COMMUNICATIONS

SKILLS

Instructor: Fatima Naseem

Lecture # 07

fatima.naseem@uettaxila.edu.pk
http://web.uettaxila.edu.pk/CMS/AUT2010/cpCom
Sbs/index.asp
 Chapter # 04

Business
Communication and
the Ethical Context
Overview
 Background to Ethical Context
 Ethical Situations
 Ethics as a Communication Issue
 Influences on Personal Ethics
 People, Culture, Philosophy, Law, Religion
 Communications and Ethical issues
 Legal Issues
 Key areas
 Ethics and Organizational Responsibility
Background
 Facts are important to make ethical decisions
 In different situations you decide the right and
the wrong.
 Decision making is difficult when facts are
missing.
 Ethical principles centered around fairness,
services, quality, honesty, integrity, dignity
help in making decisions
Ethical Situations
 During an on campus interview a recruiter asks
you why he should hire you over your friend? You
have negative information about him, would you
share it?
 You witness another student Cheating during an
important exam. Do you confront him? Do you tell
other students or examiner?
 A firm invites you for a second interview at its
distant office. They will pay you the travelling fair.
You are generally not interested but decide to go
because you want to meet a friend staying there. Do
you accept to go?
 A hotel food and beverage manager purchased
20 cases of soft drinks. Without managers
knowledge the delivering person delivered 1
case at managers place. When manager came
to know he decided to keep it as it was other
than hotel supply.

 A restaurant manager contracts a spying

company to render its service to spy his waiters
if they deliver order correctly and do they take
right orders without discriminating.
Ethics as Communication Issue
 We are not human beings having spiritual
experience; we are spiritual beings having
human experience.
 Car fraud example;
 Communicate correctly
Influence on Personal Ethics
 People
 Culture
Religion People
 Philosophy
 Law
Individual
 Religion Law Ethics Culture

Philosophy

Personal Ethics
People
 Family
 Teachers
 Close friends
 Relatives
 Peers
Culture
 City/ town
 Country to Country
 National/ international heroes
 Norms/ Myths

 China return a penny; its government

property
 America  good luck
 Philosophy
 Descriptive Ethics  facts about moral judgments of people
 Normative Ethics discovering, formulating and defining
fundamental moral principles
 Theologism  what would God have me do in this case
 Deontology  always tell the truth
 Teleology  maximize good consequences
 Utilitarianism  type of teleology (Max good for max
people)
Law
 Not always right
 E.g. taxes for war
Religion
 Always a major foundation for ethical behavior
 Many of the mainstream religions provide the
ethics about ones duties towards God, other
human beings and all other living things on
earth.
Communication & Ethical Issues
 Organizational Challenges include developing a
productive company culture with employees
having diverse background, values and beliefs

 Legal Issues
 Key Areas for Ethical Communications
 Ethics and Organizational responsibility
Legal Issues
 Defamation  statements that damage persons
name and reputation, involve false statements
 Libel  written defamation
 Slander  oral defamation
 Legal as well as ethical issue
 Privacy
 Discrimination & harassment
 Plagiarism
 Copy Righting (CR)  legal protection of ones
creative efforts
Key Areas for Ethical
Communications
 Ethical treatment takes time, thought and
preparation

 Written and Spoken messages

 Cross Cultural Messages
 Advertising Messages
Written and Spoken messages
 Message purpose (are there any hidden agendas, will it
be in favor of receiver)
 Research methods (are the resources recent, reliable
and unbiased)
 Selection of materials (is anything imp omitted)
 Development of ideas (use of reasoning & logic,
propaganda techniques)
 Use of language (overloaded, abstract)
 Ethical context
 Self analysis (how would I feel)
Cross Cultural Messages
 Don’t take advantage of misunderstandings of
different cultures
 Cultural Context
 Misunderstandings
 Language
 Accountability
Advertising Messages
 Gaining customers through false advertising is
both unlawful and unethical
 Don’t confuse consumers
 E.g.
 “White Christmas”
 “fat free”, “low-fat”, “healthy”
 “100 % natural fruit juice”

 Avoid showing negativity to a specific group

Advertising Messages
 Language (no exaggerations)
 Graphics/Print (small print)
 Omissions (any imp statement omitted/ would it have been
affected if included )
 Truth
 Accountability (would I be satisfied)
Ethics and Organizational
Responsibility
 One org different attitudes of employees
 “Organizations are stronger than individuals”
 Formal Vs Informal Ways of Communicating
Ethics:
 Companies must determine whether the ethical
values should be suggested from top down or
bottom up.

 Formal ways
 Informal ways
Formal Ways
 One of the companies considered as the leader
in ethically responsible companies has ensured
that the highest paid salary is no more than
seven times the lowest paid salary.
 For top down approach the ethical standards
are expressed in three ways:
 Public messages

 Employee manuals and policy statements

 Mission statements and ethical codes

 Public messages:
 Speeches by CEOs, press releases and annual
reports
 Employee manuals and policy statements
 Employee policy books and manuals containing
rules and regulations of organization.
 Considered as a contract b/w employee and
employer.
 Mission statements and ethical codes:
 Mission Statements Fundamental strategic
issues
 Ethical codes  documents stating ethics and
values
Informal Ways
 Imported through individuals
 Organizations own value system
 Behavior of managers
Any Questions ?
Paper Pattern
 Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 14
 Audience Analysis
 Lecture 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
 Go through all chapters form book specially for
diagrams, models and specific definitions.
 Paper will be mainly objective type.
 Time: 1 hr
 Marks: 40