Reynolds’ Seven-Step Ethical Decision-Making Approach
Steps Description

1. Get the facts Amazon illegally retaliated against two of its most prominent internal critics employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa when it fired them last year.
2. Identify the stakeholders Identify who is impacted by this situation and its subsequent resolution. Define what their role is as well as what would be the best-case outcome for each stakeholder group.
3. Consider the consequences What are the benefits and/or harm that could come from your decision to you individually, the stakeholders, and the organization as a whole?
4. Evaluate the various guidelines, policies, and principles First look to any applicable laws, then to any existing corporate policies, ethical codes, and individual principles. Look at the application of traditional ethical theories as well as Normative Theories of Business Ethics.
5. Develop and evaluate options You may identify several possible solutions and may find it useful to support each with key principles that support the recommendation. Your chosen solution should be ethically defendable and, at the same time, meet the stakeholder and organizational needs and obligations.
6. Review your decision Review your decision in relationship to your personal and the organization’s values. Would others see this as a good and right decision?
7. Evaluate the results Did the final outcome achieve the desired results? This is an important step to help develop and increase your decision-making abilities.