The Impact of Ethical Communication on Team Performance in Business

This report explores the critical role of ethical communication in business, emphasizing its impact on teamwork and overall organizational performance. It defines ethical communication and its importance in transferring information within and outside the organization, highlighting its role in building goodwill and brand equity. The report discusses teamwork, the collaboration between team members, and how ethical communication enhances team performance by fostering transparency and trust. It also examines the significance of active listening, effective speaking, and the involvement of employees in decision-making. Furthermore, the report analyzes the relationship between team performance, ethical considerations, and communication processes, concluding that ethical practices are crucial for achieving organizational goals and maintaining positive client relationships. The report underscores the interconnectedness of ethics, communication, and team performance, emphasizing their combined influence on business success.

Running Head: Ethics, Communication & Team Performance
Ethical Communication for Business

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 1
Ethics are the principles and morals through which activities should be commenced.
Communication is the term which is used to define the process of transferring the information
from one place to other. The process of communication plays vital role in the organizational
structure. From one level to the other within the organizational premises, data is being
transferred with the help of communication only. Communication for the organization is of two
type i.e. internal communication system and external communication system; both are used as
per the requirement of the situation. Effective communication process helps the organization to
attain its goals and the objectives. Transfer of data and information is being done with the help of
various sources in order perform the functionalities of the organization in an ethical manner.
Goodwill and the brand equity could be determined from an ethical communication process.
Enhanced and effective communication process will generate the desired outcomes for the
organization and these are the very crucial segment for the organization for attaining the goals
and the targets developed by the management of the organization. With the help of an ethical
communication process, an organization would be able to set up a unique link amongst the
employees of the organization as well between the clients of the organization. It also helps the
organization to maintain the adequate transparency between the clients because, till the time,
clear and ethical information will not be provided to the clients, they will not show their interest
towards the organization. Below in this report, various aspects and the factors in relevance with
the ethical communication process will be discussed in order to attain the desired goals for the
organization as well as to attain loyalty from the clients.

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 2
As per Casmir (2013), teamwork is the process under which a single task is being
accompanied by group of people in order to attain the desired goals and the objectives. Activities
in the task are being segmented as per the talents and the interests of the teammates. Execution of
teamwork activities in an effective manner is only possible when these activities will be
performed with collaboration between the teammates. With the help of above technique,
organization could notice the hike in their performance through comparing the outcomes before
the adaptation of the ethical communication strategies within the workplace with after adaptation
of these strategies. The team is the group of people gathered for the accomplishment of certain
tasks with common interest and the people involved in a team, all are held with a different and
unique type of talent which makes the process of accomplishment of task in an easy manner. The
activities to be performed in a task are assigned on the basis of individual talent and capabilities
in the team. From the assignation of the tasks to the accomplishment of the tasks, collaboration is
very vital element because it helps the team to attain the targets set up by the management of the
organization. This also enhances the productivity of the team and of teammates which boosts up
the chances for growth and expansion. While tasks are assigned to the teammates, accountability
and the responsibility also arise from there irrespective of the outcomes (Condei, et. al., 2014).
Teammates are trained to perform the task in a group with collaboration, supportive behaviour
for the other team members for the purpose of attainment of the goals and the objectives. This
will reduce the chances of conflicts and the disputes between the teammates and it will lead to
generation of hiked results for the organization. As collaboration and the support will enhance
the performance of the organization, it also proves the effectiveness and the productivity of the
team. Team performance is the level of efficiency achieved by them with the help of adequate

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 3
execution of the tasks. It can be evaluated with the outcomes attained by the team and with the
help of outcomes, team’s performance could be analysed. The team is the group of individuals
engaged in a group for the purpose of accomplishment of a particular task in order to attain
positive outcomes (Crane & Matten, 2016). In the team, varieties of information are needs to be
shared with the objective to accomplishment of task. The process used to transfer the data within
the teammates is known as team communication and it is regulated between the teammates of the
organization. The interaction between the team members with the process is known as team
communication (Weiss, 2014). Effective communication process has the potential to generate
efficient results for the organization and with this regards to the effective communication
technologies; attainment of the goals and the objectives becomes an easy task for the
organization. It enhances the productivity as well as the efficiency of the team members because
of the fluent flow of data and the information between the team members. Teammates and the
team leaders need to take the responsibilities under which instructions and the roles given by the
team leaders should be accepted by the teammates. The roles assigned by the team leader to the
teammates should be done as per the talents and the skills of the teammates. It will lead to
enhancement in the organizational performance and it will also generate growth and expansion
opportunities for the organization (DesJardins & McCall, 2014).
Another crucial factor of the team communication is the involvement of the teammates in the
decision making processes which influence them to perform in an adequate manner. Involvement
of the employees in the decision-making process provides various options to select one of the
best for attaining the goals and the objectives for the organization (Trevino & Nelson, 2016).
With regards to this process, employees get motivated and a positive image towards the

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 4
organization builds up in the employee’s minds. Effectiveness of the team communication could
also be measured from the research conducted by the Intuits Quick Base, according to their
research, involvement of the teammates and other employees in decision-making process
influences them to enhance their performances which ultimately generates various opportunities
such as gaining competitive advantage, expansion of the business in the global market, etc. for
the organization (Galegher, Kraut & Egido, 2014).

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 5
Communication has the potential which can affect the organizational performance in positive
as well as in a negative manner. As per McDuffee (2014), for enhancing the organizational
performance, every team and its teammates need to take the responsibility in their section to
perform their assigned task in an adequate manner. As every coin has two sides, one positive and
one is negative, in the same manner, team communication process has two sides positive and
negative. Positive impacts of the team communication are discussed above and the negative
aspects of the team communication process are that this is the reason for generating conflicts
within the workplace between employees, employers, etc. (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Due to
different ideologies, decisions of the employees differ from each other and due to which,
conflicts arise. Following are some of the components of team communication process which
needs to be undertaken by the teammates:
 Effective Speaker: Speaker needs to be clear and fluent enough so that the actual
meaning could be understandable by all the listeners. The mediums selected for
transmission of the messages and the information should be ethical and effective. It is the
duty of the speaker that one message should be conveyed at one time because conveying
more than one message will confuse the listeners, as well as the expectations for the
outcomes, would not be attained. Conveying more than one message will lead to
inefficient performance as well as it will reduce the efficiency of the organization.
Effective communication technique adopted by the organization is the key to success for
every organization. Although, it leads to conflicts those are also effective sometimes, as
they provide organization another chance to mold their decision for attaining better
outcomes (Shockley-Zalabak, 2014).

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 6
 Active Listener: Duty of an active speaker and of an active listener lies in the same path
because, until the time, teammates and the other employees will not pay adequate
attention to the speech and instructions of the speaker, till the time speaker will not be
able to convey the message with the same understanding. Good listening capabilities
make an effective listener as well it will lead to the involvement in the communication
process efficiently and effectively. Disruptions in between the communication process
should be avoided because it breaks the rhythm of the speaker as well as of other listeners
too. Creators of disruptions in the communication process may lead to phenomenal
misunderstanding between the teammates (Grunig, 2013).

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 7
Communication has major impact on the organizational performance and as per the research
conducted by Hassall (2009); it has been proven that effective communication process leads to
development of good relations between the teammates, employees of the organization as well as
it also leads to development of effective relations between employer and employee (Hartman,
DesJardins & MacDonald, 2014). Team performance can only be enhanced with the help of
effective communication process and it also leads to generation of desired outcomes. Team
performance could be measured by the standards set up by the management of the through
matching the performance attained with the standards built up by the management. Efforts
should be made from both the sides because i.e. the more effective and advanced communication
process is being adopted by the organization, in the same manner, employees need to develop
their understanding level so as to match up with the performance expected from the
management. There is an inverse relationship between communication process and the
performance made by the team. Active listening and the active speaking, both are the crucial
factors through which organization could boost up the performances as well as the chances of
attainment of goals and the objectives also rise (Kokemuller, 2017).
Irrespective of the outcomes from the communication process, activities involved in this process
should be performed with positive intentions in order to attain the desired goals and the
objectives (Kreps, 2017). As the outcomes of conducting communication process in an effective
manner could be negative as it leads to generate conflicts which decline the performance. Thus,
link between the teamwork and the communication process is bit strong as it leads to
enhancement in the organizational performances. Apart from these two terms, ethics also play
vital role in enhancing the organizational performance and it also reduces the chances of arising

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 8
glitches in the functionalities of the organization. If all the activities will be performed in an
ethical manner following all the rules, regulations and the policies described by the management,
negative impacts and the glitch in the functionalities will automatically be reduced. In the same
manner, communication, team performance, and the ethics have strong relationship because all
these terms are linked to the attainment of the goals and the objectives of the organization.
Performing the organizational functionalities in an effective manner and accordance with the
ethical considerations will help them to attain the desired goals and the objectives (Motivated-
minds, 2017). Considering the ethics of the management should be considered on the priority
basis and monitoring the performance also becomes an easy task for the organization with the
help of consideration of ethics because the performance attained by the organization without
consideration of the ethics will not be beneficial for the organization (Mannheimer, et. al., 2016).

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 9
From the aforesaid discussion, it can be concluded that ethics and communication are
crucial aspects of the organization in order to attain the goals and the objectives. Apart from this,
team performance is another important factor for the organization. In every organization, various
departments exist and for every department, a team is developed in order to perform the tasks
involved in the particular department. For enhancing the performance of the organization,
collaboration, coordination between the teammates is very important as these are the features
which generate positive results for the organization. In order to make the better understanding in
relevance with the ethical communication for business, various scholars’ research was reviewed
under this essay in order to analyse their understanding towards the ethics, team performance and
the communication process. Their importance, positive impacts, negative impacts, etc. were also
discussed in order to make the understanding towards the study strong and effective. This
assessment is being divided into certain parts such as reviewing teamwork, communication and
teamwork and their effectiveness and the link between the ethics, communication and the team
performance.

Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 10
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Galegher, J., Kraut, R.E. and Egido, C., 2014, Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological
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Ethics, Communication & Team Performance 11
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