Ethics in Organizations

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Ethics in Organizations
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There is widespread concern

• Organizations are heartless
• Business is about the buck
• Everyone is in it for old 1

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Redding asserts that there is something
inherently unethical in modern organizations
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Redding asserts that there is something
inherently unethical in modern organizations

• Individual vs. organizational interests may
  conflict

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Redding asserts that there is something
inherently unethical in modern organizations

• Individual vs. organizational interests may
  conflict
• The pressure to achieve

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Redding asserts that there is something
inherently unethical in modern organizations

• Individual vs. organizational interests may
  conflict
• The pressure to achieve
• The pervasive influence of corporate culture and
  climate

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Corporations as culture

• What creates an organizational culture?
• What is climate?
• Does the culture of an organization modify our
  judgment about what may be ethical for an
  individual in that organization?
• How does the systemic nature of an organization
  affect ethics?

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Promoting Ethics

• What can companies do to promote ethical
  behavior? Are ethics a matter for staff or can a
  company be unethical?

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Management must set the example
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Place ethics on the open agenda

• Have an ethics officer
• Have training sessions, consultants
• Commit resources

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Ethics must be institutionalized

• Procedures should require that ethics be examined
  on par with legal and economic risk factors
• Employees must be free to address issues without
  fear of reprisal. Make allowances for
  whistleblowers.

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Silence is an ethical act
Some considerations from Charles
Reddings address to the Central States
Communication Association regarding ethics in
organizations.
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Ethics and advertising

• There are 7 areas of potential ethical
  confrontation inherent in advertising practices

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7 Areas

• The advertising business is rationalized
  predominately by classical liberal philosophic
  assumptions. (everyone watches their self
  interest, the individual is a competent
  decision-maker, competition leads to a good for
  all through a natural harmony of self interest)

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7 Areas

• The advertising message is one-sided
  communication, with the interent potential of
  deception by omission.

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7 Areas

• The purpose of advertising is to cause us to
  think or act in accordance with the advertisers
  intent, whether it be noble or venal.

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7 Areas

• Frequently, advertising seeks out the individual
  rather than the individual seeking it.

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7 Areas

• Advertising continues to be a controversial third
  party with the mass media

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7 Areas

• The advertising agency commission system still
  continues to reward agencies for what they buy
  (media space and/or time) rather than what they
  produce (ads).

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7 Areas

• The underlying uncertainty regarding the outcome
  of the advertising leaves it wide open for
  differing interpretations of the same event.

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Dr. Kings soapbox for the day

• Journalism teaches students to be objective and
  unbiased, Ad/PR teaches them to be subjective and
  biased
• Journalism empowers the listener to make choices,
  Ad/PR seeks to proscribe a particular choice
• Both are taught in the same academic unit!!??!
  Discuss.