ETHICS AND INTEGRITY IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
QUSTION ONE
Explain six unethical practices likely to be found in business communication
Plagiarism
As speakers, we are expected to remain honest when we present information.
When communicators steal concepts without giving Credit to others these individuals/groups are bleaching the ethical concept of honesty. This is called plagiarism. It occurs whenever a person uses another person’s ideas he/she is expected to give credit to the creator –even if the speaker(s) rewords or paraphrases the information.
Bias
Whenever a person or group intentionally presents information that unevenly favors or discredits one side of the topic, the speaker is presenting what is called a biased position.
Propaganda
Oftentimes, groups and individuals may wish to persuade their audience to think or act a certain way. The deliberate use of a message or image to persuade or influence an audience is called propaganda. While the term has an overall negative connotation today, the use of propaganda is not always a negative practice. The primary purpose of propaganda is to appeal to audience members’ emotional and rational thought processes.
Therefore, propaganda is not necessarily an unethical practice. Instead, individuals must evaluate each piece of propaganda based on its use of truthfulness, fairness, and intended purposes.
Fallacies
In order to be responsible communicators, individuals and groups must use .careful reasoning when presenting arguments. When reasoning Is flawed or contains a logical error it is known as a-fallacy.
Red herring
Diverting the listeners’ attention to another unrelated or irrelevant topic is called a red herring fallacy.
Hasty generalization
When a conclusion is drawn about an entire group based off of a select few individuals it is known as a hasty generalization
QUSTION TWO
Differentiate between “ethical dilemma” and “ethical lapse”
Ethical dilemma is a complex situation that will often involve an apparent mental conflict between moral imperatives, in Which to obey one would result into transgressing another.
– Ethical, lapse is a temporary decline or deviation from an expected or accepted ethical standard;
Briefly describe three examples of ethical dilemma that could be faced by an organization
Theft of property
– Falsification of documents
– Embezzlement of fund
– stealing supplies
– manipulating suppliers
– Failure to withdraw a defective product from the market place.
