Trends in Public Relations: Exploring the Role of Ethics as it Relates to Social Media and Crisis Communication

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Corrigendum

Ethics Elsewhere

This feature offers briefs of ethics-related published scholarship in other fields, such as business ethics, environmental ethics, moral psychology, and neuroethics, to expand our understanding of how to think about ethical issues. The approach here is intentional to include scholarly research in cognate fields that complement media ethics research.

Chell, E., Spence, L. J., Perrini, F., & Harris, J. D. (2016). Social entrepreneurship and business ethics: Does social equal ethical? Journal of Business Ethics, 133(4), 619–625

The editors of this special issue explore the ethical nature of social entrepreneurship and businesses. They question whether social businesses are inherently ethical. Through collecting information from ethical and entrepreneurship perspectives, the authors found that even though social entrepreneurs may have good intentions, their pursuit to acquire capital or overcome other obstacles may result in unethical behavior. The authors leave the reader with fascinating questions about what it means to be a social entrepreneur and how social enterprises, particularly in a capitalist society, can be ethically funded while promoting the greater good for society.

Kaptein, M. (2016). The battle for business ethics: A struggle theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 1–19

In this article, the authors discuss the challenge that organizations face when striving to become ethical, especially in the face of internal and external temptations. This article seeks to develop a theory of struggle that provides insight about when struggle is needed and the outcomes that result from the inherent struggle of trying to be ethical. According to the author, without the presence of struggle, ethics gaps will take form, and the larger the ethics gap, the more struggle will be needed in order for an organization to be ethical. Using the Struggle Theory presented by the author, organizations can be viewed as ethics battlefields, where employees are motivated to keep fighting to act ethically in spite of temptations. In addition, the author suggests that using the struggle theory helps present a more balanced approach to ethics, as it shows ethical norms as dynamic, shedding light on the challenges involved with implementing new ethical norms.

Gino, F. (2015). Understanding ordinary unethical behavior: Why people who value morality act immorally. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 3, 107–111

In this article, the author discusses recent articles about behavior ethics and moral psychology on ordinary unethical behavior. According to the authors’ findings, there are two types of research that have dominated the field, including research about people deliberately acting unethical and research about people unknowingly engaging in unethical behavior. Because unethical behavior can have damaging effects, the author suggests that morality is dynamic, meaning that people do not always act consistently in different situation, and even though people strive to be ethical, they have the ability to fail to be ethical in all situations.

Teper, R., Zhong, C. B., & Inzlicht, M. (2015). How emotions shape moral behavior: Some answers (and questions) for the field of moral psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(1), 1–14

In this article, the authors explore how emotions affect moral behavior. According to the authors, the field of moral psychology has only considered moral judgments independently, with very few studies actually studying how emotions affect moral decision making. As one of the first studies to analyze emotion’s role in moral behavior, this article draws upon empirical evidence from other studies to help explain how affective experience drives moral action. The authors suggest that affective processes can impact moral transgressions, and they encourage future research to develop a theory to explain how emotions influence moral behavior.

Tobia, K. P. (2016). Personal identity, direction of change, and neuroethics. Neuroethics, 9(1), 37–43

In this article, the author discusses the story of Phineas Gage, a person who miraculously survived an iron spike penetrating his skull. According to the story, Gage was tremendously different after the accident, which suggests that he essentially lost his personal identity or true self. In light of the story, the author suggests that the direction of change, whether it being an improvement or a deterioration, can affect neuroethical judgments. Additionally, the author encourages people to consider the ways in which good and bad changes affect attributions of personal identity, especially since neuroethical decisions involve cognitive enhancements or deteriorations.

Olteanu, M. D. B. (2015). Neuroethics and responsibility in conducting neuromarketing research. Neuroethics, 8(2), 191–202

Given that neuromarketing research, or research studying the brain and consumer choice using brain scanning technology, has increased in popularity over the past decade, this article examines the ethical issues surrounding the use of people as subjects in neuroimaging studies. Because companies may not have the subject’s best interest at heart, the author proposes a number of guidelines that neuromarketers should follow to ensure ethical behavior. Implementing ethics committees, protecting vulnerable populations from being subjects, and obtaining consent from participants are just a few suggestions that the author provides to encourage ethical neuromarketing.

Notes

Special thanks to Courtney Powers, graduate research assistant in the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University.