Institutionalized Decision-Making: Instead of Ethical Reasoning?

This chapter elaborates on how institutionalized decision-making strategies impede the development of ethical reasoning. Three rationalistic strategies are highlighted: strict rule-following, evidence-based practice, and economic calculations. A fundamental argument is developed against relying exclusively on instrumental rationality, based on insights from incrementalism, institutional theory, and cognitive psychology. These traditions clarify how decision-making largely deviates from instrumental rationality since real-life decisions are largely affected by experiences, heuristics, and social forces. This means good prospects for ethical reasoning, but it is also argued that rationalistic methods should not be dismissed since they can be useful and well-integrated into frameworks of ethical reasoning.