1. What is/are the ethical issue(s) in the case?
•Identify the issue(s) in a couple of sentences. This is short and concise.
•Briefly, in your own words and in a couple of sentences, why is it an issue?
• What ethical models are relevant to the issue? For ethical models, consider
those discussed in class, for example, utilitarianism, rights, justice, and fairness.
• (Question 1 is the first paragraph of your case analysis. It sets the stage for
your analysis. (This section of the paper should be one half to one page.)
2. What are the pertinent facts of the case?
• Distinguish between more important and less important facts.
• Include as a fact if a code of ethics is available to guide the actors in the case.
(Company code of ethics? Industry or profession code of ethics?) Also include as a
fact if specific laws or regulatory standards are involved in the case.
• These facts must be the foundation for your alternatives and recommendations.
• (This section of the paper should be one half to one page.)
3. Stakeholders, harms, benefits, and rights
• Who are the important stakeholders in the case?
• So far in the case, who has been harmed? In what ways? Who has received benefits?
What specific benefits were received?
• So far in the case, whose rights or what rights have been exercised? How? Whose
rights or what rights have been denied? How?
➢ Frame the harms, benefits, and rights in terms of where things stand in the case right
now. Later, in analysis of alternatives (Question 5), you’ll discuss possible future
effects on stakeholders.
➢ Primary and secondary stakeholders are discussed in the first chapters in the text
and listed on a class handout.
➢ (This section of the paper should be one half to one page.)
4. What are the alternative courses of action to remedy the problem that you
have identified? Who must act in each alternative?
• Provide three distinct alternatives for the most important ethical issue that you
identify in Question 1.
• The three alternatives should address a range of actions about that one issue only.
• The same person or entity should be the “actor” in all three alternatives.
• (This section should not exceed one page. Do not analyze the alternatives here!)
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5. Thoroughly evaluate the alternatives, their outcomes, and their possible effects on all
of the parties involved.
• For each alternative: what is the effect on each important stakeholder if this course of
action is followed?
• Are there any effects on stakeholders whom you do not consider “important”?
• Do these alternatives satisfy the ethical model you consider most relevant?
• (This can be a lengthy analysis as there are many stakeholders in society. It is a
major part of your paper and requires you to consider all of the possibilities and their
effects on the stakeholders. It should be approximately three to four pages.)
6. Make a specific recommendation based on your analysis of the case, on the important
facts that you identified in Question 2, and support it with a moral theory.
A) Be sure to state how your recommendation is tied to your analysis and facts and how it is
supported by ethical models.
B) Name any specific professional code(s) of ethics that might be applicable to the entities in
this case and state how the code(s) would support your recommendation. Conduct research to
find current day codes of ethics that are applicable. Be sure that this is a professional code, not
an industry code or regulatory standard.
• Your recommendation should be one of the three alternatives that you have proposed.
Use supporting data (e.g., important facts of case, analysis of alternatives, support
offered by specific code(s) of professional ethics, key concepts studied in the course,
and ethical models) to argue why your recommendation is the best alternative.
• Merely stating your opinion without supporting data (e.g., important facts of case,
analysis of alternatives, support offered by specific code(s) of professional ethics, key
concepts studied in the course, and ethical models) is not a recommendation.
• Does your recommendation provide a reasoned solution to the issue(s) you identified
in Question 1?