Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 12, 1 December 2015 — Making Ethical Decisions... A Decision Tree [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Making Ethical Decisions... A Decision Tree

Recent high-profile legislator's 'ethical errors' have spurred interest in ethical decision making. Even business leadership has heeome synony-

I %mous with unethical behavior. Widespread scandals and inflated executive pay packages have led many to believe that corporate wrongdoing is the status quo. That's why it's more important than ever that we, as Trustees of OHA, mend relationships with administration, employees, and beneficiaries. Dr. Howard Gardner, the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cam-

bridge, Massachusetts says that it is now, more than ever, that business leaders need to repair relations with customers and employees by stepping up to the ethical plate. Gardner is an influential cognitive and educational psychologist. But as a psychologist, he believes that his first responsibility is to understand how moral and ethical capacities develop, or fail to develop. Professor Gardner has spent many years studying the relationship between psychology and ethics at Harvard. In this article, Gardner talks about what he calls the ethical mind, whieh helps individuals aspire to do good work that matters to their colleagues and society in general. In an era when workers are overwhelmed by too mueh information and feel pressured to win at all costs, Gardner believes, it's easy to lose one's way. What's more, employees look to leaders for cues as to what's appropriate and what's not. So if you're a leader, what's the best way to stand up to ethical pressures and set a good example? First and foremost, says Gardner, you must believe that retaining an ethical compass is essential to the heahh of your organization. State your ethical beliefs and stick to them. Test yourself rigorously to make sure you're adhering to your values, take time to reflect on your beliefs, find muhiple mentors who aren't afraid to speak truth to your power, and eonfront others' egregious behavior as soon as it arises.

Gardner believes the world hangs in the balanee between right and wrong, good and bad, success and disaster. "You need to decide whieh side you're on,"

he concludes, "and do the right thing." Some schools and policy makers claimed that certain racial and ethnic groups were lacking specific inīelligences. As the founder of the theory, he felt an obligation to denounce such distorted interpretations of his work. Later, when he taught a course at Harvard called "Mind, Brain, and Education," he found himself thinking about ethical dilemmas.

Since 1995, he and teams of investigators have been researching the ways in whieh people aspire to do "good work" — that is, work of high quality that matters to society, enhances the lives ofothers, and is conducted in an ethical mannen The researchers have also observed ways in whieh 'good' work is eroded by cultural, eeonomie, and technologieal forces. (For more on this long-termproject, go to www.goodworkproject.com.) Gardner and Constance Bagley, Harvard Business School professor, offer their thoughts about what leaders must do to develop and maintain high standards for themselves and their organizations. They suggest using a decision tree to help with ethical decisions. -Harvard Business Review, March 2007. A decision tree is a graph of decisions and their possible consequences. It is used to create a plan to reach a goal. When confronted with a decision, a leader should ask the following questions: l)Istheproposedactionlegal? 2) If "yes", does the proposed action maximize our beneficiaries' value? 3) If 'yes', is the proposed action ethical? 4) If "no", would it be ethical NOT to take the proposed action? There are NO Absolute Ethical Answers for management decision makers. Leaders shouldrely on moral principles so that their decisions are Principled, Appropriate, and Defensive. A hui hou, Trustee Ahu Isa ■

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Leina'ala Ahu lsa, Ph.D. TrustEE, At-largE