Just A Job? Communication, Ethics And Professional Life Hardcover

George Cheney

The concept of 'professionalism' has gained everyday resonance in the twenty-first century, especially given recent corporate scandals. However, George Cheney argues, as much as it may be discussed, professionalism has lost much of its broader social and community-related implications, as the trends of careerism, consumerism, and contingent employment have challenged and eroded collective senses of professional responsibility. In addition, professionalism has become depoliticized, even as it has continued to manifest certain racial, class-oriented, and gender biases in many contexts. In Professional Ethics, Cheney will explore everyday practices in contemporary professional ethics. Specifically, he analyzes the broad patterns of our talk about 'being a professional' in contemporary industrialized societies and in global elite networks. Above all, he aims to produce a thematically unified, theoretically informed, and accessibly written account of the ways we understand not only specific ethical issues at work (e.g., advance notification of corporate layoffs, or conflicts of interest in commerce and politics) but also the ways we frame professional ethics today. Throughout, Cheney passionately describes the limited roles and absences of ethics in professional decisions and behavior today, and lays out the groundwork for a resurrection of professional citizenship. This volume should appeal to practicing managers, academics, and upper-division and graduate students in communication and business ethics.

0195182774

9780195182774

English

Oxford University Press Inc

12 November 2009

312

George Cheney Professor, Department of Communication, University of Utah

Dan Lair

Brenden Kendall

Dean Ritz

Just a Job? is a clearly written and provocative communication-centered approach to the ethics of work. Throughout the book, the authors explore the power, complexity, and implications of labels, definitions, metaphors, and narratives. They heighten our awareness of the implicit and explicit ways that communication both reflects and creates ethical issues. Rather than focusing on the traditional ethics of duty, consequences, and justice or on ethical dilemmas, they illustrate everyday ethical situations and offer a revised and reformulated Aristotelian virtue ethics to complement more traditional theories. * Richard L. Johannesen, Emeritus Professor of Communication, Northern Illinois University, Senior author, Ethics in Human Communication, 6th Edition * Just a job? Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life eloquently demonstrates how ethics inform the way we talk, work, and live. The authors argue that while some moral decisions can be difficult, the daily choice to do the right thing in all aspects of life will ultimately make behaving ethically seem less like work. In this book, professional and personal ethics emerge, not as laws, sermons, or finger shaking prohibitions, but as the vibrant foundation of a happy life. * Joanne B. Ciulla, Professor, Coston Family Chair in Leadership and Ethics, Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond and author of The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work * This well-written, well-referenced, state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research will challenge the way many scholars (and nonscholars) approach applied ethics....an important acquisition for most academic collections and highly recommended for courses in communications, leadership, organizational theory, business, and applied ethics. Highly recommended. * CHOICE * A theoretically rigorous work that combines expertly chosen examples with profound analysis....well suited for advanced undergraduate or graduate classes focusing on organizational communication, work sociology, or ethics.... Just a Job? is a brilliantly written, well-referenced, and compelling book that is a must read for organizational communication scholars and anyone who is interested in the possibilities of 'the flourishing of all' (p. 260). * Journal of Communication * Clearly written and will be easily accessible to students. Throughout the book, the arguments and analyses rest on numerous specific examples from the authors personal experiences in the classroom, as well as recent news stories and popular culture. These appeals are very effective both in terms of clarifying aspects of the discussion and in terms of grounding the arguments....the books greatest value is as a resource for instructors who teach professional ethics. * Journal of Mass Media Ethics *