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Moral judgment entails finding the ideal solution to an ethical dilemma. Moral features are built around consideration of how our actions affect others and whether we respect the rights of others in decision making.
Moral decisions how to#
A moral person ought to have a certain preference about how to behave and then ought to behave in accordance with that preference. The first step in moral behavior requires that the individual interpret the situation as moral by noticing the moral features of the decision. In 1983, Rest proposed a four-stage model of the ethical decision-making process that links to the cognitive processes that individuals use in ethical decision making that is, it depicts how an individual first identifies an ethical dilemma and reasons through what is the right thing to do, and then continues through her intention and finally courage to act ethically. One model I draw on to support the discussion is James Rest’s Model of Moral Development. In other words, ethical decisions and decision-makers reflect honesty, integrity, fairness, due care, and responsibility and accountability in decision making. I favor virtue ethics because it provides a basis for evaluating the decision as ethical, which traditional philosophical reasoning methods do as well, and also it can be used to evaluate the ethics of the person making the decision. I typically start by discussing virtue ethics that posits ethical people possess certain character traits that pre-dispose them to do the right thing when conflicts arise or ethical dilemmas exist. I often discuss ethical decision making in my Accounting Ethics class because accountants and auditors are part of the internal organization structure and have an important role in preventing and detecting misconduct (i.e., occupational and financial statement fraud). Virtue Ethics and Ethical Decision Making in the Workplace