Ethical Awareness Inventory & Rubric Assignment Week 1

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The four C.O.R.E. perspectives, as well as Blended Categories, featured in the Ethics Awareness Inventory are presented below.

(R) RESULTS (MOST)

YOUR ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE:

You tend to base your ethical perspective on the results or consequences of your actions. You believe that conduct should be directed toward promoting the greatest good for the greatest number of persons. In judging whether an individual’s actions are ethical, you look for concrete evidence. It is not enough for an individual to “talk the talk.” Results are needed to indicate that she/he is “walking the walk.” In your opinion, what really counts in reaching an ethical decision is the “bottom line.” Discussions about process and principles are not as important as what is ultimately achieved for the overall good of society. The goal of ethics is to achieve the greatest possible good for society as a whole. This category is most closely aligned in philosophy with a utilitarian theory of ethics (See Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill).

YOUR ETHICAL STYLE:

You believe that we each have a moral right to experience the “good life.” One way to measure how good life really is would be to determine how satisfied the majority of the people in our society seem to be. If most people are unhappy, something is morally wrong and needs to be fixed. Therefore, your approach to ethics is likely to focus on what could be done to improve the well being of the greatest number of persons. One approach might be to develop rules of ethical conduct for people to follow, along with corresponding sanctions, in order to achieve what is best for society as a whole. Another quite different approach might be to improve overall satisfaction by creating a more pleasant environment in which people enjoy learning and working together for the betterment of society. With either approach, your ethical style demands that you achieve measurable results.

FRUSTRATIONS YOU FACE IN ADDRESSING ETHICAL DILEMMAS:

· The inability to adequately measure the far-reaching impacts of an ethical decision may compel you to focus your decision making on the immediate scope of the problem, thereby creating conflicts with those who are not results-oriented.

· You are frustrated by the wide variety of competing views regarding what is good for society as a whole and by the process used to determine whose view ultimately prevails.

· In attempting to maximize the general good, you will, at some point, need to decide whether your goal is to improve the total benefit to society as a whole (the aggregate) or the total benefit per person within society (the average). This definition will have a direct impact on your approach to ethical decision making.

· People who cling to the idealistic notion of protecting the interests of some minority of the population may stand in the way of achieving the good life for the majority.

· People you work with may not share your ethical approach, thereby interfering with your ability to achieve the desired results.

· What is best for the greater good of society may not be best for you.

(E) EQUITY (LEAST)

YOUR ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE:

You tend to base your perspective on ethics on a concern for the instability of knowledge, the uncertainty of human judgment, and the lack of individuals who can truly qualify as experts in the discernment of what is right and what is wrong. Education does not provide all the answers. In your view, pragmatism, practical day-to-day experience, is the only reasonable guide to action. In judging whether an individual’s actions are ethical, you stress the practical consequences of his/her actions as the essential criteria for evaluating each case. Your distrust of any attempt to define universal principles and moral values is based, in part, on a distrust of the motives of the individuals involved. You believe that no principled solution is adequate for all time. As long as decision makers continue to disregard the cultures and lives of minorities, any discussion that suggests a unity of belief is absurd. This category is most closely aligned in philosophy with a postmodern theory of ethics (See Michel Foucault and David Harvey).

YOUR ETHICAL STYLE:

You believe that there are no absolute standards of right and wrong. With new knowledge and different circumstances, an individual’s beliefs and values may change periodically. Therefore, your approach to ethics generally tends to challenge all attempts to plan ideal social orders rationally. You tend to distrust institutionalized codes of ethics. The correct choice for a particular situation and a particular time is likely to evolve from a consideration of alternative viewpoints. You reject the use of power or control to suppress opposition to some “accepted” perspective, embracing broad representation in ethical decision making. Your ethical style requires a critical analysis of the far-reaching impact of each alternative, not a predetermined response to what appears to be “good” in the short-run.

FRUSTRATIONS YOU FACE IN ADDRESSING ETHICAL DILEMMAS:

· Your commitment to frequent reconsideration of a wide variety of differing alternative viewpoints is unsettling to others who seek a sense of security in believing that they have made the “right” decision.

· It is difficult, expensive and time-consuming to adequately analyze the far-reaching impact of an ethical decision. Extensive public input and debate is essential to the development of policy that supports tolerance and respect for diversity.

· In periods of crisis or chaos within your organization, short-term benefits and image frequently triumph over ethics as the primary concern.

· People you work with may not acknowledge the complexity of the world as you see it and will tend instead toward recommending highly simplified “solutions” that appear to be little more than window dressing.

· Without the structure provided by established standards of right and wrong, it is sometimes difficult to justify your ethical decisions to others. Consensus becomes an arduous task.

· In today’s society, you are frustrated that those with the most power are attempting to define what is important to individuals under their control.