bcs 1.6 bc & ethical context

7/29/2019 BCS 1.6 BC & Ethical Context

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BUSINESS COMMUNICATION & THEETHICAL CONTEXT


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BACKGROUNDTO ETHICAL CONTEXTS

Ethics is about making right and wrong decisions.

Ethical principles such as fairness, service, quality,integrity, excellence, compassion, honesty anddignity, assist in those decisions.

Ethical situations

During an on-campus interview, a recruiter asksyou why he should hire you over anothercandidate (a classmate of yours). You have somenegative information about this person. Do youshare it with the recruiter?

You witness another student cheating during animportant accounting exam. Do you confront thestudent? Do you tell other students or a professorabout the incident?


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CONTEXTOFASITUATIONINFLUENCESTHEETHICALITYOFADECISION

A hotel food and beverage manager purchased 20cases 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 thefree case did not influence his purchase of 200

cases.

Restaurant manager spies on the bearers to check

whether they served properly and charged

correctly.


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INFLUENCESON PERSONAL ETHICS

1. Influential people in your life family, close friends,

role models, teachers.2. 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 apenny 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 sawthat 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.


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3. Philosophy theories of philosophy have longbeen concerned with ethical and moral issues.

4. Law represent the minimum standard ofbahaviour. It includes code of ethics for various

professions accounting, law and medicine.

5. Religion

INFLUENCESON PERSONAL ETHICS


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ETHICS ASA COMMUNICATION ISSUE INCORPORATIONS

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.


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ETHICAL ISSUESIN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Every business needs to impress upon its employees

the importance of communicating ethically, whether thecommunication is between company employees orbetween company representatives and the outsideworld.

Employees must be honest, fair, sensitive and respectful

in communicating with one another and incommunicating with customers, vendors and the public.

Dishonesty

Honesty refers to telling the truth in its entirety.

Using exaggeration or manipulation seems to becommon in business, both in internal communicationand external communication.

When honesty is compromised, peopleand businesses can lose credibility and respect.


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Gender

Difficulties may result from how a person treats theopposite 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.



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Favoritism

Favoritism refers to unfairly rewarding, assisting orpunishing someone, and favoritism can result from

inappropriate communication.

Employees need to steer clear of communication

practices that can lead to accusations of favoritism.



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KEY AREAS FOR ETHICAL COMMUNICATION

1. Personal written and spoken messages

2. Cross-cultural messages

workplace is a mix of manyethical values.

3. Advertising messages false advertisement is both

unlawful and unethical.


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FORMAL VERSUS INFORMAL WAYSOFCOMMUNICATING 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.

bcs 1.6 bc & ethical context

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