Marketing communication: principles and practice

MANAGING ETHICALLY
Snell (1999) points out four basic objections to the idea of ethics for business.
Psychological egotism sees people as only ever pursuing their own immediate
interests. But our experience shows us that this is fairly rare since people are
successful in business when acting altruistically, with benevolence, in the
service of others as ‘good citizens’. A Machiavellian analysis of power suggests
that to get to the top requires manipulation, controlling and altering
information, lobbying, impression management, ingratiation, controlling
scarce resources, and so on. Attention to business ethics would then require
the surrender of these power-gaining and power-wielding tactics. Some
people believe that business has its own form of rules. However, this is
unsatisfactory since it implies that business does not impact on wider society.
Another objection is that legally acceptable action is also morally acceptable.
But much that is unethical in the working environment never comes under
legal scrutiny. Milton Friedman (1970) condemned the ‘doctrine of social
responsibility’ in his agency argument. Corporate employees are contractually
obliged, he argued, to serve the interests of the employer within the law.
Anything else is effectively stealing from the employer. Investment in wider
community interest should not go beyond what will return a pay-off in
corporate image, consumer loyalty, share price, limitations on regulatory
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interference, and so on. But business decisions can impose great cost (harm,
damage, etc.) on others. Friedman’s view is exclusionary, self-serving ideology
that regards people as worth little.
Snell (1999) highlights the essentials of ethical thought and argument.
Utilitarianism judges the moral worth of actions in terms of the utility of their
foreseeable consequences for everyone affected (cost versus benefit). Actions
leading to the greatest net benefit for the greatest number of people are
favoured. This approach examines what is produced and its consequences
but not the process. A complementary approach is deontology. This assumes
that we are morally obliged to follow fundamental principles in our inter-
actions. Thus, act only as you would wish to be universal for everyone and
how you want others to treat you. Also, never treat a person as a means to
an end but rather as an end in himself or herself. This protects against egotism.
A middle-ground position is the five forms of justice: compensatory compen-
sates for harm or violation; retributive punishes bad deeds; procedural
requires fair procedures, practices, and agreements; distributive concerns the
handing out of benefits and burdens; and interactional is concerned with
the quality of treatment received from a decision-maker and the extent to
which formal decision procedures are properly adhered to. Finally, the service
of stakeholders is counter to Friedman’s ‘business as a game’, taking into
account the many people who are affected by or affect business decisions
and actions. This approach emphasizes the building of trust and cooperation
among all stakeholders – requiring political sensitivity and communicative/
interactional competence.
We will consider the need for ethical communication systems as the basis
for ethical marketing communication later in this chapter.