Management and ethics: do we need a month?

September is Ethics month for PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) and PRSSA (Student society of the same organization). As part of the discussion about where ethics needs to head for PR professionals Art Stevens, APR, Fellow PRSA, wrote a commentary for the The Strategist online called “Let’s put teeth back into PR ethics. Corporate reputation oversight must be mandatory” in which he proposes that “every publicly traded company in America add another vital component to the mix: a corporate reputation oversight committee.”

I found this an interesting comment following our discussion about possible regulation of our profession. His argument is based on the now mandatory corporate monitoring of the financial actions of publicly traded companies and mentioning Sarbanes-Oxley. Stevens asserts that the organization’s reputation is an equally important asset that should be monitored and managed. Do you agree?

In chapter 3 of the text, it states that “public relations is inescapably tied, by nature and by necessity, to top management, with public relations staff providing counsel and communication support” (p. 56). Do you think top management are the only people who can oversee reputation management or are there other positions that can be equally successful?

Finally, an interesting question is why we should need an “ethics month” at all? Shouldn’t it be ethics year or none at all given the importance of ethical standards in any profession?

On a side note: if you are interested in reading further about PR History, then explore the PR Museum established in 1997 as the place to go to learn how ideas are developed for industry, education, and government, and how they have been applied to successful public relations programs since the PR industry was born.

PUR6006 Foundations Blog

This blog will become the location for discussion of issues related to public relations as we examine the foundational principles of excellent public relations and its practice in the professional world. It is intended that this be a place of dialogue amongst the members of the class and we will begine shortly. If you would like to see an example of how this can work, please For an idea of how this will work, see the philanthropy course blog.

My sincere apologies - as jetlag and other issues caught up with me, I have not begun your blog assignment for tomorrow. We will begin this coming week (Sep 11-13).