Solved by verified expert:You are a federal agent and have been investigating a major drug ring for a long time. One of your informants is fairly highly placed within this ring and has been providing you with good information and he has a meeting with the drug lord in two days. You were able to turn him because he faces a murder charge: there is probable cause that he shot and killed a coworker during an argument about five years ago, before he became involved in the drug ring. You have been holding the murder charge over him, and with the help of the US District Attorney’s office, to keep the local prosecutor from filing charges and arresting him which is proper under the rules of the department and must be done within the next day. The local prosecutor is upset because the family wants some resolution in the case. You believe that the information that the informant is able to provide you with will result in charges of major drug sales and racketeering against several of the top smugglers, putting a dent in the drug trade for your region, as well as helping the community by keeping them safe when the drug dealers are locked up. This will also result in a promotion for you. At the same time, you understand that you are constantly risking the possibility that the informant will escape prosecution by leaving the country and you are blocking the justice that the family members deserve. What do you do?Make sure to use the chart to answer this question.
ethical_decision_making_considerations_and_analysis_chart_103017.docx
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Ethical Decision Making Considerations Part #1
VALUES
SPECIFIC ROLE
PUBLIC POWER
ETHICAL DILEMMA
Your Value Origins: Are they
carved in concrete?
Do they conflict with each other?
Your Position: Responsibilities vs
Obligations – Do your values inform
your role or does your role inform your
values? Have you established
boundaries for each role?
Person/ Family/ Community
Duty and Oath: Have you taken an
oath or have a duty to decide or
act in a particular way?
What are you being asked to
decide or do?
•
Learned through
experience
•
Taught by significant
others
Professional/ Work Identity
Authority
•
Understood from society
Agency/ Job
Accountability
•
Based on your beliefs
Jurisdiction/ Citizen
Core Values: L&G (p. 29):
Accountability; Impartiality; Justice
and Fairness; Do Good;
Avoid Harm
Humanity/ Sustainability/ Legacy
Whistle blower:
Are you internal or external?
Use company process?
Does any action constitute a crime?
Other?
Role Diagnosis (L&G p. 35)
Power
Formal BASIS
(for ethical decisions)
ALL THESE ARE CONSIDERED TOGETHER
AWARENESS
Ethical Awareness: Knowing
what is right and what is
wrong.
Rule/Law/Duty/Obligation
=Theories
This is largely Deontology
Ethical Code/ Other
Responsibility
Org. Specified Rules
Recognizing that there is a
moral issue and
understanding the specific
moral principle involved
Having the ability to make a
choice to act or not to act
What rules, duties,
obligations, laws govern the
action?
Is the actor responsible to an
ethical code? Is there more than
one code in question?
What value does the organization place
on this conduct? Look at the code or the
actions of leadership
Have any of the RLDO’s
been broken? If you do not
adhere to them, what are the
consequences
Has the code been violated?
Has the rule been violated?
Not aware of any problem
that needs ethical
consideration – is this a valid
viewpoint?
Are there any other
considerations – Absolutism
No mitigating circumstances
will apply.
What are the consequences or
violating the code?
What responsibility does the org. have to
punish violations?
Recognizing that your
decision or actions will affect
others
This is consequences,
No RLDO or many people
harmed?
Look at the circumstances
and apply other analysis –
Utilitarianism,
Egoism
Altruism
If there is more than one code,
how should the codes be
prioritized? (look to conflicts)
CONFLICTING ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Moral Intensity
(Jones, 1991)
Organizational/ Group Factors
Conflicts in ethical reasoning and/or behavior
Magnitude of the
consequences – sum of the
harms due to victims
Group Dynamics – go or do not go
along with the crowd
Social Consensus – degree of
agreement that act is evil or
good.
Within-group Authority Factors:
Differences in your morality versus
macro-level (org/group) authority
Conflicting Imepratives – right to dissent
(Legal/Effective/Ethical)
Go/No Go:
Illegal/Ethical – No action* (Δ )
Illegal/Unethical – No action
Legal & Ineffective/Ethical – No action* (Δ)
Legal & Ineffective/Unethical – No action
Legal & Effective/Ethical – Action
Legal & Effective/Unethical
Probability of the Effect – act
will occur and the harm will
result
Public Perception
Appearance of Impropriety
Impartiality
Conflicting Personal/Situational Issues
Lewis & Gilman:
1-Courage; 2-Multiple roles; 3-Camouflage; 4- Rhetoric;
5-Confusion; 6-Excuse, not explanation; 7-Consensus;
8-Hard but different choices; 9-Error; 10-Selectivity
Recognition You have faced this situation
before and therefore you knew
how to act
Temporal Immediacy – length
of time between the onset of
the moral consequences
Allegiance to group based on nature
of the organization – eg. Code of
Silence
Conflicting Codes – Prioritize
Determine the reason that a specific code should be
primary
You are satisfied with the
results even though it is not
popular or supportive of the
general ethical norms
THEORETICAL
INFLUENCES
Proximity – nearness to
victims/issue
Concentration of the Effect an inverse function of the
number of people affected by
an act of given magnitude.
Conflicting Purposes – Distinguish
Understand what purpose is most important
Act: What action have you decided to take?
ORGANIZATION /GROUP
INFLUENCES
RESULTS
Result/Integration
Unintended Results – you did
not know or were mistaken that
your act would produce the
results
Wrong calculation – you did not
have enough information, or
were unable to calculate the
results
Who is the person making the
decision?
Values
Roles
Power/Authority/Accountability
What is the question you are
being asked?
Option #1
Option #2
Theory or theories that
support
Ethical
Theories that support
Not Ethical
Conclusion: I chose
Option __
because…
…
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