Many decision-making procedures and approaches have been suggested by counsel-ling organizations and others. Limited space allows me to only briefly outline three approaches:
• Quick Check
• Virtue Ethics
• Principle-Based Quick Check
When faced with an ethical dilemma requiring a fairly quick response, career counsel-lors and others can consider the three main aspects of Quick Check:
• Publicity. Would I want my decision publicized on the front page of a newspaper?
• Universality. Would I make the same decision for all?
• Justice. Is my decision fair and equal?
Virtue ethics
With Virtue Ethics, counsellors do not follow established articles, rules or guidelines, but rather follow what a virtuous person would do under the circumstance. The fol-lowing phases are an attempt to suggest some processes in Virtue Ethics (Schulz, Sheppard, Lehr & Shepard, 2006).
Phase One: Examine the Situation through Personal Awareness
In examining personal awareness, questions such as the following would be consid-ered: What emotions do I feel as I consider the ethical dilemma? How are these emo-tions influencing me? What are my emoemo-tions telling me to do?
Phase Two: Examine the Situation through a Social/Cognitive/Emotive Process Phase two would consist of an examination of the situation through a social/cognitive/
emotive process. How will my decision affect other stakeholders? Do I need more in-formation before I can make a decision? What are the positive, neutral, and negative consequences for each option that I have? Will my decision change if I share it with a colleague? What decision would I feel best about publicizing?
Phase Three: Examine Competing Values
Counsellors need to know the implications of their values. Questions such as the fol-lowing need to be considered: What do I value most in my work as a counsellor? How can my values best show compassion for the career-seeker in this situation? What de-cision would best define who I am as a person? How can emotional dede-cision-making exercises (imagery, vision quest, meditation) help me decide?
Phase Four: Plan and Take Action
What do I need to do to best plan and take action? What are some countermeasures that I may have to take? How can I best evaluate my course of action?
Principle-based
Principle-based ethical decision-making models emphasize rational, cognitive and be-havioural aspects of decision-making that include steps such as the following:
• Identify the key ethical issues
• Examine the articles from a Career Counsellors Code of Ethics
• Examine the relevant ethical principles
• Choose the most important principles and ethical articles
• Use emotional decision-making techniques
• Take action
These steps can be best implemented by providing answers to the following six ques-tions:
• What are the key ethical issues in this situation?
• What ethical articles from a career counselling Code of Ethics are relevant to this case?
• Which of the six ethical principles is of major importance in this situation?
• What are the most important principles and what are the risks and benefits of acting on principles?
• Will I feel the same way about this situation if I think about it a little longer, and who shall I be in order to show the greatest integrity and empathy for the career-seeker?
• What plan of action will be most helpful in this situation?
Perhaps a short example can help to show this process. Recall Hans, a job-seeker who had a good relationship with his career counsellor and had told this counsellor about some of the items (from the hardware store where he worked part-time) he was steal-ing and sellsteal-ing. The counsellor had promised him confidentiality, havsteal-ing said “that things said in this office stay in this office”. How might this counsellor solve his ethical dilemma using the Principle-Based decision-making model?
The counsellor had promised confidentiality, yet Hans’ actions were illegal. In the long term, the theft would probably be discovered and Hans would be in serious trou-ble. Most ethical articles from Codes of Ethics will provide for respect for privacy. Also, the counsellor has a primary responsibility to help the client. The six principles identi-fied earlier, along with the principles of societal interest, autonomy and beneficence, are important in Hans’ situation. The counsellor examines the most important princi-ples and believes at this time, beneficence and responsibility to society are of greatest importance. Before acting, the counsellor decides to think about his decision further and then determine the action that shows the greatest integrity and empathy. Ulti-mately, the counsellor decides to meet with Hans and inform him that he will have to break confidentiality, since allowing theft to continue would not be acting responsibly.
He hopes he can convince Hans that in the long term he will be helping him. Hans is given several options regarding the reporting of the theft.
References
Frankl, V. E. (1959). Man’s search for meaning. New York: Pocket Books.
Frankl, V. E. (1978). The unheard cry for meaning. New York: Simon & Shuster.
Frankl, V. E. (2000). Man’s search for ultimate meaning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Rogers, C. R. (1980). A way of being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Schulz, W.; Sheppard, G.; Lehr, R. & Shepard, B. (2006). Counselling ethics: Issues and cases.
Ottawa: Canadian Counselling Association.
Author
William E. Schulz, Prof. PhD, is Professor Emeritus in Counselling Education at the University of Manitoba/Canada. Since 1971, he has conducted research projects on counselling and developed numerous counselling training programmes for Employ-ment and Immigration Canada. Contact: William.Schulz@umanitoba.ca