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Ethics in Action
12
Nine Ethical Orientations
Ethics in Action
Participant 1: Situationalist.
Participant 2: Absolutist.
Participant 3: Categorical Imperative.
Participant 4: Communitarianism.
Participant 5: Deontology, or Duty.
Participant 6: Dialogue.
Participant 7: The “Golden Mean.”
Participant 8: Reciprocal Favoritism, or “The Golden Rule.”
Participant 9: Utilitarianism
Examining our
ethical orientations
Absolutists
- Absolutists apply complete or universal principles or standards across all situations.
- Absolutists believe that the proper course of action is not determined by circumstances but by an existing moral compass.
- Most people hold some absolutist beliefs about life or human nature.
Deontology/Duty
Situationalists
- A deontologist acts on a set of personal beliefs about the world and is unwilling to compromise those beliefs.
- Deontology holds that actions should be guided by decisions about right and wrong, rather than what the outcome of those decisions might be.
- Activists are often prone to deontological views in regard to their organizational causes.
- The current circumstances or situation should be used as a guide or basis for making choices about right and wrong.
- Often rationalizes “right and wrong” as what is “good or bad” for an individual/organization.
Categorical Imperative
Dialogue
- The idea that one’s actions should be undertaken as if s/he had the power to make them universally applicable.
- Holds that individuals should treat people as ends (or inherently valuable), and not as means to ends.
Holds that “Unconditional positive regard for others” is needed to be an ethical communicator.
Is enacted through “risk, trust, commitment, mutuality, collaboration, propinquity, positive regard, empathy” and other behaviors.
Requires communicators to make an effort to understand other people.
Requires communicators to treat other individuals and groups with respect, never reducing them to the opposition or “the enemy.”
Dialogic communicators are flexible, not afraid to admit when they are wrong, and are willing to change.
Communitarian
The Golden Mean
- Communitarians believe that people have “duties” and “responsibilities” as good citizens in a community, rather than just individual “rights.”
- Communitarians believe that people should put the needs of their community above their own interests and desires.
- Communitarians believe in collaboration rather than competition.
Strives for decisions that involve balance or moderation between extremes.
The “middle ground” between two extremes is not necessarily in the “middle,” but between the two poles, often closer to one poll than the other.
Not the same as satisficing, where two organizations or parties are each willing to settle for a “satisfactory” result. The Golden Mean generally tries to make the best choice, not the most expedient, while avoiding extreme positions.
Which of the ethical approaches do you find the most compelling?
https://youtu.be/M0yYTNrP_38
Utilitarianism
Reciprocal Favoritism or “The Golden Rule”
Strives to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number.
Always considers the consequences of decisions.
Would never act solely on the basis of personal opinion or preference.
Requires people to conduct situational and stakeholder research in order to make the most informed and equitable decisions.
Holds that people should not do things to other people that they themselves would not like to be done to them.
Holds that other people should always be treated fairly and with respect.
Basic Process
Seven Steps according to Dewey
Step 1: Identify the decision to be made.
Basic process of making decisions
Step 2: Gather relevant information.
Step 3: Identify alternatives.
Step 4: Weigh evidence.
Step 5: Choose among alternatives.
Action and Consequenses
Step 7: Review decision and consequences.
Action
Step 6: Take action.
Moral of the Story
Public relations professionals are the guardians of the public good. As organizational counselors and environmental scanners we have the ability to see the big picture and help our colleagues, managers, organizations, and stakeholders and publics see the big picture and focus on the next millennium. Ethical decisions do not just focus on the situation at hand, but consider the future, and how best to serve organizational interests down the road. A sense of duty to do what is right, the application of dialogic principles applied to interactions and decision-making, a focus on doing good for the greatest number, etc., are not simply “ideals,” but achievable states.
As the ethical conscience of our organizations, public relations professionals should take inspiration for organizations like TLN, with their focus on ethics and not expediency.
Public Good
“Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The trend might be coming from the acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next-election perspective of democracies, or the distractions of personal multi-tasking. All are on the increase. Some sort of balancing corrective to the short-sightedness is needed—some mechanism or myth which encourages the long view and the taking of long-term responsibility, where “long-term” is measured at least in centuries.” (http://longnow.org/ about)
The Long Now
Case Study
https://youtu.be/NcIEBhNTL_I
Ethics and Decision-Making
- Ethics exist as a means of making decisions about issues of good and bad, right and wrong.
- Decision-making is informed by ethics.
- Ethical decisions are difficult to make and require research and hard work.
Discussion
Q: Thinking back to the last decision that you made, did you follow this model?
Discussion
Group Dynamics
- Personalities, work preferences, interest, and other variables influence productivity.
- Cultural differences can influence the decision-making process.
- Time, resources, and knowledge influence the quality of decisions.
Experiences
Q: Thinking back on your group experiences, why have certain groups been more successful than others?
What makes it ethical?
Thoughts on Ethics
- The process is guided by a decision making process, such as Dewey’s model.
- The process is informed by research and information gathering.
- Individual decision makers bring to bear their own ethical frameworks.
Factors in Ethical Decision Making
Factors
Dominant Incentive-The one thing that someone wants or cares about more than anything else.
Rational Choice-The assumption, not always true, that people act to achieve desirable consequences.
In real life, however, people are often swayed by appearances, social desirability, etc. and do not make rational decisions.
Framing-The way something is described influences how people think about it.
Groupthink-When highly cohesive groups start thinking that whatever they believe is always right, and stop asking for input from outsiders or questioning their decisions.
Only applies to highly cohesive groups.
- People who seize on the first “acceptable” solution that comes along and then just justify it based on their existing knowledge.
- Although cognitive misers often solve problems effectively, they do not spend time searching for the “best” solution, only the most expedient.
Cognitive Misers
- Heuristics are rules of thumb, based on past experiences, that people use to make decisions.
- Biases, like heuristics, are also based on past experience, but are also grounded in a number of positive and negative personal experiences.
Heuristics
and Biases
- When a group follows a decision-making suggestion that a member has made, simply because everyone in the group is unwilling to speak out.
Decision Making
Objections
Uncertainty and Risk
- Uncertainty refers to things that are unknown, and difficult or impossible to judge.
- Risk refers to things that are known and therefore can be predicted and more easily acted upon.
- Risk is preferable to uncertainty.
“Goal-oriented behavior.” Most people are capable of rationality, but often decisions and actions taken by people are not “rational,” but are based on external factors: peer pressure, likability, attractiveness, etc.
Rationality
Decision Making
Objections
Clinical and Actuarial (Statistical) approaches
- Clinical approaches to decision making are based on humanistic decisions made based on personal experiences with others.
- Actuarial decisions are made based on probabilities and likelihoods based on data.
- Actuarial decisions have been shown to be more reliable.
The tendency when confronted with base rate or statistical data and individuated information, to focus on the individual information over the statistical information.
Base Rate
Problem
Questions
Q: Do you believe you are a good judge of character? If you had to make college admission decisions, would you rather make them based on a personal interview with a student, or based on a combination of factors like their GPA and other past performance?