Question

A QUESTION OF ETHICS t WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Janeen always disliked talking on the telephone-she
thought that it was an impersonal form of communication .
Thus college was a wonderful respite, because, when her
friends would call her, instead of staying on the phone, she
could quickly run over to their dorm or meet them at the
campus coffeehouse.
One day, during a reading period before exams,
Janeen received a phone call from Barbara, a childhood
friend. Before she was able to dismiss Barbara with her
stock excuses, Janeen found herself bombarded with
information about old high school friends and their
whereabouts. Not wanting to disappoint Barbara, who
seemed eager to talk, Janeen tucked her phone under her
chin and began to check her email, answering Barbara
with the occasional "uh huh," "hmm," or "Wow, that's
cool!" As the "conversation" progressed, Janeen signed on
to her Facebook account and became absorbed in reading
posts. After a few minutes she realized there was silence
on the other end of the line. Suddenly very ashamed, she
said, "I'm sorry, what did you say? Our connection went
bad .. . and I couldn't hear you."
Barbara, seeing through Janeen's lie, replied with
obvious hurt in her voice, "Yeah, right. I'm sorry I bothered
you; obviously you must be terribly busy."
Embarrassed, Janeen muttered, "I'm just really
stressed, you know, with exams coming up and
everything. I guess I wasn't listening very well.
What you were saying wasn't really all that important,
right?"
"Right, nothing 'important,"' Barbara answered. "I was
just working up to telling you about my brother Billy.
You remember him, the guy you dated in high school?
Well, I'm sure it's really unimportant compared to
whatever was taking your attention, but you see, we just
found out yesterday that he's terminal with a rare form
of leukemia. So you're right, not important." With that,
she hung up.
FOR CONSIDERATION:
1. Which of the ethical principles did Janeen violate
by how she listened to Barbara? Explain how each
of these principles applies to listening.
2. Although Barbara was the one hurt by Janeen's
comment about the importance of the call, did she
violate any ethical principles by how she ended
the call?
3. What could each of the women have done to make
this conversation more effective?
4. How has this case helped you understand the ethical
obligations of listening?

Answer 1

1) Communication plays a important role in our lives.

Kanden violated ethical principles of communication while talking with Barbara.

While talking one should always give attention to the person who is speaking and listening to what he/she is saying.Janeen did not pay attention to Barbara when she is speaking.

Jansen did not act honest and truthfully.As If janeen is not likely to listen she should've said that she is busy or she is not able to speak but she acted as she is paying attention to the conversation.It is ethically wrong.

2) Barbara also violated ethical principles of communication.

Barbara ended the call without giving a chance to janeen to respond.One should always give a chance to answer or justify the reason for their behaviour.Barbara should have let janeen to answer before ending the call.

3)Barbara should have started the real reason for her call after pleasentries of asking how is she?Or her studies?But she started talking about whereabouts of their old high school friends.

Janeen should have asked if their is anything important for calling her.Or she should have said that she is busy but she ignored her which is wrong.

4)This case helped me realise that while listening we should give our 100% attention to the speaker who are talking with us.And one should not ignore others while listening and acting as they are paying attention.