Business and social interaction build on daily activities of all the individuals. The manner in which we express ourselves and transfer the information to other people has significant influence on our social wellbeing. Professional and business surroundings are extremely demanding in regards to individual ability to manage interpersonal relationships. Communication process, in this situation has very wide meaning and can be summarized as the instrument of using all the available resources to transfer information, persuade, inspire and connect individuals in a given business context (Means and Rankin, 2009). With that in mind, there is a strong relationship between communication and ethics. Communication ethics seeks to address three core questions: 1) What? 2)How? And 3) outcomes of the communication (Sage Pub, 2009). These questions allow outlining core principles of communication: choice, moral agency and responsibilities.
Choice is the set of options that individual has in a given situation. Moral agency in this situation limits the freedom of an individual by the ‘freedoms’ of other people who participate in the conversation. In other words, our freedom to choose the options available is limited by the way it will affect the choice of other people. The decision that we take in regards to the choices and options, in turn outlines the principle of responsibility for our actions in communication – verbal, electronic, visual or any other. What does it mean in our daily business communication?
Every time we encounter with a situation where we have to interact with our colleagues in a business environment, we take decisions in regards to the tone, formality and manner in which we approach this communication process. Whether we give a handshake or bold our head at the time of a meeting is the choice that we make and this choice will be limited by our components by cultural, social or personal behavior pattern. For example, handshake will not be an appropriate choice in meeting with Japanese colleague. Finally, the degree to which we can determine these social, cultural and business needs and freedoms of our colleagues and opponents in a communication process is the responsibility of ethical communication that lies upon each of us jointly.
References
Means T. and Rankin D. (2010). Business Communication. Mason, OH: South-Western Centage Learning. Print.
Sage Pub (2009). 21st Century Communication Handbook. Oaks, CA: Sage Reference Online. Retrieved 8 February 2014, http://www.sagepub.com/edwards/study/materials/reference/77593_1.1ref.pdf
