ETHICS

CONCEPTUALIZING ETHICAL

Objective: At end of the section, learners should

be able to identify the elements and traits of ethics

INTRODUCTION Men have differed as regard to

which people you ought to be unselfish to – whether it was only your own family, or to your fellow countrymen, or everyone. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired.

Truly, being selfish is one of the unethical conducts in life. There are many others. Before we dwell further, let us know the root of ethics.

Ethics (Greek ethika, from ethos, ”character”, ”custom”) , principle or standards of human conduct, sometimes called morals (Latin mores, ”custom"), and, by extension ,the study of such principle, sometimes called moral philosophy. In this topic, we are concerned to that of western civilization. Although every culture has developed an ethic of its own.

UNETHICALCONDUCTS

HOW SOCIAL SCIENCES VEIW ETHICS?

The empirical social science to some on the concerns of ethics in that they study social behavior. For example, social science frequently attempt to determine the relation of particular ethical principle to social behavior and to investigate the cultural condition that contribute to the formation of such principle. In other words, what is considered ethical depends on situation and the expected results.

Social sciences

Determine relation of ethical principles to social behavior

Investigate cultural conditions contribute to principles formation

DETERMINE RELATION OF ETHICAL PRICIPLES TO SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

€ Ethical principles can be divided by three perspectives. The three perspectives are the use of rational without any consideration of religious pillars, the use of religion without any rational and the use of both religion and rational.

€ In social science, social behavior is followed by social action, which is directed at other people and is designed to induce a response. Further along this ascending scale are social interaction and social relation.

€ In any decision making there will be different guidelines of ethics based in the different situations and contexts. In conclusion, social behavior will follow the three perspectives as a guidelines, and will play enormous role in strategic management within an organization.

INVESTIGATE CULTURAL CONDITION CONTRIBUTED TO PRINCIPLES

FORMATION€ In this perspective, the use of

cultural conditions is interrelated. This means ethical principles, which are part of cultural condition, are also justified rationally. For example, all religious forbid gambling and it is considered unethical to gamble. On the other hand, this teaching can also be rationalized as gambling causes people to lose money and encourages people to depend on luck to earn money. This kind of attitude creates an unhealthy culture where people use short cut approach to become rich. Therefore, gambling is forbidden in through rational reasoning.

WHAT IS IT TO BE ETHICAL ?

Ethics goes beyond the act of throwing money and from the dictionary definition that sums it up as a set of moral principles and dealing with the write and wrong of motives and ends clearly. Individuals creates each ethical boundaries by their moral principles (that differ individually), philosophy (a belief system), right or wrong (of personal opinions), motives (based of specific situations), and consequences (perceived consequences) that are based on either fear of ramification established either through religious or philosophical beliefs.

Ethical Boundaries Creation

Moral principles

Consequences

Philosophy

Motives

Right and Wrong

Ethical Boundaries Creation

Moral principles

Moral principles is concerned with questions of how persons ought to act or if such questions are answerable. For example, two friends are going for cinema, one’s of them likes the movie Slumdog Millionaire but another friend dislike the movie. So it shows that they have different taste.

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language.It also known as a belief system that how a person belief a certain issues.For example,Reena beliefs that she speaks good English because her parentsencouraged her to practice it everyday.

Right and Wrong

It is known as personal opinion, a views of particular issues by a person. It is what the person believes or thinks and is not necessarily the truth. It helps to make judgment towards certain issues or conclusion. For example, Brad wants to do investment in a big company, but he was confused to make a good decision whether it is right or wrong. It’s becausehe have an own opinion about the company.

Motives

Motives can definite as discipline which we attempts to apply in our real-life.It can also depend to self-rule and right to life. Motives can influence other’s opinion too.For example, Janet failed in her last exam so she motived her self to study hard and to achieve her goals.

Consequences

Consequences is result that we received from decision which we made andwhat we had done. For instance, a drunk driver killed a child who runs outinto the street while he was driving home. Consequently, he was aressted by police and jailed for 20 years.

WHAT SHAPES OUR VIEW OF ETHICS?

In short, EVERYTHING ! form experiences, religious beliefs, and power, we deem to be higher than ourselves. For examples, in the eye of international law or even from own supreme consciousness.

Let us look at two perceptions of ethics:

“In civilizations life, law floats in a sea of ethics”.{ Earl Warren , Chief Justice, US Supreme Court }

“ If a man is good in his heart, then he is an ethical member of any groupin society . If he is bad in his heart , he is an un ethical member “ .

{ Dr. Elmer Hess, President, American Asso}

ETHICS IN COMMUNICATION

In communications, ethics are applied at every level, namely:

Interpersonal communication. This is seen at the individual level where

ethics are applied in. a social, formal and informal.

Public communication. This seen in announcements from

organization to the public.

Mass communication. This seen especially where ethics in all

mass media form newspaper right up to the Internet.

COMMUNICATING ETHICS[Ibid. innovis. com]

The following are tips to incorporate your organizational ethics into your day-to-day activities:

Examine the intention

Examine the underlying intentions for establishing company ethics

Make it a company norm in action

You can't tell people to be ethical but you can demonstrate ethical behavior

Incorporate news ways of understanding ethics

Approaches such as dialogue allow participants to share ideas and beliefs in safe environment free ofjudgments. In discussing ethic respect should be evident to the different opinion and insecurities

The ethics to individual and department goals

Make association for your audience rather than assuming that they will do it for you. for example howtheir participation in supporting the organizationethical standard be incorporated into performance review?

Meld ethics with business

Using ethics as its metric in all organization activity rather than having separate department

Develop safe feedback mechanism

The usage of “self mechanism” such as anonymshotline as a a method to again feedback

Use an adviser

Your approach must be tailored to the culture in order to be effective. getting third-party participants will facilities your goals.

Highlight the company’s legends that personify ethics

Get your ethics into mainstream organizational discourse by identifying and communicating ethical behavior and its positive result

Provide parameters and examples

You can make your employee to follow certainguideline and tactics that support the standard ofethics in your organization

CONCLUSION Ethics is important in all areas of

our life. it is critical that our society impart values that provide lasting benefits. The general knowledge about ethics is that is it the adherence to standard of right or wrong. On the other hand, there are also those who view ethics as adherence to right or wrong depending on the situation and the desired outcome. overall, ethics affect our health and safety, they affect crime, they effect business, they effect government, and they effect our future. Thus it is vitally important that our families and our organization pick up the slack and re-establishing basic moral principle among our people.

Ethics

Health & safety

Ethics

Government

Business

Crime

FUNCTION OF ETHICS

Learning objective:

Identify the difference function of ethics in communication

INTRODUCTION Emily Thrush narrated her personal

experience about her boss that loved to send out long rambling memos. One of these memos announced a department meeting at the end of the second page. As the day of the meeting came, only two people showed up. They had to explain to the boss that no one read the entire memo and he felt crushed. Even though there memo were no dire consequence in this case , in others it may cause worst consequence. Ethics are principle that guide in most parts of our life and it is possible to see ethics functions many situation.

FUNCTION OF ETHICS The are numerous of ethics. The following are some of

them:

To guide people towards good conduct. The engage in truthful ,accurate and fair communication to

the public. To manage and curb misuse and improve productivity. To establish required operating values and behaviors. To cultivate strong teamwork and productivity. To help ensure that the policies are legal. To assist and manage value.

We will explain each and every one of them.

TO GUIDE PEOPLE TOWARDS GOOD CONDUCT

Most people really cannot explain why some things are right while others are wrong. So, here comes ethics. First and foremost, ethics play a role in guiding people to steer toward what is considered good and away from what is considered bad.

For example, when a lady newly entered a married life and first gazed at the pile of dishes that needed washing, definitely she felt that she did not want to wash them. At first she was reluctant to do the washing, but later changed her mind grudgingly. Once she made that decision and started washing up, she will be morally satisfied, even though the activity itself was not particularly pleasant for her.

TO ENGAGE IN TRUTHFUL,ACCURATE AND FAIR COMMUNICATION TO THE PUBLIC

Award-wining Boston Globe columnist Patricia Smith acknowledge to have fabricated quotes and character in her column. In 1998, CNN reported a story that claimed the U.S. military used nerve gas to kill American defectors in an operation known as “Tailwind”. As a result Patricia had the to resign as columnist and the Cable network had to retract the story. Here, ethics play a role to engage in truthful, accurate and fair communication to the public.

TO MANAGE AND CURB MISUSE AND IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY

Ethics function to manage and prevent misuse of power, position, and funds as well as improve efficiency and effectiveness within an organization.

Looking, for example , into communication in Information and Communication Technologies in Business, ethics will also play a role in key areas that has caused problems such as ownership of software and data, integrity of data, prevention of fraud and computer misuse.

Information and communicationTechnologies in Business

Software and data ownership

Data integration Fraud prevention

Computer misuse

TO ESTABLISH REQUIRED OPERATING VALUES AND

BEHAVIORS Since year ago, most ethical

dilemmas in workplace are not simply a matter of “stealing” or “lying”. The rise in concern over ethical issues can be traced as far back as the 1980s where instances of insider trading and convert government foreign policy activities were rife. Business with ethics conform to what society expects in a business. Business such as the Body Shop plays on the obligation of society to buy their product because of their principles that is animal friendly, anti-racism as examples. And to large extent it has become a worldwide success.

TO CULTIVATE STRONG TEAMWORK AND PRODUCTIVITY

Organization improve and able to educate society by disseminating correct and ethical information.

The importance of an ethics in business will improve turbulent times. At the time where fundamental changes are happening, attention to ethics will cultivate strong teamwork and productivity. Ethics programs will align employees behavior with the preferred ethical values by the leaders of the organization. It could also support employees facing reality whether good or bad. Examples of ethics programs are, training on communication skills, public relations course and charity programs.

TO HELP ENSURE THAT POLICIES ARE LEGAL

Ethics also act as an insurance policy which is able to help ensure other policies are legal. In the world where there are increasing numbers of lawsuits with regard to personnel matters and slack of organizational services, ethics, program also help avoid criminal acts “of omission” and can lower fines. In addition, an ethics program tend to detect ethical issues or violation in advance, thus, can be reported addressed.

TOASSIST AND MANAGE VALUES

The role that ethics play in communication is abundant. Notably it is argued that it plays a role in assisting and managing values associate with quality management, strategic planning and diversity management. An ethical program that is identified with values will also promote a strong image of the organization, thus, present a strong public appearance.

CONCLUSION As ethics play an enormous

in communication is not a surprise that ethics have become the buzzword for the day. Whether it is for an internal efficiency or an external acceptance form society, ethics seem to be the catch phrase of today. There is no doubt that ethics is vital in one’s life. But its role in organization is too important to discard.

Ethics

Internalefficiency

Externalappearance

THANK YOU