Topic: Factors That

Influence Ethical-
Decision Making
Intro…

Each and every day of our life we are forced to make decisions, some are causal,
some are crucial, but all impacting our lives to certain extent. Decisions are
made about many things like political decisions, career decisions, or financial
decisions etc. some choices are easy and straight forward while others can be
really complex and require multi step approach to make decisions. The decisions
we take in our lives would either make us or break us; so it is very important to
make our choice wisely. It is essential to develop effective decision making
strategies and skills.
Ethical decision making

 Ethical decision making refers to the process of evaluating and choosing

among alternatives in a manner consistent with ethical principles. In making
ethical decisions it is necessary to perceive and eliminate unethical options
and select the best ethical alternatives.
 Ethical decision making is a process in which you aim to make your decisions
in line with a code of ethics.
 Practicing ethical decision making can help you maintain an honest,
supportive, and fair workplace culture.
Factors influencing ethical decision
making
 There are many factors that influence ethical decision making,
 Here we discuss the individual factors influencing ethical decision making.
Individual Factors

 Significant individual factors that influence ethical decision making are

▪ Gender
▪ Age
▪ Professional experience
▪ The ability to deal with uncertainty
▪ Knowledge
▪ Educational level
▪ Past Experience
▪ Personal moral values
▪ Personal moral philosphies
Gender

 Research proves that gender truly does play a role in how we make ethical
decisions whether its personal or business.
 Women are trained from a young age to reason differently from men about moral
issues. Women choices are more likely to be influenced by the pressures of
communal norms and morals. There are studies that found that women tend to
behave more ethically than men.
 Women’s emotions tend to play the larger role in making ethical decisions
compared to men who tend to be more aggressive and defensive.
 To ensure victory ,men will sacrifice moral standards if doing so means winning.
 When it comes to ethical decisions researches show that women are more inclined
to greater reasoning and ethical decisions when compared to men.
 Females are more ethical than males in their perception of business ethical
situations.
Age

 Age is one of the major factor influencing ethical decision making. People in
lower age groups may have less access to education and resources, which may
make them more susceptible to experiencing negative life events, often
beyond their control, as a result, low age individuals make poorer decisions as
compared to elder one.
Professional Experience

 The less experience a person has with making ethical decisions , the more
difficult those decisions are and the more likely some of the decisions will be
wrong.
The ability to deal with uncertainity

 Some people become rattled and cannot think clearly when the pressure is
on, others become very focused , rise to the occasion, and make good
decisions under difficult circumtsances.
Knowledge

 If you do not have enough knowledge about the ethical issue, it can feel like
you are making a decision without any basis.
Education Level

 Education is a tool for enhancing an individual’s ethical decision making

quality.
 Education can better equip people for better ethical decision making for their
lives.
 The quality and type of education received by an individual as well as their
professional training also has a influence on the ethical decision making .
Past Experience

 “ Life is all about making choices, always do your best to make the right ones
and always do your best to learn from the wrong ones”
 Past experiences can impact future decision making.
 When a past decision yielded a positive result, it is fairly safe to say that you
should make a similar choice when faced with the same type of decision.
 Conversely, if a decision did not have a positive outcome , you should
 not choose a similar course of action in the future.
Personal Moral Values

 A person’s personal moral values are a large factor in the ethical decision
making process.
 Truthfulness, honesty, fairness, and openness as an individual are great traits
to have while trying to make decisions .
 When you have a good moral character , you are more than likely to make a
better decisions.
Personal Moral Philosophies

 Moral philosophies are the principles or rules that individuals apply in

deciding what is right or wrong.
 Moral philosophies has been discussed in the previous chapters which are
consequentialist and non consequentialist theories, virtue theory, ethics of
care etc.
 Based on these theories one can take ethical decisions.
 Example, The Utilitarianism philosophy focuses on the maximum happiness of
maximum people. So ethical decision can be taken for the well being of
maximum people.
THANK YOU