Ethics in Business Communication

Ethics refers to accepted principles of conduct that govern behaviour and define the boundary between right and wrong. To abide by ethics in communication, communicators need to know not only what they choose to say or not say, but also the consequences of such choices.

 Ethical communication facilitates communication effectiveness. It reflects the moral aspects of individual and group interaction and establishes the credibility and reputation of communicators. It matches words to action/behaviour,  enhances human dignity by fostering truthfulness, fairness, personal integrity, mutual respect, and responsibility, and endorses freedom of expression, diversity of perspectives, tolerance to dissent, and responsible decision making. It advocates sharing of knowledge/information when faced with significant choices and accepts responsibility for short term and long term consequences of communication. Ethical communication is true in every sense, includes all relevant communication, and is not deceptive in any way. 

Unethical communication can distort truth or manipulate audience in a variety of ways. It misrepresents facts, opinions, or situations through selective and irresponsible representations.

Some forms of unethical communication are:

1. Plagiarism: presenting someone else’s words/ research/data/ creative work as one’s own. It is illegal and often violates copyright.
2. Omitting essential information: information is essential for an audience to make an intelligent and well informed choice and make an objective decision.
3. Selective misquoting: distorting or misrepresenting someone’s words by taking it out of context so that the meaning changes.
4. Misrepresenting numbers: unethically manipulating data and statistics by increasing, decreasing, exaggerating, altering, or omitting data.
5. Distorting visuals: making a product seem bigger/smaller, changing scale of graphs and charts
6. Failing to respect privacy or information security: ethical concerns go beyond message content. Failing to protect privacy, or information entrusted to one is unethical.

At the individual level, Ethical communication accepts audience response and refrains from demeaning or subjugating the audience. It requires active listening on the part of both communicators and an environment of open and honest exchange. Unethical communication appeals to passions, habits and prejudices of the audience, and often says only what the audience wants to hear. On the other hand, ethical communication considers all implications of the message conveyed, and remains rational and balanced.

In group communication, ethical communication works at three levels:

1.       The individual or personal level in which individual group members decide on what and how to convey in relation to the work entrusted.

2.       The group level in which the group members together decide on the way information is conveyed and credits assigned.

3.       The environmental level in which the group decides on the extent to which information is given when conveying the entire information might entail drastic changes or raise monetary issues.

The vital characteristics of Ethical Communication are as follows:

1.       Conveying ideas without offending the audience. Conveying accurate messages is the basic goal of business communication. In addition to this it is important to convey messages in a manner that does not offend the audience or cause emotional negativity.

2.       Maintaining a relationship with audience. Maintaining a relationship relates to keeping all communicators on the same wave length. The relationship is based on trust and rapport between them.

3.       Avoiding withholding crucial communication. Information is vital for decision making. Hence it is important to convey information correctly and completely, without withholding crucial sections.

4.       Constructing a well organized value system.  This value system rests on mutual respect and honesty or any other value both communicators hold in common.

Two problems with ethical communication:

1.       Ethical dilemma- An ethical dilemma refers to a conflict between two equally important values.  In such cases choosing either alternative can be justified on valid grounds. It arises when the sender and receiver share a relationship that makes it difficult to voluntarily or readily convey vital information or when either is unwilling to share such information for certain reasons, personal or professional. This could happen due to mistrust, personal antagonism or rivalry, or over competitive spirit. The question in the mind of the sender is whether to pass on the information or withhold it. One way of resolving such ethical dilemma is to focus on the importance of the information to be conveyed rather than on the person or group to whom it is to be conveyed. Another alternative is to distinguish clearly between personal emotions and professional conduct. The thumb rule would be choosing the greater good and the lesser evil.  Resolving an ethical dilemma calls for creative thinking to determine available alternatives. If the information is vital, and professional conduct calls for sharing it, the sender is obliged to set aside all other consideration and convey the message.

      

      Ethical dilemma takes a second form when personal relationships or interests lead to disclosing of sensitive information. In such cases the communicators transgress the bounds of responsibility and accountability. Furthermore, they fail to respect their position in the hierarchy.

    

2.       Ethical lapse- Ethical lapse refers to failure to communicate information for any reason when such communication is known to be essential. It reflects a failure to uphold the ethical standards that one subscribes to. Such lapses may occur due to negligence, lack of sense of responsibility, oversight, forgetfulness, or deliberate retention of information with mala fide intention. Communicators either unintentionally fail to share information that they should, or deliberately withhold the information.

Ensuring ethical communication

Ask three questions:

1.       Has the situation been defined fairly and accurately?

2.       What is the intention in communicating the message?

3.       What impact the message will have on the receiver?