Ethics
In
Business
Communication
Facilitator:
Dr. Shalini Sharma
Professor, Area-chair: CnD
Introduction
• Communication is the lifeblood of human experience.
• It helps us to develop relationships, understand others
and the world we live in.
• For better communication, understanding the obvious
and the subtle issues relating to communication is
necessary.
• Ethical issues of business communication are one such
issue.
The Vital Characteristics of
Ethical Communication
1. Conveying the point without offending the
audience
2. Maintain a relationship with the audience
3. Avoid withholding crucial information
4. Well organized value system
5. Accuracy of information is necessary
Conveying Without Offending
• Conveying the desired message to audience in a
significant manner is of primary importance
while communicating
• The employees in a company can be asked to
increase their efficiency in a demanding
manner.
• Managers and executives will feel offended if
the same tone is used on them
• There are different ways to explain the exact
things in a much smoother manner
Maintaining Relationship
• Maintaining the same wavelength with
the audience is very important for
communicator to ensure the audiences
feel at home
• Experienced communicators immediately
build a relationship based on trust with
the audience
• Great orators such as Winston Churchill
and Mahatma Gandhi
Avoid Withholding Crucial
Information
• It is vital for any organization to be
cautious when communicating with the
public.
• Communicated information should be
absolute.
• All vital information must be conveyed
appropriately
• Withholding crucial information might
result in the public conceiving a bad
image.
Well Organized Value System
• Well-organized value system must be
established throughout the organization
by the top management.
• Mutual respect between them will be
present through common value systems.
• A sound and healthy value system can
make way for ethical communication
Accuracy of Information is
Necessary
• Any information that is to be passed on
must be true and accurate.
• Communicating without checking the
truth of the information can be highly
dangerous
• Identification of the source and testing the
information is necessary before
communicating
Ways
to
Overcome Ethical Dilemma
• Withholding crucial information because of
conflict with an individual or a group.
• Importance to the message and not on the
person or the group.
• People should give priority to the common
good of the organization rather than
interpersonal or inter-group conflicts.
• When in ethical dilemma consider the
effects of various alternatives after a certain
period of time.
• Ethical decision is to choose the alternative
which provides more good and less harm to
the organization.
Moral Rights Approach
Recognizes that human beings are
born with fundamental rights and
privileges stresses the importance of
protecting these rights of human
beings.
Justice Approach
Focuses on how the costs and benefits of an act
are distributed and whether the distribution is fair
equitable.
1. Procedural Justice: The policies, rules and
procedures relating to decisions and behaviors
should be applied fairly.
1. Distributive Justice Approach : Rewards and
punishments are fairly distributed based on how
much individuals contribute towards and deviate
from the organizational goals.
