Habermas's Discourse Ethics and Principle of Universalization as a Moral Framework for Organizational Communication

Abstract

The author argues for the potential of discourse ethics as a framework for guiding and assessing ethical action in organizational communication. Habermas's discourse ethics offers an intersubjective procedure for developing and challenging ethical norms through reasoned public communication. After examining the development of discourse ethics and reviewing existing organizational applications of Habermas's ideas, the author then forms the principle of universalization into five steps necessary for an organization to enact a discourse ethic. These steps are used to assess the ethical problems and to identify alternative courses of action relating to the American Red Cross's Liberty Fund case.