Chapter 8

This chapter was about organizational communication ethics, a topic that I'm very familiar with since I work in the HR field. The chapter began discussing what organizational communication ethics were, and I really liked how they defined it. The authors stated that "organizational communication ethics addresses the practices and functions of communication in organizations that protect and promote a particular good that defines a dwelling place" (p.140). This definition is great because it shows that each location of work might have a different "good" that is seen as the most beneficial or cherished at their particular company. However, the authors sum up to say that some goods need to be negotiated in order to complete the goals of the company. For example, one good might benefit the company more than another, so they would opt to using that good instead. This is really important because it shows how all the team members might have a voice within the organization. I think in order for a company to have a future, it needs to cater to the majorities wishes, and not just upper managements wants and needs.

By having these separate goods, a company/organization is able to become more competitive in their own arena because they have differences that many employees and managers may want or need in their environment. Due to the "community of environment" companies are able to see what was helpful to them in the past and what wasn't helpful. For example, one policy may have helped a team thrive in the past, however, when times have changed, it could have made the company be inefficient. All in all, this is a really interesting topic that shows how effective a workplace could really be if they practiced ethics more.