3 Steps to Solve an Ethical Dilemma

Leadership Skills

One of the most important leadership skills you can possess is a high moral intelligence. It may appear that bad behavior is rewarded in the corporate world, but it is usually a very short-term phenomenon. In the long-term, good behavior tends to pay off. What makes ethical dilemmas particularly difficult is that they often involve conflicts between two or more deeply held beliefs. Consider this admittedly simple example A friend of yours just had a baby. Hes the most homely baby youve ever seen. While holding her new baby boy in her arms, your friend asks, Isnt he the best looking baby youve ever seen? Now you value honesty. But you also believe you shouldnt needlessly hurt someones feelings. You have an ethical dilemma! Ethical dilemmas flow upward All of us are leaders, even if its just personal leadership. However, when you start managing others, its crucial to have a framework in place to deal with ethical dilemmas. Leaders must learn to apply their values, aligned with the values of their organization, to these situations. Ethical decisions are often trade-offs between:

Utility the value delivered to the stakeholders in your organization Rights entitlement to something Justice equitable sharing of pain and pleasure Because of these trade-offs, leaders must be prepared to deal with ethical dilemmas because these decisions tend to flow upward. So leaders must develop a framework to handle these inevitable challenges.

The benefits of an established framework There are at least four benefits to putting a framework in place for making ethical decisions:

Efficiency decisions can be made more quickly Consistency results in more systematic outputs Payback builds emotional goodwill with your constituents Self-respect you feel good about yourself when you look in the mirror

3 steps to solving ethical dilemmas

#1 Know your values There are certain values about which society agrees. For example, we tend to value honesty. Our discussion here isnt designed to change your values instead, its about applying them. Before you can apply them, you have to know what they are. #2 Select a model According to the book, Moral Issues in Business, ethical theories can be divided into two classifications: consequential theories (the formal term for these is teleological theories) and non-consequential theories (formal name is deontological theories). . Consequential theories With consequential theories, actions are judged by outcomes. If an action results in a positive result, it is morally right. If not, it is wrong.

Egoism An act is moral if it promotes your best long-term interest.

Strengths

Weaknesses

- Useful for decision-making - Ignores wrongs - Flexible - Ignores interest of others - Doesnt build relationships - Inconsistent (i.e. right for me, wrong for you)

- Cant resolve conflicts of interest

Utilitarianism An act is moral if it produces the great ratio of good to evil for everyone.

Strengths

Weaknesses

- Useful for decision-making - May ignore wrongs - Flexible - Recognizes interests of all - Resolves conflict of interest
Situational An act is moral if it creates the greatest amount of love.

- May conflict with justice - Difficult to design rules

Strengths - Humanizes decisions - Rejects moral legalism

Weaknesses - Lacks definite criteria for decision-making

Non-consequential theories According to non-consequential theories, a factor (single rule non-consequential theories) or factors (multiple rule non-consequential theories) other than the outcome should be considered when faced with an ethical dilemma.

Single rule Golden Rule An act is moral if you treat others the way you would wish to be treated.

Strengths - Personalizes decisions

Weaknesses - Needs modification to fit commerce

- Brings fairness into play - Carries childhood teachings into business

- We cant know how others feel and think

Categorical Imperative (Kant) An act is moral if you would wish that everyone behaved in the same manner.

Strengths

Weaknesses

- Useful for decisions (i.e. do your duty) - Doesnt resolve conflicts of duties - Recognizes responsibilities - Provides humanistic dimension - Respects rights of others
Multiple rules Prima Facie Duties (Ross) An act is moral if you fulfill your duties; if there is conflict, fulfill the duty to which you are most obligated. Prima facie duties include, but are not limited to: fidelity, gratitude, justice, beneficence, self-improvement, and non-injury.

- Subject to misinterpretation of duty - Results of acting on duty can be disastrous

Strengths

Weaknesses

- List of duties is educational in itself - Difficult to determine weight of duties - Sensitive to consequences - No basic agreement on moral principles

Maximin Principle of Justice (Rawls) An act is moral if it provides an equal amount of liberty for you and others, except when social or economic inequalities exist. In that case, the worst-off in society should benefit more from the act.

Strengths

Weaknesses

- Shows inherent respect for individuals - Concerned only with justice - Encourages social responsibility by all - Assumes a high level of rationality - Shows concern for less fortunate - Assumes acting without self-interest

Proportionality (Garrett) An act is moral if, in engaging in it, you dont will a major evil to you or anyone else and if you dont will, risk or permit a minor evil to yourself or anyone else without a proportionate reason.

Strengths - Synthesizes most useful theories

Weaknesses - Definitions are vague

- Provides flexibility without immorality - Highly subjective

You probably noticed that all of these theories have weaknesses. So you may think that selecting an ethical theory is an exercise in futility. However, once you select the ethical theory that you feel is most closely aligned with your core values, youll find solving ethical dilemmas much easier. You can recognize the weakness of your method, while feeling confident in your process. Application: Choose the ethical theory which most closely aligns with your values. #3 Use a problem-solving process Now you know your values and you have a model with which to apply them. The remaining piece is to follow an orderly process to solve the problem, because not all ethical dilemmas are as simple as your friend and her baby that we discussed earlier.