Creating an Ethical Work Place – 7 Guidelines
for making Ethical Decisions

(Choose the appropriate guidelines for your case.)

1. The Golden Rule:  Act in a way you would expect others to act toward you.
    
2. The Utilitarian Principle: Act in a way that results in the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
    
3. Kant’s Categorical Imperative: Act in such a way that the action taken under the circumstances could be a universal law, or rule of behavior.
    

4. The Professional Ethic: Take actions that would be viewed as proper by a disinterested panel of professional peers.
    

5. The TV Test: Managers should always ask, “Would I feel comfortable explaining to a national TV audience why I took this action?”
    

6. The Legal Test: Is the proposed action or decision legal/?  Established laws are generally considered minimum standards for ethics.
    

7. The Four-way Test (Source: Herb Taylor 1932, Rotary International):
   Managers can feel confident that a decision is ethical if they can answer “yes” to the following questions:

• Is the decision truthful?

• Is it fair to all concerned?

• Will it build good will and better friendships?

• Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Christine Bauer-Ramazani; last updated: July 09, 2017