Espoused Moral Muteness: Organizational Values Enabling and Constraining Advertising Ethics

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Organizational Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Understanding the complexity of advertising ethics mandates an organizational approach to empirical research. Through the lens of Giddens’ structuration theory, this ethnography examines the relationship between organizational values, one aspect of Schein’s concept of organizational culture, and advertising ethics. Fieldwork at a full-service advertising agency and 45 one-on-one interviews were conducted regarding perceptions of organizational leadership as well as ethics in advertising. Findings suggest that organizational values and ethics are part of a dynamic relationship, and that values serve as rules and resources, enabling and simultaneously constraining ethical awareness.

Author

• Erin Elizabeth Schauster, University of Colorado Boulder