Responsibility · Ethics · Component

Dilemma casebook

Ethical dilemmas the organisation has faced, the options weighed, the reasoning and the outcome — kept so the next decision starts from precedent.

The deliverable

What it is

Codes of conduct handle the clear cases. The difficult ones are where two legitimate obligations conflict, and those are settled by judgement. The casebook keeps that judgement, so it can be reused and examined.

It works much as case law does: not binding in a mechanical sense, but a strong starting point. Someone facing a similar situation can see how it was reasoned before, and depart from it knowingly.

One level in

What it is made of

Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.

  1. Case description

    The situation, anonymised where needed, and the competing obligations that made it a dilemma instead of a simple breach.

    3 attributes: Situation · Competing obligations · Occurred

    Learn
  2. Reasoning and outcome

    The options considered, the reasoning that decided between them, what was done, and how it looked afterwards.

    3 attributes: Reasoning · Outcome · Retrospective

    Learn

Keep the cases that went badly. They teach more than the ones that resolved cleanly.