Long, "A Rational Model of Ethical Analysis and Decision Making"
Notable for its heavy reliance on rankings, and for taking steps to prevent recurrence of the same problem
SOURCE FOR THE PROCEDURE
Long, Deborah H. "Models for Ethical Decision Making." Doing the Right Thing: A Real Estate Practitioner's Guide to Ethical Decision Making. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 1998: 39-54.
This model is based on D. G. Jones, Doing Ethics in Business.
THE PROCEDURE ITSELF
- State the ethical dilemma in plain language.
- Identify relevant facts, ranking them in order of significance.
- Identify relevant values.
- List alternative courses of action.
- Perform rankings and make a decision.
- Rank values in preferential scale.
- Rank predictable consequences in terms of certain harmful or beneficial effects.
- Make your decision.
- Adopt a proactive posture and propose a policy or institutional arrangement for preventing this kind of ethical dilemma from recurring.
WALT'S CHECKLIST
The same checklist was applied to all procedures.
- This method is most useful when the DECISION-MAKER ...
- has high initial sensitivity to relevant ethical "features" [step 1]
- has plenty of time for investigation and analysis [steps 4 and 5]
- is skilled in causal or consequential reasoning [step 5b]
- is skilled in conflict- or dilemma-resolution methods [steps 1 and 6]
- is willing to frame the issue in numerical or quasi-numerical terms [step 5b]
- This method is most useful in a SITUATION ...
- that will change little over time
- This method is most useful when STAKEHOLDERS ...
