B A 300 Austin Exam 1

Process of individual Ethical Decision making Behavior

Moral Awareness...Ethical judgment... Ethical Behavior

Characteristics of individuals

Cognitive Biases Individual Differences

Characteristics of organizations

• group and organization pressures

• organizational culture

Moral Awareness

More Likely to recognize a moral issue when 3 things happen

- peers consider it morally problematic

- Moral language is used when a problem is presented

- Decision could cause serious harm to others

8 Characters of Sound Ethical Decision Making

1. Gather the facts

2. Define the ethical issues

3. Identify the affected parties

4. Identify the consequences

5. Identify the obligations (did you make a promise?)

6. Consider your character and integrity(think through whether or not someone you admire would do what you are considering)

7. Think Creatively about potential actions(consider alternatives)

8. Check your gut ( what are your instincts, if I did this id feel good about it)

Group Norms

- Everyone's doing it

-rationalizing unethical behavior

-pressure to conform

Organizational Effects

- Rewards and punishments

-Roles at work

-Diffusion of Responsibility

Rewards and Punishments

Bonus system: Do whatever it takes to reach a goal... room for unethical activity

Roles at Work

Boss or org. saying something is right when it is not

Diffusion of Responsibility

Thinking something can't have an impact on the big picture

Formal Systems

-Selection/training

-Performance management

-Authority structure

Selecting/ Training

- How did they hire you

- What are they looking fir in hiring process

-Did they ask you ethical questions

- How was the training

Performance Management

- Raises and promotions and the system that decides this

- Performance evaluations

Authority Structure

- Whether or not there are ethical leaders in charge

- Ethical people and ethical managers

Informal Systems

- Role Models

- Norms and rituals

- Myths and Stories

Role Models

Who are the people everyone looks up to at all levels

Norms and Rituals

Expectations and formalized ways of handling events

Myths and Stories

- What are the legends

- What do people talk about

EX: Nordstrom's return desk took tires back even though they don't sell tires due to 100% return policy

COGNITIVE BIASES

- Fact Gathering

- Looking at Consequences

-Illusion of Integrity

Fact Gathering

- Overconfidence about your knowledge of the facts

- Falling into the conformation trap

HOW TO AVOID: Think about ways you could be wrong

Looking at the Consequences

- Reduced # of consequences

- Consequences for Self vs. Others

- Consequences as Risk

Reduced # of Consequences

Only looking at a few and not seeing what else could happen

Consequences for Self vs. Others

More likely to think about how it affects YOU and not others

Consequences as Risk

- Illusion of optimism

- Illusion of Control

**People tend to think that there are no risks

Illusion of Optimism

Humans have an optimistic streak. This is okay but negative risks need to be taken into consideration

Illusion of Control

people's belief that they can influence events, even when they have no control over what will happen

Escalation of Commitment

an increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information

Illusion of Integrity

Thinking you have more integrity than your peer when this may not be true

Ethics of Profession

Telling people to behave a certain way based off your/ their profession

Individual Differences

require long term change or certain triggers

Kholber's Stages of Moral Development

Level 1: Rewards/ Punishments & Exchanges

Level 2: Shared Norms & Societal Obligations

Level 3: Principled & Autonomous

Kholber's Model

Rewards/Punishments

Level 1:

If you hit Suzi on the playground you will get in trouble

Kholber's Model

Exchanges

Level 1:

If I let him play with the ball for 5 mins then I get to play with the ball for 5 mins

Kholber's Model

Shared Norms

Level 2:

In my family, we believe in being polite to strangers

Kholber's Model

Societal Obligations

Level 2:

I need to act a certain way for society to accept me

EX: You don't cut people in line

Kholber's Model

Principled

Level 3:

Design and create your own moral principles

Not spending as much time focusing on what people/ society think

Kholber's Model

Autonomous

Level 3:

Only theoretical, aligned with justice theory

Locus of Control

A belief about the amount of control a person has over situations in their life.

Internals

Take accountability for your actions, recognize that the consequences of your actions are caused by you

More likely to behave ethically

Externals

Can't take accountability for your actions

Ego Strength

- Strong Ego

- Weak Ego

Strong Ego

- Confident

- Responsible

- Trust their own opinion

More likely to behave ethically

Weak Ego

-It's only me

-I should find out what everyone else thinks

Desired Moral Approbation

Desire for moral approval from oneself or others

- Praise

- Blame

- Self

DMA From Others- PRAISE

want people to be impressed by actions,

DMA from Others- BLAME

Some people are more sensative to being told they did something wrong

DMA from Self

Need approval from themselves to feel that they are good people

Raising the bar for yourself to act better

6 Ethical Decision Making Rules

1. Utilitarianism

2. Nozik's Rights

3. Rawl's Justice

4. Objectivism

5. Integrative Social Contracts

6. Ethic of Care

Utilitarianism

Maximize the common good (CONSIDER ALL CONSEQUENCES)

- Morally obligated to make the decision with the most amount of pros and less consequences

- ALL the pros AND cons

Utilitarianism (PROS)

Replaces partiality with science

More logical/math approach

Should be the same outcome for everyone

Utilitarianism (CONS)

The means don't matter

"it helps us to hurt you" so we hurt you to benefit us

**The means that you take to get to the end do not factor into the MORAL equation

Nozik's Rights

*Non-consequentialist theory*

The WAY that you get to where you're going is the decision making factor

Nozik's Rights: Positive Right

A right to think or to an ideology...the right to have the thing you don't necessarily have to work for(you have limits on what you're able to do)

Nozik's Rights: Negative Right

The right to be left alone and pursue something that you want

Freedom of Force and Fraud

Nozik's Rights

Force

Physical force (punching, hitting, etc)

Eliminates your choices

Fraud

Getting someone to do what they otherwise wouldn't do with misinformation or from withholding information

Nozik's Rights: Pros

Freedom of action: the ability to do whatever you want as long as you don't use force or fraud

Nozik's Rights: Cons

-Not considering the interest of others

-Not your job to take care of other people

-Inequality: you happen to be born in the wrong situation

Rawl's Justice

If you are faced with alternatives, you should go with the one that leaves the greatest benefit to the least advantaged. (unbiased)

Rawl's Justice: Pros

-It tries to come up with an unbiased approach to social justice

-Completely neutral

Rawl's Justice: Cons

-Denies free will

-People are determined by biology, genetics and environment and have very little to say about what happens with their life

-Denies meritocracy( those who put out the most are the ones who should get the most in return

Veil of Ignorance

making decisions with a blind eye to extraneous factors that could affect the decision

Veil of Ignorance: example

Ben and Jerry's

-Pride themselves on their social contribution

-They would not pay their top earner in the company more than 7x the bottom worker

- Creates social injustice

Which of the following is not one of the steps in the moral decision-making process, according to the text?

Moral development