Decision Making Manual: A Toolkit
for Making Moral Decisions
William J. Frey (UPRM)
José A. Cruz-Cruz (UPRM)
Chuck Huff (St. Olaf)
Syllabus as
Social Contract
• Consent (free and informed)
• Quid Pro Quo (mutually beneficial exchange)
• Safe Exit
• FIC (free and informed consent)—The right of a risk
bearer to participate in the public decision as to the
acceptability of that risk. Includes knowledge
requirements and absence of compulsion.
Information
• Name
• Area of academic concentration
• Reason for taking course
• Best educational experience
• Reading and listening in English
There is an analogy between design
problems and ethical problems
Design Problem
Ethical Problem
Construct a prototype that
optimizes (or satisfices)
designated specifications
Construct a solution that
realizes ethical values (justice,
responsibility, reasonableness,
respect, and safety)
Conflicts between
specifications are resolved
through integration of
specifications
Resolve conflicts between
values (moral vs. moral or
moral vs. non-moral) by
integration
Prototype must be
Implement solution over
implemented over background resource, technical, and
constraints
interest constraints
Decision-Making in Business
• Rational Choice Method: Textbook (Lawrence
and Weber)
• Issue Management Process (32)
– Identify Issue
– Analyze Issue
– Generate Options
– Take Action
– Evaluate Results
• Evaluating and ranking given results
Problem-solving in computing can be
modeled on software design
•
The software development cycle can be presented
in terms of four stages:
1. Problem Specification
2. Solution Generation
3. Solution Testing
4. Solution Implementation
• Generate or create options that embody or
realize ethical value or worth
– We don’t find them, we make them
The Difference between choice and
problem-solving?
• In choice, one chooses among existing options
by applying different frameworks such as
ethical frameworks (Text 86)
– Virtues: An action is ethical when it aligns with
good character
– Utilitarian: An action is ethical when net benefits
exceed net costs
– Rights: An action is ethical when basic human
rights are respected
– Justice: An action is ethical when benefits and
costs are fairly distributed
Problem Solving
• We do not find a solution but create one
• We do not evaluate existing choices in terms
of standards
• Instead we use the standards to guide the
imagination in brainstorming and designing
solutions that respond concretely to the
situation in question
Problem Solving
Specifying the Problem
Prepare a Socio-Technical System (STS) table
• “an intellectual tool to help us recognize patterns in
the way technology is used and produced”
– Components: Hardware, Software, Physical Surroundings,
Stakeholders (people, groups, & roles), Procedures, Laws (Criminal
Law, Civil Law, Statutes & Regulations), Information Systems
(collecting, storing, transferring)
– Other Components: Financial Markets, Rate Structure (Power
Systems), Environment, Technological Context, Supply Chain
• A STS is a system. The components are related and
interact.
• STSs embody values
– Moral: Justice, Respect, Responsibility, Trust, Integrity
– Non-Moral: Financial, Efficiency, Sustainability
• STSs exhibit trajectories i.e., coordinated paths of
change
1. Identify key components of the STS
Part/Level of
Analysis
Individual
Group
Organization
Institution
Hardware
Software
Physical
Surroundings
Stakeholders
(People, Groups,
and Roles)
Procedures
Laws
Information
Collection
and Storage
Structures
Identify parts that embody values
Hardware
Justice
Responsibility
Respect
Trust
Integrity
Financial
Environment
Integrity
Software
Physical
Surroundings
Stakeholders
(People,
Groups, and
Roles)
Procedures
Laws
Information
Collection
and Storage
Structures
Classify the problem:
• Disagreement on Facts
– Did the supervisor sexually harass the employee? (What happened—there are two different
versions)
• Disagreement on Concepts
– Has the supervisor created a hostile environment? (Meaning of hostile environment?)
• Conflicts
– Conflict between moral values (Toysmart either honors property claims of creditors or privacy
rights of customers)
– Conflicts between moral and non-moral values (In order to get the chips to clients on time,
LaRue has told the quality control team to skip environmental tests and falsify results)
• A key value becomes vulnerable
– Online activity has magnified the potential harms of cyberslander against companies like
Biomatrix
• Immediate, Midterm, or Remote Harms
– Is it the case that Therac-25 patients are receiving radiation overdoses?
Table summarizing problem classification
(With Generic Solutions)
Problem /
Solution
Strategy
Disagreement
Factual
Value Conflict
Conceptual
Integrate?
Situational
Constraints
Tradeoff?
Resource?
Technical?
Interest?
Problem Solving
Solution Generation
Solution Generation
• Don’t fall into the dilemma trap
– Assumption that all ethical problems in business offer only
two solution forms: do the right thing financially or do the
right thing ethically
• Brainstorm
–
–
–
–
Do exercises to unlock creative thought
Start with an individual list
Share your list with others while suspending criticism
Once you have a preliminary list (set a quota) refine it
• Eliminate solutions that are impractical
• Combine solutions (one is part of another; one is plan A, the other
plan B)
• Test solutions globally and quickly to trim them down to a
manageable list
Use more than one frame when
generating solutions
• How would an engineer specify the problem?
• How would a lawyer specify the problem?
• How would a manager characterize the problem?
• How would a politician specify the problem?
• How would a financial expert or economist specify the
problem?
• Try to integrate these different framings.
Refined Solution List
Alternatives /
Criteria
Alternative 1
Alternative 2
Alternative 3
Responsiveness to
Problem
Global Ethical Test
Global Feasibility
Generic Solutions (For every occasion)
• Gather more information
• Nolo Contendere
• Be diplomatic. Negotiate with the different parties. Look for a
“win-win” solution
• Oppose. Stand up to authority. Organize opposition. Document
and publicize the wrong
• Exit (Get a transfer. Look for another job. Live to fight another
time)
• Organize these as plans A, B, C, etc. (Try one, then the other if the
first doesn’t work.)
Solution Testing
Reversibility, Harm/Benefits, Publicity
Test Solutions
• Develop a solution evaluation matrix
• Test the ethical implications of each solution
• See if the solution violates the code
• Carry out a global feasibility assessment of the solution.
– What are the situational constraints?
– Will these constraints block implementation?
Solution Evaluation Matrix
Alternative / Test
Alternative 1
Alternative 2
Alternative 3
Reversibility
Harm / Benefits
Publicity (Values
Test)
Code
(Corporate or
Professional
Code of
Ethics)
Will it Work?
(Feasibility)
Reversibility
• Does the action still look good when viewed from
the standpoint of key stakeholders?
• Agent projects into standpoint of those targeted
by the action and views it through their eyes
• Avoid extremes of too little and too much
identification with stakeholder (go beyond your
egocentric standpoint but don’t become lost in
the perspective of the other)
Harm / Benefits
• What are the likely harms and benefits that will follow
from the action under consideration?
• What is their magnitude and range?
• How are they distributed?
• Which alternative produces the most benefits coupled
with the least harms?
• Avoid too much (trying to factor in all consequences)
and too little (leaving out significant consequences)
Publicity Test
• What are the values embedded in the action
you are considering?
– Is it responsible or irresponsible? Just or unfair?
Respectful or disrespectful?
• Would you want to be publically associated
with this action given the values it embodies?
– People would view you as responsible, just, or
respectful; irresponsible, unjust (biased?),
disrespectful
Code of Ethics Test
• How does the action accord with your
profession’s or company’s code of ethics?
• How does the action accord with the key
values professed by your company or
profession?
Solution Implementation
Will it work given the background
constraints?
A Feasibility Test—Will it Work?
• Restate your global feasibility analysis
• Are there resource constraints?
– Are these fixed or negotiable?
• Are there technical or manufacturing constraints?
– Are these fixed or negotiable?
• Are there interest constraints?
– Are these fixed or negotiable?
Feasibility Matrix
Alternative/
Constraint
Resource
Time
Alternative 1
Alternative 2
Alternative 3
Interest
Cost
Individual
Technical
Organizational
Legal
Available
Technology
Manufacturability
What if there are major constraints?
• Try out what Westin calls the “intermediate
impossible” (Practical Companion, 38)
– Take your ethically, financially, technically ideal
solution
– Test its feasibility. If it is lacking…
– Modify it as little as possible until it becomes feasible.
Then implement the “intermediate impossible.”
Final Considerations
• Has your problem shifted?
– Check over your refined solution list and your final
solution. Sometimes the process moves from one
problem to another. If so, re-specify your problem
given what you have learned.
• Have you opened all possible doors to solving
your problem?
– Multiple framings. Resisting dilemma trap
Some Readings
• Anthony Weston. (2002). A Practical Companion to Ethics: Second
Edition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
– Weston has several excellent suggestions for brainstorming solutions
to ethical problems. He also discusses how to avoid the dilemma trap.
• Good Computing. (Book under development through Jones and
Bartlett) (Huff, Frey, Cruz)
– The manuscript describes the four-stage software development cycle
that is used as a model here for problem-solving.
• Carolyn Whitbeck. (1998). Ethics in engineering practice and
research. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
– Whitbeck provides an illuminating discussion of the analogy between
ethics and design problems.
Flow Charts
Problem Specification
Disagreements
Between People
Factual
Disagreements
Conceptual
Disagreements
Value Conflicts
Moral
Vs.
Non-Moral
Moral
vs.
Moral
Flow Charts
Solution
Generation
Disagreements
Factual:
Gather
Information
Conceptual:
Define Concept
Value Conflicts
Value
Integration
Compromise:
Partially realize
values
Rank and
Trade Off
Values
Flow Charts
Generic Solutions
Gather
Information
Nolo
Contendere
Change through
Negotiation or
Persuasion
Change Through
Opposition or
Coercion
Exit (Transfer
Resign)
Flow Charts
Solution
Implementation
Resource
Constraints
Time
Money
Available materials
And supplies
Interest
Constraints
Individual
Organizational
Social/Political
Laws, Contracts,
Statutes,
Regulations
Technical
Constraints
Limits in
Technology
Problems with
Manufacturing