BUSINESS COMMUNICATION & THE ETHICAL CONTEXT

BACKGROUND TO ETHICAL CONTEXTS

Ethics is about making right and wrong decisions. Ethical principles such as fairness, service, quality, integrity, excellence, compassion, honesty and dignity, assist in those decisions. Ethical situations During an on-campus interview, a recruiter asks you why he should hire you over another candidate (a classmate of yours). You have some negative information about this person. Do you share it with the recruiter? You witness another student cheating during an important accounting exam. Do you confront the student? Do you tell other students or a professor about the incident?

CONTEXT OF A SITUATION INFLUENCES THE

ETHICALITY OF A DECISION

A hotel food and beverage manager purchased 20 cases of cool drinks from a new beverage purveyor. Without his knowledge, the purveyor delivers a free case to his residence. The manager decides to keep the free case for his personal use since the free case did not influence his purchase of 200 cases. Restaurant manager spies on the bearers to check whether they served properly and charged correctly.

INFLUENCES ON PERSONAL ETHICS

1.

2.

Influential people in your life family, close friends, role models, teachers. Culture city where you grew up influences. Culture over time acquires its own set of values. Ex: Abraham Lincoln who as a young man worked as clerk in a store. Walked several miles to return a penny that he had overcharged a customer. At another time, discovering on the scales in the morning a weight with which he had weighed out a package of tea for a woman the night before, he saw that he had given her too little for her money. He weighed out what was due, and carried it to her, much to the surprise of the woman, who had not known that she was short in the amount of her purchase.

INFLUENCES ON PERSONAL ETHICS

3.

4.

5.

Philosophy theories of philosophy have long been concerned with ethical and moral issues. Law represent the minimum standard of bahaviour. It includes code of ethics for various professions accounting, law and medicine. Religion

ETHICS AS A COMMUNICATION ISSUE IN CORPORATIONS

We communicate our values and beliefs to others verbal & nonverbal. We are defined in the eyes of others according to the way we behave. We need to communicate to others the importance and necessity of good ethics.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Every business needs to impress upon its employees the importance of communicating ethically, whether the communication is between company employees or between company representatives and the outside world. Employees must be honest, fair, sensitive and respectful in communicating with one another and in communicating with customers, vendors and the public. Dishonesty Honesty refers to telling the truth in its entirety. Using exaggeration or manipulation seems to be common in business, both in internal communication and external communication. When honesty is compromised, people and businesses can lose credibility and respect.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Gender Difficulties may result from how a person treats the opposite sex or how a person handles the issue of sexual orientation. For example, if a manager is kind to men but is harsh and impatient with women, there may be complaints. Problems can arise not only from words that people use but also from nonverbal communication. Religion A person should keep his religious beliefs to himself, unless he would like to respond to someone's inquiry about religion. An employee should be cautious about displaying religious symbols.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Favoritism Favoritism refers to unfairly rewarding, assisting or punishing someone, and favoritism can result from inappropriate communication. Employees need to steer clear of communication practices that can lead to accusations of favoritism.

KEY AREAS FOR ETHICAL COMMUNICATION

1. 2.

3.

Personal written and spoken messages Cross-cultural messages workplace is a mix of many ethical values. Advertising messages false advertisement is both unlawful and unethical.

FORMAL VERSUS INFORMAL WAYS OF COMMUNICATING ETHICS

Formal Ways of Communicating Ethics Public messages press releases, annual reports, speeches by CEO, etc. Employee manuals and policy statements. Mission statements and ethical codes. Informal Ways of Communicating Ethics Through individual members Organizations produce their own value systems Symbolic acts of managers can create culture and corporate values.