This stuff matters

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Sometimes the material we read in academic textbooks can seem, well…academic. Take for example the ethics of writing. It’s a standard topic in virtually any introductory text in Communications texts, but is it really that important to us as individual writers? Isn’t that stuff just common sense?

In the last month or so a couple of high-profile stories have reminded me that we really do need to be continually aware of the consequences of our words – especially in the era of digital communication, when anything we write can be circulated and stored in ways we never intended or even imagined.

1. You are always writing for posterity (potentially).

You just never know what random email is going to leak out and make you look good/bad. The ongoing legal battle between Samsung and Apple has resulted in the disclosure of many internal documents written by a small group of Samsung employees without much concern for how they might appear in the future. Did the people drafting the memos ever think they’d be seeing their words again as part of a court case? If they’d known in advance, you can bet they would have phrased their thoughts differently.

 

On the other side of the coin there are examples of “internal” communications written with a much wider audience already in mind. One well-known example that sheds a lot of light on the inner workings of a company is Microsoft CEO Bill Gates’s 1995 “Internet” memo. Up to 1995 many felt Microsoft was ignoring the Internet, hoping perhaps it was a fad that would simply die away, like CB Radio. After this memo Microsoft’s strategy shifted to deal with the Internet, beginning with the bundling of Internet Explorer and the creation of MSN.com later that year.

 

Though it was sent initially to only a handful of senior executives, the contents were written to be distributed widely as they called for a major shift in focus at a company with tens of thousands of employees.

2. Dishonest writing can be very costly.

Plagiarism may seem like an academic transgression rather than a crime with real-world consequences, but few people can survive the loss of credibility that comes from being discovered as a plagiarist. Here are three recent examples of dishonesty or sloppy ethics by professionals that led to their dismissal or resignation:

 

Especially in roles where your integrity stands as a model for others, it is imperative your words really are your words.

 

3. Reputations are hard to earn and easy to lose.

At the public as well as the personal level it is wise to view integrity as a currency. Like all modern currencies one’s integrity is backed by public trust and faith in its value. Once trust in a currency is undermined it’s a far harder task to rebuild. Businesses are right to worry about their “brand” and must guard their image with the public. Maintaining a consistent and credible image in the public’s eye is easiest when an organization’s public statements are reflected by their actions. Even attempts at positive acts, ill-considered, can backfire: witness the lamentable trend towards “Greenwashing” and the subsequent consumer backlash experienced by businesses.

 

The above examples are fairly high-profile examples, but the same dynamics are at work in every communication situation. Words are a form of action, and actions have consequences. The textbooks are right to make a big deal out of ethics in communication, not just for the moral obligation we have to communicate ethically, but also because of the legal, personal and public repercussions of behaving unethically in speech or print.

 

 

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