Ethical And Decision Making Assignment

RUNNING HEAD: ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
Title: Ethical Decision Making
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
Approaches to ethical decision making:
The incorporation of the ethical decision making requires a trained sensitivity towards the
issues that are highly related to the ethical norms and behavior. The proper application of
decisions also needs the proper analysis and exploration of the ethical aspects of the taken or
thought to have taken a decision that can effectively impact the course of action or the
organizational vision (Jeanes, 2017).. The appeal to the values is an essential factor that leads to
the resolution of an ethical factor. The following are the main approaches identified by the critics
to deal with the issue of decision making:
1. The Utilitarian Approach: conceived in the 19th Century, the Utilitarian Approach was the
brainchild of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill that focused mainly on guiding the
legislators of the contemporary era to determine the most morally apt law for the situation
concerned (Mattison, 2000).. The steps required in analyzing the moral issue under the
light of this approach are first the identification of the variety of courses that are mostly
available to suit the purpose, then introspecting on the matter as to who will be affected
by the course of action and to what extent. The final step is the choosing of the action that
would yield the maximum benefit and the least amount of harm (.Trevino, 1986). This
approach can be used to a large organizations as it creates the balance between the good
and the bad.
2. The rights Approach: this approach is considered to be the second most important
approach towards decision making that has its origin rooted with the philosophy of
Immanuel Kant and other 18th Century thinkers who stressed on the idea of Individual
rights to choose their own selves. These thinkers were on the opinion that human beings

2ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
has the rights to assert their own choices and cannot be manipulated from outside (.Jeanes
2017). Among the various types of rights that exists according to them, the most notable
ones are:
a. The right to the truth: every individual has the right to get informed about the truth of
factors that will affect the eventual choices.
b. Right to Privacy: Individuals poses the right of saying, believing and doing anything they
chose to do in their personal lives as long as it is not violating the rights to other
(Bulgaru-Iliescu 014)..
c. The right not to be injured: Every individual posses the right that they cannot be harmed
or injured unless they willingly and consciously do something that can result to the
punishment.
Thus in analyzing the decision making process in this approach, it must be considered
whether the decision is violating any rights of the individual. The degree of violation is
directly proportional to the degree of wrongfulness in the action.
3. Justice Approach: this approach bears its origin the teachings of Aristotle that has the
fundamental assumption that “equals should be treated equally and unequal should be
treated unequally.” This assumption basically evaluates the fairness in the actions. This is
the right approach to determine whether an action has taken place out of favoritism or
discriminations (.Walters,1988) Both of the parameters are however, wrong and Unjust.
This approach is debated since it takes into account only the procedures and does not take
into account the consequences.
4. The Common Good Approach: this approach correlates with the idea of Rousseau on the
theory of greater good for the greater mass. This idea holds the view that the good of an