CANDIDATE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
Once your analysis is complete, what ethical principles or rules should you use to make a decision? What higher-order values should inform your judgment? Although you are the only one who can decide which among many ethical principles you will follow, and how you will prioritize them, it is helpful to consider some ethical principles which deep roots in many cultures that have survived throughout recorded history:
1. Do unto others as you would you them do unto you (the Golden Rule). Putting yourself into the place of others, and thinking of as the object of the decision, can help you think about fairness in decision making.
2. If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for anyone (Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative). Ask yourself, “If everyone did this, could the organization, or society, survive?”
3. If an action be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all (Descartes’ rule of change). This is the slippery-slope rule: An action may bring about a small change in the long run. In the vernacular, it might be stated as “once started down a slippery path, you may not be able to stop”
4. Take the action that achieves higher or greater value (Utilitarian Principle). This rule assumes you can prioritize values in a rank order and understand the consequences of various courses of action.
5. Take the action that produces the least harm or the least potential cost (Risk Aversion Principle). Some actions have extremely high failure costs of very low probability (e.g., building a nuclear generation facility in an urban area) or extremely high failure costs of moderate probability (speeding and automobile accidents). Avoid these high-failure-cost actions, paying greater attention to high-failure-cost potential of moderate to high probability.
6. Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else unless there is a specific declaration otherwise. (This is the ethical ‘no free lunch” rule.) If something someone else has created is useful to you, it has value, and you should assume the creator wants compensation for this work.
Actions that do not easily pass these rules deserve close attention and great deal of caution. The appearance of unethical behavior may do as much harm to you and your company as actual unethical behavior.
PROFESSIONAL CODES OF CONDUCT
When groups of people claim to be professionals, they take on special rights and obligations because of theirs special claims to knowledge, wisdom and respect. Professional codes of conduct are promulgated by associations of professionals, such as the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Bar Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). These professional groups take responsibility for the partial for the partial regulation of regulation of their professions by determining entrance qualifications competence. Codes of ethics are promises by professions to regulate themselves in the general interest of society. For example, avoiding harm to others, honoring property rights (including intellectual property), and respecting privacy are among the General Moral Imperatives of the ACM’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.