Final answer:
Ethical issue intensity is the perceived importance of an ethical issue, influenced by cultural values, personal beliefs, and the potential for harm. It dictates how a decision is perceived and acted upon by individuals or society.
Step-by-step explanation:
Ethical issue intensity refers to the perceived importance or significance of an ethical issue to an individual, a group, or society at large. It reflects how people are impacted by the ethical dimension of a decision or situation, and how much concern it generates among stakeholders. For example, a business might face an ethical issue of high intensity if it considers laying off a significant portion of its workforce to reduce costs. This decision would likely be heavily scrutinized by the employees, media, and possibly the general public, making the issue highly intense from an ethical standpoint. Ethical issue intensity can vary depending on cultural values, personal beliefs, situations, and the potential for harm.
When discussing whether ethics are an expression of the divine or better understood separate from divine authority, we engage in a philosophical debate that feeds into the intensity of ethical issues. Similarly, when analyzing ethical concerns like freedom of speech in the context of the internet and child p o r n o graphy, we can see how ethical principles are tested in challenging situations, revealing the intensity of such issues.
The concept of ethical issue intensity is also relevant in the consideration of ethical codes within professional organizations. For example, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Computer Society (IEEE-CS) presents a set of ethical obligations for software engineers, and how they resolve ethical dilemmas like privacy concerns or safety issues can reflect the intensity of those ethical concerns. Cognitive biases and phenomenological perspectives can also play a role in shaping the ethical issue intensity as they affect how individuals perceive and respond to ethical challenges.