The SAMBA model for ethical decision-making

We are very good at expressing our positions on ethical issues but less good at explaining them. Use this template to set out your position clearly for all to understand.

The SAMBA model

Ethical decision-making challenges us every day, be it in our private lives, our professional lives, at an organizational level, or in a political or economic context. The SAMBA model encourages ethical decision-making through four steps: 1. See and understand the reality; 2. Analyze the reality from a Moral standpoint; 3. Be the ethical judge; 4. Act accordingly!

S – See and understand the reality

This means trying to be as objective as possible about an issue. This is done through being informed by relevant scientific disciplines on what the ‘reality’ is now before trying to assess it ethically. (For example, by informing yourself on a particular issue through appropriate legal, sociological, or psychological research.)

A, M – Analyze the reality from a Moral standpoint

The next step is to analyze the reality from a moral standpoint. Which ethical theory or principle out of the many available will you use to make your ethical assessment? By clarifying which ethical principle you are using, you are being fully transparent in your reasoning when you adjudge something to be just or unjust.

B – Be the ethical judge

Once you have arrived at your position, apply your judgment in a way that is justified rationally. This is about explaining the underlying rationale for making an ethical judgment, as opposed to holding that view based on emotion or intuition (which is not helpful in conflict resolution).

A – Act accordingly

This relates to the practice-oriented nature of ethics. If we believe that something is ethically right, we should try to act on that belief in our decisions and actions. Conversely, if we believe that an action is ethically wrong, we should avoid doing it.

Key learnings

Karl Marx famously said: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world…The point, however, is to change it.” We need to do both. Ethics is often very good at criticizing something, but the point is to use it in a way that has real-world utility (i.e.; is solutions-oriented). If you criticize something from a moral point of view, you should at least propose some ideas on how the problem can be resolved.

Peter G. Kirchschläger

Peter G Kirchschlaeger is Ethics-Professor and Director of the Institute of Social Ethics (ISE) at the University of Lucerne, visiting professor at the Chair of Neuroinformatics and Neural Systems at ETH Zurich and at the ETH AI Center, as well as a research fellow at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He is an expert consultant in ethics for international organizations, President a.i. of the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology, and Director of the new master degree program on ethics at the University of Lucerne.