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    Pitfalls of public identification

  • Action not associated with agent. The most common pitfall is failure to associate the agent and the action.The action may have bad consequences and it may treat individuals with respect but these points are not as important in the contextof this test as what they imply about the agent as a person who deliberately performs such an action.
  • Failure to specify moral quality, virtue, or value. Another pitfall is to associate the action and agent butonly ascribe a vague or ambiguous moral quality to the agent. To say, for example, that willfully harming the public is bad fails tozero in on precisely what moral quality this ascribes to the agent. Does it render him or her unjust, irresponsible, corrupt,dishonest, or unreasonable? The virtue list given above will helpto specify this moral quality.

Code of ethics test

  • Does the action hold paramount the health, safety, and welfare of the public, i.e., those affected by theaction but not able to participate in its design or execution?
  • Does the action maintain faithful agency with the client by not abusing trust, avoiding conflicts ofinterest, and maintaining confidences?
  • Is the action consistent with the reputation, honor, dignity, and integrity of the profession?
  • Does the action serve to maintain collegial relations with professional peers?

Meta tests

  • The ethics and feasibility tests will not always converge on the same solution. There is a complicated answer for why this is the case but the simple version is that the tests do not always agree on a given solution because each test (and the ethical theory it encapsulates) covers a different domain or dimension of the action situation. Meta tests turn this disadvantage to your advantage by feeding the interaction between the tests on a given solution back into the evaluation of that solution.
  • When the ethics tests converge on a given solution, this convergence is a sign of the strength and robustnessof the solution and counts in its favor.
  • When a given solution responds well to one test but does poorly under another, this is a sign that thesolution needs further development and revision. It is not a sign that one test is relevant while the others are not. Divergencebetween test results is a sign that the solution is weak.

Application exercise

You will now practice the four stages of decision making with a real world case. This case, Risk Assessment, came from a retreat on Business, Science, and Engineering Ethics held in Puerto Rico in December 1998. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, Grant SBR 9810253.

Risk assessment scenario

Case Scenario: You supervise a group of engineers working for a private laboratory with expertise in nuclear waste disposal and risk assessment. The DOE (Department of Energy) awarded a contract to your laboratory six years ago to do a risk assessment of various nuclear waste disposal sites. During the six years in which your team has been doing the study, new and more accurate calculations in risk assessment have become available. Your laboratory’s study, however, began with the older, simpler calculations and cannot integrate the newer without substantially delaying completion. You, as the leader of the team, propose a delay to the DOE on the grounds that it is necessary to use the more advanced calculations. Your position is that the laboratory needs more time because of the extensive calculations required; you argue that your group must use state of the art science in doing its risk assessment. The DOE says you are using overly high standards of risk assessment to prolong the process, extend the contract, and get more money for your company. They want you to use simpler calculations and finish the project; if you are unwilling to do so, they plan to find another company that thinks differently. Meanwhile, back at the laboratory, your supervisor (a high level company manager) expresses to you the concern that while good science is important in an academic setting, this is the real world and the contract with the DOE is in jeopardy.What should you do?

    Part one: problem specification

  1. Specify the problem in the above scenario. Be as concise and specific as possible
  2. Is your problem best specifiable as a disagreement? Between whom? Over what?
  3. Can your problem be specified as a value conflict? What are the values in conflict? Are the moral, nonmoral, or both?

    Part two: solution generation

  1. Quickly and without analysis or criticism brainstorm 5 to ten solutions
  2. Refine your solution list. Can solutions be eliminated? (On what basis?) Can solutions be combined? Can solutions be combined as plan a and plan b?
  3. If you specified your problem as a disagreement, how do your solutions resolve the disagreement? Can you negotiate interests over positions? What if your plan of action doesn't work?
  4. If you formulated your problem as a value conflict, how do your solutions resolve this conflict? By integrating the conflicting values? By partially realizing them through a value compromise? By trading one value off for another?

    Part three: solution testing

  1. Construct a solution evaluation matrix to compare two to three solution alternatives.
  2. Choose a bad solution and then compare to it the two strongest solutions you have.
  3. Be sure to avoid the pitfalls described above and set up each test carefully.

    Part four: solution implementation

  1. Develop an implementation plan for your best solution. This plan should anticipate obstacles and offer means for overcoming them.
  2. Prepare a feasibility table outlining these issues using the table presented above.
  3. Remember that each of these feasibility constraints is negotiable and therefore flexible. If you choose to set aside a feasibility constraint then you need to outline how you would negotiate the extension of that constraint.

Decision-making presentation

Clicking on this figure will allow you to open a presentation designed to introduce problem solving in ethics as analogous to that in design, summarize the concept of a socio-technical system, and provide an orientation in the four stages of problem solving. This presentation was given February 28, 2008 at UPRM for ADMI 6005 students, Special Topics in Research Ethics.

Problem solving presentation

Shortened presentation for fall 2012

Vigo socio-technical system table and problems

Decision making worksheet

This exercise is designed to give you practice with the three frameworks described in this module. It is based on the case, "When in Aguadilla."

Test rubric fall 2009: problem-solving

Questions & Answers

differentiate between demand and supply giving examples
Lambiv Reply
differentiated between demand and supply using examples
Lambiv
what is labour ?
Lambiv
how will I do?
Venny Reply
how is the graph works?I don't fully understand
Rezat Reply
information
Eliyee
devaluation
Eliyee
t
WARKISA
hi guys good evening to all
Lambiv
multiple choice question
Aster Reply
appreciation
Eliyee
explain perfect market
Lindiwe Reply
In economics, a perfect market refers to a theoretical construct where all participants have perfect information, goods are homogenous, there are no barriers to entry or exit, and prices are determined solely by supply and demand. It's an idealized model used for analysis,
Ezea
What is ceteris paribus?
Shukri Reply
other things being equal
AI-Robot
When MP₁ becomes negative, TP start to decline. Extuples Suppose that the short-run production function of certain cut-flower firm is given by: Q=4KL-0.6K2 - 0.112 • Where is quantity of cut flower produced, I is labour input and K is fixed capital input (K-5). Determine the average product of lab
Kelo
Extuples Suppose that the short-run production function of certain cut-flower firm is given by: Q=4KL-0.6K2 - 0.112 • Where is quantity of cut flower produced, I is labour input and K is fixed capital input (K-5). Determine the average product of labour (APL) and marginal product of labour (MPL)
Kelo
yes,thank you
Shukri
Can I ask you other question?
Shukri
what is monopoly mean?
Habtamu Reply
What is different between quantity demand and demand?
Shukri Reply
Quantity demanded refers to the specific amount of a good or service that consumers are willing and able to purchase at a give price and within a specific time period. Demand, on the other hand, is a broader concept that encompasses the entire relationship between price and quantity demanded
Ezea
ok
Shukri
how do you save a country economic situation when it's falling apart
Lilia Reply
what is the difference between economic growth and development
Fiker Reply
Economic growth as an increase in the production and consumption of goods and services within an economy.but Economic development as a broader concept that encompasses not only economic growth but also social & human well being.
Shukri
production function means
Jabir
What do you think is more important to focus on when considering inequality ?
Abdisa Reply
any question about economics?
Awais Reply
sir...I just want to ask one question... Define the term contract curve? if you are free please help me to find this answer 🙏
Asui
it is a curve that we get after connecting the pareto optimal combinations of two consumers after their mutually beneficial trade offs
Awais
thank you so much 👍 sir
Asui
In economics, the contract curve refers to the set of points in an Edgeworth box diagram where both parties involved in a trade cannot be made better off without making one of them worse off. It represents the Pareto efficient allocations of goods between two individuals or entities, where neither p
Cornelius
In economics, the contract curve refers to the set of points in an Edgeworth box diagram where both parties involved in a trade cannot be made better off without making one of them worse off. It represents the Pareto efficient allocations of goods between two individuals or entities,
Cornelius
Suppose a consumer consuming two commodities X and Y has The following utility function u=X0.4 Y0.6. If the price of the X and Y are 2 and 3 respectively and income Constraint is birr 50. A,Calculate quantities of x and y which maximize utility. B,Calculate value of Lagrange multiplier. C,Calculate quantities of X and Y consumed with a given price. D,alculate optimum level of output .
Feyisa Reply
Answer
Feyisa
c
Jabir
the market for lemon has 10 potential consumers, each having an individual demand curve p=101-10Qi, where p is price in dollar's per cup and Qi is the number of cups demanded per week by the i th consumer.Find the market demand curve using algebra. Draw an individual demand curve and the market dema
Gsbwnw Reply
suppose the production function is given by ( L, K)=L¼K¾.assuming capital is fixed find APL and MPL. consider the following short run production function:Q=6L²-0.4L³ a) find the value of L that maximizes output b)find the value of L that maximizes marginal product
Abdureman
types of unemployment
Yomi Reply
What is the difference between perfect competition and monopolistic competition?
Mohammed
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