Analyzing the Ethics of Organizational Communication: Five Case Studies

Analyzing the Ethics of Organizational Communication: Five Case Studies

Presenter(s)

Kennedy Byrd, Josie Cannon, Spencer Dileo, Brian Dolby, Patrick Dunn, Michael Duvic, Timothy Duvic, Logan Foody, Charles Frech, Rafael Garcia, Yohanes Getahun, Rachel Hack, Alayah Harris, Joseph Healy, Brooke Higgins, Aidan Hogan, Calvin Kohloff, Marisol Martinez, Spencer Masteller, Corey Moriarty, Joshua Nelson, Cassidy Oyer, John Patton, Owen Purcell, Tranee Robinson, Justine Smith, Quinton Smole, Evie Stuczynski, Alex Thoma, Madeleine Vandegrift, Nathan Vrzic

Comments

2:30-3:30, Kennedy Union 222

Description

As a course, we explored several cases of organizational communication at the University of Dayton through the lens of ethics. Each team selected an organization, group, or community on campus to examine. After interviewing multiple members of that collective and/or key stakeholders, each team wrote up the case using a descriptive ethics approach. In their case, they told the story of what happened, including key actors and action and the impacts of these actions on others, while examining also the intentionality of those actions in terms of goals, motives, perceptions, and understandings of the actors. Through this analysis, they attempted to map the terrain of a ethical choice, dilemma, or act, both at the interpersonal and the organizational levels. In the next stages of the project, each team analyzed what happened through the lens of normative and analytical ethics. First, they selected and applied a specific perspective of organizational communication ethics and drew conclusions about the ethicality of specific actions in accordance with that perspective (normative ethics). Then, they conducted a similar analysis using a second ethical perspective and drew conclusions across the two perspectives, including about the applicability of the perspectives themselves (analytical ethics). The goal of the project was to help students to understand the need for ethical analysis of organizational communication, in addition to the examination of actions in terms of effectiveness and other practical concerns. Another goal was to help students, as future managers, build their capacity to engage in this type of analysis.

Publication Date

4-23-2025

Project Designation

Course Project - CMM 425 01

Primary Advisor

Jason E. Combs

Primary Advisor's Department

Communication

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Institutional Learning Goals

Practical Wisdom

Analyzing the Ethics of Organizational Communication: Five Case Studies

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