On the Relationship between DSS Design Characteristics and Ethical Decision Making

The impact of unethical decisions on organizations and their stakeholders is significant to our society and has been the focus of recent research (e.g., Ford and Richardson, 1994; Frederick, 1987). Although organizations rigorously examine the business utility and legality of decisions made, it is typical that less attention is paid to their ethicality. Such decisions, which in the short term seem to be sound based on a utilitarian model, can have subsequent negative consequences for the firm. Recent headlines would suggest that these consequences can be nontrivial. Insider-trading convictions, the Savings and Loan bailouts, and frequent government-related scandals, including the recent disclosure concerning government funded radiation experiments in which subjects were not informed of the risks involved, are all examples in which organizations have made ethically suboptimal decisions that were detrimental to stakeholders, and later became damaging to the organizations involved. As organizations become aware of the social consequences of unethical behavior, they may begin to seek ways of encouraging ethical behavior. Individuals in the organization face many decisions that may contain one or more ethical issues. That is, the decisions made in these situations have the capability to favorably or unfavorably affect other individuals or groups, both within and outside the organization. The failure to adequately consider these issues may lead to decisions made which, although optimized with respect to business criteria, are suboptimized with respect to the ethical standards of the individual, organization, and/or society. Certainly, not every business decision has an ethical element. However, many business decisions do involve the allocation of scarce resources, the awarding of contracts, and, of course, dealing with customers or clients. Such decisions are more likely to contain ethical components that may strongly affect other individuals and groups. While much research has been done with respect to better understanding the ethical decision-making process (Dubinsky and Loken, 1989; Ferrell and Gresham, 1985; Fritzsche, 1995; Gottlieb and Sanzgiri, 1996; Hunt and Vitell, 1986; Jones, 1991; Rest, 1986; Trevino, 1986), relatively little research has considered how to support individuals making ethical decisions or how to facilitate the development of ethical organizations (Carlson and Perrewe, 1995; Nielsen, 1990; Sims, 1991). One approach to deal with this issue could be the use of a decision support system (DSS). DSS are computer-based tools used to facilitate the individual decision-making process. Conceivably, DSS could be designed which assist the decision maker by forcing the ethical components of a situation to be identified and examined. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the decision process of an individual who uses a DSS with such an ethical model (an "ethical DSS") could be affected, with the general goal of enhancing the likelihood that ethical decisions are made. This article proceeds as follows. First, a review of the business importance of ethical decision making is provided, followed by an overview of current DSS design impacts on ethical decision making. For illustrative purposes, an example of an ethical DSS will be introduced here and developed throughout the article. Next, relevant research concerning DSS and their design characteristics will be discussed. Following this, the ethical decision-making process will be reviewed and a new model of ethical decision making (supported with an ethical DSS) will be presented. based on this, propositions will be developed concerning how the use of an ethical DSS may affect the decision-making process and outcomes. Finally, managerial implications and suggestions for future research will be considered. LITERATURE REVIEW The Importance of Making Ethical Decisions In recent years, there has been an increased discussion in the popular media about the unethical "mistakes" that companies have made. …