Final answer:
The first step in the ethical decision making process is recognizing the ethical issue at hand, which involves identifying a situation where a choice will be judged as right or wrong by stakeholders.
Step-by-step explanation:
The first step in the ethical decision making process is c. Recognizing that an issue requires an individual or work group to make a choice that ultimately will be judged by stakeholders as right or wrong. This recognition is crucial as it sets the stage for further ethical analysis and consideration of how one's decisions may impact others.
This initial step is followed by being socialized into the firm's corporate culture, applying personal moral philosophy, soliciting opinions from others, and enforcing ethical standards with rewards and punishment. Morality often begins with the individual's conscience, their inner sense of right and wrong.
Subsequently, one can incorporate the guidance from various ethical theories such as care ethics, consequentialism, or categorical imperative to guide actions and decisions within a corporate or professional context. Furthermore, applied ethics involves the application of moral norms and principles to controversial issues to help determine the rightness of specific actions.
In practice, this means assessing how much responsibility corporations should take for social, economic, and environmental issues, and evaluating the difficulties of establishing ethical practices, especially when dealing with emerging technologies.