Volume 26, 2015
Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting
Mark Schwartz
Pages 13-23
Ethical Decision-Making Theory
Identifying Gaps and Deficiencies
Ethical decision-making (EDM) descriptive theoretical models often conflict with each other and typically lack comprehensiveness. This paper examines these conflicts, gaps, and deficiencies in current EDM theory which would need to be addressed in any future comprehensive EDM model. The gaps and deficiencies include the following: (1) lack of consolidation of individual EDM variables; (2) lack of broader issue-related characteristics; (3) lack of moral awareness (or amoral awareness); (4) lack of integration of intuition and emotion; and (5) lack of integration of moral rationalization. The paper concludes with its implications for future EDM descriptive theory building.