Evaluating ethical decision‐making models: a review and application

Purpose – The paper seeks to evaluate the prescriptive value of ethical decision‐making models. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores various types of models in the ethics literature in concert with knowledge from the decision sciences literature to develop a tentative list of evaluative criteria that might be applied to prescriptive models. It then applies these criteria to one prescriptive model from the ethics literature, developed by Petrick and Quinn, in an attempt to demonstrate the value of more comprehensive evaluation. It closes by considering future research aimed at the evaluation of ethical decision‐making models as well as research needed to validate the Petrick and Quinn model. Findings – This critique finds that the Petrick‐Quinn judgment integrity model satisfies most of the criteria discussed in the ethical decision‐making literature. The primary opportunities for refining the Petrick‐Quinn model as a prescriptive framework for ethical decision making are: articulating the operational judgment component of the model as a formal, quantitative decision analysis, and conducting research to assess the real‐world utility of the model. Originality/value – While there has been a proliferation of research concerning business ethics, little attention has been focused on evaluating the utility of ethical decision‐making models. Accordingly, this paper advances theory, research and practice regarding ethical decision making in organizations.