Decision Making Manual: A Toolkit for Making Moral Decisions

1. Decision Making Manual: A Toolkit for Making Moral Decisions William J. Frey (UPRM) José A. Cruz-Cruz (UPRM) Chuck Huff (St. Olaf)

2. There is an analogy between design problems and ethical problems

3. Problem-solving in computing can be modeled on software design • The software development cycle can be presented in terms of four stages: • Problem Specification • Solution Generation • Solution Testing • Solution Implementation • Generate or create options that embody or realize ethical value or worth • We don’t find them, we make them

4. Specify Values (Socio-Technical System Table) • A STS is a system of environments that enable and constrain the practice of business • STS exhibit different 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 whose components are interrelated and interact with each other. • STSs embody values • Moral: Justice, Respect, Responsibility, Trust, Integrity • Non-Moral: Financial, Efficiency, Sustainability • STSs exhibit trajectories i.e., coordinated paths of change

5. 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?

6. 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

7. Refined Solution List

8. Generic Solutions • Gather more information • NoloContendere • 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) • Integrate as plans A, B, C, etc. (Try one, then the other if the first doesn’t work.)

9. 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?

10. Solution Evaluation Matrix

11. 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 • Empathic and Advisory Projections

12. 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)

13. 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

14. 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?

15. Feasibility Matrix

16. 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.”

17. 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

18. 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.