Ethical Decision Making in the Workplace

Mishalaina Coles
mc565515@ohio.edu

In journalism, it is essential to be able to make decisions based on ethics. Specifically journalists should have their own ethic codes. From a consumer standpoint, it is important to know those who are reporting your news, making campaigns, advertising, etc. are doing their job while keeping their ethics in mind. Why is this important? It builds trust.

Photo from hubpages.com

10 Questions to Ask to Make Good Ethical Decisions

1. What do I know? What do I need to know?
2. What is my journalistic purpose? 
3. What are my ethical concerns?
4. What organizational policies and professional guidelines should I consider?
5. How can I include other people, with different perspectives and diverse ideas, in the decision making process?
6. Who are the stakeholders? What are their motivations? Which are legitimate?
7. What if the roles were reversed? How would I feel if I were in the shoes of one of the stakeholders?
8. What are possible consequences of my actions? Short term? Long term?
9. What are my alternatives to maximize my truth-telling responsibility and minimize harm?
10. Can I clearly and fully justify my thinking and my decision? To my colleagues? To the stakeholders? To the public?

(this list comes from Poynter)

Ethical Decision Making within the Workplace

Not all ethical decision making that journalists have to do deals with a final published product. Journalists (note: I'm using this as an all encompassing word. News anchors, newspaper editors, public relations executive, etc., are all journalists) also have to deal with ethical decision making in their workplace among their bosses and employees.

What does ethical decision making look like in the workplace? Workers need to make ethical decisions when either they aren't being treated correctly, the workplace isn't following one of their rules, if they see someone acting in an unethical manner, etc. The list can go on and on. A lot of times people don't report an ethical issue even though they recognize it because it can result in retaliation.

Whistleblower. This is what someone is called when they do report an issue or speak out on an ethical issue. 

Reporting unethical behavior in the workplace can be hard. The reason for this is sometimes it is hard to know why you're reporting the behavior. Are you reporting it because it is harmful to someone? Are you reporting it because it can be not in the company's good? Are you reporting something that's not necessarily unethical but just reporting something to get someone in trouble? It's hard because there is a thin line between what's right or wrong.

A good way to understand why you are making an ethical decision is to talk to someone who may have similar values as you. This way you'll have someone to help you think out the decision with to make sure you are not jumping to any conclusions and understand the situation completely.

Either way a workplace should have some sort of ethical code. It is always good to ask management about the policies set in place in regards of ethics at your job.