COMMUNICATION ETHICS

MADE BY:DASHMESH AULAKH VIKRAM TITTU VISHWANATHA MANASA SHAMBHAVI

THE ETHICAL CONDUCT OF EMPLOYERS

A recent national business ethics survey discovered that employees care about the ethical conduct of their employers. However majority of these employees, who have seen or know about a violation have not reported it.

WHY NOT ?
Three primary reasons were given for not reporting actual observed misconduct are:1. Employees did not feel the organization would respond 2. There was a perceived lack of anonymous and confidential means of reporting. 3. Fear of retaliation from management prevented workers from reporting the misconduct they had witnessed.

BUSINESS ETHICS
Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.

Levels Of Inquiry

INDIVIDUAL
Values by which self-interest and motives are balanced with concerns for Fairness and Common Goods. This is not ILLEGAL, but its certainly UNFAIR.

ORGANIZATIONAL
The group concerns that every company has (even though it may be unspoken) as it pursues its Economic Objective.

The conscience is a reflection of both Organizational Culture and Conduct.

BUSINESS SYSTEM
The concern patterns of Social, Political and Economic forces that drive individuals and businesses.

VIEWS OF DECISION MAKING

THREE VIEWS OF DECISION MAKING

Moral point of view

Two important features according to business ethicists: Willingness to seek out and act on reasons Require the decision maker to be impartial PROBLEM WITH MORAL POINT OF VIEW: Ethical business issues arent especially clear and, in many instances, decision makers dont have adequate information at the the time they need it most.

Economic point of view

Employ a free market model of capitalism in which scarce resources or factors of production are used to produce goods and services.

Legal point of view

Ethical decision making in business is the legal view point

An integrated approach
-Decision making

An integrated approach references to the decision making process that integrates the three view points i.e. 1) morality 2) Economics (Profit) 3) Legality (Law)

 In this regard, our definition of the moral manager is a person willing to engage in a fair and open dialogue with interested stakeholders or their representatives. Making choices based on the input and ideas of those who affected by the outcome of the decisions can help to produce better decisions.
-Michael G. Bowen and F. Clark Power

Nature Of Moral Judgments

Two basic types of judgments are:

Normative judgments Non normative judgments

Non normative Judgments:

These are value neutral. These describe name, define, report or make predictions. Non normative judgments are descriptive.

Normative judgments:
These are claims that state or imply that something is good or bad, right or wrong, better or worse, ought to be or ought not to be. These indicate the attitudes towards some object, person, circumstance or event. Normative judgments are prescriptive. M oral judgments are a special subset of normative judgment.

M oral judgments:
When decisions are judged to be morally right or wrong, or morally good or bad, the underlying standards on which the judgment is based are moral standards. It would be immoral by such standards to short weight a shipment of goods, for example, or to identify the contents of a package as containing all natural ingredients, when in fact, it does not.

Business people use two types of moral standards to make decisions:

1) Moral norms 2) Moral principles

Moral Norms:
These are standard of behavior that require, prohibit, or allow certain kinds of behavior. It might permit rounding of figures to the nearest hundred or thousand in standard accounting procedure.

Moral Principles:
These are much more general concepts used to evaluate both group and individual behavior. Moral principles might deal with the general notion of full disclosure to interested stakeholders.

 Transparency is a moral principle fundamental to building trust among those involved in a business. - Alfred P. West, Jr.

DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERISTICS OF MORAL PRINCIPLES

Provide direction, guidance, counsel Moral standards are like other standards in other aspects

SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES TO HUMAN WELL BEING:

Issues that matter and that dont need to be distinguished Example: Failing to reveal potential hazard of particular product

ADEQUATE REASONS USED TO SUPPORT AND JUSTIFY:

Reasons not accepted by society or group of people need to be reassessed

OVERRIDE SELF-INTEREST: Genuine moral standards transcend the interest of one or few people

BASED ON IMPARTIAL CONSIDERATIONS: Devised from universal standpoint More objective than subjective

Applying Ethical Standards to Management Communication

Ethical standard - usefulness Reasons fail to achieve standards
Global competition Financial pressures Lack of communication Absence of leadership

Statements of ethical principles

The formal statement of ethical principles is leadership in organization.
Why companies need ethical statement?

 Importance of written statement.

Corporate prefer setting ethical climate to the org. rather than policies.

Types of ethical statements

Ethics statement is classified into three types
Value statements Corporate credos(sets of basic beliefs) Corporate codes of ethics

 In reviewing the most recurring ethical principles in us and Europe is

Clarity Transparency Honesty Truth loyality Respect for human beings

Tension and ethical values

Many values, along with the roles and objectives that manages must follow are in competition with one another and a certain tension inevitably pulls in one direction to another.

Corporate values
Many companies to explicit the values made it fashionable.

Thats a change-quite a significant change from corporate practices .

How ethical statements can help

Ethical statement will not ensure ethical behavior. Creating the ethical atmosphere. promoting values of ethical behavior.

 Seven principles to make ethical statements work

Write it. Tailor it. Communicate it. Promote it. Revise it. Live it. Enforce/Reinforce it.

How to make ethical statements work