For some people, ethics are about issues of morality. For others, ethics are a matter of law. Actually, ethics bring together many different ideas about appropriate behavior in a society.
Ethics are systems of moral, social, or cultural values that govern the conduct of an individual or community. For many people, acting ethically simply means "doing the right thing," a phrase that actually sums up ethics quite well. The hard part, of course, is figuring out the right thing to do. Ethical choices, after all, are not always straightforward.
Every decision you make has an ethical dimension, whether it is apparent or not. In most workplace situations, the ethical choice is apparent, so you do not pause to consider whether you are acting ethically. Occasionally, though, you will be presented with an ethical dilemma that needs more consideration. An ethical dilemma offers a choice among two or more unsatisfactory courses of action. At these decision points, it is helpful to ponder the ethics of each path so you can make the best choice.
In technical workplaces, resolving ethical dilemmas will be a part of your job. Resources, time, and reputations are at stake, so you will feel pressure to over-promise, underdeliver, bend the rules, cook the numbers, or exaggerate results. Technical fields are also highly competitive, so people sometimes stretch a little further than they should. Ethical dilemmas can force us into situations where all choices seem unsatisfactory.
Why do some people behave unethically? People rarely set out to do something unethical. Rather, they find themselves facing a tough decision in which moving forward means taking risks or treating others unfairly. In these situations, they may be tempted to act unethically due to a fear of failure, a desire to survive, the pressure from others, or just a series of bad decisions.
Keep in mind, though, that ethics are not always about deception or fraud. A famous decision involving Albert Einstein offers an interesting example. There was a letter that Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt encouraging research into the development of the atom bomb. Throughout the rest of his life, Einstein, who was an ardent pacifist, was troubled by this letter. Five months before his death, he stated:
I made one great mistake in my life ... when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification—the danger that the Germans would make them. (Clark, p. 752)
In this quote, you see the ethical dilemma weighing on Einstein. He deeply regretted the atom bomb's development and use on Japan. However, he also recognized that his letter may have alerted Roosevelt to a very real danger. Historians have pointed out that Einstein's letter may have helped prevent the Nazis from creating an atom bomb themselves. Ethical dilemmas put people in these kinds of quandaries.Where do Ethics come from?
Personal ethics —Values derived from family, culture, and faith
Social ethics – Values required from constitutional, legal, utilitarian, and caring sources
Conservation ethics—Values required to protect and preserve the ecosystem in which we live.
Personal Ethics
By this point in your life, you have developed a good sense of right and wrong. More than likely, your personal ethics derive from your family, your culture, and your faith. Your family, especially your parents, taught you some principles to live by. Meanwhile, your culture, including the people in your neighborhood or even the people you watch on television, has shaped how you make decisions. And, for many people, their faith gives them specific principles about how they should live their lives.
The basis for almost all personal ethics is the "Golden Rule," which has been championed by numerous philosophers and religious figures, including Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, and Socrates.
The Golden Rule states that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This simple rule offers a strong foundation for personal ethics. In fact, it probably already guides the majority of your daily ethical decisions. Each day, you have opportunities to lie, steal, cheat, vandalize, or hurt people. But you don't, because you know that hurting others ultimately hurts yourself. Further, your family, culture, and faith have taught you that respecting the needs of others means others will respect your needs.
In the technical workplace, a strong sense of personal values is essential, because these values offer a reliable touchstone for ethical behavior. A good exercise is making a list of values that you hold dear. Perhaps some of these values are honesty, integrity, respect, candor, loyalty, politeness, thoughtfulness, cautiousness, thriftiness, and caring. By articulating these values and following them, you will likely find yourself acting ethically in almost all situations.
Social Ethics
In technical workplaces, the most difficult ethical dilemmas are usually found in the social realm. Social ethics require you to think more globally about the consequences of your or your company's actions.
Ethics scholar Manuel Velasquez (2002) offers a helpful four-part categorization of social ethical situations:
Rights—Rights are fundamental freedoms that are innate to humans or granted by a nation to its citizens. Human rights, like those mentioned in the U.S. Declaration of Independence (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), are innate to humans and cannot be taken away. Constitutional rights (freedom of speech, right to bear arms, protection against double jeopardy) are the rights held in common by citizens of a nation.
Justice—Justice involves fairness among equals. Justice takes its most obvious form in the laws that govern a society. Our laws are a formalized ethical system that is designed to ensure that people are treated equally and fairly. Similarly, corporate policies are the rules that ensure fairness within a company.
Utility—Utility suggests that the interests of the majority should outweigh the interests of the few. Of paramount importance to utilitarianism is the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
Care—Care suggests that tolerance and compassion take precedence over rigid, absolute rules. Ethics of care suggest that each situation should be judged on its own, putting heightened attention on concern for the welfare of people and preserving relationships. It also recognizes that some relationships, like those involving friends and family, will often lead to ethical choices that transcend rights, justice, and utility.
Legal issues, usually involving rights and justice, are especially important in technical communication, because the temptation to break the law to gain a competitive edge can be great. Legal issues of copyright law, patent law, liability, privacy, and fraud are crucial concerns that affect how individuals and companies conduct themselves. You should be aware of the laws that apply to your discipline.
Conservation Ethics
Increasingly, issues involving our ecosystems are becoming sources for ethical dilemmas. With issues such as global warming, nuclear waste storage, toxic waste disposal, and overpopulation, we must move beyond the idea that conservation is a personal virtue. We are now forced to realize that human health and survival are closely tied to the health and survival of the entire ecosystem in which we live. Conservation ethics involve issues of water conservation, chemical and nuclear production and waste, management of insects and weeds in agriculture, mining, energy production and use, land use, pollution, and other environmental issues.
People who work in technical fields need to be especially aware of conservation ethics, because we handle so many tools and products that can damage the ecosystem. Without careful concern for use and disposal of materials and wastes, we can do great harm to the environment.
Ultimately, conservation ethics are about sustainability. Can humans interact with their ecology in ways that are sustainable in the long term? Conservation ethics recognize that resources must be used. They simply ask that people use resources in sustainable ways. They ask us to pay attention to the impact our decisions have on the air, water, soil, plants, and animals on this planet.
Conservation ethics are becoming increasingly important. The twenty-first century has been characterized as the "Green Century," because humans have reached a point where we can no longer ignore the ecological damage caused by our decisions. For example, within this century, estimates suggest that human-caused climate change will raise global temperatures between 2 and 10 degrees. Such a rise would radically alter our ecosystem.
Copyright Law In Technical Communication
An interesting flash point today is copyright law. A copyright gives someone an exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, or sell his or her literary, musical, or artistic works. The U.S. law that governs copyright protection is called "Title 17" of the U.S. Code.
Essentially, a copyright means creative work is someone's property. If others would like to duplicate that work, they need to ask permission and possibly pay the owner. Authors, musicians, and artists often sign over their copyrights to publishers, who pay them royalties for the right to duplicate their work.
New electronic media, however, have complicated copyright law. For example.
When you purchase something, like a music CD, you have the right to duplicate it for your personal use. What happens if you decide to copy a song off a CD and put it on your website for downloading? You might claim that you put it on your website for your personal use, but now anyone else can download the song for free. Are you violating copyright law?
You can reproduce the work of others "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research." This is referred to as "fair use." So, is it illegal to scan whole chapters of books for "teaching purposes" and put them on a CD for fellow students or co-workers?
New technology like webcasting (using digital cameras to broadcast over the Internet) allows people to produce creative works. If you decided to webcast your and your roommates' dorm room antics each evening, would you be protected by copyright law?
Blogs, or web logs, are becoming a popular way to broadcast news and opinions. Are these materials copyrighted? Is it illegal to share words and images on blogs?
The answer to these questions is "yes," but the laws are still being worked out.
The problem is the ease of duplication. Before computers, copyrights were easier to protect because expensive equipment like printing presses, sound studios, and heavy cameras were required to copy someone else's work. Today, anyone can easily duplicate the works of others with a scanner, CD/DVD recorder, or digital video recorder.
Ultimately, violating copyright is like stealing someone else's property. The fact that it is easier to steal today does not make it acceptable. Nevertheless, a few scholars have argued that copyright law is antiquated and that this kind of electronic sharing is how people will use text and music in the future.
Asking Permission
To avoid legal problems, it is best to follow copyright law as it is currently written. You need to ask permission if you would like to duplicate or take something from someone else's work. You can ask permission by writing a letter or e-mail to the publisher of the materials. Publishers can almost always be found on the Internet. On their websites, they will often include a procedure for obtaining permissions. Tell them exactly what you want to use and how it will be used.
In some cases, especially when you are a student, your use may fall under the "fair use clause" of the Copyright Act. Fair use allows people to copy works for purposes of "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research" (17 U.S. Code, sec. 107). If your use of the materials falls under these guidelines, you may have a limited right to use the materials without asking permission.
For example, fair use would likely allow you to use a song legally downloaded from the Internet as background music in a presentation to your class. However, it does not allow you to distribute that song freely for your friends, even if you claim you are doing so for educational purposes.
Plagiarism
One type of copyright infringement is plagiarism. In Chapter 7 of the book “Technical Communication Today” by R. Johnson-Sheehan, plagiarism is discussed in depth, but the subject is worth briefly mentioning here. Plagiarism is the use of someone else's text or ideas as your own without giving credit. Plagiarism is a violation of copyright law, but it is also a form of academic dishonesty that can have consequences for your education and career.
For example, cutting and pasting words and images off the Internet and "patch-writing" them into your documents is a form of plagiarism, unless those materials are properly cited. To avoid questions of plagiarism, make sure you cite your sources properly and, when needed, ask permission to use someone else's work.
Resolving Ethical Dilemmas
No doubt, you will be faced with numerous ethical dilemmas during your career. There is no formula or mechanism you can use to come up with the right answer. Rather, ethical dilemmas usually force us to choose among uncomfortable alternatives.
Doing the right thing can mean putting your reputation and your career on the line. It might mean putting the interests of people above profits. It also might mean putting the long-term interests of the environment above short-term solutions to waste disposal and use of resources.
