Business Ethics and Social Responsibility

Making Ethical Decisions

In contrast to the "right-versus-right" problem posed by an ethical dilemma, an ethical decision entails a "right-versus-wrong" decision – one in which there is a right (ethical) choice and a wrong (unethical or illegal) choice. When you make a decision that's unmistakably unethical or illegal, you've committed an ethical lapse. Betty Vinson, for example, had an ethical lapse when she caved in to her bosses' pressure to cook the WorldCom books. If you're presented with what appears to be this type of choice, asking yourself the questions in Figure 2.3 "How to Avoid an Ethical Lapse" will increase your odds of making an ethical decision.

Figure 2.3 How to Avoid an Ethical Lapse

To test the validity of this approach, let's take a point-by-point look at Betty Vinson's decisions:

1. Her actions were clearly illegal.
2. They were unfair to the workers who lost their jobs and to the investors who suffered financial losses (and also to her family, who shared her public embarrassment).
3. She definitely felt bad about what she'd done.
4. She was embarrassed to tell other people what she had done.
5. Reports of her actions appeared in her local newspaper (and just about every other newspaper in the country).

So Vinson could have answered our five test questions with five yeses. To simplify matters, remember the following rule of thumb: If you answer yes to any one of these five questions, odds are that you're about to do something you shouldn't.