Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Sta. Mesa, Manila

Open University System

WRITTEN REPORT

ON

“ETHICS”

Good Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility

(BUMA 013)

Prepared to:

Prof. Mary Rose Palmares

Prepared by:

Group 1
BSBAHRMOUMN I-9
A.Y 2022 - 2023

Alicame, Rommel S. Pagas, Roslin Shayne V.

Asuncion, Tom Kevin A. Passion, Mark Lester C.
Atacador, Tonni Marselle S Restar, Resgiel A.
Bangit, A.J. Chill Nicole A. Tan, Judie Mae S.
Bautista, Rosalie M. Tangog, Hannah Naomi S.
Nuñez, Syrll C. Tanquilut, Sharaine M
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E thics

The word “ethics” is derived from the Greek word “ethos” which means character or
way of living.

What is ethics?
 Ethics is defined as a moral principle that guides one’s actions.
 Branch of philosophy that is concerned with human conduct, more specifically
the behavior of individuals in society.

What is business ethics?

 Study of proper business policies regarding potentially controversial issues
 Corporate Governance
 Insider Trading
 Bribery
 Discrimination
 Corporate Social Responsibility
 Fiduciary Responsibility
 Data Protection

Why does it matter?

Enables you to make responsible decisions and maintain highly ethical behavior
when running a business.

Characteristics and Values that most people associate with ethical behavior
1. Honesty 5. Fairness
2. Integrity 6. Concerns for others
3. Promise keeping 7. Respectful to other
4. Loyalty
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Leadership in Business and Ethical Leadership


I When a leader does not have the right skills, expertise and commitment it
creates communication and ethical challenges.
To be an ethical leader, you should have respect for ethical beliefs, values,
dignity and rights of others.

Kantian ethics:
 Immanuel Kant’s, a German philosopher, synthesized a set of universal moral
principles that apply to all human beings, regardless of context or situation. An
ethical theory that relies on the moral goodness of all people.
 In spite of context or circumstance, all people must adhere to a set of universal
moral standards known as Kantian ethics.

Kantian Formalism Part I: Aligning the moral motive and the moral act-
 Kant states that the only thing in this world that is good without qualification is a
good will. He characterizes this will in terms of its motive, “duty for duty's sake.”
 According to Kant, a good will is the only categorically good thing in this universe.
He describes this will as being motivated by "duty for duty's sake."

Moral Motive vs. Moral act

Moral motive occurs when a moral judgment combines with a desire (ex: rewards)
 When you act conforms to duty but is motivated by inclination, it has no moral
worth.
Example: When you save the drowning boy because you will get a reward.

Moral Acts are acts which are chosen by exercising one's free will as a consequence of
a judgment of conscience
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 When an act conforms to duty and is for the sake of duty the act has a moral worth.
Example: When you save the drowning boy because it’s your duty and the right
thing to do.

Kantian Formalism Part II: Giving content to Duty for Duty's Sake

 According to Kant, morality is how the rational will manifests itself. The initial goal of
this rational will is to will uniformly and consistently.
 This leads to the Categorical Imperative:
o “We must always act in such a way that we believe would be just under a
universal law”
o One should always act in accordance with moral principles that are applicable to
everyone and show respect for the humanity of others.

Kantian Formalism Part III: The Formula of the End

 Act so as to treat others (yourself included) always as ends and never merely as
means.
 Humans who are rational should be viewed as ends in and of themselves rather
than as a means to an end.
“People should be treated as such. Instead of being a means to another goal,
they should be considered an end in themselves.”
 Justifying the rights and duties can be summarized in four theories
1. A right is an essential capacity of action that others are obliged to recognize
and respect.
2. All rights claims must satisfy three requirements: essential to the autonomy,
vulnerable and feasible for both individuals and social groups.
3. A duty is a rule or principle requiring that we both recognize and respect the
legitimate rights claims of others.
4. Rights and duties are correlative.
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Types of Duty Correlative to a Right:

Duty not to deprive: We have a basic duty not to violate the rights of others. This
entails that we must both recognize and respect these rights.

Duty to prevent deprivation: Professionals, because of their knowledge, are often in

the position to prevent others from depriving third parties of their rights.
For example, a computing specialist may find that a client is not taking sufficient
pains to protect the confidentiality of information about customers.

Duty to aid the deprived: When others have their rights violated, we have the duty to
aid them in their recovery from damages.

Good example of the application of Right/Duty Framework is establishing a due

process. Everyone has the right to undergo a due process in order to respond to
organizational decisions that may harm one in terms of a serious organizational
grievance.
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Conclusion:

 Not every claim to a right is a legitimate or justifiable claim.

1. Think critically and skeptically about the rights claims that you and others
make.
2. Every legitimate right claim is essential, vulnerable, and feasible.
3. Correlative duties are sorted out according to different levels (not to deprive,
prevent deprivation, and aid the deprived)
4. Duties correlative to rights cannot deprive the duty-holder of something
essential.

 Think about your right in the context of the real world.

1. Think of everyday situations in which the right and its correlative duties will
arise.
2. Integrate your right and its correlative duties into the context of your
professional or practical domain, it will remain abstract and irrelevant.

 Rights and duties underlie professional codes of ethics.

 If you make a right claim, be ready to justify it. If someone else makes a right
claim, make them back it up with the justification framework presented in this
module.
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Moral Exemplars in Business and Professional

Ethics
II
Moral Exemplar
Is an individual who demonstrates outstanding moral conduct often in the face of
difficult or demanding circumstances. Often, moral exemplars perform actions that go
beyond what is required, ordinary or even extraordinary.

Most importantly, they perform these actions repeatedly across a career or even
a lifetime. In some way, their exemplary conduct has become “second nature”.

Examples of Moral Exemplars

 William LeMesseur
He designed the Citicorp Building in New York. A student identified a critical
design flaw in the building during a routine class exercise. Instead of being
sulken because of the flaw, William Lemesseur used it to develop an intricate
and effective plan in correcting the problem before it caused a drastic
consequence.

 Fred Cuny
He carried out a series of increasingly effective interventions in international
disaster. He brought effective methods to disaster relief as his timely
interventions saved thousands of Kurdish refugees in the after math of the
Persian Gulf War in 1991. He also helped in design and implementation of an
innovative water filtration system in Sarajevo during the Bosnia-Serb conflict in
1993.

 Roger Boisjoly
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He worked on a team responsible for developing O-ring seals for fuel Tanks
used in the Challenger Shuttle. When his team noticed evidence of gas leaks, he
made an emergency presentation to the officials of Morton Thiokol and NASA to
postpone the launch date and changed it for the next day. When they refused to
change the launch date, Boisjoly watched as the Challenger Shuttle exploded in
just seconds.

 Muhammad Yunus
His effort in setting up “micro-businesses” funded through “micro lending” has
completely changed the paradigm on how to extend business practices to
individuals at the bottom of the pyramid. By this he won the Nobel Prize for
Peace in 2006.

 Bill Gates
He has been portrayed as a villain, especially during the anti-trust suit against
Microsoft in the mid 1990's. Certainly his aggressive and often ruthless business
practices need to be evaluated openly and critically. Recently, Gates stopped
participating in the day-to-day management of his company, Microsoft, and has
set up a charitable foundation to oversee international good works projects.

 Jeffrey Skilling
He is the former CEO of Enron; he can hardly be called a moral exemplar.
He was considered among the most innovative, creative, and brilliant of
contemporary corporate CEOs.

 Inez Austin
Worked to prevent contamination from nuclear wastes produced by a
plutonium production facility.

 Rachael Carson’s book, the Silent Spring

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Is one of the key events inaugurating the environmental movement in the United States.
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Two Different Types of Moral Exemplars

Craftspersons or Reformers or a Combination
(Research by Chuck Huff)

1. Craftspersons
 It draws on pre-existing values in computing.
 Focus on users or customers who have needs.
 Take on the role of providers of a service/product.
 View barriers as inert obstacles or puzzles to be solved.
 Believe they are effective in their role.

2. Reformers
 Attempt to change organizations and their values.
 Take on the role of moral crusaders.
 View barriers as active opposition.
 Believe in the necessity of systemic reform.

*Craftspersons work to preserve existing values, see themselves as providers of a

service, frame problems as overcoming barriers and seek ethical ends. (Huff and
Barnard, 2009)

*Reformers focus on social systems, see themselves as moral crusaders, work to

change values, view individuals as victims of injustice, and take system reform as their
goal. (Huff and Barnard, 2009)

What Makes a Moral Exemplar? PRIMES Explained

 Integrate moral and professional attitudes and beliefs into their core identity.
 Achieve their aims with the support of “support groups”. It particularly adept at
drawing support from surrounding individuals who push against the current.
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 They found ways to integrate moral reasoning with emotion (as motive),
perception (which helps them zero in on moral relevance), and skill (which helps
implement moral value).

PRIMES
It stands for the following:
Personality, Integrating moral value into self-system, Moral Ecology, and Moral
Skills Sets

These are elements that help to compose moral expertise that have been
identified by Huff and Rogerson.

PERSONALITY
One way to consider a Moral Exemplar is to examine the components of
his/her personality. There are five major traits that exist on a continuum.
1. Neuroticism to Lack of Neuroticism (Stability)
2. Agreeableness to Disagreeableness
3. Extraversion to Introversion
4. Openness to Closeness
5. Conscientiousness to Lack of conscientiousness

These qualities are neither good nor bad. They can be integrated to form
bad or good characters. Moral exemplars stand out through how they have put
their personality characteristics to “good use”.

Integrating Moral Value into Self System

 Moral exemplars stand out by the way in which they have integrated moral value
into self-system. They are strongly motivated to do good and avoid doing bad.
 One way of integrating moral value into self-system is by looking at stories and
narratives of those who have displayed moral excellence.
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 Literature also provides its models of moral exemplars.

 Others rely upon affiliations, relationships, and friendships in supporting their
integration of moral value (goodness) into who they perceive themselves to be
(self-system).
 Ethicist Bernard Williams finds that Moral Exemplars use personal projects, roles,
and life tasks to convey moral value onto themselves and unify their character.
 According to Augusto Blasi (moral psychologist), integrating moral value into self-
system increases motivation.

Moral Ecology

“The term moral ecology encourages us to consider the complex web of

relationships and influences, the long persistence of some factors and rapid
evolution of others, the variations in strength and composition over time, the
micro-ecologies that can exist within larger ones, and the multidirectional nature
of causality in an ecology”. From Huff et.al.

 Offer us roles and envelop us in complex organizational systems (the way

ecosystems are composed of interacting and interrelated parts). We inhabit and
act within several moral ecologies, like natural ecosystems seek internal and
external harmony and balance.
 Internally, it is important to coordinate different the constituent individuals and the
roles they play.
 Externally, it is difficult but equally important to coordinate and balance the
conflicting aims and activities of different moral ecologies.
 Moral ecologies shape who we are and what we do.
 There are three different moral ecologies that are important in business: quality,
customer, and finance-driven companies.
 Moral ecologies, like selves, can also be characterized in terms of the “centrality”
of moral value. Some support the expression of moral value or certain kinds of
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moral value (like loyalty) while undermining or suppressing the expression of

other (like courage or autonomy).

Moral Skills Set

Moral expertise is not reducible to knowing what constitutes good conduct

and doing your best to bring it about. Realizing good conduct, being an effective
moral agent, bringing value into the work, all require skills in addition to a “good
will”.

Primes uncovered four skill sets:

1. Moral Imagination
 The ability to project into the standpoint of others and view the situation at hand
through their lenses.
 It achieves a balance between becoming lost in the perspectives of others and
failing to leave one’s on perspective.
 Adam Smith terms this balance “proportionality” which we can achieve in
empathy when we feel with them but do not become lost in their feelings.
 Empathy consists of feeling with others but limiting the intensity of that feeling to
what is proper and proportionate for moral judgement.

2. Moral creativity
 Is close to moral imagination and in fact, it overlaps with it.
 It centers in the ability to frame a situation in different ways.

3. Reasonableness
 Openness to the views of others (one listens and impartially weighs their
arguments and evidence) with commitment to moral values and other important
goals
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 One is open but not to the extent of believing anything and failing to keep
fundamental commitments.
 The Ethics of Team Work discusses strategies for reaching consensus that are
employed by those with the skill set of reasonableness.

4. Perseverance
 Is the “ability to plan moral action and continue on that course by responding to
circumstances and obstacles while keeping ethical goals intact”.
 Not giving up when facing resistance, setbacks, or failure.
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III THEORY BUILDING ACTIVITIES: VIRTUE

ETHICS

VIRTUE
● Virtue is a character trait of a well-functioned person or a human being.
● It is NOT
○ just a feeling.
○ just a natural inclination.
○ just doing an action in a given situation.

WHAT IS A VIRTUE?
● It is behavior showing high moral standards or the general quality of goodness in
a person.
● An opposite to “Vice”
● Character trait that makes us better people

VIRTUE ETHICS
● emphasizes the virtues, or moral character, in contrast to the approach that
emphasizes the duties or rules or that emphasizes the consequences of actions.
● It defines good actions as ones that display virtuous character traits and it is
the disposition to act, think and feel in certain ways.

In other words,
Virtue Ethics is all about the question of:
HOW SHOULD I BE?
HOW SHOULD I LIVE?
HOW CAN I IMPROVE?
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BASIC PRINCIPLES OF VIRTUE ETHICS

● Honestly ● Integrity
● Courage ● Fairness
● Compassion ● Self-control
● Generosity ● Prudence
● Fidelity

VIRTUE ETHICS
Virtuous act Non – Virtuous act
● non – greed ● greed
● non – hate ● hatred
● non – delusion ● Delusion
Example: Giving without expecting a Example: Killing someone because of
reward your own desire
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ARISTOTLE’S VIRTUE ETHICS

THE GOLDEN MEAN

Vice of Deficiency Virtue (Moderation) Vice of Excess

Cowardice Courage Fool hardiness

Insensibility Temperance Licentiousness

Stinginess Generosity Prodigality

Meanness Magnificence Vulgarity

Humility High mindedness Vanity

Lack of Ambition Wholesome Ambition Overambitiousness

● It is not excessive and not deficient. It is the middle.

ARISTOTLE’S VIRTUE ETHICS

● Focused on what an individual would bring happiness.

“Telos” purpose or end

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THREE TYPES OF VIRTUES

VIRTUE 1 Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics

● “Eudaimonia” type of happiness, fulfillment, and desire to be happy.
● “Arete” or Excellence

VIRTUE 2
● is agent-centered in that it sees the action as an expression of the goodness or
badness of the agent.

“Utilitarianism” is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on

outcomes.

VIRTUE 3
● Reconnects with Aristotle and virtue 1 even though it drops the doctrine of the
mean and Aristotle’s emphasis on character.
● Virtue 3 can best be outlined by showing how the basic concepts of Virtue 1 can
be reformulated to reflect current research in moral psychology.
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Integrating Ethics into the Business Decision-

Making Process
IV
VALUES BASED DECISION MAKING

How Business Ethics help in decision making? Business ethics enhances the law
by outlining acceptable behaviors beyond government control. Corporations establish
business ethics to promote integrity among their employees and gain trust from key
stakeholders such as investors and consumers. So mostly those investors and
especially consumers they are giving trust to a business or a company who are
delivering exemptional services. It is not always ended in a good profit. It's sometimes
on how an individual provide a good service and a good work environment to co-
employees. Ethics are also included in decision when it comes to business it's
always the base of every decision because Good Ethics always lead a business into a
good flow of positive development. Working to prevent crime, accepting responsibility
for crimes that could not be prevented, and learning from past mistakes all serve to
"flag" corporate intention. In other words, corporations can demonstrate good intentions
by documenting measures implemented to prevent crime and by showing a "responsive
adjustment" to crimes they could not prevent. In this line corporate purpose is to identify
those efforts to prevent crime, and acceptance of responsibility for crimes and most
importantly is using those lessons learned from the past mistakes because we can use
those learnings to improved one's business. For those incidents that were not able to
stop it's better to have a crime prevention steps or realistic action plans. In the decision-
making context, employees ask:

(1) What can I do to make this a more just environment?

(2) How do I go about respecting my co-workers? And
(3) How do I identify and carry out my responsibilities, including social
responsibilities, in my daily work?”
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These questions serve to shift your attention from compromising for the moral
bare- essentials to realigning your moral and professional efforts in the direction of
moral excellence by serving as examples of values-based decision-making. Mostly in
this kind of surveys in a business or a company they can create they're vision and
mission especially for the employees.

We have also some lists of Values that was found in the module we have:

1. Justice / Fairness Be impartial, objective and refrain from discrimination or

preferential treatment in the administration of rules and policies and in its dealings
with students, faculty, staff, administration, and other stakeholders.

2. Responsibility Recognize and fulfill its obligations to its constituents by caring for
their essential interests, by honoring its commitments, and by balancing and
integrating conflicting interests. As responsible agents, the faculty, employees,
and students of the college of business Administration are committed to the
pursuit of excellence, devotion to the community's welfare, and professionalism.

3. Respect Acknowledge the inherent dignity present in its diverse constituents by

recognizing and respecting their fundamental rights. These include rights to
property, privacy, free exchange of ideas, academic freedom, due process, and
meaningful participation in decision making and policy formation.

4. Trust Recognize that trust solidifies communities by creating an environment

where each can expect ethically justifiable behavior from all others. While trust is
tolerant of and even thrives in an environment of diversity, it also must operate
within the parameters set by established personal and community standards.
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5. Integrity Promote integrity as characterized by sincerity, honesty, authenticity, and

the pursuit of excellence. Integrity shall permeate and color all its decisions,
actions and expressions. It is most clearly exhibited in intellectual and personal
honesty in learning, teaching, mentoring and research.

Social Responsibility is an ethical framework in which an individual is obligated to

work and cooperate with other individuals and organizations for the benefit of the
community that will inherit the world & individuals. Social responsibility is an ethical
theory in which individuals are accountable for fulfilling their civic duty, and the
actions of an individual must be benefiting the whole society. In this way, there must
be a balance between economic growth and the welfare of society and the
environment. Corporate Governance is the system by which companies are directed
and controlled. Boards of Directors are responsible for the governance of them
companies. The Shareholder’s role in governance is to appoint the directors and the
auditors and to satisfy themselves that an appropriate governance structure is in
place. The term Corporate Governance refers to the checks and balances within an
organization, the rules, practices and processes used to run a company. A
Company’s corporate governance establishes the company’s direction and business
integrity, promotes financial viability, and builds trust with investors and the
community.
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Three Frameworks for Ethical Decision Making and Good Computing Reports

Module Introduction

Learn and practice three frameworks designed to integrate ethics into decision
making in the areas of practical and occupational ethics.

 The first framework divides the decision-making process into four stages:
problem specification, solution generation, solution testing, and solution
implementation.
 The second framework focuses on the process of solution testing by providing
four tests that will help you to evaluate and rank alternative courses of action.
 Finally, a feasibility test will help you to uncover interest, resource, and technical
constraints that will affect and possibly impede the realization of your solution or
decision.

Problem-Solving or Decision-Making Framework: Analogy between ethics and

design

 We solve ethical problems not by choosing between ready-made solutions given

with the situation; rather we use our moral creativity and moral imagination to
design these solutions.

 Chuck Huff builds on this by modifying the design method used in software
engineering so that it can help structure the process of framing ethical situations
and creating actions to bring these situations to a successful and ethical
conclusion.
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Analogy between design and ethics problem solving

Design Problem Ethical Problem
Construct a solution that integrates
Construct a prototype that optimizes (or and realizes ethical values (justice,
satisfices) designated specifications responsibility, reasonableness,
respect, and safety)
Resolve conflicts between values
Resolve conflicts between different
(moral vs. moral or moral vs. non-
specifications by means of integration
moral) by integration
Test solution over different ethical
Test prototype over the different
considerations encapsulated in ethics
specifications
tests
Implement ethically tested solution
Implement tested design over background
over resource, interest, and technical
constraints
constraints

Software Development Cycle: Four Stages

(1) problem specification, (2) solution generation, (3) solution testing, and (4) solution
implementation.

Problem specification

 Different Ways of Specifying the Problem

 Many problems can be specified as disagreements.
 Other problems involve conflicting values.
 If you specify your problem as a disagreement, you need to describe the facts or
concepts about which there is disagreement.
 If you specify your problem as a conflict, you need to describe the values that
conflict in the situation.
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 One useful way of specifying a problem is to carry out a stakeholder analysis.

 Another way of identifying and specifying problems is to carry out a
sociotechnical analysis
 The following table helps summarize some of these problem categories and then
outlines generic solutions.

Problem Type Sub-Type Solution Outline

Type and mode of gathering
Factual
information
Disagreement Concept in dispute and
Conceptual method for agreeing on its
definition
Moral vs. Moral
Non-moral vs.
Value Partially Value
Conflict moral Trade Off
Integrative Integrative
Non-moral vs.
non-moral
Corruption Strategy Value
Strategy for
Social Justice for integrative,
Framing maintaining
Value restoring design
integrity
Realization justice strategy
Public
Welfare,
Faithful
Removing Prioritizing
Intermediate Agency, Realizing
value values for
Moral Value Professional Value
conflicts trade offs
Integrity,
Peer
Collegiality
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Instructions for Using Problem Classification Table

1. Is your problem a conflict? Moral versus moral value? Moral versus non-moral
values? Non-moral versus non-moral values? Identify the conflicting values as
concisely as possible.

2. Is your problem a disagreement? Is the disagreement over basic facts? Are these
facts observable? Is it a disagreement over a basic concept? What is the concept?

3. Does your problem arise from an impending harm? What is the harm? What is its
magnitude? What is the probability that it will occur?

4. If your problem is a value conflict then can these values be fully integrated in a
value integrating solution? Or must they be partially realized in a compromise or
traded off against one another?

5. If your problem is a factual disagreement, what is the procedure for gathering the
required information, if this is feasible?

6. If your problem is a conceptual disagreement, how can this be overcome? By

consulting a government policy or regulation?

If you are having problems specifying your problem

 Try identifying the stakeholders
 Project yourself imaginatively into the perspectives of each stakeholder
 Compare the results of these different imaginative projections.
 If the answer to one or both of these questions is "yes" then this is your problem
statement. How does one reconcile conflicting stakeholders or conflicting
stakeholder interests in this situation?
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Framing Your Problem

 We miss solutions to problems because we choose to frame them in only one
way.
For example, the Mountain Terrorist Dilemma is usually framed in only one way:
as a dilemma, that is, a forced decision between two equally undesirable
alternatives. (Gilbane Gold is also framed as a dilemma: blow the whistle on
ZCorp or go along with the excess pollution.)
 Framing a problem differently opens up new horizons of solution. Your
requirement from this point on in the semester is to frame every problem you are
assigned in at least two different ways.
 For examples of how to frame problems using socio-technical system analysis
see module m14025
 These different frames are summarized in the next box below.

Different Frames for Problems

 Technical Frame: Engineers frame problems technically, that is, they specify a
problem as raising a technical issue and requiring a technical design for its
resolution.
 Physical Frame: In the Laminating Press case, the physical frame would raise
the problem of how the layout of the room could be changed to reduce the white
powder.
 Social Frame: In the "When in Aguadilla" case, the Japanese engineer is
uncomfortable working with the Puerto Rican woman engineer because of social
and cultural beliefs concerning women still widely held by men in Japan.
 Financial or Market-Based Frames: The DOE, in the Risk Assessment case
below, accuses the laboratory and its engineers of trying to extend the contract to
make more money.
 Managerial Frame: As the leader of the Puerto Rican team in the "When in
Aguadilla" case, you need to exercise leadership in your team. The refusal of the
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Japanese engineer to work with a member of your team creates a management

problem.
 Legal Frame: OSHA may have clear regulations concerning the white powder
produced by laminating presses.
 Environmental Framing: Finally, viewing your problem from an environmental
frame leads you to consider the impact of your decision on the environment.

Solution Generation

In solution generation, agents exercise moral creativity by brainstorming to come

up with solution options designed to resolve the disagreements and value conflicts
identified in the problem specification stage. Brain storming is crucial to generating no
obvious solutions to difficult, intractable problems. This process must take place within a
non-polarized environment where the members of the group respect and trust one
another.

Having trouble generating solutions?

 One of the most difficult stages in problem solving is to jump start the process of
brainstorming solutions. If you are stuck then here are some generic options
guaranteed to get you "unstuck."
 Gather Information: Many disagreements can be resolved by gathering more
information. Because this is the easiest and least painful way of reaching
consensus, it is almost always best to start here.
 Nolo Contendere. Nolo Contendere is latin for not opposing or contending. Your
interests may conflict with your supervisor but he or she may be too powerful to
reason with or oppose
 Negotiate. Good communication and diplomatic skills may make it possible to
negotiate a solution that respects the different interests. Value integrative
solutions are designed to integrate conflicting values. Compromises allow for
partial realization of the conflicting interests.
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 Oppose. If nolo contendere and negotiation are not possible, then opposition
may be necessary. Opposition requires marshalling evidence to document one's
position persuasively and impartially.
 Exit. Opposition may not be possible if one lacks organizational power or
documented evidence. Nolo contendere will not suffice if non-opposition
implicates one in wrongdoing. Negotiation will not succeed without a necessary
basis of trust or a serious value integrative solution.

Refining solutions

The goal here is to reduce the solution list to something manageable, say, a best,
a second best, and a third best. Try adding a bad solution to heighten strategic points of
comparison. The list should be short so that the remaining solutions can be intensively
examined as to their ethics and feasibility.

Solution Testing: The solutions developed in the second stage must be tested in
various ways.

1. Reversibility: Is the solution reversible between the agent and key stakeholders?

2. Harm/Beneficence: Does the solution minimize harm? Does it produce benefits

that are justly distributed among stakeholders?

3. Publicity: Is this action one with which you are willing to be publicly identified?
Does it identify you as a moral person? An irresponsible person? A person of
integrity? An untrustworthy person?

4. Code: Does the solution violate any provisions of a relevant code of ethics? Can
it be modified to be in accord with a code of ethics? Does it address any
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aspirations a code might have? (Engineers: Does this solution hold paramount
the health, safety, and welfare of the public?)

5. Global Feasibility: Do any obstacles to implementation present themselves at this

point? Are there resources, techniques, and social support for realizing the
solution or will obstacles arise in one or more of these general areas?

6. The solution evaluation matrix presented just below models and summarizes the
solution testing process.

Solution Implementation

The chosen solution must be examined in terms of how well it responds to

various situational constraints that could impede its implementation. What will be its
costs? Can it be implemented within necessary time constraints? Does it honor
recognized technical limitations or does it require pushing these back through
innovation and discovery? Does it comply with legal and regulatory requirements?
Finally, could the surrounding organizational, political, and social environments give rise
to obstacles to the implementation of the solution? In general, this phase requires
looking at interest, technical, and resource constraints or limitations. A Feasibility Matrix
helps to guide this process.

Different Feasibility Constraints

1. The Feasibility Test identifies the constraints that could interfere with realizing a
solution. This test also sorts out these constraints into resource (time, cost,
materials), interest (individuals, organizations, legal, social, political), and
technical limitations.

2. Time. Is there a deadline within which the solution has to be enacted? Is this
deadline fixed or negotiable?
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3. Financial. Are there cost constraints on implementing the ethical solution? Can
these be extended by raising more funds?

4. Technical. Technical limits constrain the ability to implement solutions. What,

then, are the technical limitations to realizing and implementing the solution?

5. Manufacturability. Are there manufacturing constraints on the solution at hand?

Given time, cost, and technical feasibility, what are the manufacturing limits to
implementing the solution?

6. Legal. How does the proposed solution stand with respect to existing laws, legal
structures, and regulations?

7. Individual Interest Constraints. Individuals with conflicting interests may

oppose the implementation of the solution.

8. Organizational. Inconsistencies between the solution and the formal or informal

rules of an organization may give rise to implementation obstacles.

9. Social, Cultural, or Political. The socio-technical system within which the

solution is to be implemented contains certain social structures, cultural
traditions, and political ideologies.

Ethics Tests for Solution Evaluation

Three ethics tests (reversibility, harm/beneficence, and public identification)

encapsulate three ethical approaches (deontology, utilitarianism, and virtue ethics) and
form the basis of stage three of the SDC, solution testing. A fourth test (a value
realization test) builds upon the public identification/virtue ethics test by evaluating a
solution in terms of the values it harmonizes, promotes, protects, or realizes. Finally, a
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code test provides an independent check on the ethics tests and also highlights
intermediate moral concepts such as safety, health, welfare, faithful agency, conflict of
interest, confidentiality, professional integrity, collegiality, privacy, property, free speech,
and equity/access)

Setting Up the Ethics Tests: Pitfalls to avoid

Set-Up Pitfalls: Mistakes in this area lead to the analysis becoming unfocused and
getting lost in irrelevancies.

a) Agent-switching where the analysis falls prey to irrelevancies that crop up when
the test application is not grounded in the standpoint of a single agent
b) Sloppy action-description where the analysis fails because no specific action has
been tested
c) Test-switching where the analysis fails because one test is substituted for
another.

Set up the test

1. Identify the agent (the person who is going to perform the action)
2. Describe the action or solution that is being tested (what the agent is going to do
or perform)
3. Identify the stakeholders (those individuals or groups who are going to be
affected by the action), and their stakes (interests, values, goods, rights, needs,
etc.
4. Identify, sort out, and weigh the consequences (the results the action is likely to
bring about)
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Harm/Beneficence Test

Pitfalls of the Harm/Beneficence Test

1. "Paralysis of Analysis" comes from considering too many consequences and not
focusing only on those relevant to your decision.

2. Incomplete Analysis results from considering too few consequences. Often it

indicates a failure of moral imagination which, in this case, is the ability to envision
the consequences of each action alternative.

3. Failure to compare different alternatives can lead to a decision that is too limited
and one-sided.

4. Failure to weigh harms against benefits occurs when decision makers lack the
experience to make the qualitative comparisons required in ethical decision
making.

5. Finally, justice failures result from ignoring the fairness of the distribution of harms
and benefits. This leads to a solution which may maximize benefits and minimize
harms but still give rise to serious injustices in the distribution of these benefits and
harms.

Reversibility Test

1. Set up the test by (i) identifying the agent, (ii) describing the action, and (iii)
identifying the stakeholders and their stakes.

2. Use the stakeholder analysis to identify the relations to be reversed.

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3. Reverse roles between the agent (you) and each stakeholder: put them in your
place (as the agent) and yourself in their place (as the one subjected to the action).
4. If you were in their place, would you still find the action acceptable?

A. Cross Checks for Reversibility Test (These questions help you to check if you
have carried out the reversibility test properly.)
 Does the proposed action treat others with respect? (Does it recognize their
autonomy or circumvent it?)
 Does the action violate the rights of others? (Examples of rights: free and
informed consent, privacy, freedom of conscience, due process, property,
freedom of expression) • Would you recommend that this action become a
universal rule?
 Are you, through your action, treating others merely as means?

B. Pitfalls of the Reversibility Test

 Leaving out a key stakeholder relation
 Failing to recognize and address conflicts between stakeholders and their
conflicting stakes
 Confusing treating others with respect with capitulating to their demands
("Reversing with Hitler")
 Failing to reach closure, i.e., an overall, global reversal assessment that takes
into account all the stakeholders the agent has reversed with.

Steps in Applying the Public Identification Test

Alternative Version of Public Identification

 Does the action under consideration realize justice or does it pose an excess or
defect of justice?
 Does the action realize responsibility or pose an excess or defect of
responsibility?
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 Does the action realize reasonableness or pose too much or too little
reasonableness? • Does the action realize honesty or pose too much or too little
honesty?
 Does the action realize integrity or pose too much or too little integrity?

Pitfalls of Public Identification

 Action not associated with agent. The most common pitfall is failure to associate
the agent and the action. The action may have bad consequences and it may
treat individuals with respect but these points are not as important in the context
of this test as what they imply about the agent as a person who deliberately
performs such an action.
 Failure to specify moral quality, virtue, or value. Another pitfall is to associate the
action and agent but only ascribe a vague or ambiguous moral quality to the
agent.

Code of Ethics Test

 Does the action hold paramount the health, safety, and welfare of the public, i.e.,
those affected by the action but not able to participate in its design or execution?
 Does the action maintain faithful agency with the client by not abusing trust,
avoiding conflicts of interest, and maintaining confidences?
 Is the action consistent with the reputation, honor, dignity, and integrity of the
profession?

Meta Tests

The ethics and feasibility tests will not always converge on the same solution.
There is a complicated answer for why this is the case but the simple version is that the
tests do not always agree on a given solution because each test (and the ethical theory
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it encapsulates) covers a different domain or dimension of the action situation. Meta

tests turn this disadvantage to your advantage by feeding the interaction between the
tests on a given solution back into the evaluation of that solution.

Application Exercise

 Risk Assessment Scenario

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GRAY MATTERS FOR THE HUGHES AIRCRAFT CASE

INTRODUCTION

 The Hughes Aircraft Case involves a group of employees in charge of testing

chips for weapon systems. Because of the lengthy testing procedure required by
the U.S Defense Department, Hughes soon fall behind schedule in delivering
chips to customers. To get chips out faster, some Hughes middle level managers
began to put pressure on employees to pass chips that have failed tests or to
pass them without testing.

 In other words, the chips did not go through quality checking before releasing to
the market.

 Hughes Microelectronics manufactured hybrid microchips for use in military

hardware
o F-14 & F-15 fighter aircraft; air-to-air missiles; M-1 tank; Phoenix missiles
 These chips had to function under harsh environmental conditions
o Dust, vibration & impact, heat & cold, and long-term exposure
 Chip failure in battle could seriously endanger the lives of soldiers and
civilians
 Testing of hybrid microchips was mandated by Hughes company policy and
by law
o Temperature cycle; constant acceleration; hermeticity; P.I.N.D test

There are three scenarios below that were developed by Chuck Huff as Participant
Perspectives.
SCENARIO ONE: RESPONDING TO ORGANIZATIONAL PRESSURE
SCENARIO TWO: RESPONDING TO WRONGDOING
SCENARIO THREE: GOODEARL, IBARRA AND THE AMRAAM INCIDENT
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ETHIC TESTS: SET UP AND PITFALLS

SOLUTION EVALUATION TESTS

• REVERSIBILITY: Would I think this is a good choice if I were among those
affected? (Think of yourself in the situation)
• PUBLICITY: Would I want to be publicly associated with this action through, say,
its publication in the newspaper?
• HARM/BENEFICENCE: Does this action do less harm than any of the available
alternatives?
• FEASIBILITY: Can this solution be implemented given time, technical, economic,
legal, and political constraints?

HARM TEST SET-UP

• Identify the agent and describe the action.
• Identify the stakeholders and their stakes.
• Identify, sort out and weight the unexpected results or consequences.

HARM TEST PITFALLS

• Paralysis of Action – considering too many consequences.
• Incomplete analysis – considering too few results
• Failure to weigh harms against benefits
• Failure to compare different alternatives
• Justice failures- ignoring the fairness of the distribution of harms and benefits.

REVERSIBILITY TEST SET-UP

• Identify the agent
• Describe the action
• Identify the stakeholders and their stakes
• Use the stakeholder analysis to select the relations to be reversed.
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• Reverse roles between the agent (you) and each stakeholder: put them in your
place (as the agent) and yourself in their place (as the target of the action
• If you were in their place, would you still find the action acceptable?

REVERSIBILITY PITFALLS
• Leaving out a key stakeholder relation.
• Failing to recognize and address conflicts between stakeholders and their
conflicting stakes.
• Confusing treating others with respect with capitulating to their demands
(Reversing with Hitler).
• Failing to reach closure, i.e., an overall global reversal assessment that takes into
account all the stakeholders the agent has reversed with.

PUBLIC IDENTIFICATION SET UP

• Set up the analysis by identifying the agent, describing the action under
consideration, and listing the key values or virtues at play in the situation.
• Associate the action with the agent.
• Identify what the action says about the agent as a person. Does it reveal him or
her as someone associated with a virtue/value or a vice?

PUBLIC IDENTIFICATION PITFALLS

1. Action is not associated with the agent. The most common pitfall is failure to
associate the agent and the action. The action may have bad consequences and it
may treat individuals with disrespect but these points are not as important in the
context of this test as what they imply about the agent as a person who
deliberately performs such an action.

2. Failure to specify the moral quality, virtue, or value of the action that is imputed to
the agent in the test. To say, for example, that willfully harming the public is bad
fails to zero in on precisely what moral quality this attribute to the agent.
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TIMELINE

ETHICAL DISSENT
1. Establish a clear technical foundation.
2. Keep your arguments on a high professional plane, as impersonal and objective as
possible, avoiding extraneous issues and emotional outbursts.
3. Try to catch problems early, and keep the argument at the lowest managerial level
possible.
4. Before going out on a limb, make sure that the issue is important.
5. Use (and help establish) organizational dispute resolution mechanisms.
6. Keep records and collect paper.

BEFORE GOING PUBLIC

1. Make sure of your motivation.
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2. Count your costs.

3. Obtain all the necessary background materials and evidence.
4. Organize to protect your own interests.
5. Choose the right avenue for your disclosure.
6. Make your disclosure in the right spirit.
PLACES TO GO
1. Government Agencies
2. Judicial Systems
3. Legislators
4. Advocacy Groups
5. News Media

WHEN TO BLOW THE WHISTLE

1. Serious and Considerable Harm
2. Notification of immediate supervisor.
3. Exhaustion of internal channels of communication/appeal.
4. Documented Evidence.
5. Likelihood of successful resolution.
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SOCIO- TECHNICAL SYSTEMS IN PROFESSIONAL DECISION

MAKING

What is STS?
 STS or Socio-Technical System is a tool to help businesses to anticipate and
resolve interdisciplinary business problems.
 Interdisciplinary business problems refer to where financial values are intertwined
with technical, ethical, social, political and cultural values.

Know STS more…

1. Socio- Technical System or STS provides a tool to uncover the different
environments in which business activity takes place.
2. STS can be divided into different components such as hardware software,
physical surroundings, people/group/roles, procedures, laws/statutes/
regulations, and information systems. Other components include the natural
environment, markets, and political systems.
3. STS are first and foremost systems: their components are interrelated and
interact so that a change in one often produces changes that reverberate through
the system.
4. STS embodies moral values such as justice, responsibility, respect, trust and
integrity as well as non-moral values such as efficiency, satisfaction, productivity,
effectiveness, and profitability.
5. STS’s change traces out a path or trajectory to bring out and direct changes that
place the STS on a value positive trajectory.

STS Paragraph Summary of Sub Environment of Business.

 Technology including hardware, software, designs, prototypes, products or
services.
 Physical Surroundings can also embed values.
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 People, Groups and Roles has been the focus of traditional stakeholder
analyses.
o A Stakeholder is any group or individual which has an essential or vital
interest in the situation at hand.
 Procedures set ends which embody values and legitimize means which also
embody values.
 Laws, Statutes and Regulations computing systems gather, store and
disseminate information. This could be labeled data and data storage structure.

Ethics of STS Research

Right of Free and Informed Consent include the right not to be forced to partic ipate
instead offer or withdraw voluntarily their consent to participate. When preparing STS
analysis, it is mandatory to take active measures to facilitate participants’ free and
informed consent.
Any STS analysis must take active measures to recognize potential harms to minimize
or eliminate them. Special provisions also must be taken to maintain confidentiality in
collecting, storing and using sensitive information.

Descriptive or Empirical Components of STS Analysis

Interviews semi structured and structured interviews conducted with those familiar with
a given STS provide an excellent source of information on the constituents of a given
STS and how these fit together into an interrelated whole.

Field Observations those constructing STS analysis go directly to the system and
describe it in its day-to-day operation.
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Two books can provide more information on the types and techniques of field
observation
1. Ethnography 2nd Edition, Applied Social Research Methods Series Vol. 17 by
David M. Fetterman
2. Participant Observation by James P. Spradley

Questionnaires are useful for gathering general information from large numbers of
people. Constructing good questionnaires is a difficult process that requires patience as
well as trial and error when conducting an STS analysis.

Archival and Physical Trace Methods Working with archival and physical trace
methods requires critical thought and detective work. Data is collected, refined and put
together to provide an analysis.

Framing a situation structures its elements into a meaningful whole.

Different Problem Frames

Technical Frame they specify a problem as a technical issue and require a technical
design to solve it. Most engineers use this frame.

Physical Frame this frame suggests solutions based on changing the physical structure
like designing ramps to make restaurants wheelchair accessible.

Social Frame this frame suggests a solution of integrating workplace safety like
conducting worker training programs and conducting regular safety audits.

Financial or Market Based Frame financial responsibilities like for the improvement of
the company.
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Managerial Frame solution lies in changing managerial structures, reporting relations

and operating procedures.

Legal Frame helps identify effective and necessary courses of action and by also
complying with the OSHA and EPA regulations.
 OSHA or Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a rule that
describes the methods that employers must use to protect their employees from
hazards.
 EPA or Environmental Protection Agency, regulates the manufacturing,
processing, distribution and use of chemicals and other pollutants.

Environmental Frame it puts the environment first and sets a goal the interrogation of
environmental values with other valves like worker safety and corporate profits.
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ETHICS AND LAPTOPS: IDENTIFYING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

ISSUES IN PUERTO RICO

Developing socio-technical system analyses provides an effective means to

highlight issues of social responsibility. Since STS embody values, building their
descriptions allows us to read of potential problems due to harmful impacts and value
conflicts.

Building STS descriptions also requires using methods of participatory

observation. These include constructing surveys and questionnaires, developing
interviews, and building day-in-the-life scenarios.

Case Narrative

Texas Laptop Case

In the late 1990’s, the Texas state Board Adopting laptops also presented
of Education proposed the ambitious plan problems that critics quickly brought forth.
of providing each of the state’s four Teachers would need to learn how to use
million public school students with their laptop computers and would have to
own laptop computer. This plan was change their teaching to accommodate
devised to solve several problems them in the classroom. Apparent cost
confronting Texas public education. savings disappeared upon further, closer
Laptop computers could make examination. Updates from downloads
educational resources more accessible to could turn out to be expensive and
students who were faced with special educational software could be coded to
challenges like deafness or blindness. restrict access and dissemination. Further
Computers offer software options (like studies indicated that technical support
audio books) that promise to reach more costs would run two to three times initial
students than traditional printed books. outlays. Keeping laptop hardware and
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Laptops also promised to solve the software up and running required

problem of obsolete textbooks. Texas technical support and continued
purchased textbooks for their students at investment.
considerable cost. The purchasing cycle
can run 6 years but by the end of the
cycle the textbooks were out of date.
Texas business leaders were also
concerned about the computer literacy of
the upcoming generation of students.

To deal with these problems, Texas carried out several pilot projects that examined
the effectiveness of laptop interrogation in selected school districts. However, the
Texas Laptop plan was never formally implemented beyond the pilot project phase.
Students in computer ethics classes at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez
have looked into the feasibility of integrating laptops in the public-school socio-
technical system in Puerto Rico. They began by looking at the project to provide
public school teachers with laptops that was carried out in the late 1990’s under the
Pedro Rossello administration. The student research projects came to focus on three
problem areas. First, they examined whether they were structures in laptop design
that made computers unfit for use by children. Second, they studied whether social or
ethical problems would arise from disposal of spent laptops. Third, they investigated
the impact on copyright law and intellectual property practices that digitalizing printed
textbooks would have.
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Decision Point One

You are a computer engineer and have been subcontracted by your local government
to purchase new portable computers for high school teachers. Your job includes...

• selecting the kind of computer to be used

• identifying vendors who will sell the computers
• overseeing the distribution of computers to high school teachers
• developing and implementing a training program to help teachers learn to use
computers.
• designing a technical support hotline to help teacher work out any technical
problems that may arise.

Distributing computers to high school teachers seems simple enough. You select the
computers, buy them, and give them to the teachers. Yet only a slight change in
circumstances can bring into the open latent or potential ethical issues:

• How should you go about setting up the bidding process to determine the
computers to be used?
• What should you do to determine teacher and student needs and how computers
can respond to these needs? It makes very little sense to provide computers and
then tell teachers and students to use them. What are they to do with these
computers? How do they ft them into everyday education? This requires seeing the
computer project from the standpoints of students, their parents, and teachers. The
reversibility test will help here.
• Who stands to benefit from your actions? Who stands to be harmed from these
actions? How will benefits and harms be distributed through the different
stakeholders in this case?
• Latent ethical problems exist in this socio-technical system that can erupt into full-
blown problems with small changes in circumstances
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• Someone you know well-say your cousin submits a bid. What ethical issues does
this turn of events give rise to?
• The contract to provide computers is awarded to your cousin, and he provides
reliable computers at a reasonable price. Then, a few weeks later, you read the
following headline in the newspaper: "More Government Corruption-Computer
Czar's Cousin Counts Millions in Cozy Computer Contract" What do you do now?
• A group of angry high school teachers holds a press conference in which they
accuse the government of forcing them to use computing technology in their
classes. They say you are violating their academic freedom. How should you
respond?
• Someone in the government suggested placing a program in each computer that
allows government officials to monitor the computers and track user behavior. How
would you feel if your computer use were being monitored without your knowledge
or consent > Are their circumstances under which monitoring could bring about any
social benefits? What are the likely harms? Do the benefits outweigh the harms?
Suppose you go along with this and read the following headline in the morning
newspaper: "Government Snoops B ug High School Computers". Using the
publicity test, what kind of person would you appear to be in the public's eye? How
would you view yourself in terms of this action?

Decision Point Two

You are Dr. Negroponte from MIT. For several years now, you have been
working to design laptop computers that respond to a wide range of needs of children in
poor, developing nations. You have set up an incentive for people in developed nations
to contribute to children in poor nations. For $300, one can buy two laptops, keep one,
and have the other donated to a child in a developing nation. This has generated
computers but governments in developing nations enthusiastic at first have recently
shown themselves reluctant to carry through on their commitments. Your goal of
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reducing laptop costs to $100 per computer has also stalled. It has been difficult to
generate projected economies of scale.

• The laptops employ a simple design. They use Linux as an operating system
since this shareware can be freely downloaded. The computers are also designed
to be used in areas where the underlying infrastructure, especially electricity, is
unreliable. They are battery driven and a hand crank allows for recharging
batteries when electricity is unavailable. They employ a wireless connection to the
Internet.
• An Open Education Resource movement has been started to generate
educational resources directly and freely available to children using MIT laptops.
This movement has generated considerable educational content of varying
qualities. Reports available online provide insights into the pros and cons of the
• open resource educational movement. Whether this can (or should) replace
traditional textbooks (which can be quite expensive and difficult to update) is still
open to debate.
• There is evidence that laptops can and have contributed to an enhanced learning
experience for children in developing nations. Poor attendance, a large and
chronic problem, has been improved in laptop programs. Children enjoy their
computers and seem better motivated in general as a result. They take their
computers home for homework and share them with the rest of their family. Many
teachers have successfully adapted their teaching styles to this Internet
supported, technologically enhanced educational mode.
• But recently, laptops have come under increasing critical scrutiny.
• They are more expensive than traditional educational materials such as textbooks
• They compete for scarce financial resources and may be less cost-effective in the
long run than other, more traditional educational resources.
• The MIT laptop has no hard drive, a fact critically singled out by Microsoft's
founder, Bill Gates. They have been designed to use the Linus operating system
rather than Microsoft's more expensive and complicated one.
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• Developing nation governments have recently shown "cold feet" to putting action
behind their verbal commitments to laptop computers. This may, in part, be due to
concerns expressed by parents and teachers.
• Defend the MIT Laptop Project in the face of these and other criticisms.
• Should their design be modified to suit better children's needs as well as the
concerns of teachers and parents?
• What features do MIT laptops already display that respond to student, parent, and
teacher needs?
• What are the alternatives to MIT Laptops? For example, evaluate the proposal
made by a group in computer ethics to invest in and emphasize instruction in
computer laboratories housed in schools themselves. What problems would this
new approach avoid? What are its limitations in comparison to the laptop
approach?

Decision Point Three

You live in a developing nation. While you have work, it doesn't pay well, and you are
barely able to provide for your family's basic needs. One problem and things will get
very difficult for you and your family.

• Your child came home with an MIT-designed laptop computer. She and her
classmates have benefited from the computers donated to their school by the
generosity of developed nations where concerned citizens can buy two computers
and have one donated to needy children. You find this somewhat patronizing, and
you see these laptops as a mixed blessing.
• On the one hand, this laptop has helped you and your family to enjoy the benefits
of access to the Internet, although, because of poor infrastructure, this access is
limited, sporadic, and subject to frequent breakdowns. On the other hand, you
question whether your child is mature enough to use and care for her computer. If
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anything should happen, you would be required to buy a new replacement laptop,
and you simply don't have the money.
• Yet should you not replace your daughter's broken laptop; she would be excluded
from the education her peers enjoy because she would no longer have a
computer. You question whether you want to run on this "treadmill."
• Furthermore, you can see that laptops— even MIT laptops—are designed for
adults, not children. They are made of heavy metals and other toxic materials.
The batteries, especially, are dangerous because of the materials they contain.
They wear out and replacing them can be expensive.
• Your child could also become a target for robbers. She walks to and from school
carrying her computer, and you know of other children who have been beaten and
robbed of their laptops.
• So, you see these laptops as a mixed blessing fraught with risk. What should you
do?