When thinking through an ethical issue, the first step you should take is to

You may not realise but all of us make ethical decisions every day. We make decisions based on trust, honesty, morals, ethics, respect and for all sorts of good reasons. If anything, sport is a place that encourages ethical decisions as it is governed by rules and expectations. If people break the rules or don’t follow expectations about certain ways of behaving then it can impact on the integrity of sport.

But what is it to be ethical and to have integrity?

Being ethical and having integrity means more than simply identifying issues you don’t agree with. We can only claim to be ethical and have integrity when we identify actions and behaviours which are those we deem to be the right course of action in a situation and are based on a considered framework that is a reflection of our personal beliefs.

This is why it is not a good idea to try to define ethics and integrity for you. It is up to you – only you can determine what your personal beliefs and ethics are – only your club can determine what its values are and how it enacts them.

It is also why it is critical for people in sport to not only become literate about ethics in terms of understanding the logic, reasoning and psychology behind the choices we make on various matters, but also understand how to arrive at ethical decisions, and then practice voicing and enacting those choices.

The good news is that we have a tool and a process, that is easy to follow, which will help you address issues and make ethical decisions at your club.

The Ethical Decision Making Framework

The Ethical Decision Making Framework is a simple, practical framework, you can use as a guide when making decisions about ethical dilemmas. It was developed by former Play by the Rules manager Dr Paul Oliver (Oliver and Thompson Consultancy) and has been used by a number of agencies, including the National Integrity of Sport Unit, and sporting bodies across the country to help guide them in ethical decision making. It also was the framework used for the Safeguarding the Integrity of Sport Forums coordinated by Play by the Rules in 2015. So it is tried and tested! 

First step is to download the Ethical Decision Making Framework. 

Ethical Decision Making Framework

Take a look at the Framework. You will see there are four parts to it. When you go through the four parts it’s a good idea is to think of an dilemma you have faced where it was difficult to come to a decision based on your, or your clubs, ethics and values.

1. Ask yourself what the dilemma is and GET THE FACTS
2. Consider the most important things you need to ROCOGNISE IN YOURSELF
3. It is time to judge your options and MAKE A DECISION
4. COMMIT TO ACTION

You will see how the framework helps guide you through these four steps with the aim of making a decision and committing to action. That is the key to the framework – to help guide you to action. 

Ethical Decision Making Workshop

If you want to help your club or association address ethical decision making how about running your own Ethical Decision Making workshop? We have developed training and presentation material to help guide you through this process. While the manual is quite comprehensive and gives you a lot of background material to go with, the actual workshop is quite straightforward to run and will really help you identify your own dilemmas and make decisions based on the framework. 

You can adapt the manual and presentation material to your own needs.

Download the Ethical Decision Making Workshop manual here.

Download the Ethical Decision Making presentation template here. 

You can also view the presentation of Paul Oliver from the Safeguarding the Integrity of Sport Forum held in May 2015 where Paul talks about ethical decision making in sport and the ethical decision making framework. 

Finally, if you do run an Ethical Decision Making workshop at your club or association we’d love to hear from you and how it went. Just send us a quick message through our contact form. 

Moral issues greet us each morning in the newspaper, confront us in the memos on our desks, nag us from our children's soccer fields, and bid us good night on the evening news. We are bombarded daily with questions about the justice of our foreign policy, the morality of medical technologies that can prolong our lives, the rights of the homeless, the fairness of our children's teachers to the diverse students in their classrooms.

Dealing with these moral issues is often perplexing. How, exactly, should we think through an ethical issue? What questions should we ask? What factors should we consider?

The first step in analyzing moral issues is obvious but not always easy: Get the facts. Some moral issues create controversies simply because we do not bother to check the facts. This first step, although obvious, is also among the most important and the most frequently overlooked.

But having the facts is not enough. Facts by themselves only tell us what is; they do not tell us what ought to be. In addition to getting the facts, resolving an ethical issue also requires an appeal to values. Philosophers have developed five different approaches to values to deal with moral issues.

The Utilitarian Approach
Utilitarianism was conceived in the 19th century by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill to help legislators determine which laws were morally best. Both Bentham and Mill suggested that ethical actions are those that provide the greatest balance of good over evil.

To analyze an issue using the utilitarian approach, we first identify the various courses of action available to us. Second, we ask who will be affected by each action and what benefits or harms will be derived from each. And third, we choose the action that will produce the greatest benefits and the least harm. The ethical action is the one that provides the greatest good for the greatest number.

The Rights Approach
The second important approach to ethics has its roots in the philosophy of the 18th-century thinker Immanuel Kant and others like him, who focused on the individual's right to choose for herself or himself. According to these philosophers, what makes human beings different from mere things is that people have dignity based on their ability to choose freely what they will do with their lives, and they have a fundamental moral right to have these choices respected. People are not objects to be manipulated; it is a violation of human dignity to use people in ways they do not freely choose.

Of course, many different, but related, rights exist besides this basic one. These other rights (an incomplete list below) can be thought of as different aspects of the basic right to be treated as we choose.

• The right to the truth: We have a right to be told the truth and to be informed about matters that significantly affect our choices.

• The right of privacy: We have the right to do, believe, and say whatever we choose in our personal lives so long as we do not violate the rights of others.

• The right not to be injured: We have the right not to be harmed or injured unless we freely and knowingly do something to deserve punishment or we freely and knowingly choose to risk such injuries.

• The right to what is agreed: We have a right to what has been promised by those with whom we have freely entered into a contract or agreement.

In deciding whether an action is moral or immoral using this second approach, then, we must ask, Does the action respect the moral rights of everyone? Actions are wrong to the extent that they violate the rights of individuals; the more serious the violation, the more wrongful the action.

The Fairness or Justice Approach
The fairness or justice approach to ethics has its roots in the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who said that "equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally." The basic moral question in this approach is: How fair is an action? Does it treat everyone in the same way, or does it show favoritism and discrimination?

Favoritism gives benefits to some people without a justifiable reason for singling them out; discrimination imposes burdens on people who are no different from those on whom burdens are not imposed. Both favoritism and discrimination are unjust and wrong.

The Common-Good Approach
This approach to ethics assumes a society comprising individuals whose own good is inextricably linked to the good of the community. Community members are bound by the pursuit of common values and goals.

The common good is a notion that originated more than 2,000 years ago in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. More recently, contemporary ethicist John Rawls defined the common good as "certain general conditions that are...equally to everyone's advantage."

In this approach, we focus on ensuring that the social policies, social systems, institutions, and environments on which we depend are beneficial to all. Examples of goods common to all include affordable health care, effective public safety, peace among nations, a just legal system, and an unpolluted environment.

Appeals to the common good urge us to view ourselves as members of the same community, reflecting on broad questions concerning the kind of society we want to become and how we are to achieve that society. While respecting and valuing the freedom of individuals to pursue their own goals, the common-good approach challenges us also to recognize and further those goals we share in common.

The Virtue Approach
The virtue approach to ethics assumes that there are certain ideals toward which we should strive, which provide for the full development of our humanity. These ideals are discovered through thoughtful reflection on what kind of people we have the potential to become.

Virtues are attitudes or character traits that enable us to be and to act in ways that develop our highest potential. They enable us to pursue the ideals we have adopted. Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and prudence are all examples of virtues.

Virtues are like habits; that is, once acquired, they become characteristic of a person. Moreover, a person who has developed virtues will be naturally disposed to act in ways consistent with moral principles. The virtuous person is the ethical person.

In dealing with an ethical problem using the virtue approach, we might ask, What kind of person should I be? What will promote the development of character within myself and my community?

Ethical Problem Solving
These five approaches suggest that once we have ascertained the facts, we should ask ourselves five questions when trying to resolve a moral issue:

• What benefits and what harms will each course of action produce, and which alternative will lead to the best overall consequences?

• What moral rights do the affected parties have, and which course of action best respects those rights?

• Which course of action treats everyone the same, except where there is a morally justifiable reason not to, and does not show favoritism or discrimination?

• Which course of action advances the common good?

• Which course of action develops moral virtues?

This method, of course, does not provide an automatic solution to moral problems. It is not meant to. The method is merely meant to help identify most of the important ethical considerations. In the end, we must deliberate on moral issues for ourselves, keeping a careful eye on both the facts and on the ethical considerations involved.

This article updates several previous pieces from Issues in Ethics by Manuel Velasquez - Dirksen Professor of Business Ethics at Santa Clara University and former Center director - and Claire Andre, associate Center director. "Thinking Ethically" is based on a framework developed by the authors in collaboration with Center Director Thomas Shanks, S.J., Presidential Professor of Ethics and the Common Good Michael J. Meyer, and others. The framework is used as the basis for many programs and presentations at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

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