ETHICS

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ETHICS

• Implications in Business Communication

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INTRODUCTION

• Taking an ethical stance requires balancing
  ethical and moral beliefs with the realities of
  the job.

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IT REQUIRES

• You to consider the effects of your decision on
• The users of the product
• On your company
• On society
• On your job

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ISSUES OF COMMUNICATION ETHICS

• All areas of science, technology and business are
  involved in issues of communication ethics.
• Let us look at some examples in the next slides.

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MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES

• Genetic testing can raise questions about privacy
  and medical insurance.

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BANKING AND RETAIL OPERATIONS

• When such businesses collect personal
  information, it raises concerns about how this
  information is used and who has access to it.

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INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS

• This can lead to environmental pollutants,
  raising questions about the long-term health of
  the planet.

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ETHICAL DECISIONS

• In your own communication you will make ethical
  decisions about the following
• How much information to give and how much to
  leave out.
• How to share the information for users and
  consumers.
• How to word an issue so as not to offend your
  readers.

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TYPES OF ETHICAL CHOICES

• Obligation to yourself to act in your own best
  interest and according to good conscience.
• Obligation to stand by the clients and customers.

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CONTD

• Obligation to your company to
• Advance its goals
• Respect its policies
• Protect confidential information
• Expose misconduct that would harm the
  organization.

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CONTD.

• Obligation to all workers to promote the safety
  and well being.

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AND ALSO

• Obligation to the community to preserve the local
  economy, welfare, and quality of life.
• Obligation to society to consider the national
  and global impact of your actions.

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What circumstances can make an action unethical ?

• Yielding to social pressure
• Mistaking Groupthink for Teamwork
• Suppressing knowledge the public needs
• Exaggerating claims about technology
• Exploiting cultural differences

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CONSIDER THIS!

• If you're designing a Web site should you create
  a page that asks users for name, address, and
  other personal information?

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IF YOUR ANSWER IS YES!

• Although the answer may be yes for business
  purposes, you still need to
• Use a privacy statement to address both the
  business and ethical issues.
• Ensure that users have a way to remove their
  names from your database at any time.

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CONSIDER THIS!

• High-level employees of major tobacco companies
  apparently knew for years about the harmful
  effects of cigarettes and other nicotine related
  products.

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YET

• Lawsuits in the late 1990's proved that many
  managers and other company decision makers went
  to great lengths to suppress this information!

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YOUR ETHICAL DILEMNA

• You may need to ask if your obligation to the
  company takes priority over your greater
  obligation to your fellow citizens.

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Types of technical communication affected.

• GRAPHICS
• Graphics can be manipulated to distort
  information.
• There are three kinds of lies, lies, damned
  lies, and statistics''. This is never more true
  than when poor statistical graphs are drawn.

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Take a look at this chart
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Do you agree that

• The chart has a marked visual distortion, making
  the Air Force appear much larger.

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Well, here is another.
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• This graph was taken from the 2006 annual report
  to the public about Simon Fraser University.

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Lets take a second look

• Dollar amounts not adjusted for inflation.
• No vertical axis to measure heights of bars.
  Consequently, designers were forced to put actual
  dollar amounts on top of bars.
• Too many significant figures. Chart should be in
  millions of dollars and values reported to the
  nearest million dollars (after adjusting for
  inflation).
• Gratuitous use of color. What does the grey and
  yellow show?
• A line graphs showing the trend (of inflation
  adjusted values) may be a better choice.

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WEB PAGES AND INTERNET

• The Internets global reach and its ability to
  combine sound, color, images, text and
  interactivity create the potential for
  manipulation and distortion.

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CONSIDER THIS!

• A website for a herbal remedy that some people
  feel is helpful for anxiety may not have FDA
  approval, and the advertised product may have
  harmful side effects.

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YET

• A website promoting this product could easily,
  and with very little cost be set up to look
  extremely scientific and factual.

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MEMOS AND INSTRUCTIONS

• The messages memos convey can present serious
  ethical choices.
• For example, in the Three Mile Island case.

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INSTRUCTIONS

• Many instructions contain safety information.
• Should this information be placed on the first
  page, or will this deter some consumers from
  using the product?

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ALSO

• If the average person truly needs two hours to
  assemble a product but the instructions say 30
  minutes, this information would be unethical.

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REPORTS

• The subject matter and purpose of the report must
  determine what is important and on what basis.

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FOR EXAMPLE

• In preparing a report about the environmental
  impact of your company's pulp and paper
  manufacturing process, you might be tempted to
  leave out damaging information, such as the
  effect of this process on nearby rivers and
  streams.

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WOLD YOU THEN BE

• Faced with the ethical decision should you
  include everything in your report?

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PROPOSALS

• Proposals Present specific plans to get
  something done.

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WHAT IF?

• In a sales proposal presenting your company's
  plan to construct a community hall, you want to
  project the best image and offer the best service
  for the best price.
• Because
• You are bidding against other companies.

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SO WHAT IS YOUR DILEMNA?

• You may be tempted to stretch the truth about the
  time required to complete the job.

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WHAT WILL THAT DO?

• On one hand, such projects almost always
  exceed the deadline, but if you tell the truth
  while your competitor lies, you might lose a job.
  
• On the other hand dishonesty is likely to
  damage your company's reputation.

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TO CONCLUDE

• As a communicator you need to question the
  possible outcome for users and the overall risks
  to society.
•  

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BECAUSE

• The greater the likelihood of deception, and the
  greater the injury to the reader as a consequence
  of that deception, the more unethical is the
  design of the document.