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2: Organizational Communication Ethics

  • Page ID
    14862
    • Anonymous
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    • 2.1: Introduction
      This page delves into ethics in organizational communication, emphasizing the frequent ethical failures in 21st-century business. Through case studies of scandals like accounting fraud, it illustrates the repercussions of unethical actions. Additionally, it outlines four key areas of ethical understanding: ethics, business ethics, communication ethics, and organizational communication ethics, providing a basis for further exploration of ethical practices within organizations.
    • 2.2: Nature of Ethics
      This page discusses the complexity of ethics, emphasizing the variability of ethical interpretations based on intentions and outcomes. It introduces an ethical matrix categorizing actions into four scenarios and presents eleven philosophical perspectives, such as altruism and utilitarianism.
    • 2.3: Business Ethics
      This page covers ethical challenges in organizations, highlighting Cherrington's typology of twelve common ethical lapses such as theft, lying, and conflicts of interest. It underscores the impact of these dilemmas on workplace dynamics and the necessity of ethical navigation. Additionally, it explores complex ethical decisions, like balancing product benefits against ecological preservation, and illustrates the influence of management and financial incentives on employee ethics.
    • 2.4: Communication Ethics
      This page examines frameworks for understanding ethics in communication, highlighting Johannesen et al.'s factors for ethical dilemmas, Andersen's view on the roles of sources and receivers, and Arnett et al.'s idea of ethical schemata influenced by various factors. It underscores the complexity of ethical judgment and the need for ongoing adaptation.
    • 2.5: Organizational Communication Ethics
      This textbook discusses the significance of ethics in organizational communication, highlighting various frameworks and categories of unethical behavior, such as dishonesty and manipulation. It explores scholarly insights, including Reinsh's ethical findings and Redding's typology, while emphasizing the feminist perspective on power dynamics. The role of Human Performance Improvement professionals is outlined, detailing their functions in enhancing communication ethics.
    • 2.E: Exercises
      This page examines the backlash against a controversial Business Week cover featuring a sexual portrayal of the United-Continental Airlines merger. Critics deemed the imagery inappropriate for a business publication, raising concerns about the magazine's ethical choices. It invites readers to evaluate the cover's ethics through Andersen’s framework and discusses various ethical scenarios and behaviors in business contexts.

    Thumbnail: Ethics sign. (CC BY-SA 4.0 International; Madhumathi S V).


    This page titled 2: Organizational Communication Ethics was last modified on Wed, 26 Aug 2026 21:00:51 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Anonymous via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.