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Ethical Framework

Courtney E. Peters

Brandman University

OLCU 601 Ethics Democracy and Leadership

Professor Kaila Neasman

December 6, 2020
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Ethical Framework

Everyday we make decisions. These decisions are made based on preset notions that we

have created for ourselves throughout our lives. We develop these decisions based on the way we

are raised by our family, our peers, events going on in our lives, and any other activity that may

impact us. All of us have a different framework in how we make these decisions. Some

individuals' decision making may be more ethical than others. Throughout this paper, I will

explore my personal ethical framework to understand how it has impacted some of the decisions

I have made throughout my career, and explore other decision making processes that I can use in

the future.

Brown University defines ethics as “a set of standards for behavior that helps us decide

how we ought to act in a range of situations” (Brown University, A Framework for Making

Ethical Decisions, 2013 para. 2). Webster Dictionary defines framework as “a basic conceptional

structure (as of ideas)” (Webster Dictionary). Ethical framework then is the structure of set

standards that an individual has for their behavior to help act in certain situations. This is unique

from person to person. Many of our decisions are based on our morals and how they will make

us feel after our actions we decided to take.

James Rest, a moral psychologist, has identified that there are four different elements of

ethical action: moral sensitivity (recognition), moral judgment or reasoning, moral motivation,

and moral character (Johnson, 2016, p. 59). With moral sensitivity it is important for individuals

to realize that there is an ethical problem that needs to be addressed or worked out. To ensure

that an individual does not become morally mute, it is important to be actively engaged. This

means being engaged with your community and understanding what is going on outside of the

workplace, and also understanding each individual on a more personal level. When you
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understand people on a more personal level, this allows for you to understand their feelings.

Paying attention to others feelings, and even your own feelings, can help signal if there is an

ethical issue going on. Moral judgment focuses on if a solution is right or wrong. Moral

motivation is how one decides to take action and follow through with their judgment call on the

decision. There are three major factors in how a person is motivated to follow through with their

decisions: rewards, emotions, and duty orientation (Johnson, 2016, p. 71). Lastly, moral

character is how you execute the plan.

For me, it is extremely important to feel good about the decisions I make and to feel I’ve

accomplished something when I make these decisions. My top priority is wanting to make sure

that others have benefited out of my decisions over myself. I try to always prioritize others

before myself in many aspects of my life. Then my second priority is making sure that what I am

doing is right and that I will not get in trouble for the decisions I have made in the long run. I do

my absolute best to make sure I’m doing the correct thing, making sure nothing bad falls back on

me nor anyone else I may be working with. However, I am human and I know I do not always

make the perfect decisions. I just hope that my decisions do not hurt those who I care about nor

any individual who I am helping with at my work location.

According to Brown University, there are three different types of frameworks:

Consequentialist, Duty, and Virtue. Consequentialist framework “focus on the future effects of

the possible courses of action, considering the people who will be directly or indirectly affected”

(Brown University, A Framework for Making Ethical Decisions, 2013 para 25). Duty framework

focuses on the outcome of their decisions and making sure it is right. Virtue framework is

“concerned with what kind of person we should be and what our actions indicate about our

character” (Brown University, A Framework for Making Ethical Decisions, 2013 para. 31).
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Based on these three frameworks, I believe I associate with the consequentialist framework the

most because I focus a lot on other individuals and how it affects them.

This framework most reflects me because that is how I was brought up. My mother is a

pediatric nurse and it is her job to always put others before herself. I vividly remember one

morning riding in the car from swim practice to school, we witnessed a major accident on the

southbound side highway, while we were traveling northbound. My mom pulled over to the side

of the road and ran across the street to try and assist with the accident. I watched my mom from

inside the car giving CPR to a complete stranger until more paramedics arrived on the scene.

After that moment, I wanted to be more like my mom and put others before myself. She did not

have to do that. There could have been more medically trained people who witnessed this

accident, but she was one of only about 3 people, other than the EMTs, who assisted with the

accident. I value doing good for others and the consequentialist framework is heavily influenced

by this. Valuing others and understanding their perspectives other than my own guides me to

make ethical decision making. I do not like when I feel that my opinions or perspectives are not

important or feel that I am just an object and not a person. It is always my goal to treat others as

unique because not everyone requires the same attention as others. Each situation a person

experiences is unique to them.

My role at the Walt Disney World Company is Guest Relations. In Guest Relations, we

assist guests with a variety of different things, but the most common is assisting them with any

complications they may encounter while on vacation. Everyday I have ethical decisions I have to

make based on the experiences my guests have throughout our parks and resorts. For example,

last year I had a guest visiting from the United Kingdom who asked me for some “Disney

Magic” and to help out her family. She explained to me that her husband was in stage four of a
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certain cancer he had and the doctors told him that he only had a couple weeks to months left to

live. She found out all of this information only about a month before their trip to Walt Disney

World. She pulled out her phone and showed me multiple emails she had sent to the Walt Disney

Company explaining the situation she was in and trying to see if they could help her husband, a

huge Star Wars fan, go see and experience the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land that was

opening up shortly after they left. She explained to me that if she knew the condition of her

husband sooner she would have moved the trip around in order for him to experience the land

and ride there but it was too short of notice. After much research, she learned that many of our

Annual Passholders were able to sign up for select dates and times to go into the land the last

couple days of her trip. Knowing that there were people exploring the land while they were

visiting gave her some hope into giving her husband one of his last dying wishes. She asked me

if there was anything I could do to get her in, even though her, her husband, and daughter were

not Annual Passholders. I remember feeling so many different emotions while she was telling me

her story. This was the biggest event happening at that time at Walt Disney World and there was

really no wiggle room to get anyone in there, not even current Annual Passholders. Our leaders

even warned us leading up to the event that there was nothing we could really do for anyone not

on the list.

I explained to the woman that I feel her pain and want to try to do as much as I can to

help them out. I even told her that I can almost guarantee that I will not be able to get them into

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, but that I am going to call over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (where

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge is located) to see if there is anything we can do related to Star Wars to

make this trip more magical. She understood. I went to the back to talk to one of my coordinators

and leaders about the situation and then called the Guest Relations at Disney’s Hollywood
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Studios explaining everything. The only question they asked me in regards to getting this family

into the previews was if they were Annual Passholders or not, in which I replied that they were

not and all she said was that there was nothing that they could do for them without being an

Annual Passholder. When I got off the phone and told my coordinator, she nodded her head

knowing what I wanted to do for them.

This is something we NEVER do, but I went out to the woman and asked her to fill out a

sheet to document that I was working on her ticket. I did not want to tell her that I was upgrading

her family’s tickets, for free, to an Annual Pass since I still did not know if this was actually

going to work or not. After I finished upgrading all of them, I once again went to the back and

contacted Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I let them know that I had an Annual Passholder who

was not able to book a reservation for the previews and to see if there was anything they would

be able to do to allow them into the land. They then gave me a date and a time that would allow

for them to enter Star Wars Galaxy's Edge a few days later. I then went out into the lobby and

quietly told her what I did for her family. I explained how I upgraded her tickets to Annual

Passes for free and how I contacted Disney’s Hollywood Studios to set them up with a date and

time to get into the land. The woman was in tears. She asked for me to come out from behind the

counter to give me the biggest hug I have ever received.

I went against many of our policies when making this magical moment. First one was me

upgrading the ticket to an Annual Pass for a legitimate reason. The only time we ever really do

anything to Annual Passes is if something serious, like a medical situation, does not allow for the

guest to use their pass a couple of times. In these cases we will extend the Annual Pass an extra

year. The biggest unethical thing I did; however, was go against the policy for getting guests into

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. Still to this day, over a year later, this is the busiest area in all our
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parks. There was a reason only a certain number of guests were able to go in there at a time and I

completely bypassed all those policies. I was worried about possibly getting in big trouble with

Advisory and Assurance, the people who really pay attention to how much compensation we are

giving out to our guests and the reasonings behind them. I have known a couple of people who

have lost their jobs because of situations involving Advisory and Assurance. I had many

individuals come up to me throughout the week trying to find a way into the preview. I denied

hundreds of people access. This family, this situation, pulled at my heart which made me go past

all of these policies. The decision to go past these was very difficult because I knew that there

could have been some serious consequences. The conflict I had was if I should try to get three

more guests into one of the previews that weekend for a dying wish with the potential to lose my

job/go to a different area within the company or I deny the family access to the preview like a

hundred others asked before them.

Going through this situation my ethical framework was put to the test. One of my biggest

concerns when making decisions is that I will not get in trouble at the end of it but also still

making sure I’m trying to have a positive outcome with my decisions. Despite there being

possible consequences, I still believed the decision I had made was the right decision. The type

of approach that I used in this situation was altruism. Rowe and Guerrero describe altruism as

“actions of leaders that are designed to demonstrate concern for others’ interests, even if these

interests are contrary to the leader’s self-interests” (Rowe, Guerrero, 2019, p. 298). My

framework however made me come up with this decision because I always am trying to put

others before myself. In this situation-the story was touching, I have had family members pass

away from cancer, so knowing what they were going through I needed to make sure I did

everything I could to get them there. So my decision to upgrade their tickets and go beyond our
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policy made me feel great. I felt like I accomplished more by than possible. That woman and her

child will have the absolute best memory of their husband/father for the rest of their lives.

It is extremely hard to know if I would make the same decision again or not. Honestly,

Advisory and Assurance did contact my leadership team telling them that I did this. My leaders

looked into the file I made in regards to this situation and understood full heartedly. They backed

me up. One of my leaders pulled me to the side and told me Advisory and Assurance was not

happy with the decision I made and they knew I played the system. My leader explained how he

told them that he backed me up and said that they supported my decision throughout the process.

My leader even said to not do something like this ever again. He said that I did the right thing

and that family will remember me for the rest of their lives because of this. Knowing this is kind

of scary. I could have had some major consequences. This experience still makes me realize that

I need to lead with my heart. Although I could have gotten into serious trouble, I still did the

right thing. I thought about what could have gone wrong during my case and that is something I

will continue to do. The only aspect of my ethical decision making that I will pay more attention

to is who and how many people I am affecting. Although I may be working with just one

individual, there could be multiple others that can be affected by the decisions I make.

Everyone has preset notions we have learned and created for ourselves throughout our

lives. These allow for us to create different frameworks to assist us in deciding solutions for

different problems we may face. For myself, my framework focuses on others and how I can

better assist them more than myself. During this process I also concentrate on following the

rules, guidelines, and even laws to determine my decisions. An ethical framework works best

when it is complementary to, not separate from, other modes of business analysis and decision-

making (Harris, Palmer, Wicks, Ethical Business Decisions: The Framework, 2015, para. 6).
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References
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Brown University. A Framework for Making Ethical Decisions | Science and Technology

Studies. https://www.brown.edu/academics/science-and-technology-studies/framework-

making-ethical-decisions.

Harris, J. D., Parmar, B. L., & Wicks, A. C. (2015, July 31). Ethical business decisions: the

framework. https://ideas.darden.virginia.edu/ethical-business-decisions-the-framework.

Johnson, C. E., & Johnson, C. E. (2016). Organizational ethics: a practical approach. Los

Angeles

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Framework. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved December

1, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/framework

Rowe, W. G., & Guerrero, L. (2019). Cases in leadership. Los Angeles, CA.