Employed students: ethical and legal issues in the technical communication classroom

Author

Jennings, Ann S.

Author_Institution

Univ. of Houston, TX, USA

Volume

43

Issue

4

fYear

2000

fDate

12/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

368

Lastpage

385

Abstract

When students are also corporate employees, unique ethical and legal problems can arise in a technical communication classroom. To help instructors and employed students understand their situation, I review in this article several major approaches to normative ethics and define various legal terms. Next, I analyze two classroom incidents from the ethical and legal points of view. Finally, I provide guidelines that may help instructors address or forestall the potential consequences of classroom activities involving employed students

Keywords

employment; legislation; personnel; philosophical aspects; professional communication; teaching; Aristotle; Bentham; John Stuart Mill; Kant; business ethics; categorical imperatives; classroom activities; classroom incidents; codes of conduct; corporate employees; duty; employed students; ethical issues; guidelines; instructors; legal issues; legal terms; normative ethics; teaching; technical communication classroom; trade secrets; whistle-blowing; Business communication; Control engineering education; Employment; Ethics; Guidelines; Law enforcement; Legal factors; Milling machines; Professional communication; Protection;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0361-1434

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/47.888812

Filename

888812