Making Ethical Decisions : 51 his current project. If he were to leave early, it would be problematic for the project he's working on, causing delays and perhaps jeopard- CHAPTER 4 izing future contracts with this client. But John is also your good friend. The two of you have become MAKING ETHICAL close friends over the years, in part because you are both in a similar stage of life, with children roughly the same ages. John and his wife DECISIONS are about to have their fourth child in the next few months. At one of the kids' soccer games, John mentions that he's received a job offer from another company, but he says he would rather stay in When I'm in a moral dilemma, what do I do? his present job because the pay is better and the commute is much shorter. He tells you he tried to get them to give him more time to make a decision, at least until the layoffs are made public, but the Imagine being in the middle of the following scenario at your company who offered him the job needs to know before then. workplace. You are a group manager in your company, with around John asks you, "Do you think I should take this position?" You twenty people who report to you. Your company is publicly traded, remain silent because of your obligation to your company. He knows not privately owned. There are many rumors going around the com- you are bound by confidentiality but says anyway, "I know you can't pany that layoffs are coming because of a slowdown in business, say anything directly about the layoffs, but am I safe to assume that making the employees in your group feel anxious and worried and your nonresponse is good news for me? Given our relationship over unsure of their job prospects should they be let go. You know these the years, you would probably warn me in a roundabout way if I rumors are true. were being laid off, right? Besides, by giving me some indication, Only a few top executives and the group managers know the you would be doing much more good than harm. No one gets hurt if names of the people who will be laid off, and the company has a you let me know. Think of what I stand to lose if you don't tell me." policy of strict confidentiality when it comes to who is on the layoff Your friend John has put you in quite a dilemma. You're caught list. The reason for this is that when word leaked out in the past, between two difficult choices-to tell him and violate your com- some of the affected employees left before their termination date, pany's policy about confidentiality, or not to tell him and risk your leaving the company in a difficult situation in terms of finishing friend passing up on a job he should take, given that he is about to jobs that needed to be done. In addition, some employees, out of be laid off. What do you do? Perhaps more important, how do you anger and a desire to strike back at the company, resorted to sabo- decide what to do? tage of company equipment, especially their computers. Normally, Often in situations like these, people just trust their gut. They keeping confidentiality about these matters is not a problem. But do what their intuition tells them to do, without much critical here it raises an ethical issue for you, because your good friend, John, thinking about it. To be sure, in a lot of cases you don't have time to is on the layoff list. engage in a decision-making process, since you must decide on the John is a computer systems analyst who has been with the com- spot. But many moral decisions are not like that. You do have time pany for the past several years and whose expertise is important for to consider more thoughtfully what to do. In chose situations, the52 . Introducing Christian Ethics Making Ethical Decisions . 53 decision-making model presented in this chapter may be helpful. challenging to do that. Thankfully, many areas in ethics are clear Even in those scenarios that require snap decisions, using this model and straightforward, and we don't face ethical dilemmas every day. can be beneficial in retrospect, particularly if they are situations that But when we do, it's helpful to have a procedure to follow that is may arise again in the future. It can be a useful tool to help individ- consistent with our worldview. uals or groups debrief after facing an ethical dilemma. Clearly, the place to start is recognizing an ethical dilemma, If you ask someone to tell you how he or she would know if they were A MODEL FOR MAKING facing an ethical dilemma, I suspect you would get a "deer in the headlights" look! So here's the definition of an ethical dilemma: a ETHICAL DECISIONS conflict between two or more principle/virtue-driven interests. To be This is a procedure that can be followed in private reflection and more specific, you must identify the parties who have an interest in decision making or can be used to facilitate group discussion and the case, determine their interests, and most important, define the deliberation on echical issues. It is not a formula that automatically moral principles and/or virtues that underlie their interests. If you generates the right decision. Rather it is a process that insures that cannot point out the principles/virtues in their interests, then it's all the important questions are asked and all the bases are covered. It likely that you have some other kind of dilemma, perhaps a strategic can be used by people with a wide variety of worldviews-an impor- one but not an ethical dilemma. One way to clarify this is to ask tant factor, given the diversity of our workplaces today. It is not a yourself, "If one party's interests were ignored, what moral principle distinctly Christian model, though it is consistent with the Bible, or virtue would be violated?" since it holds principles and virtues in a prominent position. Thus Be sure to distinguish between an ethical dilemma and a temp- you will notice that it is heavily deontological and virtue oriented, cation; a temptation does not have another competing principle/ with a consideration of consequences playing a supporting role. virtue but is normally a conflict between a moral principle/virtue What makes many moral dilemmas so difficult is that the Bible and a person's self-interest. So once you know you are facing an does not always address an issue directly, if it addresses that issue at ethical dilemma, how do you proceed? all. General biblical virtues and principles are relevant and should I am indebted to Dr. William W. May for this model. be applied to the issue being discussed. However, there is often dis- agreement about which biblical principles and virtues are applicable 1. Gather the Facts and how they apply to the situation at hand. Further, it may be that This section is for clarifying two main things: what do we the principles/virtues conflict in any given scenario. These tend to know? and what do we need to know? Since these decisions are often be some of the most difficult ethical dilemmas, because they involve being made in real time, we have time to ask questions and clarify making choices and weighting the principles/virtues that have a things and bring to light facts that need uncovering. Of course, in bearing on the case. utilizing this model in recrospect, the question, what do we need to Appeal to principles and virtues alone will not necessarily resolve know? can't be answered, but in a debriefing discussion after the any particular dilemma. Of course, appealing to the Bible, either to fact, it's possible to ask, what would have been helpful to know at a specific text or to more general principles, can conclusively resolve the time that we didn't? many moral questions, but there are other cases in which it's more54 . Introducing Christian Ethics Making Ethical Decisions . 55 2. Identify the Ethical Issue The more customary way of resolving the dilemma is realizing Remember, an ethical dilemma is defined as a conflict between that we have to make choices. Often, in order to make a clear deci- two or more principle virtue-driven interests. Pinpointing the sion, you must weight one or more principles/virtues more heavily conflict is critical in this step. Be careful here; it's not the conflict than the others. When doing this, be sure to provide good reasons berween competing alternatives but the conflict between competing for emphasizing one principle/virtue above the rest. You should pro- principles/virtues that counts. Don't confuse competing choices vide more of a basis for your weighting than simply your intuition. with the ethical issue. Remember that people in these discussions However, at this point, you may not yet have a clear decision, and can become very passionate about their views, since their views are some other factor is brought to bear on the issue. At the least, at this based on deeply held moral values. next step, you might eliminate some alternatives. 3. What Additional Principles/Virtues Have a Bearing on 6. Assess the Consequences the Case Though consequences are not the determining factor, they Usually, once the competing interests and their underlying should not be ignored. In the event that our principles/virtues have principles/virtues are clear, those moral principles and virtues are not yet yielded a clear decision, consideration of consequences may not the only ones that are relevant to the issue at hand. Additional help weight the competing values that support the alternatives still principles and virtues can come from the Bible or ocher sources, or on the table. Here the task is to take the viable alternatives and they may be intuitively held as self-evident (those come from natural attempt to predict the likely (as opposed to speculative) consequences law). It's important to get these additional principles and virtues into of each. In addition, you should try to estimate how beneficial are the discussion and connect them to the interests they support. the positive consequences and how severe are the negative ones, since some consequences will be negligible and others will be more 4. List the Alternatives significant. Given the conflict you've identified, what alternatives are available to you to resolve this conflict? Be sure to distinguish 7. Make a Decision between alternatives that necessarily resolve the dilemma and those At some point, you have to stop deliberating and make a choice. that could resolve it but might not. Often these decisions are not easy, nor are they painless. Be careful of trusting your "sleep-well quotient" too. You may make a good 5. Compare the Alternatives with the Principles/Virtues decision and still not sleep well, because these dilemmas are often This is the step where the ethical evaluation and assessment very difficult and don't lend themselves to easy solutions. begins in earnest. The ideal at this step is to recognize an alternative that satisfies all of the competing moral principles and virtues. If APPLICATION OF MODEL that is the outcome, you've hit a home run, and you can likely sleep TO CONFIDENTIALITY CASE very well at night after resolving the dilemma in this way. If that doesn't happen, don't despair, since it's not that common for one Let's return to the case that introduced this chapter: you are back alternative to satisfy all our competing principles/virtues. in the role of manager with knowledge that your friend is being laid