What we want to test is appropriate decision changes

• We can do this with a layered serial case
  • that varies its trajectory
    • based on the students answer
• We would want, in a real test, to ask a multiple questions at each step:
  • What values are at issue here?
  • How important is each of these values to you?
  • What decisions are possible here?
  • Are there obviously wrong decisions?
  • What would you do?
• For simplicity, today, we'll stick with the last of these.

Question 1:

Harriett is a staff analyst at a mid-sized company with a family and a desire to become a manager. Her current project is due the next morning. At 4:45 in the afternoon she realizes that while the project only needs a little bit more work, she needs to stay at the office late in order to finish it on time. Should Harriett leave for home right at the companies 5:00 closing and satisfy her family obligations or stay late at work and get the project done on time?

• What would you do?
  • Leave at 5:00 and apologize in the morning.
  • Call home that you are going to be late and finish the project.
• Note that other possibilities could be written in at this point
  • Take the work home and finish it after the kids go to bed.
  • Keep working and call home if it takes more than an hour.
  • Quit. Who needs a job that entails this kind of pressure.
  • Leave at 5:00 for the nearest bar. Its a no win situation. A drink seems like the right solution.
  • Leave at 5:00 for the airport and take a plane to Tahiti. Who needs any of this.
• For the moment, we'll constrain ourselves to the first two options

Question 2a (You leave for home)

At 4:55 your Harriett's boss stops by to enquire about the status of the project. She is reminded that having the project done on time is important. "A lot of business is hanging on your presentation in the morning", she's told. If this comes off we'll need to hire a whole new department to make your project real. The implication is that this could be her department.

• What would you do?
  • Leave at 5:00 and apologize in the morning.
  • Call home that you are going to be late and finish the project.

Question 2b (You stay at work)

At 4:55 Harriett's spouse calls to remind her that this is parent-teacher night at their childs school. When Harriet mentions the impending deadline she is reminded that there is only one parent-teacher night each year and that missing it means that she won't meet the childs teachers. "Family is the most important thing, right? I'm sure they understand that at work."

• What would you do?
  • Leave at 5:00 and apologize in the morning.
  • Call home that you are going to be late and finish the project.

And so on, with each response turning the screws a little tighter in one direction or the other.

• Making things worse at work
  • At 4:55 Harriet's boss tells her that if this comes off, she WILL be managing a new department.
  • At 4:57 a coworker tells Harriet that there are rumors of layoffs.
  • At 4:55 Harriet's boss tells her that her job depends on this being ready in the morning.
  • At 4:55 Harriet's boss asks to go over the presentation now, and when informed that its not quite done, says, "I'll wait. Let me know when its done."
• Making things worse at home
  • At 4:55 Harriet's spouse calls to remind her that their child is in a recital tonight and asks if she's charged up the Camcorder yet.
  • At 4:55 Harriet's spouse calls to remind her that she's running the Scout meeting tonight.
  • At 4:55 Harriet's spouse calls to let her know that he's stuck in a meeting until 6:30 and that the kids are home alone.
  • At 4:55 Harriet's spouse calls, and when she says she's stuck at work on deadline, tells her that if work is more important than family, they want a divorce.

The idea, of course, is to test an individuals ability to deal with complex ethical decision making

• where harms are real
  • and the question usually isn't which decision is right
    • but which wrong decision is more right
• People are prepared to handle complex decision spaces
  • when their decisions vary as the test proceeds

Some will say that this smacks of "Ethical Relativism"

• It does not
• It recognizes that there are ethical absolutes
  • and that those absolutes hold most of the time
• It simply notes that when ethical absolutes conflict
  • as they inevitably do
• That a right decision depends not on our belief in those absolutes
  • but on the priority we give them when we are forced to choose
• Our priorities in such decisions will often change wildly
  • based on small changes in the situation
• The flap of a butterflys wings in China
  • can effect a decision made a week later in Oswego
• Complex decisions have chaotic/fractal boundaries
• We should teach ethics in a manner that helps people
  • recognize this complexity
  • and make "more right" decisions based on
  • careful consideration of what is at issue
• and we should test for how well people handle that