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Ethical Approaches


In becoming more flexible intercultural communicators, perceptions of ethics deserve a moment's consideration. One approach toward ethical choices is ethical absolutionism, which means that the same set of fixed standards are universal and should be applied universally. Another approach is ethical relativism, which calls attention to the cultural context of the behavior being evaluated. Ethical relativists advocate the importance of both respecting their own values as well as those of the other culture involved, and hold that ethical practices should be considered from a cultural insider perspective. Derived ethical-universalism is another approach, and holds that universalities of ethics should be derived from within the proper cultural context. Evaluations of behaviors should take into account the underlying similarities across cultures as well as the unique features of an individual culture. This approach is ideal, but requires a good deal of collaborative dialog, attitudinal openness, and hard work from all involved members.


A final approach is meta-ethics, which is the construction of a way of viewing ethics in our everyday lives as something transcendent of any particular ideological position. In this approach, an ethical dilemma is understood by systematically revealing and analyzing its multiple layers. Each case is unique and each context is unique in this perspective. In this approach, researchers outline four steps a decision maker in an intercultural dilemma can follow.

  1. Collect factual data (gather information from multiple perspectives).

  2. consider the total situation and cultural context (suspend ethnocentric judgment and try to see things from the other culture's lenses).

  3. Identify the intentions and motives of others from three different viewpoints, intention independent of action, action independent of intention, and intention and action taken together.

  4. Analyze the weighted positive and negative consequences likely to follow from the culmination of intention and action.

In becoming ethical intercultural communicators, an additional couple of questions to consider in making ethical decisions are 1) Can you come up with any creative solutions other than the ones laid out? In addition, 2) Is there any way to prevent this sort of thing from occurring again in this culture? At the local cultural level, grassroots movements and commitment to change can help minimize or eliminate traditional problematic practices.



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