Ethics and choices: Whenever we make a choice, we could have made a different one. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard captures this sense when he describes standing on the edge of a cliff. The thing that prevents us from jumping is us our choice to do otherwise. How do you decide? Ethics is the process of questioning, discovering, and defending our values, principles, and purpose. Its about finding out who we are and staying true to that in the face of temptations, challenges, and uncertainty. Its not always fun and its hardly ever easy -- but if we commit to it, then we set ourselves up to make decisions we can stand by -- and, we are able to build a life thats truly our own and a future we want to be a part of. Questions to guide you: There is no ready-made way to deal with ethical challenges. Each one requires us to respond to specific circumstances and relationships.

Still, there are a few questions you can ask that can help crystalize the ethical issues for you.

-Would I be comfortable with this decision to be headlining the news tomorrow? This is known as the "Sunlight Test." Imagine if your decision and the reasons you made it were to be made public knowledge. What if the people you most admire knew what youve done and why? Do you think youd be able to defend yourself? Would other people agree, or at least understand, why you did what you did? (This is the "dont be ashamed" test.)

-Would I be comfortable if everyone else did this as well? Would you be comfortable if your reason for the action you took was used by everyone else in the same circumstance? If not, then what makes you so special? Shouldn't the right decision for one person be right for everybody in the same position? This test helps us make sure were willing to hold ourselves to the same standards to which we hold others.

-Will my actions help make the world a better place -- or at least not result in making it a worse place? Many people subscribe to the idea that taking actions resulting in "the greatest good for the greatest number of individuals" is the key to behaving ethically. In fact, Abraham Lincoln was a strong proponent of this concept.

Is this always true, however? The potential consequences of your actions should play a significant role in attempting to make decisions that are ethical, to be sure, but should the "What's best for the greatest number of people?" test always apply? What if what's best for the greatest number of people requires us to take actions that cause the lesser number of people to suffer unnecessarily through no fault of their own?

For instance, what if -- instead of attempting to develop online courses that are fully accessible to individuals who are disabled in one way or another or for whom English is their second language -- we (alternatively) used the time, money, and effort that would be necessary to create fully accessible courses on developing online offerings aimed at providing more individualized attention to each of our online students and on developing more "bells and whistles" for these courses? Would this action, which would certainly appear to result in the greatest good for the greatest number of individuals, meet the definition of "ethical?"

Probably not. The point is that "making the world a better place" is not always accomplished by taking actions that result in the greatest good for the greatest number of people. So be careful about using this "greatest good" concept in your attempts to make ethical decisions.

Answering these questions doesn't, of course, guarantee that everyone will agree with your decision. Moral disagreement is extremely common. But even if your decision fails to achieve universal approval, the way in which you reached it does matter. Ethics allows us to explore these questions in a way that is sincere, rational, competent, and honest.

Bottom Line? If you can answer "yes" to each of the above questions, it's quite likely that what you did (or what you are thinking of doing) is ethical. And if you cannot answer "yes" to any one or more of these three questions, you probably shouldn't have done it (or shouldn't do).

Now let's try out the above model on the following examples of work-related ethical dilemmas:

QUESTIONS;

1.Your boss asks you what time Bob, a fellow coworker and (unbeknownst to your boss, a good friend of yours) arrived at work this morning. He appears angry. You know exactly when Bob arrived. He showed up at 10:30 AM, an hour and a half late. What do you do? Is your decision an ethical one? (Use the three-step model offered in "My Two Cents" in responding.)

2.You have been made a member of a team charged with developing a five-year strategic plan for your division, and it is due in two weeks. During the next couple of weeks, only you and Mary Anne (out of a total of five team members) worked on the project. You submit it to your boss on its due date. Before the day is over, your boss informs you that he is extremely disappointed with the quality of your proposed plan, tosses it in the wastebasket, and states that he'll just do it himself. What do you do? Is your decision an ethical one? (Use the three-step model offered in "My Two Cents" in responding.)

3.You have been made a member of a team charged with developing a five-year strategic plan for your division, and it is due in two weeks. During the next couple of weeks, only you and Mary Anne (out of a total of five team members) worked on the project. You submit it to your boss on its due date. Before the day is over, your boss informs you that he is extremely pleased with the quality of your proposed plan and states that all five of you will receive an increase in pay as a result. What do you do? Is your decision an ethical one? (Use the three-step model offered in "My Two Cents" in responding.)

4.You are an outside salesperson for a beer distribution company. While you are visiting Sam Cavallario, the owner of Oscar's Tavern, he tells you he has decided to triple his normal order of beer (from 126 cases of beer to 378 cases) this month so that he won't have to make another order for three months. You know that next month your company will be offering a 15% discount on all beer ordered for that month. Sam, of course, does not. Do you inform Sam of this? Is your decision an ethical one? (Use the three-step model offered in "My Two Cents" in responding.)