Ethics Awareness Inventory

Ethics Awareness Inventory - Gain New Insight Into Your Ethical Perspective

Your Ethical Perspective

You tend to base your ethical perspective on an individual’s duty or obligation to do what is morally right—principles that represent what rational persons ought morally to do. You believe that ethical conduct appeals to “conscience.” In judging whether a person’s actions are ethical, you look to the intent behind his/her actions, rather than focusing on results. In other words, to be considered ethical, you believe that we must choose how we act and what rules we are willing to follow. From your perspective, ethical principles must be: (a) appropriate under any circumstances (universalizable); (b) respectful of human dignity; and (c) committed to promoting individual freedom and autonomy. Human beings must never be treated simply as “means” to the accomplishment of some defined “end.” The end does not justify the means. For additional research: This category is most closely aligned in philosophy with a deontological theory (See Immanuel Kant and John Rawls).

Remember to review the BLENDED CATEGORIES section if your second highest score is within one or two points of your highest score.

Your Ethical Style

You believe that human beings have intrinsic value—we have a right to individual respect. Therefore, you cannot support social traditions and policies aimed at “the best interests of society as a whole” if any individual is denied the opportunities to which she/he is entitled as a human being. Your approach to ethics requires that, within legal and humane limits, people should be allowed to make their own choices. Acting in response to impulse, instinct, or rules worked out by others for us to obey does not constitute ethical conduct on our part. You believe that fostering personal growth takes precedence over achieving efficiency through organizational and social structures that tend to “dehumanize” ethical decision making. For this reason, you advocate...