Communication for

Managers
MODULE:2
CHAPTER:2
Business Communication and Ethical Context
 1. Background to Ethical Contexts
• Ethical situations
• Ethics as a communication issue
2. Influences on Personal Ethics

CONTENT • People, Culture, Philosophy, Law, Religion

3. Communication and Ethical Issues Legal Issues
• Key areas for Ethical Communication
• Ethics and Organizational Responsibility.
 • Making ethical decisions are relatively easy when all the
Background facts of a situation are known.
• But when there is missing evidence, doubtful conclusions
to Ethical and multiple views of conflict, making the correct decision

Context becomes a dilemma.

• How should one handle the business ambiguities and make
the right ethical choices?
• What is Ethics?
• ‘Ethics’ is about making the right decision over the wrong
decision, always.’
• The principles to the center of Ethics are fairness, service,
quality, integrity, excellence, compassion, dignity and
honesty.
 1. A Chinese manager of luxury hotel in Beijing, could not
find an expensive pen and watch gifted to him. He went
through the desks and drawers of all his subordinates in

Ethical their absence, looking for the missing items. A lower

level manager observed this and called it unethical.

Situations 2. During an on campus interview, a recruiter asks you why

they should hire you over another candidate, who is
your classmate. You have some negative information
about your classmate and you choose to divulge that to
get the final placement. Is this ethical?
3. A firm invites you for a second interview at its corporate
office. You are not very interested in the company or the
offered profile, but you are considering taking the trip as you
have a close family member in that city, and you could use
the frequent flier milage. Do you accept the interview?
• The context of the situation influences the ethicality of the
business decision.
 • In 1987, the Chrysler Corporation was indicted for mail and
wire fraud and a conspiracy, after it was learned that
Chrysler had disconnected the odometers on new cars so
Ethics as a that the assembly plant managers could take them home
for test drives.
Communicatio • Managers were to keep them for a night only but almost
no one returned in time. Some kept for weeks, causing
n Issue minor accidents too.
• Later, the cars were sold as ‘new’.
• The company was then tagged as a fraud and America
demanded instant rectification via effective
communication.
• The company spokesperson met with media and said, “
America, we apologize. Testing cars is a good idea,
disconnecting odometers is a lousy idea. This mistake we
shall never make again at Chrysler”

• The same statement was communicated via all print and

digital media.
Influences on Personal Ethics

People Culture Philosophy

Law Reigion
 • Communicating ethically always in a business scenario is a
Communicatio challenging concern.
• Unethical communication has several legal complexities
n and Ethical associated with it.
Issues • The structure of ethical communication is rapidly changing
given the multitude of diverse workforce in each
organization, and the concerns of staying true to the
company’s culture, values, beliefs and traditions.
1. Legal Issues:
• Legal considerations such as defamation and privacy are
concerns in all organizations.
• Statements, meant for product or service advertisement,
can be perceived as malicious or inching towards
defamation.
• ‘written defamation is libel; oral defamation is slander’
• Despite being legal issues, they are considered ethical
issues too, as they violate basic principles of honesty,
respect and basic human dignity.
• Any data shared with any organization as an individual, can
be converted into a database.
• This database can become a vast resource for information
of private data pool.
• Our laws protect individual privacy, and with the advent of
cyber space crimes, the legal system has systematically
improved to ensure human dignity of all citizens.
2. Discrimination, Harassment and Stalking:
• Discrimination inches towards deliberate actions to exclude
certain groups of people.
• Discrimination is unethical because it seeks to segregate
individuals on the basis of race, sex, ethnic groups and
national origin.
• Harassment involves irritating or tormenting another
person of a reputed basis.
• It can also occur between colleagues, subordinates,
supervisors and third party stakeholders.
• Sexual Harassment is a major type of harassment which is
seeking attention of all workplaces for the safety of its staff.
 Key Areas for
Ethical
1. Personal Written and spoken messages
Communicatio 2. Cross Cultural messages
n 3. Advertising company products/services.