Justice and Social Change

Congratulations on reaching the final week of Ethics and Social Justice. Throughout this course, you have examined several major concepts that have an impact on administrators in government and nonprofit organizations. You also explored the ethical decision-making model and ways that you as a current or future administrator can use this model to make ethical decisions within your organization.

For several weeks, you have focused on some of the major ethical themes that inform many of the predominant ethical and social justice perspectives: organizational and comparative ethics, ethics of dissent, human rights, liberty, equity, and equality. Now, the focus expands to include the concept of justice, which is the final ethical theme in this course. The term justice may conjure up images of the scales of justice, dramatic courtroom scenes, or distinguished statues in governmental buildings throughout the world. What is the meaning behind the symbolism? How might your personal concept of justice influence your decisions about ethical responsibilities as a public administrator?

In this final week, you reflect on the impact of ethical decision making on positive social change.

Learning Objective

Analyze the impact of ethical decision making on positive social change

Discussion: Social Justice and Social Change

In many of the Assignments in the course, you employed ethical decision making in order to recommend solutions to ethical issues within government and nonprofit organizations. As a current or future public administrator in a government or nonprofit organization, you must act responsibly and ethically to ensure positive social change. One way to promote the ethical conduct of your organization is to utilize ethical decision making effectively. However, decision making often has consequences for different groups.. For example, a decision that positively affects a domestic population might negatively impact a foreign population.

In this Discussion, you consider the impact of ethical decision making on positive social change.

Post an explanation of the impact of ethical decision making on positive social change. Summarize specific examples of the ethical decisions you proposed throughout the course and explain how they might promote positive social change. Finally, explain any negative impacts in terms of social change that this decision making might have.