Just a Job?: Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life

George Cheney · Daniel J. Lair · Dean Ritz · Brenden E. Kendall

Nov 2009 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

From cartoons to boardrooms comes the statement, "It's not personal. It's just business." Just a Job? Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life offers a provocative perspective on ethics at work. The book questions the notions that doing ethics at work has to be work, and that work is somehow a sphere where a different set of rules applies. This problematic line between work and life runs through the ways we commonly talk about ethics, from our personal relationships to the domains of work, including the organization, the profession, and the market. Talk about ethics is far more than "just talk," and this book shows how and why it matters. Drawing from the fields of communication and rhetoric, the authors show how the very framing of ethics--even before we approach specific decisions--limits the potential roles of ethics in our work lives and the pursuit of happiness, and treats it as something that is meaningful only at special moments such as when faced with dilemmas, or as the last chapter in a business book. Separating ethics from life, we put it beyond our daily reach. The authors argue against ethical myopia limited to spectacular scandals or comprehensive professional codes. Instead, they propose a master reframe of ethics based on a new take on virtue ethics, including Aristotle's practical ideal of eudaimonia or flourishing, which tells new stories about the ordinary as well as extraordinary aspects of professional integrity and success. By reframing ethics as not special, they elevate it to its rightful position in work and personal life. Generously illustrated with examples and ideas from scholarly as well as popular sources, this book asks us to reconsider the meaning of and path toward the "good life."

About the author

George Cheney is Professor of Communication and Director of the Tanner Human Rights Center and Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Utah. He is Adjunct Professor of Management Communication at The University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ. In the fall of 2010, he will become the John T. Jones Professor of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, USA. He has published widely, and has taught, consulted, and participated in service projects on several continents. Dan Lair is Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Ethics in the Department of Human Communication Studies at the University of Denver. His research has appeared in outlets including Management Communication Quarterly, Communication Yearbook, and the Handbook of Organizational Discourse. Dean Ritz is a consultant for corporate compliance. His research on ethics has been published in outlets including the New College of California Law Review, the journal Ethical Space, and most recently in the Oxford University Press volume The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility. Brenden Kendall is a doctoral candidate and Steffensen Cannon Research Fellow in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. His research has been published in outlets including Environmental Communication and the Oxford University Press volume The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility.