Workplace Communication and Ethics
This domain tests how you communicate at work and how you act when honesty, confidentiality and courtesy pull against convenience. Expect scenario questions on emails, feedback, teamwork and reporting wrongdoing.
The communication process
Sender, message, channel, receiver, feedback and noise. Choose the channel by purpose: a written email creates a record; a phone call resolves urgency; a meeting suits joint decisions.
The 7Cs
Clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete, courteous. A formal email has a specific subject line, a salutation, the purpose in the first line, the details, the action requested with a deadline, and a sign-off with your name and designation.
Listening and feedback
Active listening means paraphrasing and asking a clarifying question before replying. Useful feedback is specific, behaviour-focused and timely - "the report arrived two days after the deadline" rather than "you are careless".
Ethics at work
Honesty in reporting, confidentiality of customer and employee data, punctuality, avoidance of conflicts of interest, refusal of bribes, and use of proper channels. Under the POSH Act, 2013, every workplace must address sexual harassment; employers with ten or more workers must constitute an Internal Committee, and a complaint is normally filed within three months of the incident.
Worked example
You see a colleague emailing a customer list to an outside agent. Reasoning: do not confront publicly and do not post online; note dates and facts; report to the manager or the Internal Committee or the designated whistle-blower channel, because confidentiality of customer data is an organisational and legal duty that outweighs friendship.
Traps that cost marks
- Equating politeness with ethics.
- Promising a deadline you cannot meet.
- Using "reply all" with sensitive data.
- Leaving decisions undocumented.
- Assuming a small firm has no harassment policy.
Summary
Communicate so the record is clear, and act so the record is defensible.