A Cohesive Approach to Ethical Decision-Making within a Cross-Cultural and Global Context

Overview: We introduce a theoretical approach to ethical decision-making known as common morality. It is a universal yet culturally sensitive approach, taking into account the person/group affected by the worker's actions, considering their cultural norms and values. We apply common morality to a case revealing the harms associated with cross-cultural incompetence.Proposal text: This workshop will introduce a descriptive theoretical approach to ethical decision-making, common morality. conceived by bioethicist Bernard Gert and colleagues, and "translated" for helping professionals by the workshop's presenters (Gert, Culver, & Clouser, 1997; 2006). Essentially, the common moral framework takes the best of "what works" from both deontological and utilitarian perspectives and combines them in a way that eliminates immoral choices when addressing ethical dilemmas. The utilitarian contribution allows for a careful, systematic analysis of potential harmful outcomes resulting from various actions, as Bentham and Mill promoted (Beauchamp & Childress, 2001). However, it greatly departs from prior models of social work ethical-decision making by offering a justification procedure that is deontological in nature, requiring an assessment of whether or not the intended action could be impartially and publicly allowed by all rational people, adjacent to Kant's Categorical Imperative (Munson, 2008).

As we face new global and cultural realities and challenges, we will see changes in our profession’s values and Code of Ethics, just as we have seen reflected from Muriel Pumphrey’s (1959) seminal work through to the 1996, 2008, and 2017 updated Code of Ethics. As the world changes, social work education will develop new ways of teaching to meet the demands. It is time to be innovative in ethics education (Gray, 2005). This is a distinctly different approach to ethics education and there is some evidence to suggest that it is effective (Sanders & Hoffman, 2010).It is a universal approach that is culturally sensitive because morally relevant features are extracted from the moral problem and take into account the person or group affected by the social worker's actions, considering their cultural norms and values (Gert, Culver, & Clouser, 1997; 2006).

Another key feature of common morality is that it places codes of ethics, regardless of profession, in their proper place as one of many important moral considerations when solving problems (Gert, Culver, & Clouser, 1997; 2006). We argue that code-based ethics teaching is wholly inadequate in preparing social workers for ethical practice, as the harms associated with bad choices are rarely emphasized. Instead code-based ethics teaching place undue attention upon the profession's principles, which is a wrong-headed approach when addressing an ethical dilemma. We apply the common moral framework to a case revealing the harms associated with incompetence in cross-cultural practice, emphasizing the theory's universal nature while also taking into account the role of understanding another's culture and beliefs in the decision-making process.

Attendees will have two opportunities to learn and apply common morality to foster understanding and to facilitate its use in future ethical scenarios. Once a complete review of the common moral system is presented, presenters will guide discussions through a basic case applying common morality, and then a second case specifically demonstrating how common morality is applied so that it addresses cultural variation and specificity. Attendees will appreciate how culturally inappropriate practice can harm clients, and how the use of the common moral framework can protect all clients and communities, as well as social workers.