What is precisely ethics?
A sociologist posed that question to business people and got these answers:
Quote
- Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong.
- Ethics has to to with my religious beliefs.
- Being ethical is doing what the law requires.
- Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts.
- I dont know what the word means...
Unquote
What is considered as Unethical behavior? Give examples in
- Government
- Business
- Sports
- Education
- Non-profit organisations
- Religious organisations
- Public Relations
Are we doing the right thing?
Definition of Ethics by The Josephon Institute:
In general, ethics are the values that guide a person, organisation, or society, concepts such as right and wrong, fairness and unfairness, honesty and dishonesty.
An individual's conduct is measured not only against his or her conscience but also against some norm or acceptability that society or an organisational has determined.
Philosophers throughout the ages have debated the essence of ethics
- Utilitarianism suggests considering the "greater good" rather than what may be best for the individual.
- To Aristotle, the golden mean of moral virtue could be found between two extreme points of view
- Kant's categorical imperative recommended acting "on that maxim which you will be to become a universal law"
- Mill's principle of utility recommended "seeking the greatest happiness for the greatest number"
- The traditional Judeo-Christian ethic prescribes "loves your neighbor as yourself". Indeed, this golden rule makes good sense as well in the practise of public relations.
Example: page 140, fig. 6-2
PRSA (Public Relations Society of America)
Member Code of Ethics 2000
- Advocacy
- Honesty
- Expertise
- Independence
- Loyalty
- Fairness
Discussion questions (deadline for submission: 10 March 2014)
- How would you define ethics?
- How would you describe the state of ethics in business, government, and journalism?
- How important is the ethical component of the practice of public relations? Give some examples of unethical behavior of some public figure.
1. How would you define ethics
ReplyDeleteEthics is roundabout of moral principles, which represents the level of social integrity of an individual or an organization. Depending to the type of society or certain traditional norms, understanding of ethics can sometimes be shaped by religious view or social norms. However, this does not mean ethics is identified by religion or a certain social norm. Neither it is about obeying the law, because an action could be illegal according to law regardless how ethically right it was. Ethics is measure of right to wrong within human communication or conduct, and it holds similar proficiency in all societies. Individual or organization’s ethics represent their tendency, behavior, moral and educational level. Especially in professional areas, ethics are taken seriously into account these days. Studies of ethics involve three major components that are metha ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. The whole concept of ethics and its study is similar to a dynamic theory that determines which actions are appropriate in certain situations. To be even more simpler, Ph.D David Resnik stated that the ethics is “ norms of conduct that distinguish between acceptable or unacceptable behavior” in his article about why ethics is important.
2. How would you describe ethics in business, government and journalism.
In my opinion, ethics in business slightly differs from the understanding of ethics in government and journalism. In general, theories of ethics provide measures to effectively collaborate in harmony. Good companies and corporations thrive to adopt maximum ethics at workplace in order to keep the good relationship and atmosphere between the employees. The ethics also comes very important during negotiations or meetings with partners or discovering new partners. That can be said that in business, ethics is more about impression whereas in government, ethics can reflect upon important political decisions. This is labeled as ethics of policy in the ethics studies. When it comes to journalism, many ethical arguments and conclusions come up to my head. Journalists are hated in many places for ruining careers, destroying families and washing brains. Media is very manipulative and it can cover massive numbers of audiences at once. The content and the message of the material that are broadcasted to people measure the ethics of a journalist. Regardless if its business, politics or journalism right ethics illustrates your professionalism to others.
3. How important is the ethical component of the practice of public relations? Give some examples of unethical behavior of some public figure.
Ethics is a very important component in the public relations. As mentioned in previous answers, the ethics of an individual or an organization is also a form of their professional illustration and willfulness. Public relations departments are the face of organizations to the general public, the customers. Companies put extra attention in their public relations department and customer services to achieve maximum reputation from the consumers. Especially in modern days, people tend to care about customer services as much as the actual product or service. In public relations, some of the expected forms of ethics are giving truthful information, protecting the confidentiality and avoiding conflict. Public figures are always in the center of attention, and every movement and word they produce are watched by media and people around them. Some public figures fail at keeping appropriate ethics, which can be destructible for their image. My favorite example would go for Heavy weight world Champion Mike Tyson losing it at a press conference, repeatedly insulting the reporter, threatening to beat him up. Mike Tyson is famous for going “nuts” on the TV, and there are few other similar circumstances that he offended people on TV.