INTERPERSONAL AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS CHAPTER 11

1. ETHICS

2. CONCEPTUALIZING ETHICAL
 Objective:
At end of the section, learners should be
able to identify the elements and traits of
ethics

3. 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.

4.  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.
UNETHICAL
CONDUCTS

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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 parents
encouraged her to practice it everyday.

10. 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 because
he 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.

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

12. 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 gro
in society . If he is bad in his heart , he is an un ethical member “ .
{ Dr. Elmer Hess, President, American Asso}

13. 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.

14. 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

15. Incorporate news ways of understanding ethics
Approaches such as dialogue allow participants to
share ideas and beliefs in safe environment free of
judgments. 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 how
their participation in supporting the organization
ethical standard be incorporated into performance
review?

16. 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 anonyms
hotline 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.

17. 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 certain
guideline and tactics that support the standard of
ethics in your organization

18. 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

19. FUNCTION OF ETHICS
 Learning objective:
 Identify the difference function of ethics in
communication

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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 communication
Technologies in Business
Software and data
ownership
Data integration Fraud prevention
Computer misuse

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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
Internal
efficiency
External
appearance

30. THANK YOU