1. 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

2. TODAY‟S MENU
I. Intercultural Communication Ethics:
Contemporary Issues
II. Multiple Ethical Positions: Assessing
Pros and Cons
III. Becoming Ethical and Flexible
Intercultural Communicators

3. 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.

4. 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?

5. I. Intercultural Communication
Ethics:
Contemporary Issues
Global Standard Procedure and Local
Justice Issues:
Five-phase ethical decision-making model:
1. Problem recognition
2. Information search
3. Construction of alternatives
4. Decision making choice
5. Implementation

6. 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
decision-making 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

7. 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 (1) Is it possible to conduct business successfully
without undertaking the practice? and
o (2) Is practice a violation of fundamental
international human rights?

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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, all-encompassing
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

13. II. Multiple Ethical Positions:
Assessing
Pros and Cons
Ethical Ethical Ethical
Absolutism Relativism Universalism
Pros

14. II. Multiple Ethical Positions:
Assessing
Pros and Cons
Ethical Ethical Ethical
Absolutism Relativism Universalism
Pros Fixed
standards for
all practices

15. II. Multiple Ethical Positions:
Assessing
Pros and Cons
Ethical Ethical Ethical
Absolutism Relativism Universalism
Pros Fixed Takes role of
standards for culture
all practices seriously

16. II. Multiple Ethical Positions:
Assessing
Pros and Cons
Ethical Ethical Ethical
Absolutism Relativism Universalism
Pros Fixed Takes role of Involves
standards for culture collaborative
all practices seriously dialog, open
attitudes

17. II. Multiple Ethical Positions:
Assessing
Pros and Cons
Ethical Ethical Ethical
Absolutism Relativism Universalism
Pros Fixed Takes role of Involves
standards for culture collaborative
all practices seriously dialog, open
attitudes
Cons

18. II. Multiple Ethical Positions:
Assessing
Pros and Cons
Ethical Ethical Ethical
Absolutism Relativism Universalism
Pros Fixed Takes role of Involves
standards for culture collaborative
all practices seriously dialog, open
attitudes
Cons Culturally
imposed
perspective
by dominant
culture, and
nondominant
cultures are
marginalized.

19. II. Multiple Ethical Positions:
Assessing
Pros and Cons
Ethical Ethical Ethical
Absolutism Relativism Universalism
Pros Fixed Takes role of Involves
standards for culture collaborative
all practices seriously dialog, open
attitudes
Cons Culturally Encourages
imposed too much
perspective cultural
by dominant flexibility,
culture, and may
nondominant perpetuate
cultures are intolerable
marginalized cultural
practices by
being too

20. II. Multiple Ethical Positions:
Assessing
Pros and Cons
Ethical Ethical Ethical
Absolutism Relativism Universalism
Pros Fixed Takes role of Involves
standards for culture collaborative
all practices seriously dialog, open
attitudes
Cons Culturally Encourages Requires hard
imposed too much work from all;
perspective cultural most using
by dominant flexibility, this position
culture, and may are “imposed
nondominant perpetuate ethics,”
cultures are intolerable relying heavily
marginalized. cultural on
practices by Eurocentric
being too moral

21. 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

22. 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?

23. 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.

24. 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