The Ethical Cycle

In the textbook Understanding Business Ethics, by Stanwick and Stanwick (2009), the authors describe a model for ethical decision making they title: The Ethical Cycle. The Ethical Cycle is broken down into 6 steps: defining the moral problem statement, problem analysis, reviewing the options for action, making ethical judgment, reflecting on the decision made, and finally taking a morally acceptable action.

Your author was recently faced with an important moral and ethical decision to make. As a leader for a fire department, your author took note that the physically challenging strength and endurance course all potential candidates must pass in order to qualify for employment by the department tended to exclude female applicants. If a fire department's physical strength testing has a disparate impact on a protected class of people, or in other words tends to fail members of a protected class more than others, the testing is generally considered a violation of the Civil Rights Act and is considered illegal.

The defense for a disparate impact claim against a fire department is that passing the physical strength testing process is considered a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ), due to the physical strength requirements of the profession. The morale and ethical problem is that the physical demands of the profession require strong candidates. This requirement tends to have a disparate impact on female candidates. The ethical dilemma is that by excluding female candidates, fire departments potentially face civil liability from lawsuits and tend to have a conspicuous lack of diversity. The alternative of hiring candidates without the physical strength required to perform all aspects of the profession would potentially reduce the safety of all personnel in a fire department.

During the problem analysis phase, your author considered the stakeholders in the decision: the fire department, the employees, and the effected candidates. The moral values considered include doing the right thing for the employees as well as the effected candidates while minimizing the civil liabilities for the department.

The next step was for your author to consider the different options for action on the issue. The options considered included having the department's physical ability testing course validated as simulating actual tasks associated with the job of firefighter. Additional options considered also included accepting a standardized pre-validated third party physical ability test. And lastly the option of continuing to require that all candidates pass the department's existing physical ability test was considered.

During the ethical judgment phase of the ethical cycle, your author carefully evaluated all of the different options presented above. Each option was considered to see how it would fit with the moral values and ethical beliefs of the organization. In addition, each option was considered against