short speech on ethics and values

Speech on Ethics

Ethics, in simple terms, is knowing what’s right and wrong. It’s like a compass guiding you in life.

You face ethical choices every day. Being ethical means making decisions that are fair and just.

1-minute Speech on Ethics

Good day to all!

Let’s talk about ethics. Think of ethics as the rules we follow to be good people. These are the guidelines that help us decide what’s right and what’s wrong.

Now, ethics are like an invisible thread that ties us all together. They help us respect each other. When we follow ethics, we are fair and honest. We treat people kindly, even when no one is watching.

But why are ethics important? Imagine a world where everyone only cared about themselves. Would you like to live there? Probably not! Ethics make our world a better place. They ensure we live in harmony and peace.

Lastly, it’s never too early or too late to learn about ethics. Like a seed, the more we nurture it, the more it grows. So, let’s make a promise today. Let’s promise to be ethical in all we do. Let’s promise to make our world a better place.

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2-minute Speech on Ethics

Good day to you all! Today, we’re going to talk about ethics. Now, what is ethics? It’s like a big invisible rule book that tells us what’s right and what’s wrong. It helps us to make good choices, and to be fair and kind to others.

Now, why is ethics important? Well, imagine a world where no one cares about right or wrong. It would be a scary place, wouldn’t it? But with ethics, we can create a world that is safe and just. Ethics helps us to treat each other with respect and dignity. It makes us better people, and it makes our communities stronger.

But, ethics is not just about big things. It’s also about the small choices we make every day. For example, if you find a wallet on the street, what do you do? Do you keep it, or do you try to find the owner? These small choices tell a lot about who we are as people.

Sometimes, being ethical can be hard. It can mean standing up for what’s right, even when it’s not popular. It can mean saying no to something that might benefit us, but harm others. But remember, the easy choice is not always the right choice.

In conclusion, ethics is a vital part of our lives. It guides us in our actions and decisions, and helps us to build a world that is fair and kind. So, let’s strive to be ethical in all that we do. Let’s be the change we want to see in the world.

Thank you for listening. I hope this talk has helped you to understand ethics a little better. Remember, it’s not just about knowing what’s right or wrong. It’s about having the courage to do what’s right, even when it’s hard. Let’s make our world a better place, one ethical choice at a time.

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Speeches > Rex E. Lee > Honesty and Integrity

Honesty and Integrity

President of Brigham Young University

September 5, 1995

Today is literally one of the highlights of my life. My soul is filled with joy and thanksgiving. From the time I was a little boy, the opening day of school has always been one of excitement and anticipation. It is for this reason that a high point of my years as president of BYU has been the opportunity for Janet and me to share some thoughts with you at the beginning of each fall semester.

This one, of course—for reasons Brother Hafen has explained—is also laden with an extra element of emotion. It is our seventh September devotional, and we realize that it will be our last. I have appreciated more than words can tell the expressions of support, loyalty, and love that I have received from you, and I want you to know how deeply Janet and I care for each of you and the great hopes that we have for your success and happiness not only during your time here at BYU, but also throughout this life and the next.

It is for this reason that I have pondered and prayed long over what message I want to leave with you on this very special day, my last devotional at the beginning of a new school year. There are so many hopes I have for each of you. I want you to be well educated, in the fullest sense of that word. I want you to be learned in the wisdom of the world. I want your education to help you to be happier and give you a fuller understanding of the awesome significance of what it means that in these last days the Father and the Son have actually come here to this earth and personally chosen a prophet through whom the great prophecies of Daniel and Peter have come to pass and through whom a restitution of all things is possible.

We could discuss so many things as a consequence of these grand truths. I have chosen one topic, and I hope it will be helpful to you. The principle of living that I want to discuss with you today can carry anyone of several possible labels. A very popular one, and a good one, is  ethics.  Another is  honesty.  Frankly, the one that I slightly prefer is  integrity  because for me it includes not only the values implicit in the other two, but also reminds us that what we are striving for is a wholeness and completeness of all that is good. As President Kimball has taught us: “Integrity is one of the cornerstones of character. . . . [It] is a state or quality of being complete, undivided, or unbroken” ( TSWK,  p. 192).

Whatever we call it, the quality we are talking about is easier to illustrate than it is to label or to define, and both negative as well as affirmative illustrations are available. At the negative end is the classic statement of Leona Helmsley that “only little people pay taxes” or Ivan Boesky’s equally insightful counsel to UCLA business students in 1986 that “greed is a good thing” or Leo Durocher’s well-known observation that “nice guys finish last.”

There is a  Peanuts  cartoon in which Charlie Brown first shot the arrow and then drew the bull’s-eye and the rest of the supporting target around his arrow. When Lucy complained that that was not the way it was supposed to be done, Charlie Brown responded, “If you do it my way, you never miss!”

Let me give you an example at the opposite end of the spectrum. It involves a boyhood hero of mine, Ted Williams, one of the greatest baseball players of all time. A. Thomas Young, president and chief operating officer of Martin Marietta Corporation, who observed that “ethics will continue to be the issue of the 90s,” reports Williams’ experience as follows:

More than 30 years ago, Ted Williams was closing out his career with the Boston Red Sox. He was suffering from a pinched nerve in his neck that season.

“The thing was so bad,” he later explained, “that I could hardly turn my head to look at the pitcher. “

For the first time in his career he batted under .300, hitting just .254 with 10 home runs. He was the highest salaried player in sports, making $125,000. The next year, the Red Sox sent him the same contract.

When he got the contract, Williams sent it back with a note saying that he would not sign it until they gave him the full pay  cut  allowed.

“I was always treated fairly by the Red Sox when it came to contracts,” Williams said. “Now they were offering me a contract I didn’t deserve. And I only wanted what I deserved.”

Williams cut his own salary by 25 percent, raised his batting average by 62 points and closed out a brilliant career by hitting a home run in his final at bat.  [A. Thomas Young, “Ethics in Business,”  Vital Speeches of the Day,  15 September 1992, pp. 725–26; emphasis in original]

Wallace F. Smith, a Berkeley business school professor, defines ethics as “the inherent inner voice, the source of self-control in the absence of external pressure or compulsion” (“Readers Report,”  Business Week,  4 May 1992, p. 11).

This Ted Williams story is, I submit, the classic illustration. This great hero did what he did because he was exercising “self-control in the absence of external pressure or compulsion.” My own favorite definition comes from Potter Stewart, an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He defines ethics as “knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is the right thing to do.”

Justice Stewart is also one of my heroes and was one of history’s finest justices and lawyers. I hope that throughout your lives you will remember and ponder his advice about the distinction between what you have a right to do and what is the right thing to do. You have a legal right, for example, to gossip, lie (unless you do it under oath), cut corners across BYU grass, burn flags, read pornography, be disrespectful to your parents, criticize and attack your Church leaders, apostatize from the Church, pay less than a full tithing, smoke cigarettes, be insensitive to your family members’ needs, sit by silently doing nothing while your neighbor drowns—all the while writing a poem called “Ode to a Drowning Man”—or wear a red sweater in Cougar stadium the afternoon of November 18, when the Cougars play the University of Utah. But the fact that you have a right to do these things does not make any of them the right thing to do, and ethics, as defined by Justice Stewart, consists of knowing the difference between the two.

One of the most important observations to make about ethics or integrity or whatever we call it is the danger of over-compartmentalization, that is, treating ethical issues as something separate and apart from other aspects of what we do. A law student reported, for example, that when she raised a question in one of her first-year classes whether a certain practice might be ethical, the professor responded, “You will take your ethics course next year.” When I read this law professor’s response, it reminded me of Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s insightful observation that:

Developing congruency and avoiding the compartmentalization of one’s life is, of course, necessary for the wholeness and integrity we all crave, but which is so elusive at times. So many of us have a “public self” and a “private self.” Jesus made it crystal clear that outer appearances and inner feelings must, ultimately, coincide. If the teachings of the gospel about honesty make for an honest tithe but wash against an attitudinal wall in terms of business practices, honesty is being applied differentially. We are saying that “honesty is the best policy—part of the time!”  [ “A More Excellent Way”  (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1973), pp. 126–127]

One of the best tests of whether we are or are not compartmentalizing our lives, I submit, is whether we would be willing to give our pet parrot to the town gossip.

I also like Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s explanation that these principles of ethics, which are so universally accepted, and properly so, are grounded in more than common sense and respect for others. In his words:

In teaching the gospel, it is far less effective to say “Be honest, for honesty is the best policy,” and then to reason from a social standpoint why this is so, than to link honesty with the gospel out of which it grows by teaching: “Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell.” (2 Nephi 9:34.) It is only when gospel ethics are tied to gospel doctrines that they rest on a sure and enduring foundation and gain full operation in the lives of the saints.  [ A New Witness for the Articles of Faith  (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1985), p. 700]

I believe that one of the most important indicators of how honest we are is the seriousness with which we keep agreements that we have made. One of the most sobering problems facing our society today, in my opinion, is the failure of so many people simply to do what they have agreed to do. It is becoming quite commonplace, for example, not only for professional athletes but also for others to insist on “renegotiating” their contracts because they conclude that they are now in a position to make a better deal than the one to which they earlier committed themselves.

A bit more subtle perhaps, but certainly just as important, are our obligations to organizations and institutions to which we belong, and with whom we have made certain commitments, either expressly or by virtue of our membership or affiliation.

One of the institutions—and the people who compose it—to whom we have an integrity obligation is the nation of which we are citizens. In the case of most of us, that country is the United States of America. For me, the most consistently dismaying lack of individual integrity in this respect is the failure of rather large numbers of American citizens to pay their income taxes. Equally dismaying are the reasons given by some of these people. The two most common are that the income tax is either unconstitutional or (in the case of some LDS Church members) inconsistent with gospel principles. Each of these positions is absurd. Concerning constitutionality, the income tax is explicitly authorized by the Constitution itself. The Sixteenth Amendment states, in words that could not be more plain: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes.” I have spent a good part of my life arguing and litigating over what is and is not constitutional. But I have never understood how any rational human being can take the position that a part of the Constitution itself is unconstitutional. And the notion that the anti-income tax position is rooted in gospel principles is equally insupportable in light of President Harold B. Lee’s statement describing as “vicious and wicked” the practice of those “who are taking the law into their own hands by refusing to pay their income tax because they have some political disagreement with constituted authorities” (“Admonitions for the Priesthood of God,”  Ensign,  January 1973, pp. 105, 106).

Another opportunity to demonstrate our institutional integrity is provided by our membership in the BYU community, whose Honor Code is one of our distinguishing features. Some people are fond of pointing out, and very correctly so, that some aspects of our Honor Code are founded on principles of fundamental morality and integrity that would apply to any member of the Church and any ethical person regardless of affiliation or nonaffiliation with BYU—or for that matter with the Church. Examples are those principles dealing with observing the criminal laws of the land, academic honesty, and sexual morality. But it does not follow that we have a two-tiered Honor Code, the first tier consisting of those values that are to be taken seriously, and whose violation should be a matter for some kind of official university response, whereas those in the second tier, most notably our Dress and Grooming Standards, fall into a category of admonitions that we might call good ideas if you’re into that kind of thing, but since they’re not required for a temple recommend, don’t sweat it.

What this two-tiered approach ignores, of course, is that there is another overarching principle at work, not applicable to members of the Church in general. It has to do with keeping the deals we have made, precisely the kind of thing that we have been talking about this morning. Members of the Church at large have not signed a formal commitment in the presence of their bishop to keep all aspects of the Honor Code, with solemn assurances that the applicants are serious about the commitments they have made and will honor them.

The fact that you and I have made such a commitment should be the end of the matter. Having made such a formal promise, we are bound by it just as Karl G. Maeser was bound by the hypothetical lines of his famous circle. That’s what we mean by honor, and that’s what we mean by integrity. A different standard does apply to those of us at BYU, a standard that has been determined very consciously by our board of trustees, and which each of us has solemnly agreed to follow. I hope that no one on this campus will ever adopt a two-tiered approach to the Honor Code, observing those provisions that in the individual’s view are important and disregarding the others. They are all important precisely because we have agreed to honor them.

In conclusion, let me tell you about one of our alumni who met the full measure of honesty. He is a retired gentleman, living on a modest pension, who sat in my office a few years ago and told me that in the 1930s he had attended BYU for one quarter. Due to some administrative error, he had never been billed for the $32 that at that time, according to his recollection, was the amount BYU charged for a quarter’s tuition. He told me, “For over 50 years that unpaid tuition has weighed heavily on my mind, and I want to make it right. You tell me what I owe, and I will pay.” I told him that he owed us absolutely nothing. The statute of limitations on that claim had run a half century ago. He patiently pointed out that he was not talking about a legal obligation but a moral one.

When I could see that nothing less than satisfaction of my estimate of the present value of that original $32 obligation would calm his soul, I told him that I thought a reasonable present value for the unpaid tuition of years ago would be about $500. He thought about my answer for a minute and then said, “Could I have a little time to pay it off?” We worked out a payment schedule, and that obligation has now been completely satisfied.

I refer back to Elder McConkie’s observation that for a believing, practicing Latter-day Saint, we are honest and ethical not only because it is the best policy but also because it is solidly tied to the principles of restored truth. Everything we do should be guided by restored truth, by our conviction that once again prophets walk upon the earth, and we have the benefit, both through modern scripture and through their teachings, of the will of our Heavenly Father. It’s not just another Church. Joseph Smith really did see the Father and the Son, the priesthood is once again on the earth, and the Book of Mormon is exactly what it purports to be, a new witness for Christ received by revelation and translated under the direct inspiration of our Heavenly Father. We must first secure our knowledge of these truths, and they will then become the foundation for everything else we do. That honesty and integrity in all things and with respect to all persons and institutions may be one of the results of that conviction is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

© Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.

Rex E. Lee was president of Brigham Young University when this devotional address was given on 5 September 1995.

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Speech About Values [1-3 Minutes]

Values are positive good qualities present in an individual or company. These values are responsible for each action performed by an individual. They also help others to figure out the nature of a person or a group of people living together or working together.

Core values represent an individual’s or organisation’s priorities. In this article, we shared some examples of speech about values having a time duration of 1, 2 and 3 minutes. This will help you prepare for a speech presentation.

1 Minute Speech about Values

Good morning and welcome all of you gathered here. I am here to present a speech on values and their importance.

The real value of a person is determined by the values imbibed in him. These are sometimes called core values. Core values are profound essential values that are grounds for who we are as a person. They tell us what we really believe about ourselves.

Core values decide the behaviour, the thinking pattern, and the actions that someone will execute. The same applies to an organisation. If we talk about some of these values. They can be; confidence , humbleness, doing the right things, accountability, helping first, integrity, sharing etc.

In short, Values are important that drive an individual or a business to behave ethically. Thank you!

2-Minute Speech About Values

Welcome honourable principal, respected teacher, loved parents and dear friends. Today, we are gathered here for this special occasion of… I am here to speak a few words about the importance of values.

Values or sometimes called core values or moral values are the invention of humans. These values distinguish humans from animals. These values are important for an individual, a society, an organisation, a business and a country because values have the purpose of driving you to act and behave ethically.

Your values indicate what is important to you and what are your priorities. If you have good values, everyone will like you and you will develop a mutual emotional connection with others. This way you will behave very well with others. Hence, values shape your personality and behaviour .

The values inside you help you make the right decision. They help you distinguish between right and wrong. When you make the right decisions, you prosper on the path of progress. This improves your confidence. Therefore, we can say that values help you grow.

Values can build character. Good values can help you build a strong character and bad values can help you build a loose character. Now, a question arises in the mind; what are good values? There are a lot of values considered as good.

Some of these can be compassion, loyalty, discipline, accountability, confidence, gratitude, sharing, caring, and doing the right things. There is a quote that can help you understand the importance of values in a few words.

Treat people the way you want yourself to be treated. Talk to the people the way you want yourself to be talked to. Respect is earned, not given.

To sum it up, your values can decide the experiences you are going to encounter. So, imbibe good values in you and enjoy the world. Thank you!

3 Minute Speech On The Importance Of values

First of all, good morning to the honourable principal, respected teachers and loving friends and all of you present here today. In your special presence, I would like to say a few words about core values.

We develop a wonderful connection with some people while we fail to do the same with others. This is because of the values they imbibe in them. If we find a person with the same interest and values as us, we like them and vice versa.

Let’s talk about some good values that an individual must have.

1. Kindness

Kindness is the best value of all. Every living being understands the language of kindness. Kind nature can calm even the most ferocious animal. Being kind often requires courage and strength, as it involves the willingness to celebrate and give attention to someone else.

“ Honesty is the best policy “. You must have listened to this line one day or another. It is one of the most basic core values. Honesty is the equilibrium of what we say and what we do. It also encourages one to always tell the truth and avoid cheating.

3. Doing the Right Thing

Doing the right is a tough commitment because it will please some people and fury others. But wait… Give it a think before doing anything if this act is actually right. Here right means which is right for all, not for one perspective. Hence, doing the right thing requires a great deal of wisdom.

Apart from these, there are many values we can count such as;

• Spirituality
• Selflessness
• Determination
• Trustworthiness
• Appreciation
• Self-Reliance
• Attentiveness

To sum it up, in order to prosper in each aspect of life, one needs to incorporate good values.

Thank you very much for listening to my speech. I hope you liked it.

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Essay on Ethics and Values for Students in 1000 Words

In this article, we have published an Essay on Ethics and Values for students. You will also read its definitions, sources, importance and uses in this essay. This essay is written in 1000 Words for school and college children.

Table of Contents

Importance of Values and Ethics

Ethics and values come and develop from the place, family, beliefs, and school; professional values and ethics are bare developments of what one learns prior to joining the personnel. So, the attitude and habits one picks up early in his life follow into the experienced world and show an impact either a positive, or negative over career success.

Definitions of Ethics and Values

1. ethics definition, 2. values definition.

Values are of extreme importance to a person. This is because they determine their behavior, temperament and overall behavior towards life and other people. The decisions we make in our lives are largely based on our values. A value or ethics is, according to Ozment, “an enduring belief or trust that a specific mode of conduct and dealing or end-state of its existence is personally or socially likable to an opposite or converse mode of dealing or end-state of existence”.

Sources of Values and Ethics

These are the moral rules that stay with someone always; not only does the individual use these social ethics as guidelines in their lives, but they also teach their children the same values.   Besides moral values, families teach their children to do the job ethic. They provide children with few chores to do, such as cleaning their room, taking out the trash, and generally serving around the home.

Uses of Ethics and Values in Life

Currently, everyone knows the value of ethics and values. Every individual should have manners and ethical principles to live a life, and in all the areas ethics and values are being used to work smoothly.

Experienced with upstanding values and ethical or moral standards are easy to recognize, as is the company that employs them. Values-based business decisions and ethical guidelines adhered to by all are the benchmarks for success. Those who agree to accept less can have an adverse effect on their company and maybe, the rest of society.

The Final Thought

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21 Moral Values All People Should Learn (with Examples)

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We live in a world where people are expected to know right from wrong. While different cultures have various standards of what is acceptable behavior, some ideals cross borders.

The importance of family is one common thing that most cultures around the world hold dear. However, there are many moral values that all people should learn to create a more harmonious society .

Throughout my life and world travels, I’ve come to believe that there are certain moral values that all people should learn, regardless of where they live. No matter how important individualism may be, morals help us interact properly and can keep our families and societies together.

Table of Contents

What are Moral Values?

Moral values are the standards of good and evil, which govern an individual’s behavior and choices . They help us decide what is right and wrong, and they motivate us to do the right thing.

There are many different types of moral values, but some of the most important ones include honesty , respect, responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness .

Why are Moral Values Important?

Moral values are important because they help us to make the right choices in life. They also teach us how to treat other people with respect and how to behave in a way that is acceptable in society.

Moral values are also important because they help us to develop a strong sense of right and wrong . They can also help us to develop empathy for others and to understand the consequences of our actions.

Are Moral Values Learned or Innate?

Most people believe that moral values are learned. This means that they are not something that we are born with, but something that we acquire through our experiences and interactions with others. From childhood, we learn how to share, how to be truthful, and how to care for others.

As we grow older, we continue to learn new moral values from our families, our friends, and our wider community. We also learn about moral values through the media, such as television, books, and films.

Some people, however, believe that moral values are innate . This means that they are something that we are born with and that we do not need to learn them. Instead, our moral values are determined by our genes or our biology.

While there is no definitive answer to the question of whether moral values are learned or innate, most experts believe that they are primarily learned . This means that our experiences and interactions with others play a significant role in shaping our moral values.

Regardless as to where you stand on this issue, there are at least 21 moral values we believe that everyone should learn in order to be their best self and contribute to society in a productive way.

21 Moral Values All People Should Learn

Honesty is one of the most important moral values. It means being truthful and fair in all your dealings with other people. Honesty also includes being willing to admit when you have made a mistake . Failure to own up to a mistake may end up costing someone else big time – especially if they are a subordinate at work .

I remember an incident in one of my post-college jobs in which an Assistant Manager did not admit she forgot to note when an employee asked for a day off. The Head Manager fired the same employee the following day because he assumed he failed to show up for work. The Assistant Manager's honesty would have saved this person their job.

If a cashier or waiter gives you too much money back or forgets to charge you for something you bought, it is always best to let them know about the mistake. Taking advantage of someone else's mistake is dishonest and creates bad karma. Plus, they may have to pay for it at the end of their shift.

Respect means treating other people with courtesy and consideration . It also includes respecting their property, their privacy, and their views and beliefs. When you respect someone, you treat them with dignity and consideration. You also avoid doing anything that might hurt or offend them.

One of the best ways to show respect for someone is to listen to them carefully. This means giving them your full attention and not interrupting them when they are

It may also involve showing reverence to some segments of society like our elders . For instance, in many cultures, it is considered disrespectful to call someone by their first name unless you have been permitted to do so.

3. Responsibility

Being responsible means being reliable and dependable . It also includes being accountable for your actions and taking responsibility for your mistakes.

When you are responsible, you can be counted on to do what you say you will do. You are also careful in your dealings with other people and take care to not cause them any harm.

A responsible person will follow rules such as driving within the speed limit and not littering. They will also take care of their belongings and not borrow things without permission.

Caring means showing kindness and concern for others. It also includes being helpful and considerate. When you care about someone, you want what is best for them.

You may show your care for others by doing things like cooking for them, helping them with their homework, or just spending time with them.

Caring also involves being empathetic , which means being able to understand and share the feelings of another person. This can be a valuable skill when consoling someone who is going through a tough time.

5. Cooperation

Cooperation means working together to achieve a common goal . It includes being willing to compromise and putting aside your own needs to help others.

When you cooperate with someone, you are willing to work with them instead of against them. You are also willing to make sacrifices for the greater good.

For instance, you may decide to work on a project with a colleague instead of going out for drinks with your friends. A cooperative society can solve problems without resorting to violence.

6. Fairness

Fairness means treating people equally and justly . It includes being impartial and not showing favoritism. When you are fair, you give everyone a chance to succeed.

You may be called upon to be fair in your dealings with other people, such as when you are mediating a dispute. It is important to be impartial and not take sides. Such moral values are important in certain professions such as judges, lawyers, and police officers.

Courage is the ability to do something even though you are afraid . It includes standing up for what you believe in and not backing down even when the odds are against you.

Being brave does not mean that you are fearless. It means that you can face your fears and do what is right, even when you are afraid.

An example of courage or bravery would be if you saw someone being bullied and you stepped in to stop it, even though you were afraid of the bully. It would also include being the first person to stand up and speak out against injustice, even when everyone else is afraid to do so.

Courage set off world-changing movements such as Civil Rights Era in the U.S.A, protests in Tiananmen Square, and the Arab Spring.

Loyalty involves showing constant and unwavering support for someone or something. When you are loyal to someone, you stick by them even when times are tough. When you take marriage vows, a pledge of loyalty is made to your spouse to stand by them in sickness and in health.

You may be loyal to your family, friends, or country. Someone loyal to their country would never spy for another country, even if they were offered a large sum of money.

Loyalty to an organization is often shown by sports fans who never stop cheering for their team whether they win or lose.

9. Self-Control

Self-control is the ability to control your emotions and impulses . It includes being able to resist temptation and making responsible choices.

When you have self-control, you are in control of your life and are not controlled by your emotions. You are also able to resist temptation and make choices that are in your best interest and of those around you.

Learning self-control prevents one from doing something as simple as overeating to more serious acts such as sexual assault. You will understand that “no” means “no” and follow suit. The Bible has many lessons about self-control .

10. Work Ethic

A strong work ethic is the willingness to work hard and do your best . It includes being punctual, responsible, and reliable . When you have a strong work ethic, you can be counted on to do your job well.

Your work ethic is important in both your personal and professional life. It is one of the most important moral values to have in the workplace. If you don't pull your weight at work, it affects your coworkers and can lead to a decline in productivity.

11. Perseverance

Perseverance is the ability to keep going even when things are tough . It includes being persistent and never giving up. When you persevere, you don't let obstacles get in your way.

An example of perseverance is when someone loses a limb but does not give up and learns to live a full life without it. Some professional runners run after the loss of one or both legs such as in the Paralympics.

12. Integrity

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles . When you have integrity, you do the right thing even when no one is watching.

A great example of integrity is giving credit to someone whose work you could have taken credit for. I have witnessed people in higher positions take credit for a successful project or achievement they played little part in. However, a leader with integrity would gladly acknowledge the people who did the work and give them the credit they deserve.

13. Humility

Being humble will let you achieve greatness . It includes being modest and not thinking you are better than others. When you are humble, you accept both praise and criticism.

One example of humility is when you are asked to do a task that is below your skill level. A person with humility would not think twice about doing the task and would even be grateful for the opportunity to help. A humble person would not brag or be arrogant about being rich or having a high-level degree or job.

For example, having a Masters’ degree would never cause me to look down on someone who did not finish high school because it has no bearing on their intellect or value as a person.

14. Compassion

Compassion is the ability to care for others and feel empathy for their situation . It includes being kind and understanding. When you are compassionate, you want to help others who are suffering.

The world is in a constant state of flux in which many people suffer various tragedies. Many compassionate people donate money or time to causes such as Habitat for Humanity or The Red Cross. Others may volunteer at soup kitchens or homeless shelters. Some people show compassion by being a listening ear for a friend in need.

15. Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the ability to let go of anger and resentment . It includes being able to forgive yourself and others. When you forgive, you do not hold grudges.

It's natural to feel anger and resentment when someone wrongs you but holding onto that negative emotion will only hurt you in the end. It's important to learn to forgive so that you can move on with your life.

Forgiveness does not mean you must be friends with the person who wronged you, but it does mean you must let go of the anger and resentment. Holding in anger can affect your physical and mental health .

16. Gratitude

When you are grateful, you realize that everything is a blessing or a learning moment . Being thankful and appreciative not only shows good morals towards others but can also internally benefit you. When you are grateful for what you have – no matter how small, it can make you happier and more positive.

Believe it or not, gratitude includes being thankful for the good and bad in your life. There is a popular saying that “rejection is God's protection”. In other words, not getting that job or being accepted by a potential lover may be a sign that the world has something better in store for you.

17. Cleanliness

Have you ever heard the expression, ” Cleanliness is close to Godliness”? There is a lot of truth to that statement.

When you are clean, it shows that you have self-respect, and you respect others . It also shows that you are a healthy person who is not a carrier of the disease. Keeping your environment clean is also important. A clean house or office is a sign that you can care for yourself, and others and you are ready to welcome others in.

When someone knowingly lives in a filthy environment, such as in the show “Hoarders”, it can be a sign that they are not in the right frame of mind or may no longer care about their own well-being. Such a situation does not mean they are bad, but some may question their morals and what type of activity they are up to.

18. Patience

When you can wait calmly and not get angry , you are much more likely to have a good outcome. It includes being able to control your emotions and not fly off the handle at the first sign of anger or confrontation. When you are patient, you don't act impulsively.

A good example of patience is when you are in a long line at the grocery store and the person in front of you is taking a long time. A patient person would not get angry or frustrated. They would understand that everyone moves at a different pace and that eventually, they will get to the front of the line.

19. Kindness

When you are kind, you show concern for others and act in a way that pleases or benefits them . It includes being gentle, caring, and helpful.

There are many ways to show kindness. You can perform random acts of kindness, such as paying for the coffee of the person behind you in line. You can also volunteer your time at a local hospital or nursing home. Or you can simply be a good listener and be there for a friend in need.

Sometimes being kind can be as simple as smiling or saying “hello” or “thank you”. I notice people who work in customer service have often noted my kindness when all I did was smile and be polite.

20. Faithfulness

Faithfulness is being reliable, trustworthy, and having allegiance to someone , something, or an ideal you proclaim to believe in . You can be faithful to a spouse by not cheating on them sexually or emotionally.

We often associate faith more with God. Showing faith in your god/deity goes beyond words. This can be done by attending religious services, reading religious texts, or being an active member of a religious community.

Most importantly, you show your godly faith in how you treat others and how you live your life. Reading scripture is one thing but following them is how your faith will truly show.

21. Open-mindedness

An open mind is the ability to see things from different perspectives and not be quick to judge. It includes being willing to listen to others, having empathy, and being willing to learn new things even if they are out of your comfort zone.

When you are open-minded, you don't just listen to others, you actually hear them. You don't make assumptions about what they are saying but instead, try to understand their point of view. Learning new things, even if they go against what you believe, helps an individual and society continue to move forward.

For instance, you may be open to trying new food that you've never had before or learning about a different culture. When it comes to politics, you may have certain beliefs but are willing to be open enough to the idea that there may be another way of looking at the same issue.

A lack of such political open-mindedness has caused many problems for the United States in recent years.

Final Thoughts About Moral Values All People Should Learn

A world without some moral values would be a scary place . Imagine if everyone was out for themselves and no one cared about the well-being of others. It's important to have empathy and compassion for others. It's also important to be honest and have integrity.

While some people may argue that moral values are innate, it's important to learn them anyway. After all, not everyone is born with a strong sense of morality. And, even if someone is born with good moral values, they still need to be taught how to put them into practice.

Hopefully, this list of moral values examples has given you something to think about. If you want more perspective about values, check out the article Intentional Living: 8 Strategies to Live According to Your Values .

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Historyplex

7 of the Most Profound and Famous Short Speeches Ever Heard

There are many famous short speeches that have been a turning point in history. Here is a list of some of the most notable speeches ever.

Speech is power: Speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. – Ralph Waldo Emerson This quote brilliantly summarizes the power of a good speech. There is no dearth of famous short speeches that have irrevocably influenced mankind and history.

Although the list may seem endless, and there will always be some or the other disagreement of which of these should figure in the list of popular speeches of all time, given below is a compilation of famous speeches by famous people including former presidents, politicians, a great visionary, and a world-renowned dramatist.These have gone down in history as something that people find relevant and influential even today. It is not necessary for a speech to be long to be famous, even a short one can be great, if it has an ability to mesmerize and inspire the audience. What follows, is a list of some of the most notable short speeches of all time. These were given at historical junctions, and had a significant impact at that time, and hold true even today. As these speeches continue to inspire many, they will go down in the annals of time.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Address

One of the most famous speeches given by a sitting American President, although it lasted just a little over seven and a half minutes, it managed to stir a nation’s patriotism to the very bone and was a significant point in American history. President Roosevelt gave the famous speech to a joint session of Congress, the day after the Japanese bombing of the Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. An excerpt from the speech is as follows:

December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy… No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory… I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

Ronald Reagan’s Speech Following the Challenger Disaster

American President Ronald Reagan made his famous short speech on national television following the disastrous explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle. On 26 January, 1986 after only 73 seconds into its flight, the space shuttle broke apart, causing the death of all the seven crew members on board, including a classroom teacher who had been chosen to be the first ever non-astronaut classroom teacher to travel into space. President Reagan spoke of the traumatic accident saying:

Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all people of our country. This is truly a national loss… Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we’ve never lost an astronaut in flight. We’ve never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we’ve forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle. But they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together. One of President John F. Kennedy’s most famous speech, was given on 26 June, 1963, to consolidate United States’ support for West Germany a little less than two years after the Communist East Germany erected the Berlin Wall. One of the most famous phrases in history “ Ich bin ein Berliner “, was in fact a last-minute brain child of Kennedy, who came up with the idea of saying it in German, while he was walking up the stairs at the Rathaus (City Hall). It was a great motivational speech for West Berliners, who lived in the constant fear of a possible East German occupation. Given below is an excerpt from this historic speech:

Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was ‘Civis Romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen]’. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’… All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’

Bill Clinton’s “I Have Sinned” Speech

The famous, or rather infamous “I have sinned” speech, was delivered by President Bill Clinton at the annual White House prayer breakfast on September 11, 1998, in the presence of several ministers, priests and his wife, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. It was hand-written by the President Clinton himself and was delivered on the day of the publication of the first report by Independent Counsel Ken Starr, which threatened to impeach the President Clinton on the grounds of perjury and his sexual affair with former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

I agree with those who have said that in my first statement after I testified I was not contrite enough. I don’t think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned. It is important to me that everybody who has been hurt know that the sorrow I feel is genuine: first and most important, my family; also my friends, my staff, my Cabinet, Monica Lewinsky and her family, and the American people. I have asked all for their forgiveness… But I believe that to be forgiven, more than sorrow is required – at least two more things. First, genuine repentance – a determination to change and to repair breaches of my own making. I have repented. Second, what my bible calls a ”broken spirit”; an understanding that I must have God’s help to be the person that I want to be; a willingness to give the very forgiveness I seek; a renunciation of the pride and the anger which cloud judgment, lead people to excuse and compare and to blame and complain…

Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

“I have a dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr., which was delivered on 28 August, 1963 at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom , was a path-breaking moment for the Civil Rights Movement in America. Given to an audience of more than 200,000 people, this speech was ranked as the top American speech by a 1999 poll of scholars.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

William Shakespeare’s Speeches

The Bard has left behind his legacy in ways more than one. Most of the non-political popular speeches have been written by William Shakespeare. While there are many, like Hamlet’s “To be or not to be…”, and Portia’s speech in Merchant of Venice “The quality of mercy is not strain’d…” to name a few, the Bard’s most famous speech till date is the speech by Jaques in “As You Like It”, which goes as…

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Steve Jobs ‘Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish’ Speech

One of my personal favorites, and a speech that today’s youth identify themselves with, is the Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ commencement speech on 12 June, 2005 at Stanford, which was replete with inspirational quotes. His last words in the address “ Stay hungry, stay foolish ” is one of the most famous quotes and is echoed the world over even today, and spurred on a bestselling book of the same name. It summed up his life in three parts, which he narrated in the form of three stories. This is a small excerpt from this notable short inspirational speech:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories… When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s’, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

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What Are Ethical Values in Business?

Guiding businesses with ethical values is becoming increasingly important to those within the workforce. A recent  survey  from Global Tolerance showed that 42 percent of employees would rather work for companies that have a positive impact on their communities and strong ethical values. In fact, ethics matter more to them than even earning a high salary. The difference is even more pronounced among  millennials , with 64 percent saying they won’t work for a company that doesn’t show strong social responsibility practices.

What Are Ethical Values?

8 ethical values to guide your business, 1. integrity, 2. fairness.

Fairness in the workplace can be something as simple as not showing favoritism. The company Arbeit is one business that promotes fairness throughout its  organization . Greg Jones, a customer research analyst for the company, says that fairness means “trying to be a blank page and giving everyone the same pen with which to write their story. It means all opportunities, advancement, and recognition being offered in equal measure to all qualified parties.”

3. Leadership

5. accountability.

As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.” Too many companies try and refocus attention on why they shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions. Yet, organizations with accountable leaders play by a different set of ethics. By taking personal responsibility at all times, they learn from their mistakes and grow. Executives that don’t practice self-accountability, on the other hand, will more than likely make the same mistakes in the future.

6. Teamwork

7. charity/kindness.

Businesses that are loyal to their customers usually receive that loyalty back. Many know Apple fans as loyal buyers, and this is no coincidence. This loyalty comes from sharing common values and beliefs with their customers. By encouraging their target audience to be innovative creators, Apple inspires and motivates people to build a greater future together. This vision establishes an emotional connection between the company and its buyers. Additionally, the organization is well-known for never compromising the quality of its products. As a result, Apple bridges the gap between company loyalty, customer loyalty, and ethics.

How to Promote Ethical Values at Your Company

An ethical business is a successful business.

Recent studies show more companies realize the importance of moral values in the workplace. In a  2021 Global Business Ethics Survey , one in every five employees said their companies had a strong ethical culture. 20 years ago, this number was only one in 10. While this illustrates businesses are on the right track, these statistics reveal more work is still needed. 

To do this, have a personal code of ethics and promote ethical values. This makes people act as better leaders who are capable of guiding their organizations toward a sustainable, impactful future. For business owners and executives looking to increase their leadership skills while also growing their businesses, this is a win-win situation. 

Module 2: Ethical Speech

Ethics in public speaking, learning objectives.

• Explain why ethics are important in public speaking.
• Identify key principles of ethical communication.

As with so many things, trust is crucial in public speaking. If you want to get your message across, your audience needs to trust you as the message giver.

Why would you need to even consider ethics in public speaking? First and foremost, your audience not only needs to believe in your words and message, but they need to trust you as the message giver. To engage in unethical behavior when speaking only erodes that trust.

There are other reasons to engage in ethical behavior in public speaking:

• To maintain your credibility and reputation.
• To present a fair and accurate argument of your thesis.
• To provide honest facts with integrity and without deception or distortion.
• To abide by shared or common moral values and beliefs.

The study of ethics is incredibly important to any student of public speaking, as the most effective public speakers are those who practice ethical behavior in their speeches.

In 1999, the National Communication Association (NCA) released a “credo,” or statement of beliefs, describing their standards for ethical communication. Below you will find the statement in its entirety. Below the statement, we will call attention to a few of the principles most relevant to students of public speaking.

National Communication Association Credo for Ethical Communication

(approved by the National Communication Association (NCA) Legislative Council, November 1999)

Questions of right and wrong arise whenever people communicate. Ethical communication is fundamental to responsible thinking, decision making, and the development of relationships and communities within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and media. Moreover, ethical communication enhances human worth and dignity by fostering truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal integrity, and respect for self and others. We believe that unethical communication threatens the quality of all communication and consequently the well-being of individuals and the society in which we live. Therefore we, the members of the National Communication Association, endorse and are committed to practicing the following principles of ethical communication:

• We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the integrity of communication.
• We endorse freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision making fundamental to a civil society.
• We strive to understand and respect other communicators before evaluating and responding to their messages.
• We promote access to communication resources and opportunities as necessary to fulfill human potential and contribute to the well-being of families, communities, and society.
• We promote communication climates of caring and mutual understanding that respect the unique needs and characteristics of individual communicators.
• We condemn communication that degrades individuals and humanity through distortion, intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the expression of intolerance and hatred.
• We are committed to the courageous expression of personal convictions in pursuit of fairness and justice.
• We advocate sharing information, opinions, and feelings when facing significant choices while also respecting privacy and confidentiality.
• We accept responsibility for the short- and long-term consequences for our own communication and expect the same of others.

https://www.natcom.org/advocacy-public-engagement/public-policy/public-statements

https://www.natcom.org/sites/default/files/pages/1999_Public_Statements_NCA_Credo_for_Ethical_Communication_November.pdf

“We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the integrity of communication.”

“We accept responsibility for the short- and long-term consequences for our own communication and expect the same of others.”

• Ethical speakers do not deceive their audience. It can also be stated that ethical speakers do not distort or warp facts, or worse yet, disguise opinions as fact in order to argue their thesis or make their point.
• To speak ethically is to use your own original speech content. If you use any substantiating facts or passages from another source, you must give appropriate attribution or credit as necessary. Ethical speakers are ones who do not plagiarize their material or try to pass off words and ideas from others as their own. One of the main reasons we emphasize attribution of ideas is because of the question of responsibility and consequences, the final principle in the National Communication Association (NCA)’s Credo. When we speak, we assume responsibility for the ideas we are communicating. If someone else is responsible for these ideas, they need to be acknowledged and cited. We will discuss citation and attribution later in this module.
• Acknowledging and responding to conflicts of interest is also regarded as ethical public speaking behavior. We will cover conflict of interest in more detail on the next page.

“We endorse freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision making fundamental to a civil society.”

• The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech and of the press, as well as the right of the people to assemble and to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” In other words, the right to free speech is bound up with the right to disagree peacefully—not just with each other, but with the government. We’ll dive deeper into the legal context of freedom of expression elsewhere in this module. For now, we’ll just note that the right to free speech and the right to dissent are important  both legally and ethically. In fact, the right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances” is what connects ethics and the law. When a law or legislation is considered unethical, the people can speak out to change it.

“We strive to understand and respect other communicators before evaluating and responding to their messages.”

• Here we are reminded that ethical communication is not just about what you say. Listening actively and responding appropriately are key elements in communicating ethically.

“We promote communication climates of caring and mutual understanding that respect the unique needs and characteristics of individual communicators.”

• One element of creating a climate of “caring and mutual understanding” is an effort to use language that is inclusive and considerate toward all listeners. We cover the principle of inclusive language on the next page.

“We condemn communication that degrades individuals and humanity through distortion, intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the expression of intolerance and hatred.”

• We will cover this statement in more detail when we discuss hate speech and the language of intolerance.

“We are committed to the courageous expression of personal convictions in pursuit of fairness and justice.

• Ultimately, this standard is the highest goal of public speaking: speaking out effectively against unfairness, injustice, and intolerance, and working to create a more just society.
• Ethical behavior in public speaking. Provided by : Boundless. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-communications/chapter/significance-of-ethics-in-public-speaking/ . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Trapeze. Authored by : Laura LaRose. Located at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfsavard/4834361841 . License : CC BY: Attribution

2 Minute Speech On The Moral Values In English

Good morning to everyone in this room. I would like to thank the principal, the teachers, and my dear friends for allowing me to speak to you today about moral values. Being honest, courteous, respectful, considerate, self-restraint, treating everyone equally, and adopting other positive traits are examples of moral values.

People look forward to those who have high moral standards. During a job interview, one of the things the interviewer looks at is the potential employee’s moral character. Every firm has a set ethical code of conduct that the employees are required to abide by in addition to the fundamental moral values. 

This makes the workplace unproductive. Because of this, the morally dubious personnel rise to the top while the qualified ones remain in their positions for life. For our society to thrive and progress in the proper direction, we need more people who have strong moral values. Thank you.

Related Posts:

2 Ethics and Public Speaking

Anthony Naaeke, Ph.D. and Eva Kolbusz-Kijne, Ph.D.

Learning Objectives

• Explore the meaning of ethics.
• Distinguish between absolute and relativist perspectives on ethics.
• Identify and apply the code of ethics for ethical public speaking established by the National Communication Association
• Distinguish between ethical and unethical speech.

“I regret it now because the information was wrong.”

— Colin Powell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d93_u1HHgM4

The above quotation from former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell directly applies to the discussion we are about to have in this chapter, namely, ethics in public speaking. In this television interview on the Larry King Live CNN program first aired in 2011, former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, expressed regret for a speech he delivered before Congress in which he provided what he believed was justifiable reasons for the United States to go to war against Iraq following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. Although Powell believed at the time of his speech to the United Nations that the information and evidence he provided in the speech were accurate, ostensibly because he trusted the officials who vetted the accuracy of the information, he later realized that the speech was based on misinformation and inaccurate evidence. By expressing regret for delivering a speech filled with inaccuracies, Colin Powell basically acknowledged that his speech was unethical. However, by publicly expressing regret for an unethical speech that he delivered, he fulfilled the ninth ethical principle of the National Communication Association’s code for ethical speaking that states, “We accept responsibility for the short- and long-term consequences for our own communication and expect the same of others.” This principle calls for ethical speakers to take responsibility for mistakes and errors made in communication whether in the short or long term when they become aware of the errors and inaccuracies they expressed.

In this chapter we will explore the meaning of ethics, ethical perspectives, the Code of Ethics of the National Communication Association and distinguish between ethical and unethical speeches.

Ethics has to do with social norms regarding right and wrong. It is a branch of philosophy that deals with right and wrong. Because different cultures have different norms about right and wrong, ethics is a very contested zone in all aspects of human encounters. One culture may consider something to be right while another may consider the same thing to be wrong. Hence, the contested nature of ethics. However, for effective communication, especially communication that is intended to move an audience to make choices or decisions, some basic agreement on what is right and wrong is necessary.

In De Oratore (Institutes of Oratory), the Roman rhetorician Quintilian wrote that the perfect orator is first “a good man speaking well.” This simple statement establishes a fundamental expectation for ethical public speaking, namely, that great oratory should entail both an ethical character of the speaker as well as delivery that embodies confidence, competence, dynamism, and good will (addresses the needs of an audience).

For Quintilian and other rhetoricians such as Cicero and St. Augustine, rhetoric or oratory should be grounded in truth and not deception. According to these rhetoricians, the communication of truth distinguishes ethical rhetoric from sophistic rhetoric which uses any means, including deceptive ways, untruths, and outright lies, to persuade an audience.

Ethical Perspectives

There are different perspectives on ethics, but this section will concentrate on two of them, namely, the absolute values perspective and the relativist perspective.

The absolute values perspective on ethics holds that irrespective of person, place, or time, right is right and wrong is wrong. In other words, there are universal ethical values that apply to all people and cultures. For example, it is wrong to kill or to tell a lie or to steal or to defraud. This means that irrespective of person or culture or situation, a person who tells a lie or kills or defrauds others has done an unethical act.

https://www.giffordlectures.org/books/moral-values-and-idea-god/6-relative-and-absolute-value

Ethical relativism on the other hand is the philosophical position that the sense of right and wrong is always relative to the individual and not universal to all people and situations.    The Encyclopedia Britannica defines ethical relativism as “the doctrine that there are no absolute truths in ethics and that what is morally right or wrong varies from person to person or from society to society.” The arguments for ethical relativism are mainly two-fold. The Encyclopedia observes that an argument, based on the Greek Philosopher Herodotus (5t Century BC), claims that every culture has its customs and norms and no culture’s values, norms and customs are better than another. A second argument in favor of ethical relativism, according to the Encyclopedia, is based on the 18th century philosopher David Hume who expressed the idea that moral values are grounded in emotion and not reason and can, therefore, not be universalized.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethical-relativism

Implications of Ethical Perspectives for Public Speaking

When applied to public speaking, the absolute values perspective on ethics implies that there are or should be rigorous principles that guide how to teach public speaking, how to write a speech, how to deliver a speech, how to reference sources, what is considered appropriate vocal projection, eye contact, posture, vocabulary, etc. This approach to public speaking can be regarded by minority groups based on race, culture, or nationality, as oppressive in the context of culturally sustaining pedagogies and the ongoing efforts to engage pedagogies that are inclusive, diverse, and equity minded.

On the other hand, a fundamental implication of ethical relativism for public speaking is that there are no universal norms or ethical codes that govern what and how to make public presentations. This means that depending on the speaker, context, audience or purpose, a public speaker decides what and how to make the presentation without following a predetermined style. This also means that the principle of ethical relativism is more respectful of diverse cultural values, culturally relevant speech patterns, thought processes, and language use. In the context of culturally sustaining pedagogies, the relativist ethical perspective would allow more flexibility in how public speaking is taught and how students, depending on their various backgrounds, prepare and deliver speeches.

Despite the implications of the two ethical perspectives on ethics discussed above, the National Communication Association (NCA) has established a Credo for Ethical Communication to guide the practice of the discipline.

NCA Credo for Ethical Communication

The NCA believes ethical communication is “fundamental to responsible thinking, decision making, and the development of relationships and communities within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and media.” Conversely, the NCA believes that unethical communication threatens the well-being of individuals and society. Consequently, the NCA has established a Credo for Ethical Communication referenced in the link below.

https://edge.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/ethics_section_03_module01_0.pdf

The NCA Credo for Ethical Communication is extensive, but for the purpose of this chapter which addresses ethics in public speaking, it is important to outline and focus on the following nine principles of the code:

• We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the integrity of communication.
• We endorse freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision making fundamental to a civil society.
• We strive to understand and respect other communicators before evaluating and responding to their messages.
• We promote access to communication resources and opportunities as necessary to fulfill human potential and contribute to the well-being of individuals, families, communities, and society.
• We promote communication climates of caring and mutual understanding that respect the unique needs and characteristics of individual communicators.
• We condemn communication that degrades individuals and humanity through distortion, intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the expression of intolerance and hatred.
• We are committed to the courageous expression of personal convictions in pursuit of fairness and justice.
• We advocate sharing information, opinions, and feelings when facing significant choices while also respecting privacy and confidentiality.
• We accept responsibility for the short- and long-term consequences for our own communication and expect the same of others.

In essence, the principles outlined in the code emphasize the importance of communication that is grounded in truth, honesty, accuracy, and respect for the audience as an ethical responsibility of a speaker.

Distinguishing Between Ethical and Unethical Speeches

Based on the exploration of ethics, perspectives on ethics, and the NCA Credo for ethical communication, it is appropriate to observe that irrespective of cultural background or values, some general principles should guide what is ethical or unethical in public speaking.

Purpose of the Speech

Effective communication must be purpose-driven. The purpose of a speech is important because it lets the speaker and audience know the ultimate outcome of the speech. The purpose of the speech should seek to accomplish something good. If the purpose of a speech is unethical it means that it seeks to accomplish something bad. Let us explore some examples to illustrate. In the speech by former Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations that we referenced in the introduction of this chapter, his purpose was to persuade the International Community that Saddam Hussien, then President of Iraq, had weapons of mass destruction which posed serious security problems to the world and that the United States would have to go to war against Iraq in order to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction against the International Community. The purpose of the speech was ethical in as far as it sought to protect the common good of the International Community by preventing a nation and its leader from doing harm to people. On the other hand, a speech whose purpose is to arouse anger and resentment against specific groups of people, such as immigrants, would be unethical because such a speech aims to do harm to a group of people by appealing to the emotion of anger in its audience who would then act violently or discriminate against immigrants as evidenced by a speech by former President Donald Trump in which he called Mexicans murderers and rapists. See reference to the speech in the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaz1J0s-cL4

Credibility of evidence

Another element of an ethical speech is that the information given should be based on facts and not opinion,, information that is accurate and reliable. Facts can be demonstrated or proven, while opinions are the personal views of a person that may or may not be factual. The evidence should also be accurate in the sense that it should fully and properly represent the ideas or statements of others within the context in which such ideas or statements are made. Evidence that is not accurate distorts the original message of the source of information and misleads an audience. The credibility of evidence is not only about what is stated but also about who says it. To be ethical, a public speaker must verify that the source of information they use as evidence to support claims is reliable or can be trustedtrustworthy. For example, the statements of a racist bigot in defense of racism cannot be considered reliable because of the personal disposition of the source.

Another important consideration about the credibility of evidence is crediting the sources of the information used. An ethical speaker must let the audience know the source of the information or data or statistics or images such as paintings, pictures, and drawings if the information was taken from another person’s work. Failing to credit the sources of information constitutes plagiarism.

Plagiarism is using another person’s ideas or work without crediting the source. There are three types of plagiarism: global, patchwork and incremental.

Global plagiarism is taking the entire work of another person and not crediting the source. For example, if you take a speech that was written by someone else and deliver it to an audience without letting the audience know who the original writer of the speech is, that would constitute global plagiarism.

Patchwork plagiarism on the other hand takes substantive parts, such as a paragraph, from different sources and puts them together without crediting the sources. Patchwork plagiarism is easy to commit when you highlight, copy, and paste information from different sources without crediting the sources.

The third type of plagiarism, incremental plagiarism, happens when you take a phrase or sentence from various sources and fail to credit the sources. Ethical speakers always credit their sources.

Arrangement of Ideas

One other way to be an ethical speaker is to arrange your ideas in a way that makes it easy for the audience to follow the logical flow of the message. An ethical speaker should facilitate the understanding of the message and not confuse the audience with disorderly placement of ideas. In an orderly arrangement of ideas, the audience can easily follow how one idea moves to another or relates to another, whereas in a confusing arrangement of ideas, the audience struggles to see how one point relates to another or flows into another.

An ethical speaker should always be mindful that the language used is familiar to the audience and inclusive, . Language should not toonot be too technical or abstract,; not racist, sexist, or abusive and is inclusive. Using familiar language makes it easy for the audience to understand a message being communicated, while technical or abstract language may be appropriate for a specific audience especially based on profession and level of education. Racist, sexist, and abusive language looks down on a group of people while extolling the perceived superiority of the speaker over the audience.

Respect for the audience

In addition to the above guidelines for ethical speaking, a speaker should show respect to an audience by being on time to the event and respect the time allotted for the speech. The speaker also shows respect to an audience by dressing appropriately and listening to the feedback from the audience and responding to questions from the audience honestly.

Finally, an ethical speaker should know what they are talking about, be well prepared, dress appropriately, speak clearly, engage the audience through direct eye contact and body movements that show physical/mindful presence and attention to the audience.

Other guiding principles for ethical public speaking

Many scholars of ethical communication agree that an ethical speaker should have integrity, competence, responsibility, respect, and concern (Plante, 2004). Integrity means being an honest, fair and a just person. Competence is a quality of someone who is knowledgeable and skilled in some job or task whilst r. Responsibility has to do with keeping promises and being attentive to one’s obligations. An ethical speaker should be respectful of others in terms of paying attention to their rights, needs, dignity and be concerned about the needs of others.

In this chapter, we explored the meaning of ethics, different perspectives on ethics, and distinguished between ethical and unethical speeches. We also outlined the Credo for Ethical Communication by the National Communication Association and provided practical guidelines for ethical public speaking. In the context of higher education that emphasizes the need for culturally sustaining pedagogies, an ethical speaker must be respectful of diverse audiences they address. Ethical speakers should use evidence that is based on reliable facts while considering the lived experiences and needs of the audience.

Review Questions

• What is your understanding of ethics and why is it important for speaking speakers?
• Identify nine principles of ethical communication outlined by the National Communication Association.

Class Exercises

• Show a speech to the class and put students in small groups to discuss and explain why the speech is ethical or unethical.
• Put students in small groups and ask them to make a list of things they consider ethical or unethical in a speech.

Works Cited

Encyclopedia Britannica. Ethical Relativism. https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethical-relativism . Accessed 6/5/21.

Plante, Thomas. Do the Right Thing: Living Ethically in an Unethical World . Oakland, CA. New Harbinger Publications, 2004, p. 49-145.

Powell, Colin. Interview on Larry King Live. CNN . 2011. YouTube Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d93_u1HHgM4 . Accessed 6/5/21.

The Gifford Lectures. Relative and Absolute Value. https://www.giffordlectures.org/books/moral-values-and-idea-god/6-relative-and-absolute-value . Accessed 6/5/21.

Trump, Donald. Interview on MSNBC. YouTube Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaz1J0s-cL4 . Accessed 6/5/21.

Ethics and Public Speaking Copyright © by Anthony Naaeke, Ph.D. and Eva Kolbusz-Kijne, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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2.2 Ethics in Public Speaking

Learning objectives.

• Understand how to apply the National Communication Association (NCA) Credo for Ethical Communication within the context of public speaking.
• Understand how you can apply ethics to your public speaking preparation process.

The study of ethics in human communication is hardly a recent endeavor. One of the earliest discussions of ethics in communication (and particularly in public speaking) was conducted by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his dialogue Phaedrus . In the centuries since Plato’s time, an entire subfield within the discipline of human communication has developed to explain and understand communication ethics.

Communication Code of Ethics

In 1999, the National Communication Association officially adopted the Credo for Ethical Communication (see the following sidebar). Ultimately, the NCA Credo for Ethical Communication is a set of beliefs communication scholars have about the ethics of human communication.

National Communication Association Credo for Ethical Communication

Questions of right and wrong arise whenever people communicate. Ethical communication is fundamental to responsible thinking, decision making, and the development of relationships and communities within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and media. Moreover, ethical communication enhances human worth and dignity by fostering truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal integrity, and respect for self and others. We believe that unethical communication threatens the quality of all communication and consequently the well-being of individuals and the society in which we live. Therefore we, the members of the National Communication Association, endorse and are committed to practicing the following principles of ethical communication:

• We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the integrity of communication.
• We endorse freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision making fundamental to a civil society.
• We strive to understand and respect other communicators before evaluating and responding to their messages.
• We promote access to communication resources and opportunities as necessary to fulfill human potential and contribute to the well-being of families, communities, and society.
• We promote communication climates of caring and mutual understanding that respect the unique needs and characteristics of individual communicators.
• We condemn communication that degrades individuals and humanity through distortion, intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the expression of intolerance and hatred.
• We are committed to the courageous expression of personal convictions in pursuit of fairness and justice.
• We advocate sharing information, opinions, and feelings when facing significant choices while also respecting privacy and confidentiality.
• We accept responsibility for the short- and long-term consequences of our own communication and expect the same of others.

Source: http://www.natcom.org/Default.aspx?id=134&terms=Credo

Applying the NCA Credo to Public Speaking

The NCA Credo for Ethical Communication is designed to inspire discussions of ethics related to all aspects of human communication. For our purposes, we want to think about each of these principles in terms of how they affect public speaking.

We Advocate Truthfulness, Accuracy, Honesty, and Reason as Essential to the Integrity of Communication

Carmella Fernando – Promise? – CC BY 2.0.

As public speakers, one of the first ethical areas we should be concerned with is information honesty. While there are cases where speakers have blatantly lied to an audience, it is more common for speakers to prove a point by exaggerating, omitting facts that weigh against their message, or distorting information. We believe that speakers build a relationship with their audiences, and that lying, exaggerating, or distorting information violates this relationship. Ultimately, a speaker will be more persuasive by using reason and logical arguments supported by facts rather than relying on emotional appeals designed to manipulate the audience.

It is also important to be honest about where all your information comes from in a speech. As speakers, examine your information sources and determine whether they are biased or have hidden agendas. For example, you are not likely to get accurate information about nonwhite individuals from a neo-Nazi website. While you may not know all your sources of information firsthand, you should attempt to find objective sources that do not have an overt or covert agenda that skews the argument you are making. We will discuss more about ethical sources of information in Chapter 7 “Researching Your Speech” later in this book.

The second part of information honesty is to fully disclose where we obtain the information in our speeches. As ethical speakers, it is important to always cite your sources of information within the body of a speech. Whether you conducted an interview or read a newspaper article, you must tell your listeners where the information came from. We mentioned earlier in this chapter that using someone else’s words or ideas without giving credit is called plagiarism . The word “plagiarism” stems from the Latin word plagiaries , or kidnapper. The American Psychological Association states in its publication manual that ethical speakers do not claim “words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit where credit is due” (American Psychological Association, 2001).

In the previous sentence, we placed quotation marks around the sentence to indicate that the words came from the American Psychological Association and not from us. When speaking informally, people sometimes use “air quotes” to signal direct quotations—but this is not a recommended technique in public speaking. Instead, speakers need to verbally tell an audience when they are using someone else’s information. The consequences for failing to cite sources during public speeches can be substantial. When Senator Joseph Biden was running for president of the United States in 1988, reporters found that he had plagiarized portions of his stump speech from British politician Neil Kinnock. Biden was forced to drop out of the race as a result. More recently, the student newspaper at Malone University in Ohio alleged that the university president, Gary W. Streit, had plagiarized material in a public speech. Streit retired abruptly as a result.

Even if you are not running for president of the United States or serving as a college president, citing sources is important to you as a student. Many universities have policies that include dismissal from the institution for student plagiarism of academic work, including public speeches. Failing to cite your sources might result, at best, in lower credibility with your audience and, at worst, in a failing grade on your assignment or expulsion from your school. While we will talk in more detail about plagiarism later in this book, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of giving credit to the speakers and authors whose ideas we pass on within our own speeches and writing.

Speakers tend to fall into one of three major traps with plagiarism. The first trap is failing to tell the audience the source of a direct quotation. In the previous paragraph, we used a direct quotation from the American Psychological Association; if we had not used the quotation marks and clearly listed where the cited material came from, you, as a reader, wouldn’t have known the source of that information. To avoid plagiarism, you always need to tell your audience when you are directly quoting information within a speech.

The second plagiarism trap public speakers fall into is paraphrasing what someone else said or wrote without giving credit to the speaker or author. For example, you may have read a book and learned that there are three types of schoolyard bullying. In the middle of your speech you talk about those three types of schoolyard bullying. If you do not tell your audience where you found that information, you are plagiarizing. Typically, the only information you do not need to cite is information that is general knowledge. General knowledge is information that is publicly available and widely known by a large segment of society. For example, you would not need to provide a citation within a speech for the name of Delaware’s capital. Although many people do not know the capital of Delaware without looking it up, this information is publicly available and easily accessible, so assigning credit to one specific source is not useful or necessary.

The third plagiarism trap that speakers fall into is re-citing someone else’s sources within a speech. To explain this problem, let’s look at a brief segment from a research paper written by Wrench, DiMartino, Ramirez, Oviedio, and Tesfamariam:

The main character on the hit Fox television show House , Dr. Gregory House, has one basic mantra, “It’s a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what” (Shore & Barclay, 2005). This notion that “everybody lies” is so persistent in the series that t-shirts have been printed with the slogan. Surprisingly, research has shown that most people do lie during interpersonal interactions to some degree. In a study conducted by Turner, Edgley, and Olmstead (1975), the researchers had 130 participants record their own conversations with others. After recording these conversations, the participants then examined the truthfulness of the statements within the interactions. Only 38.5% of the statements made during these interactions were labeled as “completely honest.”

In this example, we see that the authors of this paragraph cited information from two external sources: Shore and Barclay and Tummer, Edgley, and Olmstead. These two groups of authors are given credit for their ideas. The authors make it clear that they did not produce the television show House or conduct the study that found that only 38.5 percent of statements were completely honest. Instead, these authors cited information found in two other locations. This type of citation is appropriate.

However, if a speaker read the paragraph and said the following during a speech, it would be plagiarism: “According to Wrench DiMartino, Ramirez, Oviedio, and Tesfamariam, in a study of 130 participants, only 38.5 percent of the responses were completely honest.” In this case, the speaker is attributing the information cited to the authors of the paragraph, which is not accurate. If you want to cite the information within your speech, you need to read the original article by Turner, Edgley, and Olmstead and cite that information yourself.

There are two main reasons we do this. First, Wrench, DiMartino, Ramirez, Oviedio, and Tesfamariam may have mistyped the information. Suppose the study by Turner, Edgley, and Olstead really actually found that 58.5 percent of the responses were completely honest. If you cited the revised number (38.5 percent) from the paragraph, you would be further spreading incorrect information.

The second reason we do not re-cite someone else’s sources within our speeches is because it’s intellectually dishonest. You owe your listeners an honest description of where the facts you are relating came from, not just the name of an author who cited those facts. It is more work to trace the original source of a fact or statistic, but by doing that extra work you can avoid this plagiarism trap.

We Endorse Freedom of Expression, Diversity of Perspective, and Tolerance of Dissent to Achieve the Informed and Responsible Decision Making Fundamental to a Civil Society

This ethical principle affirms that a civil society depends on freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent and that informed and responsible decisions can only be made if all members of society are free to express their thoughts and opinions. Further, it holds that diverse viewpoints, including those that disagree with accepted authority, are important for the functioning of a democratic society.

If everyone only listened to one source of information, then we would be easily manipulated and controlled. For this reason, we believe that individuals should be willing to listen to a range of speakers on a given subject. As listeners or consumers of communication, we should realize that this diversity of perspectives enables us to be more fully informed on a subject. Imagine voting in an election after listening only to the campaign speeches of one candidate. The perspective of that candidate would be so narrow that you would have no way to accurately understand and assess the issues at hand or the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing candidates. Unfortunately, some voters do limit themselves to listening only to their candidate of choice and, as a result, base their voting decisions on incomplete—and, not infrequently, inaccurate—information.

Listening to diverse perspectives includes being willing to hear dissenting voices. Dissent is by nature uncomfortable, as it entails expressing opposition to authority, often in very unflattering terms. Legal scholar Steven H. Shiffrin has argued in favor of some symbolic speech (e.g., flag burning) because we as a society value the ability of anyone to express their dissent against the will and ideas of the majority (Shiffrin, 1999). Ethical communicators will be receptive to dissent, no matter how strongly they may disagree with the speaker’s message because they realize that a society that forbids dissent cannot function democratically.

Ultimately, honoring free speech and seeking out a variety of perspectives is very important for all listeners. We will discuss this idea further in the chapter on listening.

We Strive to Understand and Respect Other Communicators before Evaluating and Responding to Their Messages

This is another ethical characteristic that is specifically directed at receivers of a message. As listeners, we often let our perceptions of a speaker’s nonverbal behavior—his or her appearance, posture, mannerisms, eye contact, and so on—determine our opinions about a message before the speaker has said a word. We may also find ourselves judging a speaker based on information we have heard about him or her from other people. Perhaps you have heard from other students that a particular teacher is a really boring lecturer or is really entertaining in class. Even though you do not have personal knowledge, you may prejudge the teacher and his or her message based on information you have been given from others. The NCA credo reminds us that to be ethical listeners, we need to avoid such judgments and instead make an effort to listen respectfully; only when we have understood a speaker’s viewpoint are we ready to begin forming our opinions of the message.

Listeners should try to objectively analyze the content and arguments within a speech before deciding how to respond. Especially when we disagree with a speaker, we might find it difficult to listen to the content of the speech and, instead, work on creating a rebuttal the entire time the speaker is talking. When this happens, we do not strive to understand the speaker and do not respect the speaker.

Of course, this does not just affect the listener in the public speaking situation. As speakers, we are often called upon to evaluate and refute potential arguments against our positions. While we always want our speeches to be as persuasive as possible, we do ourselves and our audiences a disservice when we downplay, distort, or refuse to mention important arguments from the opposing side. Fairly researching and evaluating counterarguments is an important ethical obligation for the public speaker.

We Promote Access to Communication Resources and Opportunities as Necessary to Fulfill Human Potential and Contribute to the Well-Being of Families, Communities, and Society

Human communication is a skill that can and should be taught. We strongly believe that you can become a better, more ethical speaker. One of the reasons the authors of this book teach courses in public speaking and wrote this college textbook on public speaking is that we, as communication professionals, have an ethical obligation to provide others, including students like you, with resources and opportunities to become better speakers.

We Promote Communication Climates of Caring and Mutual Understanding That Respect the Unique Needs and Characteristics of Individual Communicators

Speakers need to take a two-pronged approach when addressing any audience: caring about the audience and understanding the audience. When you as a speaker truly care about your audience’s needs and desires, you avoid setting up a manipulative climate. This is not to say that your audience will always perceive their own needs and desires in the same way you do, but if you make an honest effort to speak to your audience in a way that has their best interests at heart, you are more likely to create persuasive arguments that are not just manipulative appeals.

Second, it is important for a speaker to create an atmosphere of mutual understanding. To do this, you should first learn as much as possible about your audience, a process called audience analysis. We will discuss this topic in more detail in the audience analysis chapter.

To create a climate of caring and mutual respect, it is important for us as speakers to be open with our audiences so that our intentions and perceptions are clear. Nothing alienates an audience faster than a speaker with a hidden agenda unrelated to the stated purpose of the speech. One of our coauthors once listened to a speaker give a two-hour talk, allegedly about workplace wellness, which actually turned out to be an infomercial for the speaker’s weight-loss program. In this case, the speaker clearly had a hidden (or not-so-hidden) agenda, which made the audience feel disrespected.

We Condemn Communication That Degrades Individuals and Humanity through Distortion, Intimidation, Coercion, and Violence and through the Expression of Intolerance and Hatred

This ethical principle is very important for all speakers. Hopefully, intimidation, coercion, and violence will not be part of your public speaking experiences, but some public speakers have been known to call for violence and incite mobs of people to commit attrocities. Thus distortion and expressions of intolerance and hatred are of special concern when it comes to public speaking.

Distortion occurs when someone purposefully twists information in a way that detracts from its original meaning. Unfortunately, some speakers take information and use it in a manner that is not in the spirit of the original information. One place we see distortion frequently is in the political context, where politicians cite a statistic or the results of a study and either completely alter the information or use it in a deceptive manner. FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center ( http://www.factcheck.org ), and the St. Petersburg Times’s Politifact ( http://www.politifact.com ) are nonpartisan organizations devoted to analyzing political messages and demonstrating how information has been distorted.

Expressions of intolerance and hatred that are to be avoided include using ageist , heterosexist , racist , sexist , and any other form of speech that demeans or belittles a group of people. Hate speech from all sides of the political spectrum in our society is detrimental to ethical communication. As such, we as speakers should be acutely aware of how an audience may perceive words that could be considered bigoted. For example, suppose a school board official involved in budget negotiations used the word “shekels” to refer to money, which he believes the teachers’ union should be willing to give up (Associated Press, 2011). The remark would be likely to prompt accusations of anti-Semitism and to distract listeners from any constructive suggestions the official might have for resolving budget issues. Although the official might insist that he meant no offense, he damaged the ethical climate of the budget debate by using a word associated with bigotry.

At the same time, it is important for listeners to pay attention to expressions of intolerance or hatred. Extremist speakers sometimes attempt to disguise their true agendas by avoiding bigoted “buzzwords” and using mild-sounding terms instead. For example, a speaker advocating the overthrow of a government might use the term “regime change” instead of “revolution”; similarly, proponents of genocide in various parts of the world have used the term “ethnic cleansing” instead of “extermination.” By listening critically to the gist of a speaker’s message as well as the specific language he or she uses, we can see how that speaker views the world.

We Are Committed to the Courageous Expression of Personal Convictions in Pursuit of Fairness and Justice

We believe that finding and bringing to light situations of inequality and injustice within our society is important. Public speaking has been used throughout history to point out inequality and injustice, from Patrick Henry arguing against the way the English government treated the American colonists and Sojourner Truth describing the evils of slavery to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Army Lt. Dan Choi’s speeches arguing that the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” is unjust. Many social justice movements have started because young public speakers have decided to stand up for what they believe is fair and just.

We Advocate Sharing Information, Opinions, and Feelings When Facing Significant Choices While Also Respecting Privacy and Confidentiality

This ethical principle involves balancing personal disclosure with discretion. It is perfectly normal for speakers to want to share their own personal opinions and feelings about a topic; however, it is also important to highlight information within a speech that represents your own thoughts and feelings. Your listeners have a right to know the difference between facts and personal opinions.

Similarly, we have an obligation to respect others’ privacy and confidentiality when speaking. If information is obtained from printed or publicly distributed material, it’s perfectly appropriate to use that information without getting permission, as long as you cite it. However, when you have a great anecdote one of your friends told you in confidence, or access to information that is not available to the general public, it is best to seek permission before using the information in a speech.

This ethical obligation even has legal implications in many government and corporate contexts. For example, individuals who work for the Central Intelligence Agency are legally precluded from discussing their work in public without prior review by the agency. And companies such as Google also have policies requiring employees to seek permission before engaging in public speaking in which sensitive information might be leaked.

We Accept Responsibility for the Short- and Long-Term Consequences of Our Own Communication and Expect the Same of Others

The last statement of NCA’s ethical credo may be the most important one. We live in a society where a speaker’s message can literally be heard around the world in a matter of minutes, thanks to our global communication networks. Extreme remarks made by politicians, media commentators, and celebrities, as well as ordinary people, can unexpectedly “go viral” with regrettable consequences. It is not unusual to see situations where a speaker talks hatefully about a specific group, but when one of the speaker’s listeners violently attacks a member of the group, the speaker insists that he or she had no way of knowing that this could possibly have happened. Washing one’s hands of responsibility is unacceptable: all speakers should accept responsibility for the short-term and long-term consequences of their speeches. Although it is certainly not always the speaker’s fault if someone commits an act of violence, the speaker should take responsibility for her or his role in the situation. This process involves being truly reflective and willing to examine how one’s speech could have tragic consequences.

Furthermore, attempting to persuade a group of people to take any action means you should make sure that you understand the consequences of that action. Whether you are persuading people to vote for a political candidate or just encouraging them to lose weight, you should know what the short-term and long-term consequences of that decision could be. While our predictions of short-term and long-term consequences may not always be right, we have an ethical duty to at least think through the possible consequences of our speeches and the actions we encourage.

Practicing Ethical Public Speaking

Thus far in this section we’ve introduced you to the basics of thinking through the ethics of public speaking. Knowing about ethics is essential, but even more important to being an ethical public speaker is putting that knowledge into practice by thinking through possible ethical pitfalls prior to standing up and speaking out. Table 2.1 “Public Speaking Ethics Checklist” is a checklist based on our discussion in this chapter to help you think through some of these issues.

Table 2.1 Public Speaking Ethics Checklist

Key Takeaways

• All eight of the principles espoused in the NCA Credo for Ethical Communication can be applied to public speaking. Some of the principles relate more to the speaker’s role in communication, while others relate to both the speaker’s and the audience’s role in public speech.
• When preparing a speech, it is important to think about the ethics of public speaking from the beginning. When a speaker sets out to be ethical in his or her speech from the beginning, arriving at ethical speech is much easier.
• Fill out the “Public Speaking Ethics Checklist” while thinking about your first speech. Did you mark “true” for any of the statements? If so, why? What can you do as a speaker to get to the point where you can check them all as “false”?
• Robert is preparing a speech about legalizing marijuana use in the United States. He knows that his roommate wrote a paper on the topic last semester and asks his roommate about the paper in an attempt to gather information. During his speech, Robert orally cites his roommate by name as a source of his information but does not report that the source is his roommate, whose experience is based on writing a paper. In what ways does Robert’s behavior violate the guidelines set out in the NCA Credo for Ethical Communication?

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author, p. 349.

Associated Press. (2011, May 5). Conn. shekel shellacking. New York Post .

Shiffrin, S. H. (1999). Dissent, injustice and the meanings of America . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Define your personal and professional purpose explicitly and broadly before conflicts arise, and appeal to this sense of purpose in others.

Discussion Questions

1. What are the overarching values that guide your personal life? What are the overarching values that guide your career path or professional life? Consider the following questions:

a) What impact do you want to have? On whom?

b) Whom do you want to know you benefited? In what ways?

c) What do you want to learn?

d) How do you define your impact as a/n: auditor, investor, manager, product developer, marketer, senior executive, teacher, health care professional, designer, entrepreneur, architect, attorney, etc.?

e) What do you hope to accomplish? What will make your professional life worthwhile?

f) How do you want to feel about yourself and your work, both while you are doing it and in the end?

2. Consider how Charles Handy responded to the question “what’s a business for?”

“Both sides of the Atlantic would agree that there is, first, a clear and important need to meet the expectations of a company’s theoretical owners: the shareholders. It would, however, be more accurate to call most of them investors, perhaps even gamblers. They have none of the pride or responsibility of ownership and are, if truth be told, only there for the money. Nevertheless, if management fails to meet their financial hopes, the share price will fall, exposing the company to unwanted predators and making it more difficult to raise new finance. But to turn shareholders’ needs into a purpose is to be guilty of a logical confusion, to mistake a necessary condition for a sufficient one . We need to eat to live; food is a necessary condition of life. But if we lived mainly to eat, making food a sufficient or sole purpose of life, we would become gross. The purpose of business is not to make a profit, full stop. It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more or better. “

Source: “What’s a Business For?” by Charles Handy. Harvard Business Review (December 2002, Reprint #R0212C), p. 5, emphasis added.

a)    Do you agree with Handy’s response?

b)   If you accepted it, how might it affect your decision-making?

c)    What might be some examples of the “something more or better” that he mentions?

Case Studies

Defending Freedom of Tweets?

Running back Rashard Mendenhall receives backlash from fans after criticizing the celebration of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in a tweet.

Freedom of Speech on Campus

In the wake of racially motivated offenses, student protests sparked debate over the roles of free speech, deliberation, and tolerance on campus.

Pao & Gender Bias

Ellen Pao stirred debate in the venture capital and tech industries when she filed a lawsuit against her employer on grounds of gender discrimination.

Teaching Notes

The gvv series.

GVV Pillar 4: Purpose introduces the fourth principle of “ Giving Voice to Values ” (GVV). Mary Gentile encourages us to ask ourselves, “What am I working for?” Defining our personal and professional purpose before conflicts arise, and appealing to this sense of purpose in others, is important. If we answer this question explicitly and in a broad way, we can accept values conflicts more easily as a normal part of a career and of everyday living. Gentile suggests that we identify the personal values that underpin our professional lives. If we have an expansive, inclusive understanding of our professional purpose, we can find greater motivation to act on our values in service to this grander purpose, as well as find compelling ways to appeal to a shared purpose in others whom we wish to influence or persuade.

To learn more about values systems and how they vary from culture to culture, watch Fundamental Moral Unit and All is Not Relative . For complimentary approaches to GVV that also offer methods for voicing values and making ethical decisions, watch the four-part Being Your Best Self videos, which include Part 1: Moral Awareness , Part 2: Moral Decision Making , Part 3: Moral Intent , and Part 4: Moral Action . To learn about pervasive social and organizational biases that inhibit voicing values, watch Moral Muteness and Moral Myopia . To discover how voicing values can contribute to professional and personal success, watch Moral Imagination .

The case studies on this page illustrate different ways in which individuals or groups give voice to their values. “Pao & Gender Bias” examines the debate Ellen Pao generated in the venture capital and tech industries when she filed a lawsuit against her employer on grounds of gender discrimination. “Freedom of Speech on Campus” explores how, in the wake of racially motivated offenses at Yale and the University of Missouri, student protesters voiced their values and sparked debate over the roles of free speech, deliberation, and tolerance on campus. “Defending Freedom of Tweets?” takes a look at the backlash Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall received from fans after he tweeted a criticism of the celebration of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. “Full Disclosure: Manipulating Donors” examines the difficult position a student intern was in and how she struggled to voice her values.

Terms related to this video and defined in our ethics glossary include: altruism, behavioral ethics, ethics, groupthink, integrity, moral agent, morals, moral emotions, moral reasoning, prosocial behavior, social contract theory, subject of moral worth, values, veil of ignorance, and virtue ethics.

The GVV Approach

The “ Giving Voice to Values ” (GVV) video series summarizes the key points of Giving Voice to Values : How t o Speak Your Mind When You Know What’s Right , written by Mary Gentile with support from the Yale School of Management and the Aspen Institute. The GVV videos may be watched individually or sequentially. The series will be most useful if viewed in its entirety and with the introductory video.

GVV was created for business ethics programs, but its lessons are broad and apply to all professionals in every field including fine arts, liberal arts, communication studies, social and natural sciences, engineering, education, social work, and medicine. The GVV series can serve as a springboard for further discussion of ethics and values as they pertain to individuals’ professional and personal lives.

GVV identifies the many ways that individuals can – and do – voice their values in the workplace. It teaches people how to build the “moral muscles” necessary to do so, and details the strategies people can use to find the motivation, skill, and confidence to “give voice to their values.”

The goal of GVV is to act consistently with our most deeply held convictions about right and wrong. Research and experience demonstrate that values conflicts will inevitably occur in our professional and personal lives. So, when what we believe and want to accomplish seems to be in opposition to the demands of others (peers, supervisors, organizations, etc.), the ability to successfully voice our values and navigate these differences is crucial. This is the starting point for the GVV curriculum.

GVV consists of seven principles, or pillars, that represent ways of thinking about values, our identity, and our own capabilities. The seven pillars of GVV are: Values , Choice , Normalization , Purpose , Self-Knowledge & Alignment , Voice , and Reasons & Rationalizations . Each video in the GVV series introduces and explains one of the GVV pillars.

Gentile also describes the factors that affect ethical behavior and offers techniques for resisting unethical actions. Ultimately, the curriculum helps people build and practice the skills they need to recognize, speak, and act on their values effectively when conflicts arise.

The GVV approach includes:

* How a leader raises values-based issues in an effective manner – what she/he needs to do to be heard and how to correct an existing course of action when necessary.

* An emphasis on self-assessment and a focus on individual strengths when looking for a way to align one’s individual sense of purpose with that of an organization.

* Opportunities to construct and practice responses to frequently heard reasons and rationalizations for not acting on one’s values.

* Positive examples of times when people have found ways to voice and thereby implement their values in the workplace.

* Practice in providing peer feedback and coaching.

Additional Resources

Giving Voice to Values case studies, curriculum, and additional teaching pedagogy are available at no cost to educators at the Giving Voice to Values Curriculum  website.

Further details about the “Purpose” pillar may be found in Chapter Five of Giving Voice to Values , “What Am I Looking For?”

For a discussion of the “GVV Starting Assumptions,” see Chapter One of Giving Voice to Values , “Giving Voice to Our Values: The Thought Experiment.”

A summary of the seven pillars of GVV may be downloaded here:  An Action Framework for Giving Voice To Values—“The To-Do List.”

For further discussion of the GVV approach, see Mary Gentile’s article published in Organization Management Journal , “ Values-Driven Leadership Development: Where We Have Been and Where We Could Go .”

Gentile, Mary C. (2010). Giving Voice to Values : How to Speak Your Mind When You Know What’s Right . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Transcript of Narration

Written and Narrated by

Mary C. Gentile , Ph.D. Darden School of Business University of Virginia

“Those people who find ways to voice and act on their values effectively are often folks who have reflected, in advance, on what they are really trying to accomplish in a particular situation. They have thought about the kind of meaning and impact they want their work and their organizations and their lives to have. Are they just trying to get the highest bonus this quarter? Or are they trying to build a successful career and have a positive impact on their companies and in their communities?

Having thought about the meaning of their lives in this broader way allows them to tap into strengths they didn’t know they had, when facing values conflicts. It also gives them language – actual “arguments” – which they can use to inspire and persuade the folks around them to act ethically as well.

It’s easy to get into a narrow and short-term way of thinking when we are busy, over-worked, and goal-oriented. But if we step back and explicitly take time to think about the meaning we want our academic experiences or our career experiences to have in the long run, we can find confidence and strength to act, and we can also serve as inspirations to others.

Think about times when you felt you were a positive influence on your friends or colleagues or family. And think about times when others were a positive influence on you. What was the type of purpose that drove those inspirational behaviors? Define your personal and professional purpose explicitly and broadly before conflicts arise. Decide what is the impact you most want to have. This is the type of purpose you can use to strengthen your resolve and from which you can draw language for your values “scripts.” And remember to appeal to this sense of purpose in others as well.”

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