Language reference

The following phrases can be used to communicate about ethics.

Making an ethics-based case

I believe that the fair/just/honest thing to do is to… We have to respect the principle of equality/ democracy/fairness here.

Personally, I can’t accept/respect/follow a decision that…

Acknowledging the ethics of others

I appreciate that fairness/honesty/integrity is important to you…

So, a key principle for you is accountability, right? When you say “equality”, what exactly does that mean for you?

Balancing different ethical perspectives

It’s complex. We have to balance a need to… against the importance of…

I realize that the concept of fairness/honesty can be complex, and others may think that it means… It’s not black and white because…

Challenging ethically driven arguments

I don’t believe that it’s fair to pay such huge differences in salaries because…

I think there are other ways of defining accountability/fairness/transparency.

For me, the success of the business is the overriding factor here.

Agreeing on aims

We’re coming at this from different angles, but we both want to…

Neither of us really believes that this is fair, so I think we can agree to…

Ultimately, we both want to achieve the same aim. So, why don’t we… ?

Taking an ethics-based decision

In order to be as caring/open/fair as possible, we’ll…

According to our values, we should…

Taking ethical considerations into account, let’s decide to…