Please interpret the results in the following, and apply them to an individual's personal and professional development. Include a statement explaining how his or her educational experience has impacted their ethical thinking. Please address the individual's use of ethics in thinking and decision-making and the potential for conflict in situations with people who have different interpretations of ethical behavior.
ETHICS AWARENESS PROFILE:
SCORING SUMMARY
C O R E
MOST 4 9 9 2
LEAST 3 5 8 8
COMBINED SCORE 1 4 1 -6
Your ethical perspective is most likely to be based on OBLIGATION, and your ethical perspective is least likely to be based on EQUITY. Click on the highlighted category in the navigation above to continue.
Your largest COMBINED SCORE should closely reflect your perspective on ethics.
Of course, individual perspectives vary, and this general description may not fit you exactly. However, it can provide insight into your general views and approaches with regard to ethical debates. The letter category in which your lowest COMBINED SCORE appears should reflect values least in agreement with your views on ethics.
The key word for each category (Character, Obligation, Results, and Equity) represents a primary core value that forms a basis for ethical decision making within this ethical perspective. If your second highest score is within one or two points of your highest score, consider reading both letter categories in analyzing your approach to ethical decision making.
You tend to base your ethical perspective on an individual’s duty or obligation to do what is morally right - principles that represent what rational persons ought morally to do. You believe that ethical conduct appeals to “conscience.” In judging whether a person’s actions are ethical, you look to the intent behind his/her actions, rather than focusing on results. In other words, to be considered ethical, we must choose how we act and what rules we are willing to follow. From your perspective, ethical principles must be: (a) appropriate under any circumstances (universalizable); (b) respectful of human dignity; and (c) committed to promoting individual freedom and autonomy. Human beings must never be treated simply as “means” to the accomplishment of some defined “end.” The end does not justify the means. This category is most closely aligned in philosophy with a deontological theory (Immanuel Kant and John Rawls).
YOUR ETHICAL STYLE:
You believe that human beings have intrinsic value - we have a right to individual respect. Therefore, you cannot support social traditions and policies aimed at “the best interests of society as a whole” if any individual is denied the opportunities to which she/he is entitled as a human being. Your approach to ethics requires that, within legal and humane limits, people should be allowed to make their own choices. Acting in response to impulse, instinct, or rules worked out by others for us to obey does not constitute ethical conduct on our part. You believe that fostering personal growth takes precedence over achieving efficiency through dehumanizing organizational and social structures. For this reason, you advocate policies intended to ensure equal respect and opportunities for all. Moral decisions must reflect the free choice of individuals if we ever expect to hold them personally responsible. You are guided by a desire to be in accord with established standards of right and wrong.
FRUSTRATIONS YOU FACE IN ADDRESSING ETHICAL DILEMMAS
• What you determine to be the right choice may not appear to be the most beneficial choice, in the short-run, for the organization you have agreed to support. The right choice does not necessarily maximize the good for the decision maker.
• You believe that cost-benefit analysis, the preferred decision-making tool of many organizations, is inappropriate for addressing issues with ethical considerations. For example, some of the things that you hold most dear are not easily measured, e.g., right and wrong; good and evil; and the value of a human life.
• Your belief that we have a moral duty or obligation to do what is right leaves little room for compromise when ethical principles are being violated.
• You are frustrated to discover how various individuals define right and wrong, how conflicts are resolved in an organizational setting, and who resolves them.
• The people you work with may argue that certain factions of society are not capable of acting in their own best interests. You consider this a faulty argument that was once used to deny equitable treatment to women and minorities.
• Defending your ethical perspective may result in economic hardship, e.g., a lost promotion or termination.
Remember to refer to the BLENDED CATEGORIES section if your second highest score is within one or two points of your highest score. The final step in the exploration of ETHICS AWARENESS using the inventory is a review of some of the pertinent questions associated with ethical decision making. No matter which ethical perspectives you were referred to by the results of the ETHICS AWARENESS INVENTORY and no matter what your ethical style, the important thing to understand is that we all face situations in which we must choose what we believe is “right.” Contrary to recent attempts to present “value-neutral” research and education, when faced with an ethical decision, we all believe that there are “right” and “wrong” answers. This does not mean, however, that we will all arrive at the same answer. Therefore, it is critical to develop a process to guide our struggle in making ethical decisions—one that will allow us to consider a variety of aspects that affect not only our immediate decisions but its effect on other people. You may access pertinent questions associated with this process in the ETHICAL DECISION MAKING section.