Actors-in-Time: A Proposed Real Time,Decisional Model for Evaluating the Ethical Content of Decisions in the Financial Services Industry

A number of theoretical approaches to ethicaldecision making in the business context arecriticized as being too complex and cumbersometo be useful in day to day decision making. Byway of a potential solution, the authorspresent a universalistic, real-time model forassessing and resolving ethical decisions. Utilizing this model requires students andpractitioners to evaluate their decisionsaccording to two dimensions. In the firstdimension, stakeholders are identified aseither ``insiders' or ``outsiders' relating tothe differential advantages and/ordisadvantages a decision has on these twogroups. With the second dimension, consequences for the short term and long termfor these two stakeholder groups are assessed. The paper concludes with an illustration fromreal financial services business decisions asviewed through the model. These examplesprovide readers a sense of the model'spotential for consulting and pedagogicalpurposes.