Ethics in Communication:

What are Ethics?

Basically, ethics are the set of rules and norms which human society and different religions have devised in order to maintain a suitable relationship between people and their organizations. It’s all which suffices the idea of right and wrong.

Ethics have a historical background as old as human beings. Prophet Adam (AS) brought a set of rules for his children. The first unethical act was done by Cain who committed Homicide of his brother Abel. In Islamic context, the charter of ethics was refreshed with every Prophet. Other religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism have also a set of ethics. But we cannot always claim to follow the ethics properly. At many times, we compromise our ethics. Mostly in times, where ethical option might lead to unpleasant circumstances but sometimes just for fun. Now, the question arises, is avoiding an unpleasant situation through unethical options ethical or not. The question is hard to understand.

Philosophers throughout the history have given ideals about this question. The old English proverb says, “Two wrongs don’t make a right”. While Sheikh Saadi says, “If a truth can bring malice, than, it is better to tell a lie.” These paradoxical ideals and the proverbial values are quite confusing at times.

Personal Ethics:

There are a number of influences which design our Ethical values. Each person has a different concept about what is ethical and what is not. These concepts are formulated by a number of factors.

People:

People play a vital role in our personality grooming consequently impacting our principles, values and Ethics.

· Family: our parents, siblings, grand parents and aunts and uncles etc influence our ethics great deal. Children are constantly told about what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, many people tend to avoid something unethical in front of their parents and other family relations.

· Teachers: the Second important influence on our ethics is that of our teachers, particularly for kids. For them whatever the teacher says is right.

· Peers: friends and Peers also play a vital role in impacting ethics. For instances, negative peer influence can compel a child to compromise his ethics by telling him that stealing, lying or using abusive language is fine.

· Mentors: apart from our parents, teachers, and peers, we tend to take inspiration from certain other people. They might be our favorite personalities or even a mere acquaintance. These people also shape our ethics. Mentors tend to give suggestions according to their experiences and ethics.

Culture:

Every Culture influences the people who adopt it and shape their ethical values. Folk tales, tales from the lives of important people and fables told in every culture are woven round these values. For instance, American children are told that George Washington traveled miles to return the penny to a customer whom he had overcharged by mistake. Chinese children are taught a song I which a child finds a penny on the road and returns it to a Police Officer who praises the child’s Honesty. In Muslim world, the narration about Hazrat Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani (RA) as a child and a Dacoit is frequently told in which Hazrat Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani (RA) is given money by his mother who sews it in his pocket. While going in a convoy they are stopped by the Dacoits who ask him if he has money. And on telling them that he has they check him and can’t find anything so they take him to their leader who calls him a liar. He than says that he never lies and shows them the money. This makes the leader repent and thus he mends his ways. Such stories, narrations and fables are told in order to make the children more ethical and to give them a proper sense of right and wrong.

Philosophy: On philosophic grounds, two main classes of Ethics are; Descriptive and Normative Ethics. Descriptive Ethics reflect Facts about moral judgments or beliefs of a person or group of people. Normative Ethics involve discovering, formulating and defining fundamental moral principles. Normative Ethics have been a subject of contemplation from Pre-historic times. Philosophers and scholars like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and the stoics of that age remained exclusively dedicated to the normative ethics. Thus, many types of normative ethics have been formulated. However, four most important types are enlisted below:

· Theologism: the ethics that attempt to pattern actions according to God’s will. Basically it is a religious perspective on ethical issues.

· Deontology: it’s a concept which urges its followers to do the right thing as a duty. Doing moral actions is an obligation regardless of the consequences.

· Teleology: the ethical approached in which the question of ethics is judged by the final causes or by the consequences is teleology. Basically, the people who follow this approach believe in maximizing good consequence. Whatsoever, results in good is moral.

· Utilitarianism: this is a form of teleology which believes in maximizing utility. According to this approach an act is moral if it maximizes utility and the number of people helped is greater than the number of people harmed. If one life can save million others then the sacrifice should be made.

Law: law is the reflection of people’s minds. For some people ethics means to follow law. Their perspective on ethics is legal. However, for certain other people, law is the command of human minds and thus they may have unjust or unethical rules. David Thoreau did not want to pay taxes from his earning for war. He thought it’s unethical, and Martin Luther King argued that the segregation laws for black people are unjust so they should not be followed. However, the fact is that in a society where lawlessness prevails, people have much weaker ethics than those following law.

Religion:

Religious beliefs also add to the ethical perspective of its followers. Whichever God a person believes in, their religion gives a detailed intake on ethics. For instance, Muslims follow the Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) and the complete code of life Al-Qur’an. While Christians follow Prophet Jesus (P.B.U.H) and Bible. Buddhists follow Gautama Buddha; Confucians follow the teachings of Confucius. Almost all religions base their ethics on the basic Charter of humanity. All religions hold lying, stealing and dishonesty as immoral, while they all hold services to human beings and honesty as moral. And almost all of them talk about the reward of a moral life in the after life.

Communication in Ethical Context:

Legal Issues: there are certain legal issues that also involve ethical values. These involve defamation and privacy. Defamation can be both written and oral. Written defamation is libel while oral defamation is slander. A person or organization victim of libel or slander can sue the defamer. Although there are legal consequences of these actions however, they are unethical as well.

Every person has a right to their privacy. In well organized societies, individuals take care not to invade the privacy of their fellow beings. In certain hospitals and educational institutes the medical reports or transcripts of the patients and alumnae are not disclosed without their permission. Disclosing personal information might have legal implications but they are also unethical.

Harassment means irritating and tormenting another person on a repeated basis. Trying to scare someone or abuse them or using inappropriate communication is included in Harassment.

Harassment is also an unethical issue that prevails in different organizations. And now harassment in work places, on roads and in public places is about to be declared an illegal act. The bill has already been sanctioned by parliament and is about to be sanctioned by Senate. Stalking is also an unethical issue. Stalking means: to follow someone and make them uncomfortable. Stalking is also a type of harassment and thus it is unethical.

Discrimination on basis of gender and racial issues is also unethical. It is not formally induced in our penal code yet but it is unethical.

Another illegal act that is also unethical is intellectual theft or Plagiarism. Plagiarism means to adopt someone’s ideas without reference. Plagiarism is not only illegal; it is unethical and can bring serious consequences. Copyrighting protects a person against this intellectual theft. If a person’s work is copyright protected, they can sue the thief.

Key areas of Ethical Communication:

Personal or written message:

While composing a written message one needs to keep certain things in mind:

· Message purpose: the purpose of composing a message should be to serve maximum people. A negative message is better unsaid than said.

· Research methods: while composing an informational message, it is important to do some research. And to do research, certain measures are to be taken such as; the research sources should be recent, reliable and unbiased

· Selection of material: the material which is selected for the composition of message should be relevant. It should give the information or pass on ideas fairly and accurately without creating ambiguity.

· Development of ideas: the ideas should not be composed under influence of emotional state or bias. Propaganda and slanting should be avoided in every case.

· Language: language of written message should be appropriate and comprehensible. Concrete, specific and audience-oriented language should be used in order to ensure the successful communication.

· Ethical context: while composing a message the feelings of the receiver should be kept under consideration. It is unethical to deliberately agonize or insult a person.

· Self-analyses: ethics do not refer to comfort others only. The sender of a message should also be comfortable with the message he is sending. It is unethical to make oneself uncomfortable or compromise one’s ethical principles while composing a message. Because, it’s first grade deception

Cross-cultural and Advertising message:

The world is becoming a global village. We have to interact with people from across the borders and across continents. Different people have different cultures. It is unethical to take advantage of cultural difference.

It is ethically wrong to use miscommunication or manipulation while advertising. Statements like, you are smart enough to know our product is good, are manipulative statements. They might bully a customer emotionally to buy the product. Trying to confuse a customer by false or ambiguous statements is also unethical.

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