Ethical Issues in Business Communication

¶ … Ethical Issues in Business Communication

Attached please find two very recent news reports concerning important issues in the areas of business ethics and communications. In addition to their individual relevance to contemporary business, they are also particularly useful in connection with the inevitable intersection between matters of business ethics and modern communications trends. The first article details the extent to which increased communications freedom in the former Soviet Union have inspired emulation of ethical codes of conduct in modern business by virtue of the information exchange with Western society. The second article details the extent to which the latest technological trends in digital communications have been instrumental in inspiring the peoples of oppressive dictatorships to organize in opposition, such as was the case in Egypt in a situation that is still unfolding today.

Article #1 -- Narizhnaya, K. "Ethical Business Culture Becoming Codified."

The Moscow Times, 23 February 2011.

For generations, corruption in business and preferential government treatment for Communist Party members has been the norm in the former Soviet Union. Bribes have always been commonplace throughout the conduct of business and government administration, especially at the local level. Meanwhile, concepts of business ethics such as those that have been evolving rapidly in Western society in general and in the United States in particular for several decades at least.

It is undeniable that the increased flow of information attributable to the information age is substantially responsible for this evolution in the former Soviet Union. In fact, the tremendous power of widespread access to information, especially via the Internet, is precisely why repressive regimes such as those in Power in North Korea in particular, have prohibited access to the Internet in those societies. In the case of business leaders in the former Soviet Union, it is clear that many of them have realized that the old ways of doing business will no longer be possible now that the public has such widespread access to details about how differently business is typically conducted elsewhere in the world. As a result, more and more business leaders in the former Soviet Union have begun adopting Western-style codes of ethical conduct in the workplace that reflect many of the fundamental ethical principles recognized in the West.

Article #2 -- Pagano, M. "What are the business ethics of revolution 2.0?"

Independent.co.uk, 13 February 2011.