Question

Think of a time when you were faced with an ethical dilemma.  Using one of the ethical frameworks discussed below, describe your approach in resolving your dilemma. What was the final outcome?

*Kantian ethics suggests that decision makers have duties or obligations with which they must follow in their behaviors;
• virtue ethics considers that good decisions come from individuals that possess a package of virtues (such as courage, wisdom, and generosity for example), a virtuous individual is one that uses multiple virtues to make decisions consistently over time, because virtues and obligations can overlap in application, we combine Kantian and virtue ethics in our discussion below;
• situational ethics suggests that any good decision is made out of love or respect to someone within the context of a particular situation;
• egoism is a framework that expects leaders to use rationality to make decisions in line with their own longterm self-interests;
• utilitarianism is a framework that guides leaders to promote happiness for the largest number of people;
• behaviorism, though not initially formulated as an ethical framework, could suggest that leaders have no choice in the decisions that they make but, instead, are forced
to engage in certain behaviors due to the strength of particular stimuli almost as if they were fated to do so;
• divine command theory is a more religious-oriented framework that suggests that good decisions are those that are in line with some direct communication from
the divine;
• natural law ethics is a framework in part derived from Catholic teaching which, greatly simplified, could suggest that right and wrong is the same for everyone but that people develop their knowledge (i.e. conscience, in-
stinct) through understanding the nature of reality;
• cultural relativism is a framework that suggests that leaders should make decisions that agree with the cultural values of the (often geographic) area in which they
find themselves. This framework highlights that cultural values (i.e. what is considered ethical or unethical behaviors) may not be consistent around the world.

Answer 1

Utilitarianism is what I opted when I was in an ethical dilemma because this framework suggest us to think about the happiness if people who depend on and around us. When most of the people are happy then that decision will obviously not an wrong or unethical decision.