68. Integrity benefits from moral intuition
SPs must be able to determine rationally what constitutes integrity, but they also need to possess moral intuition in order to spot and solve moral problems. After all, there may be no time to work through a decision rationally. It may even be impossible to think through a decision completely rationally. At the same time SPs must be critical of their moral intuition, because it can be a bad guide. Moral intuition is a gift that can also be developed and directed.
When SPs are confronted with dilemmas the question is always what the best, second best, or least bad solution is. According to US president Lyndon Johnson this is a president’s most difficult task: “A President’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right,” because, “The Presidency brings no special gift of prophecy or foresight.”396
Determining what is right – the midway between two evils – can be achieved rationally, by systematically working out the facts of the conflicting values, interested parties, pros and cons, and what will be most useful or fair in the end. Such an approach avoids missing things and contributes to measured, insightful decision making.
Integrity demands that SPs possess more than just these intellectual qualities in order to take a structured approach, producing well-considered decisions. Another important quality is moral intuition. Moral intuition is about the instinct to pick out moral problems, having moral antennae for moral aspects of problems, spotting problems that others miss, feeling that something is wrong without having proof, and seeing through moral consequences before they emerge. Moral intuition can also be about the feeling and instinct people have for solving moral problems, for example through creative or appealing solutions that resolve conflicting standards at a higher level.
SPs’ integrity benefits from moral intuition because they do not always have time to think through everything before making a choice. In a debate or discussion you can respond quickly and spontaneously to new questions and arguments. Documents received shortly before a meeting must be quickly evaluated for moral sensitivities and neglected moral issues. Urgent questions and requests must be immediately and spontaneously answered with opinions, suggestions, or solutions. Even if there is sufficient time, problems, options, and implications often cannot be fully mapped out, so moral intuition remains important. This was the case for an SP who voted against an investment decision because he felt that market conditions would change in the foreseeable future, which indeed turned out to be the case. It also applied to an official who moved his organization’s share portfolio into a savings account because he felt that investments in shares might become a moral issue, as later happened to other organizations. Similarly, an SP voted for the appointment of a candidate he felt was suited to the job, despite evidence to the contrary, and was later confirmed in his choice.
At the same time we should be critical of intuition. Individual moral intuition is not automatically ethical. Intuition can also be a bad moral guide. For instance an alderman who loved music turned out to have faulty intuitions when he spontaneously accepted a concert invitation from the municipal port authority while port business was part of his portfolio. Similarly it was a failure of moral intuition on the part of a congressman when in searching for an angle on the debate over fatal traffic accidents he noted that people had to die somehow. A party leader also fell short in terms of moral intuition when he remarked on television that rape victims only became pregnant if they wanted to, as did a senator who said that much of the sexual violence in the army is caused by the natural hormonal balance of recruits.
On the one hand moral intuition is a gift, one, as President Johnson stated, that does not come with office, but which individuals possess.397 Some people have a greater talent for picking up on and fathoming integrity problems than others. On the other hand moral intuition can be developed, for example by gaining experience and maintaining contact with relevant people and groups. It is also possible to unlock one’s own moral intuition, for example by throwing in a break during a meeting or sleeping on problems before making a decision, to make space for your subconscious to speak.398 Intuition is most important, however, when there is no time to think and you have to come up with an opinion, proposal, or solution quickly.