in the interpersonal setting. Whether the consequences of our messages are simple or
profound, we cannot hide from the fact that our communicative actions affect other
people.
You have probably realized by now that ethics is an elusive, multifaceted topic.
And while the motivations for your ethical decisions come from a host of sources
(parents, church, school, mass media, etc.), in the final analysis, the decision to act
in one way or another is your responsibility. The choice of which course of action to
take is complicated by the fact that many ethical decisions are automatic, made sub-
consciously due to prior conditioning. Additionally, a person’s set of ethics serves to
provide him or her with instructions on how to make difficult moral decisions in both
professional and personal settings. Ethical choices are even more challenging when
ethical practices collide—as they often do in intercultural exchanges. We are positing
that ethical systems are subject to cultural diversity.
This observation of varying moral systems raises the question of whether there is
an absolute morality and set of universal ethical principles. We conclude that the
answer is“no.” Although people hold many of the same ethical precepts, they
advance diverse arguments about what is the“true”morality, whether morality is
absolute, or whether it is relative to specific cultures. It is not our intent to settle
this dispute. Rather, we offer you a brief overview of two of the most common
perspectives—relativismanduniversalism—employed by people and cultures to deal
with ethical issues.Relativism
Cultural relativism is predicated on the belief that ethical systems can vary among
cultures, all systems are equally valid, and there is no single system that is better
than the others. In other words, what is believed and valued in one culture may be
different in another culture. From the relativist perspective, what is correct or incor-
rect, right or wrong, true or untrue, is determined within that culture. More specifi-
cally, this orientation holds that ethical principles are culturally bound, context
dependent, and applicable only to their respective cultures.^52 Relativism underscores
the fact that different cultures not only often fail to agree on specific practices and
beliefs but also contrast on moral codes concerning right and wrong, virtue and vice.
The basic philosophical premise behind relativism is that“there is no single true
morality.”^53 As indicated, this ethical philosophy advocates the view that there is no
one correct moral code for all times and all people, that each group has its own
morality relative to its wants and values, and that moral ideals are necessarily relative
to a particular group of people.
Stop for a moment and recall the
examples given in Chapter 6 about the
United States and China viewing the
application of human rights from differ-
ent perspectives and China’s practice of
hiring in-group members, even when less
qualified, before employing out-group members. From the ethical relativistic view,
China’s approach to human rights and giving in-group members precedence
would be no more or less ethical than the opposite principles followed in the
United States.REMEMBER THIS
The relative perspective of ethics holds that values and morality
are culturally bound and primarily depend on the perspective of
the respective culture.Ethics in Communication 401Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).