Ethical Organizational Communications Chapter 1

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Ethical Organizational CommunicationsChapter 1
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A Rationale for Ethical Communications

• Unethical behavior can have damaging
  consequences.
• People and organizations lose credibility.
• Unethical behavior tarnishes anyone that
  associates with the perpetrator.
• Ethical behavior has important positive
  consequences.
• Ethical behavior serves as a model to others.
• Ethical behavior is intrinsically valuable.

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Why Behave Unethically

• Greed
• Competition
• Scorekeeping
• People Are Not Perfect

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Ethical Perspectives

• Economic Analysis Bases ethical judgments on
  financial considerations. Holds that people
  should act to maximize revenues and minimize
  costs, thereby making the organization as
  profitable as possible. This approach ignores
  questionable practices that might improve a
  companys bottom line.
• Legal Analysis Bases ethical judgments on legal
  rulings or the law. To make an ethical decision
  one only has to investigate the law. This
  approach can lead to an oversimplification or
  superficiality.

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Philosophical Analysis
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Philosophical Analysis Cont.
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Social Responsibility

• Refers to the relationship between organizational
  systems and their environment with the assumption
  that the organization must act responsibly in
  utilizing the resources of the community. Must
  consider the following
• Do organizations have an ethical responsibility
  to preserve the environment?
• Who are these organizations accountable to?

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Employee Rights

• The right to fair and equitable treatment Title
  VII prohibits discrimination, harassment and
  retaliation based on race, color, religion,
  national origin, or gender.
• All policies regarding fair and equal treatment
  should be well-communicated to all employees and
  managers should have a zero tolerance policy
  toward such offenses.

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Employee Rights Cont.

• The Right to Privacy - While employees offices,
  lockers files, etc. typically should not be
  invaded by the employer the rules and regulations
  concerning privacy continue to be re-considered.
• As technology has become more prominent in the
  workplace, the need for surveillance of employees
  activities has grown.
• Some employee may be unethical in their use of
  the technology which has resulted in the
  monitoring of email and internet use.
• To know employee rights view www.privacyrights.org
  .

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Employee Rights Cont.

• The Right to Conscientious Objection While
  employees need to be able to respect authority
  and refrain from any acts of insubordination,
  they do have a right to refuse orders that
  violate their principles.
• Employees should exhaust every possible avenue
  within the company before making concerns public.

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Multinational Business and Ethics

• Companies conducting business abroad walk a fine
  line as they struggle to find a happy medium
  between the requirements of the Foreign Corrupt
  Practices Act and the local business culture.
• Savvy organizations take into consideration the
  cultural values of the countries in which their
  ethics standards are to be applied. They do not
  assume the standards will be understood the same
  way in all locations.

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Global Ethics Cont.

• Areas for consideration are
• Rules and definition rigid vs. flexible
• Exempt status people - privileged vs.
  unprivileged
• Public service norms observation of local norms
  such as excessive gratuities
• Gifts and bribes appropriate gift giving vs.
  bribery
• Confidentiality and group identity loyalty vs.
  confidentiality
• Office gender roles behavior and attitudes
  toward females vary.

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Politically Correct Speech

• Increasingly organizations discourage employees
  from saying or doing anything that others might
  find offensive. Racial slurs are always
  offensive, sexist comments are discouraged,
  ethnic jokes are not permissible. Just kidding
  is not an acceptable defense for offensive
  remarks.

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Mission Statements and Company Code of Ethics

• Company ethics are conveyed through the mission
  and vision statements as well as tell employees
  and customers what the organization is all about.
• Companies may also have a code of ethics and/ or
  a Ethics Officer to spell out the behavioral and
  attitude expectations of individuals in the
  organization.

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Management Behaviors

• Individual members of leadership must serve as
  role models of the code of ethics and
  organizational rewards and punishments must be
  applied to encourage compliance.
• Ethics boils down to what is communicated in
  everyday interactions, if employees see unethical
  behaviors or tolerance for improper practices
  they will cease to believe any written code of
  ethics.