Ethics are not just important in communications, but in business practices, education, in life. Ethics are guidelines that are set in place to handle situations in a professional, civil and appropriate manner. It is also how we conduct ourselves. In a law class, in a given situation, it will be in question: Did that person act ethically? Ethics is extremely important in communications, businesses and it helps one to know how to act in a given situation. It makes you question what is right and wrong and how you would handle yourself.
Simply put, if you perform unethical business practices, the consumer will lose trust in your company and product and there will be no return customers. This leads to the business failing and a loss of investment to the owner and any investors. It is not always easy to take the ethical route in business but it is important to do so in order to remain successful. Ex: With fuel going for four dollars a gallon, if a gas station charged for five gallons at the pump but the customer only received four gallons due to tampering with the internal computer of the pump, customers will stop visiting this station. This would be unethical and result in business failure.
Your ethics are also a way that people will measure you. If you do not act ethically people will have a hard time trusting you. For example, a sales person that tells you a blatant lie to get you to buy their product is acting unethically. The next time you want to buy a product that they sell, you most likely will not go back to that company, and at the very least you wont return to the same sales person because you were lied to, and you can't trust them to be honest and accurate. And the same goes for all dealings with people. If you lie, cheat, bulldoze, steal, and undercut people, you wont be trusted. There are other ways to act unethically, some that are illegal, but you get the idea.
Importance of ethics in business communication has increased more after the dawn of information technology. There are a number of unethical practices which information technology has made easier. Therefore, ethics in business communications are getting very significant. Importance of business ethics in communication becomes more obvious when we look at communication ways like annual financial reports and accounting practices of the company. These are some of the tools between the company and the public and if ethical practices are not followed whilst preparing these documents then company can have bad image. That’s why ethical practices in business communications are getting very important.
