Ethical Decision-Making

Ethical Decision-Making
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Ethical Decision-Making
Contemporary Ethical Dilemma
A contemporary ethical dilemma in recent times involved Cambridge Analytic and Facebook in 2018, which involved issues of data breaches, privacy and user content in relation to social media platforms (Confessore, 2018). In this case, Cambridge Analytica obtained personal data from millions of users of Facebook and used it for political consulting purposes without their explicit consent. The company majorly used the data to undertake targeted political advertising during election campaigns in several countries across the globe. This case raised significant concerns on the issue of privacy and data protection in social media platforms that have access to millions of data points on their users (Martнnez, et al., 2021). This involves aspects such as transparency in collection of data, user content and the handling of personal user data.
Evaluating the Ethical Decision-Making Model
Step 1: Define the problem
This is the initial step that requires the identification of the ethical dilemma clearly and specifically. As such, the potential actions and situations that have resulted in the ethical concerns should be outlined with their potential consequences.
Step 2: Seek out relevant assistance, guidance, and support
This second step requires the involved party to look for potentially helpful resources that can be applied to the decision-making process to solve the problem. These can be professional guidelines and codes of conduct or individuals such as colleagues or friends that may assist in handling the problem throughout its lifetime.
Step 3: Identify available alternative solutions to the problem
This step allows the individual to assess possible solutions to the ethical dilemma by looking for different solutions. By considering many solutions it is easier to choose an appropriate one based on historical data and the context of the problem.
Step 4: Evaluate the identified alternatives
Once the alternatives have been identified, the potential consequences and benefits of each can now be assessed. This provides the opportunity to supplement the available facts have with realistic assumptions and informed beliefs on the ethical dilemma.
Step 5: Make the decision
At this stage, a decision is to be made either individually or by presenting the proposed solution to other members of the organization. This outlines the process that led to such a solution and the rationale for its selection.
Step 6: Implement the decision
Taking the action at this stage provides the tangible step in trying to solve the problem and provides an actionable step taken by the individual and the organization at large.
Step 7: Evaluate the decision
The last step involves an analysis of whether the solution implemented has solved the problem over time. This can determine the necessary interventions in case of positive or negative consequences (Ethics & Compliance Initiative, 2021).
Appling...