Chapter 10 Business and Professional Comm Ethics

I thought that chapter 10 on Business and Professional Communication Ethics was one of the most clear and concise chapters that we have read so far. In the beginning the text clearly defined it as "the study of communication within particular business and professional settings, defined by participation in the public square of competitive economic exchange" (174). However, the one quote that stood out the most for me came shortly after when the text said, "Business and professional communication ethics assumes no one recipe for long-term success, only one truism- a business must embrace a unity of direction and change in the actualizing of the communicative goods of survival and competitiveness if it hopes to last" (176). Throughout the entire chapter the ideas of direction and an awareness to change direction when required were repeated over and over, and I agree completely that those are important to the success of a business. Without a direction, communication is nearly impossible, and the business soon would become a group of individuals working for what they deemed to be the best direction. Simply put, that wouldn't work. Instead, with a unified direction one can equate the good with that of the business rather than that of themselves, thus being able to promote and protect it for survival and competitiveness in the marketplace. But as we have learned in class, there is always this thing lurking called post modernity. Differences rise, circumstances change, and often times a given historical moment will demand that a business change their direction.

At Mariucci Arena, I have witnessed this very notion first hand. As a zamboni driver, my primary job is to take care of the ice. Now, I'll be honest, it's really a glorified custodial position, but my main focus is the ice, and cleaning the building and working on projects falls in between resurfaces. However, our focus completely changes now that there is no longer ice. All of a sudden, instead of driving all the time, we're working with other people in the building, taking care of maintenance type stuff, or setting up stages like for Spring Jam. Our direction shifted from ice maintenance to building maintenance since the demand for ice rentals is low in the summer and we need to ensure that money is still coming into the building. With that being said, the good that we are trying to promote in Mariucci Arena hasn't really changed, but our direction and communication has to in order to be successful and remain competitive outside of hockey season.