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Communication and Ethics
Ethical Choices: Exercise
Explain why each of the following is ethical or not ethical: Keeping quiet about a possible
environmental hazard you’ve just discovered in your company’s processing plant
Overselling the benefits of instant messaging to your company’s management; they never seem to understand the benefits of technology, so you believe it’s the only way to convince them to make the right choice
Ethical Choices: Exercises
Telling an associate and close friend that she’d better pay more attention to her work responsibilities or management will fire her
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
Ethics
Accepted principles of conduct Define the boundary between right
and wrong “Knowing the difference between
what you have a right to do and what is the right thing to do”. US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart
Ethical Communication
Includes all relevant information
Is true in every sense
Is not deceptive in any way
Impact of Ethics
The costs of unethical conduct are high
Good people like to work for good organizations
There is a correlation between financial performance and social performance
Communication and Ethics Every Communication Decision has
an Ethical Dimension: Speak Listen Remain Silent
Communication Ethics Involves both Motives and Impacts
Fundamental Principles Should Guide Discussions of Ethics
Exercise
Knowing that you have numerous friends throughout the company, your boss relies on you for feedback concerning employee morale and other issues affecting the staff. She recently approached you and asked you to start reporting any behaviour that might violate company policies, from taking office supplies home to making personal long distance calls. What should you do?
Ethical Dilemmas
Secrecy Justifiable Unjustifiable
Dissent Managers’ concerns (creating ways to
express concerns, and ways of responding to them)
Employees’ concerns (should they voice concerns, and if they should, to whom?)
Voicing Dissent
Recipients of Dissen
t
Power of ResolutionLow High
External Audience
Family and Friends(Venting)
Government Agencies(Whistleblowing)
Internal Audience
C0-workers(Grousing)
Supervisors or Company Officials(Voicing Objections
Ethical Dilemmas (Contd.) Leaks
Alternative to whistleblowing
Feelers Rumour and Gossip
(Grapevine) Events and Information People
Lying Stark lies White Lies
Euphemisms Consideration fee
(bribe) Permanently borrowing
(stealing) Ambiguity
Intention Interpretation
Apology Reform (denying) Transform (aberration) Responsibility
Your company plans to reduce local staffing by as much as 50 % over the next 5 to 10 years, starting with a small layoff next month. The size and timing of future layoffs have not been decided, although there is little doubt more layoffs will happen at some point. In the first draft of a letter aimed at the community, you write that “this first layoff is part of a continuing series of staff reductions anticipated over the next several years”. However, your boss is concerned about the vagueness and the negative tone of the message and asks you to rewrite it as “this layoff is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to continually align its resources with global market conditions.” Do you think this suggested wording is ethical?
Strategic Approach to Corporate Ethics: Corporate Culture
Code of Ethics/Values
Distribution
Reinforcement
Exercise
Your supervisor has asked you to withhold important information that you think should be included in a report you are preparing. Disobeying him could be disastrous for your relationship and your career. Obeying him could violate your personal code of ethics. What should you do?
Strategic Approach to Corporate Ethics: Organizational Policy
What information should the organization gather?
How should the organization gather the information? ( about employees, about competitors)
How should the organization use the information? (Who has access? When can it be released? When should it be destroyed?)
Organizational PolicyInformation
Possessed ByInformation Desired
ByEmployee Organization External Groups
Employee Medical recordsPurchasing patternsMarital statusOff-job behavioursPersonality testsSocial Security No.Drug abuse history
Corporate misconductTrade secretsCorporate strategyPolicy disputes
Organization Personnel FilesAppraisalsSalary ProjectionsPromotions
Employee performance historyProduct informationPersonnel directoryCustomer databases
External Groups Professional and ethical standardsLegal rights
Competitor strategyGovernment policiesForthcoming media stories
Strategic Approach to Corporate Ethics: Personal Commitments
Discretion
Relevance
Accuracy
Fairness
Timeliness
Role Play You and a coworker are members of the same
marketing department in a Fortune 500 company. You have worked closely with this coworker for the past 8 months and have developed casual relationship outside of working hours. However, you have started to feel that your coworker doesn’t share information essential for you to be an effective department member. In fact, you suspect s/he occasionally withholds information (changes in meeting time and location, feedback from field visits, etc) so that you don’t look good in the eyes of the supervisor. You have asked to meet with your coworker to talk about the issue.