If You Have Situational Awareness, Then Where Would You Put It In An Ethical Decision-Making Model?

The Hunt-Vitell model of ethical decision-making produces decisions that beau-tifully balance preconditions and consequences. However, it does not explicitly show where situational awareness enters into the decision-making process. Situa-tional awareness, or lack thereof, can in some cases completely change the deci-sion being made. Four locations in the existing model were proposed for situa-tional awareness: as a part of the preconditions, as a condition applied after the decision has been made, as a condition parallel to the analysis of consequences, and condition parallel to the preconditions. These locations were analyzed from the decision-maker’s point-of-view and then validated by looking first at the Finland’s decision to join NATO and then at a phone use-case in which malware forces applications to be blocked. It was found that the best location for situa-tional awareness in the decision-making model is as a parallel condition to the preconditions. The validation showed that with good situational awareness, a decision could be made that was markedly different from the decision that would have been made without it. Even though the decision is different, if it has been made using the ethical principles used in the model, the decision can still be con-sidered ethical.