It becomes hard to determine what ethical standards are based on and how they are applied to each and every individual situation that is faced. There are, however, five different sources that are often used in business (and in other aspects of life as well) to determine whether something is ethical or not. These include: the utilitarian approach, the rights approach, the fairness or justice approach, the common good approach, and the virtue approach (A Framework, 2006). .

             While all of these different approaches have their merits, it is often difficult to find just one that works well for all situations, and sometimes it is difficult to find just one that works well for a single situation that is very complex and confusing. For this reason, it is often advocated that the approaches should be put together. When combined, the whole becomes more than just the sum of its parts and there is a higher chance that the decision made by the individual will truly be ethical. In order to combine the approaches, however, everyone that is involved in the decision-making process must be able to agree on the definitions of 'common good,' 'virtue,' and other words that can be confusing and mean different things to different people (A Framework, 2006).

             Another way to help make ethical decisions is to pay attention to a specific framework for ethical decision making. This type of framework may include: (1) recognition of an ethical issue, (2) getting the facts, (3) evaluating various actions that could be taken from specific ethical perspectives, (4) working through each of the different approaches that were discussed above in order to determine whether ethical decision-making practices are being followed, (5) making a decision and then testing it, and (6) acting, and then reflecting on the action later to determine how the situation turned out (A Framework, 2006). When this is done, the chances of the decision being ethical are much higher than if one person or the group just goes with their 'gut feeling,' which is not always an ethical feeling.