WHY MAKE A DECISION AT ALL?
WHY MAKE A DECISION AT ALL?
What would happen if you chose not to make a decision in any given
In the end, in each situation, it should be clear that by choosing not to make a decision is actually making a decision and does not make the situation go away. It simply results in your inability to have any control whatsoever over the outcome. But make no mistake, you still have to live with the consequences.
In most instances, ethical or not, making a decision really results in the resolution of a problem or, as ethicists prefer to call it, a
dilemma
. A dilemma is actually a particular type of problem ”one in which we are faced with two or more choices all of which are
THE BEST YOU CAN HOPE FOR
How can you ever know if you are even heading in the right direction when it comes to ethics? Short of relying entirely on your gut reaction ”which is often referred to as intuition and is actually useful to some extent ”the type of decision that you are required to make in such cases is the key. What you need to accomplish is choosing a defensible solution.
An ethically defensible decision is one which you can live with and for which you are able to provide a reasonable, ethics-based rationale to observers. Make no mistake, you will often be required to provide such justification for these decisions since there are few black and white ethical situations about which everyone agrees. In solving ethical problems, it is a fact of life that there will be someone who will
There are several
-
The
principled decision: This is a decision which is based upon a well-thought-out application of the ethical principles that have guided ethical decision-making through history. These principles are those that we discussed earlier, such as doing no harm, an attempt to servejustice , telling the truth and so on, and the approaches to decision-makingoffered to us by suchphilosophers as Aristotle, Kant and Mill, toname a few. -
The precedent decision: This type of decision uses a kind of case law if you like. Similar situations that have already been resolved can provide a certain amount of guidance largely because their
outcomes are already known. This isespecially useful sincejudging potential outcomes is clearly a big part of making ethical decisions. However, precisepredictions of outcomes are usually not possible. -
The patron decision: This is a decision wherein we look to those who have more experience than we do in both our professional practice and in
facing and dealing with ethical decisions. You need to be able to trust the judgement of your ˜patron and yet still be able to take full responsibility for the decision that you make based on such advice.
In the end, decision-making is a process ”one that we know a lot about in our business, but one that has special considerations in ethical practice.
