Pastin Approach

Part Three

Significant Ethics Issues Facing Business and the Accounting Profession

5 6

Approaches to Ethical Decision Making Managing Ethics Risks and Opportunities

Introduction

Part III explores how directors, executives, and accountants should approach specific decisions and the ethical management of key aspects of a corporation’s activities within the frameworks for ethical awareness, accountability, and governance developed in Parts I and II. Chapter 5 provides philosophical and practical approaches to making ethical decisions. Frequently, an employee or professional cannot discern precisely what action to take from a code or cannot consult a colleague and must decide for him or herself what to do. The approaches discussed will facilitate the development of both a defensible decision and an improved, proposed action. Both outcomes will be of increasing value in the future. Chapter 6 develops an understanding of several key ethics opportunities and risks facing corporations and a set of tools to deal effectively with them. Topics covered include:

• Ethics risk and opportunity management—a new concept; • Ethics strategies and tactics for effective stakeholder relations; • Workplace ethics; • International operations; • Corporate social responsibility/accountability and audit; • Crisis management.

Business & Professional Ethics for Directors, Executives, & Accountants, 4e, Brooks - © 2007 Thomson South-Western

Chapter Five

Approaches to Ethical Decision Making

Purpose of the Chapter

When a businessperson or professional accountant faces an ethical problem, the first recourse for guidance should be to corporate and professional codes of conduct. These often do not apply specifically to the problem faced and require interpretation to fit the circumstances. When this is required, the decision maker should be able to use the principles, approaches, and frameworks discussed in this chapter to make defensible ethical decisions.

I NTRODUCTION...