Understanding Intercultural
Communication Second Edition
Chapter 12
How Can We Become Ethical Intercultural
Communicators?
Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva C. Chung
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
PowerPoint Slides Designed by Alex Flecky and Noorie Baig
TODAY’S MENU
I. Intercultural Communication Ethics:
Contemporary Issues
II. Multiple Ethical Positions: Assessing Pros
and Cons
III. Becoming Ethical and Flexible
Intercultural Communicators
I. Intercultural Communication Ethics:
Contemporary Issues
Ethics: set of principles of conduct that
governs behavior of individuals and
groups; a set of standards that uphold the
community’s expectations concerning
“right” and “wrong” conduct.
I. Intercultural Communication Ethics:
Contemporary Issues
Discussion Questions:
•
•
From where did you learn your ethical
position?
Does it differ from that of the larger
culture to which you belong? How?
I. Intercultural Communication Ethics:
Contemporary Issues
Global Standard Procedure and Local
Justice Issues:
Five-phase ethical decision-making model:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Problem recognition
Information search
Construction of alternatives
Decision making choice
Implementation
I. Intercultural Communication Ethics:
Contemporary Issues
Media Activity: Click here to view the
Kenyan tradition of ‘beading’
Discussion Questions:
• Can you apply the five-phase ethical decisionmaking model to this ethical dilemma?
• Can you brainstorm some creative alternative
solutions for this dilemma?
• How would you go about approaching
traditional Kenyans to explain your views of
their practice?
I. Intercultural Communication Ethics:
Contemporary Issues
B. Corporate Responsibility and Local
Customary Practice
Ethical algorithm formula for local cultural
hiring practices.
• Two conflict types: moral reasoning (a) related to
and (b) not related to economic development in
country.
• Two questions:
o
o
(1) Is it possible to conduct business successfully
without undertaking the practice? and
(2) Is practice a violation of fundamental international
human rights?
I. Intercultural Communication Ethics:
Contemporary Issues
C. Cultural Value Clash & Communication
Preference
“Universalistic” or “impartial” value
orientation: believe a set of consistent
rules should apply to all individuals,
regardless of relationship types or
circumstances.
• “Particularistic” value orientation: nature of
relationship or situation guides decision.
•
II. Multiple Ethical Positions: Assessing
Pros and Cons
Three ethical positions used to assess
ethical violations in diverse cultures:
A. Ethical Absolutism Position
B. Ethical Relativism Position
C. Ethical Universalism Position
II. Multiple Ethical Positions: Assessing
Pros and Cons
A. Ethical Absolutism Position
• Emphasizes principles of right and wrong
(good and bad behavior) in accordance
with a set of assumed universally fixed
standards regardless of cultural differences.
• Universality: one set of consistent
standards guides behavior on a global level,
and cultural context is minimized. The
standards, however, are often reflective of
dominant or power-holder cultural group
lens.
II. Multiple Ethical Positions: Assessing
Pros and Cons
B. Ethical Relativism Position
•
•
Emphasizes the importance of understanding
cultural context and its underlying traditions,
beliefs, and value patterns in judging conduct.
Relativists emphasize that ethical/unethical
practices should be understood from
cultural insiders’ viewpoint.
II. Multiple Ethical Positions: Assessing
Pros and Cons
C. Ethical Universalism Position
• Emphasizes importance of deriving inclusive
universal ethical standards and then placing
ethical judgments against these derived, allencompassing standards.
• Judgments require knowledge about
underlying similarities across cultures and
about the unique features of a culture and
involve collaborative dialog, open attitudes,
and hard work from all cultural/ethnic and
marginalized groups and voices.
II. Multiple Ethical Positions: Assessing
Pros and Cons
Ethical
Absolutism
Ethical
Relativism
Ethical
Universalism
Pros
Fixed standards Takes role of
for all practices culture
seriously
Involves
collaborative
dialog, open
attitudes
Cons
Culturally
imposed
perspective by
dominant
culture, and
nondominant
cultures are
marginalized.
Requires hard
work from all;
most using this
position are
“imposed
ethics,” relying
heavily on
Eurocentric
moral
philosophies
Encourages too
much cultural
flexibility,
may perpetuate
intolerable
cultural
practices by
being too
culturally
accepting
II. Multiple Ethical Positions: Assessing
Pros and Cons
D. Meta-Ethics Contextualism Position:
An Alternative 4th Position:
Meta-ethics: ethical way of thinking that
transcends particular ideologies; the
application of ethics is understood only
through systematic analysis of the multiple
layers of the ethical dilemma
• Strength: emphasizes fact-finding and layered
interpretations, takes into serious consideration
importance of culture, context, persons, etc.
• Problem: time-consuming approach
III. Becoming Ethical and Flexible
Intercultural Communicators
A meta-ethical decision is a discovery
process—into our own values,
inconsistencies—and prompts us to
gather multiple-level information.
• Can you think of creative solutions other than
the ones investigated?
• Is there a way to prevent similar ethical
dilemmas or pressures from arising in the
future in this culture?
III. Becoming Ethical and Flexible
Intercultural Communicators
B. Becoming Flexible: Final Passport
Do-Ables
• Practice parallel thinking.
• Responsibility for peace lies with each of
us—starts with inner peace.
• Dynamic flexibility: integrating
knowledge, open-minded attitude,
culture-sensitive skills, and communicating
ethically with culturally dissimilar others.
Final Parting Thoughts…
An intercultural life is a creative life that demands both
playfulness and mindfulness in transforming one’s
intercultural journey into a discovery process.
~ Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva Chung