Notes from 56th International STC Conference
Atlanta, Georgia, May 2-5, 2009

A Delicate Balance: Using Value Analysis to Help Identify and Resolve Ethical Conflicts in Technical Communication
Tabletop presentation within Management SIG’s progression, “Best Practices in Management”

Dan Voss, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control

Session Description: Technical communicators and their managers may face a wide range of complex ethical conflicts. This presentation explained how to systematically apply 3 ethical models (including the new STC Ethical Guidelines) in a 6-step process of value analysis to identify and resolve such conflicts, applied the approach to one or two management-oriented scenarios involving ethical conflicts, and further explored the subject through Q&As and discussion.

Note: Notes are not available from this session, since I was the presenter. However, here are links to the presentation and a technical paper on the subject.*

• Presentation: “A Delicate Balance: Using Value Analysis to Help Identify and Resolve Ethical Conflicts in Technical Communication”, excerpted from a workshop by Rachel Eichen and Dan Voss at the 55th STC International Conference in 2008.
• Paper: “A Slippery Slope: Using Value Analysis to Resolve Ethical Conflicts in Technical Communication”, Dan Voss.