness of teaching, supervising, and learning ethics and ethical decision-making. References Canadian Psychological Association. (1986). A Canadian code of ethics for psychologists. Ottawa, ON, Canada: Author. Canadian Psychological Association. (1991). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists. Ottawa, ON, Canada: Author. Canadian Psychological Association. …

The Film Philadelphia As A Case Study Of Ethical Dilemmas In The Workplace

In this paper we present the film Philadelphia as an exemplary text for teaching business ethics. For this purpose, we show students three scenes from the film and guide them as they engage in ethical reasoning. Through the exercise, students should: understand the nature of ethical dilemmas; understand a model for ethical decision-making and apply it to shed light on selected situations presented in the film; and lastly, understand ethical dimensions of discrimination. After engaging with the exercise, students should also develop a clear understanding of the difficulty of reaching ethical decisions in their professional careers. In addition, the exercise serves as an opportunity to discuss issues of HIV and AIDS in contemporary organizations.

A model for ethical CPR decision-making

Half a century after the introduction of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), advance decisions to withhold CPR remain problematic. Previous research has identified inconsistent decision-making by doctors who largely receive no formal...

A Model for Ethical Decision Making in Business: Reasoning, Intuition, and Rational Moral Principles

How do business leaders make ethical decisions? Given the significant and wide-spread impact of business people’s decisions on multiple constituents (e.g., customers, employees, shareholders, competitors, and suppliers), how they make decisions matters. Unethical decisions harm the decision makers themselves as well as others, whereas ethical decisions have the opposite effect. Based on data from a study on strategic decision making by 16 effective chief executive officers (and three not-so-effective ones as contrast), I propose a model for ethical decision making in business in which reasoning (conscious processing) and intuition (subconscious processing) interact through forming, recalling, and applying moral principles necessary for long-term success in business. Following the CEOs in the study, I employ a relatively new theory, rational egoism, as the substantive content of the model and argue it to be consistent with the requirements of long-term business success. Besides explaining the processes of forming and applying principles (integration by essentials and spiraling), I briefly describe rational egoism and illustrate the model with a contemporary moral dilemma of downsizing. I conclude with implications for further research and ethical decision making in business.

Extending the team component of the Latimer ethical decision-making model for palliative care

Extending the team component of the Latimer ethical decision-making model for palliative care Mary Ellen Purkis1, Elizabeth Borycki1,2, Craig Kuziemsky3, Fraser Black4, Denise Cloutier-Fisher5, Lee Ann Fox6, Patricia MacKenzie7, Ann Syme1,8, Coby Tschanz1,41School of Nursing, 2School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia; 3Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario; 4Victoria Hospice Society, Victoria, British Columbia; 5Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia; 6Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, Ontario; 7School of Social Work, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia; 8British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver Island Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, CanadaBackground: Each year more than 240,000 Canadians die from terminal and chronic illnesses. It is estimated that 62% of those deaths require palliative care. Palliative care is a specialized domain of health professional team practice that requires discipline-specific knowledge, skills, judgment, and expertise in order to address patient hopes, wishes, symptoms, and suffering. With the emergence of palliative care as a specialized area of interdisciplinary practice, new practice models have also emerged, eg, the Latimer ethical decision-making model for palliative care. The purpose of this research was to undertake a descriptive ethnographic field study of palliative care team practices to understand better the interdisciplinary team communication and the issues that arise when members of different health professions work together as a team.Methods: Study data were collected by observing and videotaping palliative care team meetings. Data were then analyzed using direct content analysis.Results: The study findings substantiated many of the team practice concepts outlined in Latimer's model. Palliative care teams engage in a number of processes that address patient symptoms, suffering, hopes, and plans. However, several new findings also emerged from the data that were not explicit in Latimer's original model. Teams employed five additional emergent team processes when addressing patient symptoms and suffering while attempting to fulfill patient hopes and plans. Those five team processes included explicating practice norms, leadership, provider assumptions, interdisciplinary teaching, and patient safety.Conclusion: Although many team processes have been identified by practice models in the literature, there is a need to study the applicability of these models empirically to validate their representation of aspects of team practice.Keywords: interprofessional team practice, palliative care, ethics, ethnography

Good Conversations: An Enhanced Model To Teach Business Ethics

Business practices are a constant matter of discussion by ethical theorists concerned with the conflicts between profitability and justice (Cherry, Lee, & Chien, 2003). Business decisions are complex and hence likely to be compromised by low-quality or questionable strategies (Carpenter & Sanders, 2008). The line between misbehavior and legal violations is sometimes crossed because individuals (leaders) are not fully aware of the biases in their judgment (Carpenter & Sanders, 2008). Business schools play an important role in the preparation of learners in ethics and responsible citizenship. Ethical decision-making models may be used to generate both strong justification and relevant application of rules and principles to an ethical issue, developing alternate ways of thinking (Beschorner, 2006). The use of the Integrative Model of Ethical Decision-Making in an upper-division management course at a public baccalaureate college in Southern Nevada increased students’ awareness about ethical issues, provided a framework for logical and moral reasoning, and enabled students to apply deontological and teleological evaluations in ethical judgments. Students acknowledged "good conversations" as a necessary step in ethical decision-making, increased their ethical assessment skills, and engaged in dialogical reasoning. Ethical-decision making models assist in developing better curricula, improving faculty performance, and preparing students with high levels of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Private And Public Sector Ethics

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 34.2pt 0pt 0.5in; tab-stops: center 3.25in; mso-hyphenate: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Differences between public and private-sector organizations were proposed to lead to different ethical perceptions, principles and judgments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>As expected, employees working in the public and private sector and enrolled in a night MBA program did display significantly different ethical judgments that appeared to be partially, but not completely explained by significant differences in the ethical principles they reported emphasizing. Ethical decision-making models suggest, as we do, that differing ethical perceptions also played a part in the different judgments found.</span></p>

Formal Infrastructure and Ethical Decision Making: An Empirical Investigation and Implications for Supply Management

ABSTRACTBuilding on Rest's (1986) conceptual model of ethical decision making, we derive and empirically test a model that links an organization's formal ethical infrastructure to individuals’ moral awareness of ethical situations, moral judgment, and moral intention. We contribute to the literature by shedding light on the importance of a multifaceted formal ethical infrastructure—consisting of formal communication, recurrent communication, formal surveillance, and formal sanctions—as a crucial antecedent of moral awareness. In so doing, we discern how these four elements of a formal ethical infrastructure combine to collectively influence moral awareness based on a second‐order factor structure using structural equation modeling. We test our model based on survey data from 805 respondents with significant work experience across three separate ethical scenarios. Our results across the three scenarios provide overall support for our model. We found that a second‐order factor structure for the formal ethical infrastructure explains the variance among the four infrastructure elements and that a multifaceted formal ethical infrastructure significantly increases moral awareness. Our results further suggest a strong positive effect of moral awareness on moral judgment, which in turn was found to have a positive impact on moral intention. These results were substantiated when taking several individual and contextual control variables into account, such as gender, age, religiosity, work satisfaction, and a de facto ethical climate. Implications for theory, practice, and supply management are discussed.

“I Am Eating a Sandwich Now”: Intent and Foresight in the Twitter Age

Although the criteria of double effect is usually used with issues of warfare and human health, such as abortion and euthanasia, the authors suggest using T. A. Cavanaugh's version of double effect reasoning when deliberating about cases that deal with the social media. With the creation of a modified version of Cavanaugh's three criteria, both social media users and those who evaluate decisions in that medium will have an alternate ethical decision-making model to use. The authors show how one might use this model in the age of anytime, anywhere technology.

The effect of home and host country cultures on the manager's individual decision making related to ethical issues in a MNC

In this theoretical paper, I review the most frequently cited descriptive models of individual decision making related to ethical issues in business, marketing and international business, as well as related empirical studies. The main goal is to propose an extension of the most comprehensive model of ethical decision making by including host country culture as an additional variable for application to a multinational corporation setting. I also suggest an empirical research design that would help test not only whether the variable affects individual decision making related to ethical issues in a MNC, but also how it influences individual decision making.

Moral Stress in International Humanitarian Aid and Rescue Operations: A Grounded Theory Study

Humanitarian aid professionals frequently encounter situations in which one is conscious of the morally appropriate action but cannot take it because of institutional obstacles. Dilemmas like this are likely to result in a specific kind of stress reaction at the individual level, labeled as moral stress. In our study, 16 individuals working with international humanitarian aid and rescue operations participated in semistructured interviews, analyzed in accordance with a grounded theory approach. A theoretical model of ethical decision making from a moral stress perspective was developed. The practical implications of the study are discussed.

Improving Awareness of Vulnerabilities to Ethical Challenges: A Family Systems Approach

Current ethical decision-making models focus principally on cognitive factors and less on the emotional aspects of ethical challenges. This practice reflects a reliance on knowledge-driven, modernist approaches that emphasize objectivity and the primacy of rational thinking. Newer postmodern and constructivist approaches emphasize the need to consider the counselor holistically, as a thinking/feeling being who brings into the present moment the accumulated weight of the past. In order to bridge the gap between a cognitive, modernist approach and a feeling, experience-based postmodern approach, the authors outline an instructional approach that uses family systems theory to assist counselors in becoming conscious about how family roles and early emotional experiences can negatively impact present professional behavior.

The Rapid Ethical Decisionmaking Model: Critical Medical Interventions in Resource-Poor Environments

Applying bioethical principles can be difficult in resource-poor environments, particularly for Western doctors unfamiliar with these limitations. The challenges become even greater when clinicians must make rapid critical decisions. As the following case in Zambia illustrates, the Rapid Ethical Decisionmaking Model, long used in emergency medicine, is a useful tool in such circumstances.

Psychotherapist self-disclosure: Ethical and clinical considerations.

Self-disclosure is an ever present and unavoidable aspect of psychotherapy. But, why, how, and when it is done requires careful forethought. The use of self-disclosure is discussed in the context of boundaries, highlighting its ethical and appropriate use in psychotherapy. Rather than avoiding self-disclosure out of a fear of violating ethical and professional standards, a thoughtful approach to addressing self-disclosure is presented. Recommendations for the ethical and effective use of self-disclosure are provided to include the use of ethical decision-making models and thoughtful consideration of contextual factors that include the psychotherapist's motivations, the client's treatment needs and personal history, the psychotherapist's theoretical orientation, and individual differences to include each aspect of the client's and psychotherapist's diversity. Recommendations for psychotherapists considering the use of self-disclosure with clients are made along with specific recommendations for the profession of psychology to provide greater guidance on the ethical, effective, and clinically appropriate use of self-disclosure.

Nonrational processes in ethical decision making.

Most current ethical decision-making models provide a logical and reasoned process for making ethical judgments, but these models are empirically unproven and rely upon assumptions of rational, conscious, and quasilegal reasoning. Such models predominate despite the fact that many nonrational factors influence ethical thought and behavior, including context, perceptions, relationships, emotions, and heuristics. For example, a large body of behavioral research has demonstrated the importance of automatic intuitive and affective processes in decision making and judgment. These processes profoundly affect human behavior and lead to systematic biases and departures from normative theories of rationality. Their influence represents an important but largely unrecognized component of ethical decision making. We selectively review this work; provide various illustrations; and make recommendations for scientists, trainers, and practitioners to aid them in integrating the understanding of nonrational processes with ethical decision making.

Integrating Contextual Issues in Ethical Decision Making

Many issues in ethics arise in relation to the contexts in which psychologists work. However, most ethical decision-making models reproduce the way in which psychologists tend to approach ethics by focusing on ethical dilemmas and proposing a step-by-step response to deal with them. Although these models might be useful, their emphasis on reactive approaches and their lack of contextualization constitute significant limitations on their applicability. In this article, an approach to ethical decision making that highlights the importance of the context in developing proactive strategies to solve ethical issues is proposed. This approach is further explained through its application to medical and rural settings. The implications of these suggestions to the training in ethics are finally discussed.

What Business Schools Can Learn from Public Management—and Vice Versa

Continuing 21st-century Wall Street ethical scandals have triggered calls, by leading business school professors and others, for major reforms in the MBA curriculum. The goal of this reform movement is to challenge the dominance of the nonnormative organizational economics paradigm in MBA education by introducing a management model that features both efficiency and ethics as co-equal determinants of organizational outcomes. The article argues that diffusing public management’s market efficiency/public failure model across the MBA curriculum would accomplish the reformer’s institutional and societal objectives. Moreover, the implementation and diffusion of this construct into the MBA curriculum would both (a) help public management escape the intellectual absolutism of what Kelman (2007) calls the “public administration ghetto” and (b) enhance the discipline’s reputation as an ethical decision-making model in the marketplace of management ideas.

Ethical dilemmas in treating clients with eating disorders: A review and application of an integrative ethical decision‐making model

Ethical dilemmas frequently arise in the treatment of clients with eating disorders, and clinicians regularly encounter an array of ethical challenges related to whether or not overt and covert coercive tactics should be implemented. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of perplexing ethical questions relevant to medical, nutritional and psychological treatment of clients with eating disorders including imposed treatment, enforced feeding, the duty to protect minors and adults, the determination of competence and capacity among medically comprised clients, and the effectiveness of coercive treatment for clients with eating disorders. The processes of ethical decision-making in terms of ethical principles, professional codes of conduct, the existing empirical literature and the use of a decision-making framework are explored. Taking a collaborative and client-sensitive approach, the authors outline and apply an integrative ethical decision-making model to facilitate clinicians' decision-making process.