Ethical Decision Making

Research has shown that while competitive advantage is also driven by exceptional resource management, ethical conduct is an important factor in sustained superior financial performance.

The capacity to consider the ethical implications of a decision is critical to an organisation’s success, and is a skill for managers so fundamental that it underpins all the other key management competency areas. While professional ethics are not driven by a literal and straight-forward set of rules, an array of techniques can provide support for managers and professionals in their ethical decision-making at the strategic and operational levels.

This guide provides APESMA members with advice on some of the more commmon ethical dilemmas, help with how to approach ethical reasoning in a structured way, and a checklist as a practical reference tool to use in day-to-day management decision-making.

Few engineers, scientists and managers have formal ethics training. A lack of education and training in the discipline of ethics means that professionals may

(a) not recognise an ethical problem before or even when it arises,

(b) not know how to consider the issues of the problem in an effective and consistent way, and

(c) not reach a strong and defensible position in regard to addressing the ethical problem.

This can result in a serious misstep for managers and the potential for substantial legal and social costs for the organisation they work for. The aim of this Guide is to help APESMA members overcome some of these limitations. The Guide is intended for technology management professionals in roles with Managerial responsibilities but is likely to also be useful for professionals in their day-to-day activities which inevitably involve ethical considerations and making decisions with reference to ethical standards and principles.