Describe the five-step process that can be used to analyze an ethical dilemma. What other guidelines are there to help in understanding a complicated ethical or moral situation?
Answer: The five-step process is:
1. Identify and describe the facts. Find out who did what to whom, and where, when, and how. It helps to get the opposing parties involved in an ethical dilemma to agree on the facts.
2. Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved. Ethical, social, and political issues always reference higher values. Otherwise, there would be no debate. The parties to a dispute all claim to be pursuing higher values (e.g., freedom, privacy, protection of property, and the free enterprise system).
3. Identify the stakeholders. Every ethical, social, and political issue has stakeholders: players in the game who have an interest in the outcome, who have invested in the situation, and usually who have vocal opinions. Find out the identity of these groups and what they want. This will be useful later when designing a solution.
4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take. You may find that none of the options satisfies all the interests involved, but that some options do a better job than others. Sometimes, arriving at a "good" or ethical solution may not always be a balancing of consequences to stakeholders.
5. Identify the potential consequences of your options. Some options may be ethically correct, but disastrous from other points of view. Other options may work in this one instance, but not in other similar instances. Always ask yourself, "What if I choose this option consistently over time?"
Other things to consider when appraising a dilemma include basic ethical concepts such as responsibility, accountability, and liability and how these play into the situation. Additionally, you can judge the situation against candidate ethical principles, such as the Golden Rule, the Slippery Slope theory, Universalism, the Collective Utilitarian principle, Risk Aversion theory, the No Free Lunch theory, the New York Times test (Perfect Information rule) and the Social Contract rule. Actions that do not easily pass these guidelines deserve some very close attention and a great deal of caution because the appearance of unethical behavior may do as much harm to you and your company as the actual behavior.
Learn More :
- Explain why the taxation of e-commerce raises governance and jurisdiction issues.
- Describe the purpose of intellectual property law and outline the main types of intellectual property protection.
- Describe and evaluate the different methods that are being used to protect online privacy. Which of these methods do you think is or could be the most effective?
- Define privacy, information privacy, and informed consent and discuss the ways in which the practices of e-commerce companies, particularly the use of advertising networks, threaten people's privacy.
- Discuss in depth one ethical, social, or political issue that is presently in the news surrounding the Internet and e-commerce.
- The issue of ________ pits those who wish that all Internet traffic is given equal backbone access against telephone and cable companies that would like to charge differentiated prices based on bandwidth and fees paid.
- Under the ________ Act, American intelligence authorities are permitted to tap into whatever Internet traffic they believe is relevant to the campaign against terrorism, in some circumstances without judicial review. Answer: USA Patriot, Patriot
- Single words, pictures, shapes, packaging, and colors used to identify and distinguish goods are protected under ________ law.
- In trademark law, ________ is defined as any behavior that would weaken the connection between the trademark and the product.
- The doctrine of ________ permits teachers and writers to use copyrighted materials without permission under certain circumstances.
- _______ copyright infringement lawsuits are concerned with the distinction between an idea and its expression.
- The main stakeholders arguing against net neutrality are ________.
- A(n) ________ is a private self-regulating policy and enforcement mechanism that meets the objectives of government regulators and legislation, but does not involve government regulation or enforcement.
- ______ profiles identify people as belonging to highly specific and targeted groups.
- Companies that buy up broadly worded patents on a speculative basis and then use them to threaten companies that are purportedly violating the patent are often referred to as patent ________.
- ______ involves the creation of digital images that characterize online individual and group behavior.
- ______ information is demographic and behavioral information that does not include any personal identifiers.
- An ISP basic service plan, allowing 300GB of data transfer per month, with additional data transfer available for $15 for 50GB, is an example of a tiered plan called ________.
- The four major dimensions of e-commerce ethical, social, and political issues are public safety and welfare; property rights; information rights; and ________.
- The ________ of Internet and Web technology can result in work and shopping invading family life.
- Which of the following authorizes the creation of a second-level domain on the Internet where all Web sites have to declare they contain no material harmful to children?
- Over which of the following does ICANN have authority?
- A 2012 TRUSTe/Harris Interactive survey found all of the following except:
- The display of a third-party's Web site or page within your own Web site is called: