Short answer
Ethical judgment means recognizing ethical risk and choosing actions that protect people, trust, and the standards the organization states.
About Ethical judgment
Recognizes ethical risks and chooses actions that protect people, trust, and stated standards. It includes raising concerns and using appropriate safeguards; it does not ask managers to infer private morality or demand unsupported personal risk.
Use this competency for
- Assessing how ethical risks are identified, weighed, documented, and escalated in work.
- Setting expectations for applying stated standards when incentives or pressures conflict.
Do not use this competency for
- Do not use it to judge personal beliefs, lawful private conduct, cultural conformity, or protected reporting.
Important distinctions
Compliance
Compliance applies specific rules and obligations. Ethical judgment also addresses material harm or trust risks where rules are incomplete.
Decision quality
Decision quality covers evidence, criteria, and timing broadly. Ethical judgment centers consequences for people, trust, and stated standards.
Expectations by level
IC1
Applies standards and raises concerns
Applies clear standards in defined work and seeks guidance when a possible ethical risk or conflict is unfamiliar.
Observable behaviors
- Uses the relevant policy, safeguard, or review step.
- Stops and raises a concern through an appropriate channel.
- Avoids concealing material errors, conflicts, or affected parties.
Examples
- Requests review before using information outside its stated purpose.
- Reports a material mistake instead of altering the record.
IC2
Navigates ambiguous ethical risk
Independently identifies ethical risk in ambiguous work, compares affected interests, and applies proportionate safeguards or escalation.
Observable behaviors
- Identifies who may be harmed or unfairly burdened by a choice.
- Documents material conflicts, uncertainty, and mitigation.
- Challenges pressure to bypass a relevant standard.
Examples
- Adds a review step after identifying potential misuse of customer data.
- Declines a misleading claim and proposes language supported by evidence.
IC3
Shapes ethical safeguards across teams
Guides complex ethical choices across teams and improves systems where incentives, ambiguity, or scale create recurring risk.
Observable behaviors
- Creates a clear path for reviewing high-impact ethical questions.
- Makes affected groups and long-term trust visible in major trade-offs.
- Changes controls or incentives after evidence of recurring ethical risk.
Examples
- Establishes a cross-functional review for a high-impact automated decision.
- Revises a target that repeatedly encouraged misleading customer behavior.