Ethical Frameworks

We make decisions every day. In whatever context, whether you are an employee implementing the instructions of a superior or a business owner, making choices on what the company should do, decisions have to be made in order to make progress at assertion endeavor. There are decisions with minor implications, and there are major ones which affect your life and the lives of others. When we make these big decisions, we often find ourselves going through a checklist of factors to help us in making the right choice. This checklist, which often resembles a code, is called an ethical framework. Let us elaborate.

Whatever context we might find ourselves, there are decisions we must make and actions that we must take to execute such decisions. Aside from achieving our goals, one of the questions we must address is if our decision is ethical or not. This baseline question really springs from the conception of ethics, which is said to refer to a set of moral principles that govern human behavior. These moral principles deal with questions of right or wrong, and what our moral duties in every situation. [BACKGROUND] The combination of these moral ethical principles in a set of codes that each human being uses to guide his behavior is called an ethical framework.

In other words, this is the invisible list or structure that we’ve built using tools such as principles and values that we have acquired and developed in order to ensure that we are making ethical decisions. Or in moral principles parlance, that we are making the right choices and not the wrong ones. This is how we distinguish between right and wrong. Ethical frameworks are used and administered by human beings and other institutions like the law, religion, and government. However, it is important to remember that these institutions are independent of ethics. While they may influence the making of ethical decisions, these institutions do not essentially and always embody ethics.

An ethical framework guides decision-making because it enables important aspects of a situation or an event to be highlighted and assessed. It recognizes that ethical decisions are often not black and white. There are issues which are in the gray area. This is then the function of the framework as it identifies the important aspect and allows the decision-maker, using the principles, to determine what is the right choice to make.

A framework, although it varies from person to person, will usually require that the decision-maker do the following; a, recognize an ethical issue, b, gather the facts in a certain situation, c, evaluate alternative courses of action, d, make a decision and test it, and e, act and reflect on the outcome of the decision. Thus, in making an ethical decisions an ethical framework should urge the decision-maker to go through this list of actions as ethics will involve a process that tests the application of the moral principles or moral code that an individual or an organization holds. To sum up, every day, there are decisions we must make, and actions that we must take to execute such decisions.

A baseline question is whether a decision is ethical or not. This question is answered by employing a set of codes or an ethical framework. This is the invisible lace door structure that we’ve built using principles and values that we have acquired and developed in order to ensure that we are making ethical decisions. A framework pushes a person to recognize an ethical issue and apply the principles in resolving it. There are many approaches to doing this, and they influence how the framework is formed. Now, here are five key points. One, every decision-maker is confronted with the imperative of making an ethical decision.

Two, this baseline question really springs from the conception of ethics, which is set to refer to a set of moral principles that govern human behavior. Three, a combination of these moral or ethical principles and a set of codes that each human being uses to guide his behavior is called an ethical framework. Four, an ethical framework guides decision-making because it enables important aspects of a situation or an event to be highlighted and assessed.

Five, a framework, although it varies from person to person, will usually require that the decision-maker, a, recognizes an ethical issue, b, gathers the facts in a certain situation, c, evaluates alternative courses of action, d, makes a decision and tests it, and e, acts and reflects on the outcome of the decision.