lecture 11

Lecture 11

Communication in transition –

The importance of ethics in communication

Introduction

Longman Dictionary of English

ethic (n) - a system of moral behaviour. the Christian ethic; the Protestant work ethic, the Muslim ethicethics (n) – 1. U the study of morals. I’m doing ethics in my philosophy course.2. U,P moral rules or principles ofbehviourgoverning a person or group. Whether a country should have nuclear arms or not should be a question of ethics, not of politics.The psychiatrist was charged with violating professional ethics by talking about his patients. DEX

etică – 1. sf. ştiinţă care se ocupă cu studiul teoretic al valorilor şi condiţiei umane din perspectiva principiilor morale şi cu rolul lor în viaţa socială; totalitatea normelor de conduită morală corespunzătoare; morală. 2.adj. privitor la etică (1), de etică, bazat pe etică, conform cu etica; moral.

morală – s.f. ansamblul normelor de convieţuire, de comportare a oamenilor unii faţă de alţii şi faţă de colectivitate şi a căror încălcare nu este sancţionată de lege, ci de opinia publică; etică.

Ethics - the principles of conduct that govern a person or a group.

Ethical communication includes:

all relevant information is true in every sense is not deceptive in any way

Unethical communication can include:

falsehoods

1

misleading information withhold information.

Some examples of unethical communication include:

Plagiarism. Selective misquoting. Misrepresenting numbers. Distorting visuals.

An ethical message:

acurate sincere avoids language that manipulates, discriminates or exaggerates

Recognize Ethical Choices

A company has responsibilities to its various stakeholders:

customers employees shareholders suppliers neighbors the community the nation

Ethical dilemma - choosing among alternatives that aren’t clear-cut.

Suppose you are president of a company that’s losing money. You have

the duty to your shareholders to try to cut your losses and your

employees to be fair and honest. After looking at various options, you

conclude that you’ll have to lay off 500 people immediately. You suspect

you may have to lay off 100 people later on, but right now you need those

100 workers to finish a project. What do you tell them? If you confess that

their jobs are shaky, many of them may quit just when you need them

2

What’s r ight for each group?

most. However, if you tell them that the future is rosy, you’ll be streching

the truth.

Ethical lapse - making a clearly unethical or illegal choice.

Suppose you have decided to change jobs and have discreetly arranged

an interview with your boss’s largerst competitor. You have a successful

interview and are offered a position on the spot. Not only is the new

position a promotion compared to your current job, but the pay is double

what you’re getting now. You accept the job and agree to start next

month. Then, as you are shaking hands with the interviewer, he asks you

to bring along profiles of your current company’s ten largest customers

when you report. Do you comply with his request? How do you decide

between what’s ethical and what is not?

Make Ethical Choices

Asking the right questions can help you decide what is ethical:

Is this message legal?

Is this message balanced?

Is it a message you can live with?

Is this message feasible?

Organizations can foster ethical behavior:

By formalizing a written code of ethics.

By using ethics audits.

By setting a good ethical example.

Tasks

1. Define ethics and explain what ethical communication covers.

3

2. As a manager, how can you impress on your employees the importance of including both negative and positive information in messages?

3. An old college friend phoned you out of blue to say, ’’Truth is, I had to call you. You’d better keep this under your hat, but when I heard my company was buying you guys out, I was dumbfounded. I had no idea that a company as large as yours could sink so fast. Your group must be in pretty bad shape over there?’’ Your stomach suddenly turned queasy, and you felt a chill go up your spine. You’d heard nothing about buyout, and before you could even get your college friend off the phone, you were wondering what you should do.

Of the following, choose one course of action and briefly explain your choice.

1. Contact your CEO directly and relate what you’ve heard.2. Ask co-workers whether they’ve heard anything about a buyout.3. Discuss the phone call confidentially with your immediate supervisor.4. Keep quiet about the whole thing (there’s nothing you can do about

the situation anyway).

4. Read the following document.1. Analyze whether the document is effective or ineffective

communication (be sure to explain why).2. Revise the document so that it follows this course’s guideline.

It has come to my attention that many of you are lying on your time cards. If you come in late, you should not put 8:00 on your card. If you take a long lunch, you should not put 1:00 on your time card. I will not stand for this type of cheating. I have no choice but to institute a time clock system. Beginning next Monday, all employees will have to punch in and punch out whenever they come and go from the work area.

The time clock will be right by the entrance to each work area, so you have no excuse for not punching in. Anyone who is late for work or late coming back from lunch more than three times will have to answer to me. I don’t care if you had to take a nap or if you girls have to shop. This is a place of business and we do not want to be taken advantage of by slakers who are cheaters to boot.

It is too bad that a few bad apples always have to spoil things for everyone.

5. In less than a page, explain why you think each of the following is or not ethical.

4

1. Deemphasizing negative test results in a report on your product idea.

2. Taking a computer home to finish a work-related assignment.3. Telling an associate and close friend that she’d better pay more

attention to her responsibilities or management will fire her.4. Recommending the purchase of excess equipment to use up your

allocated funds before the end of the fiscal year so that your budget won’t be cut next year.

6. Potter Stewart, former US Supreme Court Justice, defined ethics as ’’knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is the right thing to do’’. Discuss this definition and say whether you agree or not with it.

7. Because of your excellent communication skills, your boss always asks you to write his reports for him. When you overheard the CEO complimenting him on his logical organization and clear writing style, he responded as if he’d written all those reports himself. What kind of ethical choice does this response represent? What can you do in this situation? Briefly explain your solution and your reasoning.

References:

Bovée C.L., Thill J.V., Schatzmann B.E., Business Communication Today, Prentice Hall, 2003, pp 20 – 27.

5