Decision making models and frameworks

Decision Making Model

Decision making is an important everyday activity which can have far-reaching implications on personal and business matters. People face challenging situations often that require them to make decisions. These decisions usually follow a pattern that has something to do with an individual's personal values and beliefs. Ethical decision making model is one of the most commonly used models today because it takes into account the interests of others. There are some important steps involved in making an ethical decision. These steps begin with identifying the problem, the issues involved, ethical perspective on it, possible solutions and identifying the best solution.

The Josephson Institute of Ethics gives a model of decision making which involves three key steps. This model states that ethical decisions must be based on the golden rule of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (Smith) The model expects people to take into account the interests of everyone who are likely to be affected by the decision. However since we cannot possible make everyone happy with our decisions, we must learn to prioritize the interests involved. The model states "We cannot demonstrate equal love or caring to every person affected by our decisions. Sometimes we must prioritize certain interests over others and advance the well-being of some people, even at a cost to others." (Smith)

The second important part of the model suggests that we base our decisions on ethical considerations. Even though we all are well aware of the rule of ethics that states, "Ethical values and principles always take precedence over unethical ones," it requires a rationalization process to transform unethical desires into ethical ones. What is meant by this is that ethical conflicts arise "from the clash between what they want or 'need' and ethical principles that might deny them their desires." We then need to rationalize our desires in order to transform "self-interested, unethical motives into others-centered, ethical ones." (Smith)

The third important step according to the model is rejection of an ethical principle for the greater good and long-term ethical considerations. The model asserts that "it is ethically proper to violate an ethical principle only when it is clearly necessary to advance another true ethical principle, which, according to the decision-maker's conscience, will produce the greatest balance of good in the long run." The model is definitely based on sound ethical principles because it recognizes the conflict that arises from competing ethical values. The model asserts that we must learn to arrange ethical principles in order of priority in order to be able to decide which route to take when more than one ethical consideration is at stake.

This model came in handy recently when I faced a complex situation at work. Mary is one of the junior staff members who is also one my close friends at work. I also happen to be supervising her on a new company project. While Mary is a dedicated worker, I recently noticed that her performance was suffering. When the time of appraisal came, I couldn't help noticing that she was usually last one to arrive each day, she was using office equipment for personal use and on top of that her contribution to the project was not as considerable as that of others. I was faced with a tough situation. But since I needed to report everything to my supervisor, I was in a fix. I could either report her behavior and risk losing my friendship or I could ignore it and hurt my credibility as a fair supervisor. I knew it was ethically more correct to follow the latter path but I didn't want to lose a friend like Mary too. I followed the ethical model of decision making and this is what I came up with:

Mary is cheating on her work. She is not doing justice to the project. Our office policy clearly states that we cannot use office equipment for personal things. Apart from that we are not even allowed to come late or ask others to do our work for us especially when a project is involved.

There are ethical issues involved. Her behavior is violating the rights of others. Mary's cheating on her work is certainly unfair to others on the project. While others do not complain, I know they do not appreciate Mary's consistently poor participation. Mike our team junior leader hinted at Mary's performance and expected me to do something about it when appraisal time came.