Where do ethics apply?
September is Ethics month for PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) and PRSSA (Student society of the same organization). As part of a discussion about ethics in our field, Susan Walton wrote a commentary for PR Tactics online called “1 a.m. ethics: Wrestling with those small, everyday choices that we face” in which she proposes that “Choosing between the easy thing and the right thing doesn’t always happen with the world looking on. Sometimes we make our most important ethical decisions at night when the only voice of persuasion is the whisper of our own conscience.” I thought it was intriguing that Walton challenged the traditional approach to a discussion of ethics that focuses on “the ‘big’ ethical decisions that could face us in the workplace”, such as covering up organizational wrongdoing and hiding the truth from stakeholders. What is your perspective on how ethics plays into professional conduct within the public relations and strategic communications field?
In chapter 5, Cutlip et al. state that public relations is built on the imperative of trust because “you trust the professional with information and access that often are withheld from even your closest friends and family…you entrust yourself and your possessions to the professional” (p. 145, 8th Ed.). How important is trust and credibility to a public relations professional?
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.
posted by prteacher @ 9/07/2007 09:20:00 AM
26 Comments:
There is an old adage that if you cheat on the small things, you will also cheat on the large ones. In public relations, there are no "small" or "trivial" ethical decisions. Like Walton, most public relations practitioners aren't faced with the decision to cover up a scandal or misrepresent financial earnings. I argue that "1 a.m. ethics" ARE the big decisions facing practitioners today.
Personal conduct doesn't necessarily lead to personal consequences. The scope of our actions reach much further than that. It is not simply our career that is on the line, it is that of the member of the media to whom we speak and even our supervisor. That's why trust and credibility play such an integral role in what we do.
We have seen public relations without ethics. This "public be damned" period of press agentry certainly didn't create a profession of which we could be proud. It was also not as effective as the public relations we see today. Ethics has become one of the most prized and protected parts of our profession. One task we have as public relations practitioners is to bring awareness to a subject. That's what ethics month is all about- bringing further awareness to the importance of ethics in our profession.
Ethics is personally one of my favorite topic to discuss in public relations. I honestly had no idea that there was such thing called an "ethics month" until I read the discussion question.
After reading Walton's article "1 a.m. ethics," I, too, was intrigued at how she challenged the traditional perspectives on ethics that applies to perhaps the "big decisions" that occur in our professionalism. I realized that media and other sources pay much more attention to the "bigger happenings" rather than the daily practices of public relations professionals. In fact, how PR practitioners do their work and make the "small decisions" daily may have a bigger impact on how everything turns out all together. For example, a professional may do an amazing job proving ethical practice when a nationally acknowledged crisis happens to his or her company by providing accurate information and coming up with the best strategies and tactics. But what difference would that make if the same professional were ignoring important facts that may oppose the representation of the company or decide to exclude information to day-to-day clients that may have negative influence on the relationship? Overall, I think, ignoring the 1 a.m. ethics jeopardizes the profession of public relations as a whole more than the already-acknowledged common sense that we as professionals must practice ethics in big crisis situations. Cutlip et al. said "commitment to serve society applies to both individual practitioners and the profession collectively." (p. 124, 9th ed.) Big things can be achieved by doing the small things right, I believe. This should certainly be applied to the daily, late night decisions that we may have to make on our own without any other voices influencing us. I, too, will keep this in mind, that when I have to face a dilemma, that means I am standing at a crossroad rather than holding firmly to what it is that I already know is the "right thing" to do.
Trust and credibility is extremely important in public relations because we are first and foremost, professionals as well as communicators. We are representing our client to its publics. And if we can't be a trustworthy source to those who matter the most to our client, then what is the point of trying to communicate in the first place? Our practices and what we do as a profession is based on relationship building. As humans, in general, we look for truth and credibility in every relationship we build in our life time. Therefore, the foundation of our profession, relationship building, should be truthful and honest. Even in the code of ethics guideline set by PRSA states that we should "acknowledge that there is an obligation to protect and enhance the profession." (p.139, 9th ed.) If not, we will never be able to build and maintain what our profession initially begins with: a relationship with our client and publics. Quite frankly said, once the trust is broken, it is extremely hard to gain it back than initially building the trust itself from day one. To avoid that, we must be ethical in every way possible, even if it means having to admit that we are wrong at times.
Having an "ethics month" is actually a good idea, in my opinion. Granted, yes, we should always practice ethics and it shouldn't have to be specified to a single month of the year. But having a month of ethics is a good way to remind practitioners and any businessmen and women to re-evaluate what they have been doing in their fields, how they've been practicing their professions, what mistakes could be fixed and many other factors that play into ethical practices in every field that exist in this world of professions. I think as long as practitioners utilize this ethics month appropriately and use it as a reminder, a wake-up call or just an appreciation of its existence, public relations would gain much more confidence from other fields and publics that we, too, are a part of professionalism that allows this world to go around and that communication indeed plays an imperative role in the daily lives of everyone. I do believe that some things are worth working for, even if it means waiting and doing the right things even when no one's looking. Public relations is definitely worth all of that because I believe in the profession and its roles being necessary to this society as a whole.
So here's to the "ethics month" where we take a step back and really see what it is that we do and how it's supposed to be done.
I agree with Walton’s assessment that ethical responsibility rests with personal character choices such as providing honest and accurate information to all our various publics. Ethics should be evaluated based on an individual’s intent (I think we touched on this in our theory class) to “stand firmly on one side or another.” Providing inaccurate facts if they are believed to be accurate, isn’t unethical, its carelessness that detracts from the value of our craft. It’s clearly unethical to provide inaccurate facts if it will knowingly mislead the public.
As practitioners, ethical behavior stems from our “fiduciary” responsibility as professionals (Cutlip, 123, 9th ed.). In some cases our desire to further build trust between us and the client with publicity blurs ethical lines. A co-worker once noted a good strategy for brand management is to show opinion leaders how great your product is. He was referring to Snapple’s gift of cases upon cases of their tea to radio personalities until Snapple was recognized for their generosity and great product! Currently, this tactic is known as “pay for play.” In 2005, commenting on “Ketchumgate” Dick Edelman noted “pay for play public relations… makes our industry's efforts to 'clean up' behavior in newly created PR markets such as China and Russia look decidedly ridiculous” (http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives/2005/01/pay_to_play_pr.html). Edelman’s firm was recently accused of this practice during the Microsoft (and Wal-Mart)/PR bloggers debacle. His tactics (ethical or not) might have improved his firm’s relationship with those companies (if successful), but at the cost of society’s trust in the independence of the blogging community. As Cutlip describes our responsibility to society he explains, “professionals are expected to do more than provide knowledge and skilled services,” further noting that negative effects of “public relations sometimes corrodes our channels of communication with cynicism and credibility gaps.”
When “big” ethical incidents do occur, an organization or firm should learn from their mistakes and ensure their organization’s understanding of the rules and reaffirm their commitment to an honest and ethical practice of public relations; not just for their own survival but for the reputation of the industry. Having had the fortunate experience to work for Ketchum D.C. after “Ketchumgate,” I feel ethics are best practiced (and actually practiced) when all members of the organization (top and bottom) are in complete understanding of the rules (such as government contracts) and the commitments we as practitioners make; to those whose service we are entrusted and to the industry as a whole.
In regards to September being named Ethics month, I say way to go PRSA! The naming of months brings well-deserved recognition for the movements and struggles they honor (Breast Cancer Awareness, Black History). Ethics month increases awareness to problems and signals hope for future solutions and behavioral changes. The apparent shift within our profession to more accountable practices and the promotion of ethical standards is desperately needed. Despite a few ethically-challenged corporate PR incidents, our profession clearly supports ethical values in our everyday practice. These efforts should be commended.
**I used the Neville Hobson’s (a U.K. communicator/blogger) blog--http://www.nevillehobson.com—as food for thought on this topic.**
Please vaccinate ethics against indiscretion a month per year!
Ethics absolutely play a key role in professional public relations practice as well as research, but it is easily endangered even that we always do the right thing. In other words, doing right things does not guarantee that you are immunized from ethics infringement.
It is not joking. A sad story happened on my professional PR friend, who had experienced medical PR over 10 years. At that time, he was a vice president of a PR firm that focused on its service on medical or pharmaceutical clients.
One of their patrons, a progressive orthopedist, imported a set of expensive equipment for beautifying breasts, and requested a series of PR services to create impressive publicity about his new service and his clinic as well. Through strategically planning, the media loved the news and featured some stories about the new technique of breast augmentation, yet unfortunately orthopedist association sued one of key media for cheating story. Based on the association’s statement, the new equipment only beautifies breasts not enlarges breasts. Furthermore, the misleading exposure hurt the customer relationship of members of orthopedist association because their patients thought their service and clinic technique out of date. The accused media criticized the PR practitioner’s intentional fooling the media although news release only worded “beautify breast.” In this case, the PR person had fully responsibility of his writings; the wording of breast enlargement or breast augmentation was not found in the whole text of the news release. The journalist thought that “beautify breast” and “enlarge breast” had similar meaning while she paraphrased her news from the news release. She also thought that the public had the same concept as hers. The angry reporter wrote the story in Blog of journalist association to veil the unfaith behavior of the PR person, and launched a news boycott movement against the PR firm. My friend faced unprecedented challenge of his career. Ironically, he had to employ his skillful risk management to secure himself out of the crisis.
Deontological philosophy points out “ethical decisions are made based on what is right or wrong, not who benefits the most” (Cutlip, 2006, p.121). In this case, neither the PR practitioner nor the journalist intentionally did the wrong thing or unethically benefited any one. Reviewing “guidelines for ethical conduct” (Wilcox, 2005, p. 86) again, to be honest, we can avoid unethical affairs, but we are still stepping on the edge of infringement; we will not intentionally break the norms, but we might be punished by inexperience. It is my opinion that ethics costs!
Public relations run business on connection. The reputation of the media, of the client, and of the PR personnel is triangulated and influences each other. Once ethics breaks, the credibility is also consequently broken. Credibility and trust are the fundamental values in good communication buildup. If the media credibility is doubtful, why does a PR person need media exposure? If PR work ruins its credibility, how can a PR firm pitch any client? If client’s credibility is questioned, one of benefits of deontological approach, “changing trends or issues via the open communication” (Cutlip, 2006, p.121), is meaningless. That is also the reason why ethics takes a month to reminder any PR persons. Ethic issue is like vaccine. PR persons need a shot once time a year to immunize any innocent violation.
Ethics was a big part of my undergraduate curriculum. We constantly wrestled with the idea of ethical public relations versus unethical. I was shocked to learn that many of my peers said they would put their own personal "1 a.m. ethics" aside for a paycheck. They explained that when you accept a job as a public relations practitioner, you take the bad along with the good. You do what you are expected to do and do nothing to undermine your client or employer. I disagree more than words can express. "1 a.m. ethics" is something that is always in the back of my mind. I sometimes worry that I will be asked to write or defend something that goes against my personal beliefs. Some may call it a bad attitude but I call it responsible public relations - I would rather lose my job than do something I believed to be unethical.
I am a firm supported of deontological, or nonconsequentialist, ethics because as Cutlip et al. state in Chapter 5, "moral duty indicates the right course of action" (p. 120, 9th Ed.). I interpret this to mean: trust your instinct; if something feels unethical to you, it probably is. There is no feeling worse than regret but unfortunately as public relations practitioners, regret may turn out to be a lot worse than a bad feeling - it may cost a practitioner their job or cost an organization its credibility.
I agree with Courtney, Jessica, Patrick and Ricco that PRSA's Ethics Month is a brilliant idea. Yes, we should be practicing ethical public relations twelve months out of the years, but just like Breast Cancer Awareness Month or Black History Month, a few weeks of added attention to an issue that really hits home for public relations professionals (or students) can only work to our advantage.
I definitely identify more with the utilitarian philosophy toward ethics than the deontological approach. To me, utility's perspective of choosing "the alternative that maximizes positive outcomes and minimizes negative outcomes or harm" seems more realistic than the opposing perspective (Cutlip et. al, 2006, p. 120). Deontology is too easy and too idealistic for me to identify with - "doing the right thing" is something that is very subjective to demographic factors, and I feel that utilitarianism is a stronger perspective because of its roots in objectivity.
I think that practitioners should always try to do what is in their clients’ best interest - but which interest are we talking about? Reputation? The bottom line? Sometimes there are several interests, and not all can be satisfied with the same solution. A great, but rare example of when several interests were served by a very strategic and ethical decision is the Tylenol case. It was best for the organization's reputation to perform the massive recall, but it was extremely costly. In this case, this decision (which I see as being very successful based on the utilitarian philosophy of maximizing positive outcomes and limiting negative consequences) ended up being the best, as Tylenol resumed its position as a top company in the pharmaceutical industry shortly after this tragedy. Many companies however, do not have all of their needs met by one comprehensive solution, and it is here when the important ethical decisions must be made that could adversely affect the organization's future.
Trust and credibility are very important to a public relations professional. There are few things that I can think of that are more frustrating than not being taken seriously. Being regarded as highly credible insures that clients and other publics will regard what you have to say very highly, and may even consider you to be an expert on the subject at hand. It would not be advantageous for a company to utilize the services of a public relations practitioner that they did not deem credible or trustworthy – why put your company’s reputation in the hands of someone that you do not consider capable and morally competent? Trust and credibility are just as important and years of experience or a degree in the field when an organization is hiring a public relations practitioner – if you are not credible or trustworthy, you are going to be under qualified and not eligible for employment.
I think that celebrating “ethics month” is a very futile attempt by the PRSA to improve the reputation of the public relations field to the skeptical public who views the profession as something other than ethical. I have no doubt that there are professional in our field who do subscribe to unethical practices on a daily basis, and I highly doubt that a strategic and friendly reminder from PRSA to be ethical is going to change their ways. I just do not see a need for or point of celebrating or promoting something that practitioners are supposed to be doing anyway.
According to Cutlip et.al. “ethics involves decisions people make in their personal and professional lives, ” (p.148, Ninth International Edition). I think ethics are a set of personal rules that an individual uses to decide what is right and what is not. This implies that there are no universal guidelines to ethics. I agree to what Ricco said in his comment that doing the right thing does not always entail ethical behavior. I am sure if we are asked whether we will all behave as ethical professionals, all of us would give a strong affirmative nod to it. But the question is how do we ensure we act as ethical individuals. Is telling the truth always ethical? What if telling the truth actually worsens the situation? For example telling the truth during wartime might result in an increase in panic among public. What I am trying to emphasize here is that ethics is a very subjective term. Something that might be ethical to me may be grossly unethical to someone else. In such situations how would you ensure ethical behavior.
I agree with Walton that we should make decisions by listening to our conscience. I would call this predisposed ethics, because they comprise of values and morals that are inculcated in us since childhood. But as Joseph Fletcher proposed in the 1960s there are “Situation Ethics” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_ethics). Situation ethics believes “It is never right to go against a principle unless there is a proportionate reason which would justify it” (Hoose, 1987). I think many times as communications professional we face a dilemma and have to chose the right thing to do. Iamheck points in his comment that intent of your decisions plays an important role in defining whether they are ethical. I would like to add that it is not only the intent but also the consequences of your decisions that should be taken into account.
As public relation professionals we are entrusted with dual responsibility towards both our clients and the publics. I firmly believe that it is our duty to safeguard the interests of both these entities. “Fiduciary Relationships” (Cutlip et.al., p123, Ninth International Edition) with our clients and publics are based on a level of trust they have put on us. But what happens when there is a conflict between these two ends we serve, which end do we give up? It is important to ponder over such questions.
Finally, celebrating an ethical month gives people like us and many in this arena a chance to evaluate our conducts. They certainly prove that there are gaps in the way public relations is being practiced and that there possibilities of improvements. I liked what Ricco said “Ethic issue is like vaccine”. But I would like to add that like many other vaccines there is a chance that this vaccine might also fail for certain individuals but many others can benefit from it!
Regardless nations and industries, it has been important to overhaul a code of conduct and emphasize ethical managements. In not only Marketing field but also public relations, is being an ethical professional imperative. Violating code of conduct or unethical management brings fatal consequence to any organization. While we more pay attention to big ethical issues, we often commit slight but still improper decisions. As Susan Walton said, we might conduct wrongdoing, relying on our own conscience.
While working for the charitable organization whose mission is to help unemployed families by providing assistance in a form of education and training, I encouraged people and corporate to have social responsibility. Due to heavy workload, I had sometimes sent a ready-made introduction package without checking data validity although I had to provide up-to-date information in order to recruit potential donors. After careless click to send information kit without update, I felt guilty on my mistake and had to provide new one. I would like to add one more principle to Susan Walton’s three basic principles of behavior: Think twice before you click the send button.
Also, we sometimes had to compromise even our mission in order to satisfy our sponsor companies’ needs. For example, although we should provide assistance in the form of education and training for the unemployed, we had provided medical and hospital costs to unemployed families. It is because the sponsoring company designated the way of aid and the target beneficiaries who are suffering from medical costs. Applying the contingency theory to my personal experience, one question bursts upon me: can we call it the ethical decision which is in “pure accommodation”?
I guess we still need an “ethics month” as a reminder of the question whether you are on the right direction as the ethical public relations professional. If not, people like me may unwittingly make wrong choices, “1 a.m. ethics” by entrusting only myself.
What are public relations ethics principles? I agree with situation ethics, it points out that ethical decision making is viewed as depending on the specific circumstances of each situation. There may be a number of conflicting ethical responsibilities in each situation, the decision can be made depend on the specific situation and need. Sometimes other moral principles can be cast aside in certain situations, whether the decision is ethical or not, it depends on the situations as well, According to Health (2001, P.404) of Handbook of Public Relations, “some forms of situational ethics involve balancing deontological principles with teleological principle as applied to the specific situation.”
Due to the complexity of issue, it is hard to make objective standards of ethical conduct, vast majority of variables has been found to correlate with application of it, such as age, years of experience, and personal ethics. Although it is a good idea to focus on the ethic at day-to-day work just like Walton pointed out in “1.a.m. ethic”, it is impossible to be followed by every public relations professional because of individual difference. In this circumstance, the ethics is more buzzword than reality. And that’s also the reason why I hold situation ethics in public relations practice.
Just like Cutlip pointed out, trust and credibility are significant to the public relations professional. Public relations professional serves as the sender and news source in communication process, whether the communication is efficient or not? Whether the receiver can accept the message well or not? They all have something to do with the source. The more reliability the source has, the greater efficiency the communication gets. In public relations field, if public relations professional is authentic and publics trust the professional, it is easier to build relationships.
Considering the importance of ethic in public relations field, it is perfect to have an “ethics month”. “Ethics month” sounds the alarm for public relations persons, it reminders them what should do and what are forbidden. Alarm is ringing all the time in every public relations person’s mind, that is to say, public relations should filter ethical standards into their mind. With this wake-up call, Pubic relations practitioners have impetus to apply ethics into daily work to guard against the appearance of the unethical decisions and conducts. That’s what “ethics month” is for.
I agree with Walton in her assessment of the term "1 a.m. ethics". It seems that, not only should this be an imperative part of a PR practitioner's professional life, it should also be practiced daily in their personal life. Cutlip et al. state "public relations must be practiced with a commitment to social responsibility and ethics" (Cutlip et al.,2006, p.119). To me, this seems to be a "no-brainer". Shouldn't one who practices high ethical standards in their personal life, instinctively apply them to the choices and actions made while in the professional world? I would like to believe that this would be so.
However, this doesn't always seem to be the case. There is always the example of the angel on one shoulder, devil on the other. When we are forced with a decision that could cause dire consequences for not only ourselves, but the organization as a whole, the options are weighed thoroughly. Both sides are consulted and the decision is made. But, when it is "1 a.m." and the choice is sometimes made without consulting either of our shoulder sitting friends, it is easy to choose without thinking it through. This decision is usually a quick, easy decision, but If one chooses to live their life "ethically" and practice good morals and high ethical standards daily, the decision should instinctively be ethical.
I feel that we should absolutely have an ethics month. Although, it seems that it should be highlighted all year long, it is important to shine a spotlight on this topic for one month out of the year in order to bring a significant awareness to it. I have to agree with Courtney, when she stated that "Ethics have become one of the most prized and protected parts of our profession." Ethics should be "prized" by everyone in the field, instead of just mentioned and referred to during important decision-making moments. The addition of an "ethics month" would be an important tool to help us, as professionals, keep ethics protected.
Denis L. Wilcox states that a PR firm should and can turn down a client when representation would violate the firm’s ethical standards because “your personal integrity may outweigh any immediate financial loss” (2005, p. 88, 5th Ed.). It works out fine when the whole firm or PR department maintains the same position on an ethical dilemma. But what about when you are the only one who finds an action ethically wrong? And what about when going against the company means losing your job? Personally, I’d think twice about my stance on an issue if my job were in danger. Immediate financial loss may be nothing to an entire firm, but it’s something to an individual.
To help individual practitioners hold to their principles, students of public relations need to build a strong ethical foundation BEFORE entering the field. As Walton says, we have to decide “early on where we will draw our lines.” Learning and committing to ethics in school will help practitioners keep their resolve when faced with ethical problems – either the “1 a.m. ethics” or the big ones – in the field. Ethics month can help support this foundation. I agree with most everyone in the class so far that ethics month is a needed reminder for students and also professionals. We can always use more ethics training and thinking.
What starts with a personal commitment to establishing trust and credibility by one public relations professional on an individual level can eventually improve the entire profession. Cutlip et. al. say that “for public relations to achieve professional status,” there needs to be among other things “a commitment to abide by established codes” that “spell out social responsibility” (2006, p. 126, 9th Ed.). When practitioners lose the trust of the client, not only are the practitioners and clients hurt, but the reputation of the entire PR profession is weakened.
Ethics has become an issue in public relations because the practice has such a bad ‘rap’. For public relations to truly become a ‘practice’ it has to shed the negative image of “flack” and “spin”. I think that this can only be done by taking an ethical and symmetrical approach and earning back, over time, the publics' opinion. But that is only done through years of ethical practice. The bottom line on the ethics debate is trust. The general public must start trusting the function of public relations. The image that the practice of PR is only designed to sway public opinion by distracting people from the truth does not only make the practitioner’s job harder but also sets the reputation of the practice back. Wilson,in Chapter three of Writing and Media Techniques,poses the question “What is truth?”(p. 87). I believe that truth is at the heart of the problem. To gain respect, public relations must become more transparent. Like the old adage goes, “honesty is the best policy”.
When I eventually end up practicing, I want to approach every situation with the utmost integrity. Yet I am of the belief that I must have the best interests of my employer in mind. It seems to me, at some point in my career, that these two objectives will be at odds with one another. Like Christina, I am also of the mind set of a more “utilitarian philosophy”. Where as the deontological approach is beautiful in it's theory I don’t believe that in every situation it is practical. Cutlip et al recognizes that a nonconsequentialist “maintains that ethics should be guided by duty rather than consequence” (p. 120). I wish that could always be the case, but I believe that things are a little more complicated than that black or white ideal. I was raised with high moral standards and I can see that an ethics issue in my career could be a major turning point. I can only hope to be as lucky as Susan Walton, and never have to be asked to make a moral compromise. Until those “1 a.m. ethics” questions pose themselves I can only speculate.
I believe that having an “ethics month” is a good start. It is an important annual reminder of the imperative part that ethics plays in the practice of public relations. It is a symbolic gesture, not only to people in the field, but to others outside that practice that says, “Hey public relations is a reliable and ethical resource”. In some ways having an ethics month is just good PR for PR.
Ethics is a fundamental that sustains our society. Most of our behavior occurs within the bounds of ethics. There are two kinds of ethics: besides the general ethics that apply to ordinary people, there are special ethics that apply to professionals. For example, we expect scientists to use technology ethically, and we expect the clergy to be ethically flawless. This kind of professional ethics is narrower and more specific.
Then what is the problem of PR from an ethical viewpoint? Although PR is a profession, people seldom expect PR professionals to consider ethics. When people see an advertisement or a PR brochure, they don’t necessarily expect it be ethical.
Trust and credibility—the core of ethics—should apply to PR. If not, as PRSA said, the outcomes will be “self defeating and lead to widespread public distrust of Public Relations activities.” (Wilcox, Fifth Edition, p. 87) If we don’t follow ethical guidelines, our advocacy will never touch the public. We will repeatedly speak in vain. Our professional failure in terms of trust and credibility will have a negative effect on our personal trust and credibility, creating a vicious circle.
I agree with Walton’s opinion: ethics applies not only to big matters. Even if we have a chance to become a whistle blower, it takes some nerve to overcome the pressure and actually blow the whistle. Nevertheless, I don’t agree with the three basic principles of behavior in daily duties that Walton refers to. It is not an ethic that applies only to PR professionals. It is a general ethic which ordinary people, including PR professionals, are bound to. Rather, PR professionals encounter ethical problems when they advocate a particular product or service. They confuse how far they can go in describing it beautifully. Is it right to ignore to the bad effects and brag about the good aspects of something?
Our PR professionals should formulate guidelines on this matter. “Be honest and accurate in all communications,” which is one of the guidelines of the PRSA member code of ethics, is too idealistic to contain reality.
“Ethics Month” is a good idea. It arose ethical matter in the PR area to others and me. What we should do is that PR the concept of “Ethics Month of PR”, so more people know about our efforts enforcing PR in ethical viewpoint.
In my point of view, ethics should play into professional conduct within the public relations and strategic communications field by guiding with our moral values and conscience( I don’t agree with Cutlip et al mentioned “ethics should be guided by duty rather than consequence”(p.120)), no matter in making big ethics decisions or in small daily choice. As for the definition of “moral values”, I think it is the values accepted by culture and society. Being public relations practitioners, we have great responsibility for what we do to affect the society’s viewpoint, to educate our offspring, and to teach publics because of our ability to control messages conveying to people. The moral values represented by us are very important not only for our own professions, but also for the whole society. When we fail to follow our professional ethics, we will not only lose our reputation or profits, but worse, we will bring terrible influence on publics and society. Because of our social responsibility, I totally agree with Walton’s “1 a.m. ethics” which indicates that even small ethics is also very important.
In public relations, trust and credibility is very crucial, especially when most publics think public relations equals lies. In general, we believe trust and credibility earns form professional ethics so that to build up our credibility and trust must to steadily practice our ethics. However, there is always having dilemma between ethics and client’s best interest. I believe different culture values different performance. In the US, society values honesty as the most important element in trusting and building credibility, and, moreover, integrity and honesty brings a company reputation and clients. Yet the same criterion doesn’t apply perfectly in different culture. At least in Taiwan, we don’t value honesty or integrity as much as profits and wealth, which means we are much more “utilitarian philosophy”. Stakeholders and stockholders care more about how much money a company can make than about how much social responsibility a company has. So when public relation practitioners face a dilemma between ethics and client’s best interest, I think Americans and Taiwanese will have different answers. I was raised up to be honest and even school had educated me that trust and credibility are very important for any profession, but workplace in Taiwan hit me that client’s income is much more important, and which made me struggled for a long time. I believe the idea of deontological approach is good, but sometimes it is not so realistic.
I like what Courtney wrote “Ethics has become one of the most prized and protected parts of our profession”, so having a “Ethic Month” is a good idea to remind us what the most important element constituted in our profession is, and what things for us to learn and to be done in the future.
Ethics plays a significant role in professional practice because profession has privilege. “Professionals traditionally hold privileged positions in society because of the value and trust inherent in fiduciary relationships.”(Cutlip et. al, Eighth edition, p.145) In most situations, people believe profession at all. If some business or organizations don’t consider about ethics, these people may be dangerous. In the public relations and strategic communications field, PR practitioners or the practitioners of strategic communications should tell the truths and not to intend to cheat or hide some information to the publics. Many practitioners are making effort to qualify moral, and others see codes of ethics, such as the codes of PRSA. (Cutlip et. al, Eighth edition, p.165; Wilcox, Five edition, p.86) Ethics is like a lifeguard to protect consumers or participators. At the same time, ethics is the basic consider of business or organizations when practitioners plan a new project.
When we practice public relations we may be faced with some dilemmas. I think it is very important that we should make decisions by our conscience and standards for ethical conduct in PR. I agree with what Susan Walton said in the article “1 a.m. ethics”. “We can stand firm in our ethical decisions by deciding early on where we will draw our lines.” In the real world, right things sometimes are not easy things. At this time, we have to use our wisdom to stand firm in our ethical decisions and prevent the happening of terrible situations as soon as possible. Maybe under the ethical decisions, the business may lose some benefits. However, doing the right thing is the best way to create the win-win situations for the organizations and the publics.
Trust and credibility is also important to public relations professional. Public relations professional can plan a project or execute cases real professional if they get enough trust. If clients don’t thrust it, they may want to involve the process of decisions, and it would be a factor to influence the process of work, and it may produce the result that the professional and clients all are not satisfied with. If clients trust the public relations professional, the professional can concentrate on their work and think and act with the professional training without any disturbing.
“Ethics month” is a reminder to let us remember the importance of ethics. The holdings of “Ethics month” shows that the ethical considers are still important nowadays. In face, it places importance on ethics. I really hope that “ethics month” can be holding every year!
I agree with Rajul that “ethics are a set of personal rules that an individual uses to decide what is right and what is not”. Ethics is related to the personally social and cultural background. We have some universal ethics about what is right and what is wrong. However, we also have some “personal” criteria and standards. There is a Chinese saying, “did the wrong thing with good will”. You believe you are doing the right thing, however, the outcome is unwelcome. Different people may have dissimilar definitions of “right” even on the same issue. “Good will” is not adequate as the “only true moral decision-making guide”, which deontology argues about. (Cutlip, et at, p 121, 8th Ed.).
Ethics provides an guideline for one tackling “big” PR decisions or just thinking small choices in daily life. We also need to scrutinize the various aspects of the decision. Sometimes, we tend to neglect or omit the small things in the decision-making process. In order to meet the deadline or launch a new product faster than market opponents, we try to focus on the “big” things. But, a small figure may make the company fall into a trap. Therefore, it is quite important to have a proper sense and definition of ethics and responsibilities. When you are trying to establish a relationship with your receivers, the message or information sent out should base on facts. To maintain a good relationship, the PR practitioner needs to win the trust of the public. And, the trust and credibility to a public relations professional link to the favorable outcome of the practice.
No matter how the ethics and responsibilities are being emphasized, there is not a set standards or rules for right or wrong behaviors in PR field. It requires “our own conscience” as Walton mentions. I think an “ethics month” is worked as a reminder to general PR practitioners. It is a time for them to re-evaluates their work and decisions, and see whether they are doing the ethical things.
"Dedicating the month of September to ethics programming for PRSA Chapters ensures that our members focus on our obligation to practice solid ethical public relations,” said David C. Rickey, APR, chair of the Society’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS) and vice president of public relations for Alfa Corp. (PRSA Media Room, 25 Sept., 2005) The importance of Ethics Month cannot be ignored for PRSA members to do the right things in such a month. However, I think Ethics Month is just for the annual emphasis on vital symbol of Ethics, such as Thanks Giving Day. The real meaning of the symbol celebration is to memorize and complete it in our common lives. Therefore, Ethics Month technically symbolizes the importance of ethics in a month; on the contrary, it means eternally fulfilling the original intentions.
However, I believe not only PRSA chapters who should focus on ethics and sponsor numerous professional development activities, but also individuals, as “1 a.m. ethics” wrote by Susan Walton, who often make his or her personal choices to behave ethically around his or her day-to-day work instead of events he or she holds. Individual judgment is such an important issue for us to accomplish our personal career goals or lives. For a long time, I have been educated in Confucianism and strongly believe that implementing rén,” what you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others,” is above suspicious in ethics. Therefore, I am convinced that the standards of ethics are extremely different from people to people. We should not judge or endow the right thing to others because they may not be ethical enough for others. ” Doing right things does not guarantee that you are immunized from ethics infringement,” referring by Ricco, also supports my comments. I am not saying there is no standard of ethics. There is always some universal roles we should conduct ethically.
People trust our PR expertise and hope we can improve their image, credibility and benefits through our profession. We are just as the doctors or nurses that people have certain degree of confidence on, according to “the Imperative of Trust” (Cutlip, 2006, P.123); therefore, we enter a fiduciary relationship to perform our profession with obligation to act ethically. What’s more, no matter in marketing or public relations, ethics is always sensitive but central issue. Many companies exert ethics as its communication strategy to conduct their concern on the environment and publics, even publishing ethical funds to persuade people how good they are. But I believe it is not just a Greenwash process to appear ethical with its continuing unethical practices. It is a pre-do item on the strategy list.
Unfortunately, the public relations profession is viewed and stereotyped by many as unethical and manipulative. This perception possibly stems from the early publicity and press agentry models which encouraged publicity by whatever means necessary. Ideally, ethical standards should be followed religiously in the public relations field; however, humans are not perfect. There are many cases where practitioners find themselves in desperate situations looking for an easy way out. It’s situations like these that make unethical practices such as making false claims or taking credit for someone else’s work very tempting. In addition, public relations is known to be a very competitive and cuthroat industry. This kind of environment may also breed unethical behavior and practices.
I agree with Cutlip et al. when he says that trust and credibility are very important to a public relations professional. Both are needed to establish and maintain healthy relationships between the professional and his/her client as well as between the professional and his/her organization. Public relations practitioners function as liaisons. If there is no trust or credibility between all parties, it will be difficult to act as a liaison and build a good, successful relationship.
I think that a designated “ethics month” is a good idea. It reinforces the importance of ethical standards. It is easy for some to forget or distinguish right from wrong. The practice of ethics should be recognized and celebrated. If ever in doubt, Susan Walton’s three basic principles of behavior are great standards to follow in any profession. “[T]o qualify as a profession, practitioners- both individually and collectively—must operate as moral agents in society. Ethical professional practice requires public service and social responsibility over personal gains…” (Cutlip et. al, 2006, p. 125).
I always deem public relations as one of the professionals that require multiple aspects of concerns and a strong sense of responsibility. In this global village, any decision made by organizations may have, whether great or small, impacts on individuals, organizations, communities, societies, and even countries. And I think PR professionals should have the courage to assume the responsibility for the interests of those different levels of publics. I would rather on the side of deontology regarding ethical decision making. If the “intention” is right and ethical, so as to the “outcome”—this is what I believe when facing so much complex issues in PR practices. And this belief can be adapted to the “1a.m. ethics” proposed by Walton as well. Even in dealing with those trivial or routine works in PR practices, your intentions should be inspected by self-conscience though “without the world looking on.”
Since public relations presents a managerial function that focuses on relationship management in organizations, trust and credibility serve the critical factors that determine whether PR practices success in fulfilling its original role in organizations. I quite agree with Jessica’s opinion that “once the trust is broken, it is extremely hard to gain it back.” The credibility that takes an organization so much time and effort to build may collapse over one night, but it requires even more than two times of effort to regain it, and it’s possible that the organization would never win back the trust from publics.
Therefore, an “ethics month” is really a good presence to remind every PR practitioner of our intrinsic responsibility to maintain public interests. It also provides an opportunity for us to trace what public relations professional as a whole has done to help more organizations fulfill their social responsibility. Finally, an “ethic month” can make publics know that “we are here not only for organizational interests, but also yours.”
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Everyone knows the importance of ethnics in both practical and theoretical field. It is controversial how the level of ethnics is applied for. It explains difficulties of ethnical approaches. In theoretical field, there has been debating on the ethnical approach of the excellent theory. And, in the practical field, the ethical approach is not compromising of the interests of organizations. However, we can not blame for selecting any kinds of choices, because it depends on personal or social value. Also, making “Ethnic Month” shows us implications that ethnical approaches are rarely ruled in both PR field. Under this situation, it is hard to apply the ethnics into the PR field.
Public relations are literally started from “Relationship”. Relationship is based on some kinds of interchanges or interactivities. Both interchange and interactivity is initiated with “trust”. Therefore trust is essential component to compose relationship. As mentioned above, everyone already knows the relationship process. However, there are a lot of exceptions in practical world. Relationship is built without the trust, and, sometimes, the trust would give a lot of economical damages to organizations. In the crisis communication, avoidance and blaming for others are more effective than acceptance, although organization should have responsibility for an event.
It is a dilemma. However, I should agree that ethnic is a necessary element in PR field. Actually, the ethnic is unrealistic and is hard to specify it. Without ethnical approaches, PR could be persuasion. Publics in the PR field are the partner of organizations, but consumers in advertising and marketing are the object of persuasion. Ethnics are foundation principles in the PR field. In the case of Johnson & Johnson, we have seen the light to the ethical approach between publics and organizations. Publics are no more the object of persuasion, and they are the supporters of the organization. In fact, I understand the case is one of fewer cases. And the corporation needs to spent a lot of times and costs. However, the case shows us that no more are ethnical approaches potential.
Making “Ethnic Month” is like a coin-side. Good promotion for the month is helpful to understand the meaning of the day, but, it is not, the day reveals limitations of ethnical approaches. As the event already took off, I hope finishing 1 A.M. wrestling, we start to face calm morning at 7 A. M. with sunrise.
After poking around on PRSA’s Ethics Month page, it is easy to see why an ethics month is a good idea. Ricco’s great metaphor of an “ethics vaccine” sums up the most important reason: we need to be reminded every now and then why ethics is critical to maintaining the trust and credibility that fuels public relations because it is easy to lose sight of the big picture in the day-to-day work. Highlighting ethics during a month also draws attention to ethical dilemmas that some may not have encountered yet in their field and allows those who HAVE wrestled with an issue to share their experience and make it easier for someone who may encounter the same situation in the future. While ethics should be practiced year-round, having a designated month fulfills Pearson and Habermas’s criteria for ethical communications by providing the opportunity and venue for communication and allows professionals to grow in the subject.
As for which ethical standards should apply to the profession, while I believe in a definite right vs. wrong in some situations, I have to agree with those who support a utilitarian view of ethics. Like Cancel, Cameron, and Mitrook (1997) say in their contingency theory of public relations, “It depends. It depends on the situation . . .” Xia wrote that “Due to the complexity of issue, it is hard to make objective standards of ethical conduct, vast majority of variables has been found to correlate with application of it, such as age, years of experience, and personal ethics.” Because practitioners’ publics, knowledge of history with a public, and educational experience vary, it would be nearly impossible to hammer out an explicit set of ethical guidelines for public relations, or any field, for that matter.
Kaitlin mentioned the struggle of right vs. wrong when it comes to individual vs. company. I have a friend in that exact situation with the company she works for. She works in human relations and while processing paychecks recently, she found out that the head of the finance department gives bonuses to certain employees for no apparent reason other than cronyism. The head of finance also expects her to continue to keep recording the bonuses as a line item expense – so, not a secret, but not a well-known fact either. Are the bonuses fair? No. Are they taking away from the company’s bottom line? Yes. But she won’t say anything because she is a young professional trying to establish herself in the business world and knows that if she becomes a whistleblower she will never find another good job in the area. She believes (and so do I) in communitarianism – doing what’s best for the community, of which your organization is a part (Gower, in Legal and Ethical Restraints on Public relations, 2003). Speaking up and causing the company to become embroiled in legal investigations at this point would do more harm to the company, those who benefit from the company’s products, and to her than it would do good. I think of communitarianism as viewing deontological ethics through a utilitarianism lens.
Cutlip, Center, and Broom argue that for public relations to achieve professional status, PR hopefuls must 1. receive specialized education from a body of theory-based research; 2. be recognized by their community (of which they are inextricably a part of) for their services; 3. have autonomy in practice and accept the personal responsibility that comes with autonomy; and 4. Abide by codes of ethics set forth by a self-governing association of colleagues (Cutlip et al., pp. 125-6). I think the last two are the most important because they place the responsibility of practicing ethical public relations right where Walton places it, and right where it belongs: on the shoulders of the individual. Public relations can have a good or bad reputation, but that reputation is the sum of individual acts. It can be an independent field but its degree of independence will depend on the degree of responsibility practitioners and researchers choose to accept in maintaining autonomy. And there can be a code of ethics for public relations, but it will only be as strong as our weakest link – only as strong as the “1 am ethical decisions” Walton writes about. I agree with everyone who has said that universal maxims or codes of ethics are needed in the profession, but I think that for codes to truly work they need to leave room for interpretation as the field evolves, have consequences for all defectors in the field (not just PRSA members), and they need to be given more “teeth” for enforcement. Only then can ethics help elevate public relations to the professional status desired.
I totally agree with Todd saying
"In some ways having an ethics month is just good PR for PR."
In some ways, PR obviously did not do a good job about building its own public image yet.
An ethics month is exactly the right amount of time to make people aware of the fact that here is ethical consideration in PR. A year would be too long to draw public attention.
Sure we should always act according to ethical standards. As mentioned in "1 a.m. ethics", these decisions do not only occur in our worklife. We do have to decide ethically every single day. Even if er we are not always aware.
I personally am a big supporter of Age of Enlightment theories. Kant being one of this period's big philosophers, he also had a very rational view on ethical items. I totally believe in the Categorical Imperative telling us "Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should be come a universal law."
If everybody would not only be aware that ethically wrong decisions can harm other partys or lead people to decisions they otherwise would have made differently, but also act according to that rule, than we could really improve public relation's own public image.
As Courtney says, in the past there have been examples of PR without ethics. Maybe one day we could making that more or less forgot by acting ethically from now on. Of course, this is a big challenge. As mentioned in Effective Public Relations, Cutlip et altri: "Decision-making when faced with an ethical dilemma is easy: Do the right thing. Always."(Alexander M. Cutler).
And to decide about the "right thing" -thats the toughest challenge talking about PS ethics.
I think that most of current PR practitioners consider their works ‘dependent’. And that means individuals should take much more responsibility for making ethical decision because there is not any specific ethical guideline but only one’s own. In other words, ‘1 a.m. ethics’ becomes more important for the practitioners. As Rajul mentioned above, defining what is ethical or unethical is very subjective and relative depending on certain circumstances. What PR practitioners have to pursue is determined by certain situations and their ethical codes. So, ironically, the statement ‘There is no ethical bottom line’ can be also interpreted as ‘All PR practitioners should try their best to result the most ethical outcomes’.
In my view, ethics is involved in every activity in the PR field, from choosing clients to deciding to tell the truth or not. Many practitioners confess that they usually do not care about ethics because in the real world, they have to deal with so many other things related to their clients, the media, and so on. However, if we enlarge the scope of ‘ethics’ from the traditional viewpoint to ‘1 a.m. ethics’, practitioners’ every choice belongs to their ‘ethical decision’. And it often works subconsciously through their whole lives- I think that’s why practitioners insist that ‘I don’t care about it’. Furthermore, individuals’ ethics affect the organizations’ culture, the way of communication, and the way of building relationship. One of my bosses in a PR agency, he used to fabricate receipts to get more money back from clients. With his ethics schema, it’s not that difficult to fabricate or exaggerate messages to the public. I’m not sure if it’s because of his ethics or not, but his team often failed to build a long term relationship with audiences and the media.
The reason why individuals’ ethics is so important is that it affects trust and credibility of message resources- Public Relations professionals. I guess one of fundamental reasons why trust and credibility of PR professionals is crucial is this; People ‘instinctively’ seek someone believable and credible to reduce their uncertainty in the ‘Risk Society’ and to form their individual and social norms with the information from the resources. To be blunt, if Public Relations professionals lost the chance to be considered ‘credible’, there’s no chance to be involved in relations with people. Not only that, regarding the future status of Public Relations field, the fact that this field pursues those values is important. The future of PR professionals depends on what current professionals seek for. As far as we struggle not to lose trust and credibility, we can expect positive effects of the values on the future practitioners.
Honestly, I feel sad about the ‘ethics month’ because it means there are lots of things to be improved on ethical issues in the PR field. We have ‘Women’s Day’ because the status of women in the current society needs to be changed. We have the day for the disabilities because they are in the ‘minority’ facing many problems. The fact that there exists ‘ethics month’ implies that majority of PR professionals and theorists admit that we still don’t have concrete ethical standard for big and small choices in everyday. And for me, too, it seems that emphasizing on ethics is not enough. We have discussed about what is ethical decision. However, I think it is time to talk about how we can apply ethical decision to the real works. Only when we have tacit agreement on ethical thoughts and behavior in the PR field, can we say, “We don’t need ‘ethics month’ anymore because we are ethical enough”. I, personally, strongly want to see the moment soon.
Above all, we need to identify the real meaning of the term “ethics” in the public relations field. If we reveal something to the public without any filtering, can we call that ethical behavior? My answer is that it depends on the cases. I totally agree with Rajul’s comment that ethics is a very subjective term. Ultimate goal of public relations activities is to help organizations and publics to establish, build or maintain good relationships. If hiding something is for public interests, it can be ethical. It is hard to define ethical public relations activities. Grunig’s mixed model that combined two-way symmetrical model and two-way asymmetrical model was also criticized by the contingency theory because no one could judge how far could we invade ethical limit. Therefore, PR practitioners should conduct public relations activities ethically in order to raise the public interests depending on their consciences. Also, this effort will help the public to establish and build goodwill and be of benefit to the organizations.
I think that trust and credibility is necessary factors in any kinds of jobs needless to say of public relations professional. Especially, PR practitioners are people who manage good relationships between organizations and publics. Unless clients can’t trust PR practitioners, they won’t reveal their whole situations and mind including even disadvantages and faults to PR practitioners, PR practitioners have to make effort to raise their trust and credibility. That allows PR practitioners to conduct successful public relations activities and to feel a sense of achievement about their own jobs.
Finally, I also think enacting the ethics month is needed. It can remind PR professionals of the importance of ethics in the PR field. PR practitioners will feel their responsibilities for establishing and maintaining good relationships as they meditate on the real meaning of enacting ethics month. Ethics month encourages PR practitioners and publics to recognize and admit the importance of ethical PR activities.
Oftentimes, public relations practitioners are regarded as “spin doctors” – perhaps as a result of their role in trying to control publicity. The principle purpose of public relations is, however, to pursue balanced mutual interests between organizations, stakeholders, and the general public through communications. Rather, despite the public’s superficially negative impression of public relations, the true aim of public relations is to ensure that public interests have a voice. Thus, inevitably discussions about ethics must be one of the most important issues for public relations experts in closing the gap between public perception and reality. In this regard, holding an “ethics month” is really needed for public relations practitioners, researchers, and student as a reminder of the importance of ethics in public relations.
Of course, in practice public relations are conducted on very different levels depending on the subject in terms of ethics. Still, many public relations companies do publicities by pursuing their own interests rather than the public’s, though there are also many companies and organizations which try hard to serve mutual interests – the greatest good for both by offering honest information. So I strongly agree with Cutlip’s perspective that at least in order “to protect both clients and their (pr) own privileged positions in society, professions establish codes of ethics and standards of practice.” In doing so, public relations practitioners may monitor and oversee negative publicity, leading those companies to conduct well-organized public relations by providing solid ethical standards and gaining legitimacy in the general field.
Essentially, Public Relations is linked with persuasive and strategic communication and so as Walton pointed out, every tiny decision could be linked with ethics. Most issues of public relations have complex aspects, and depending on each side’s point of view, decisions may or may not appear ethical. Thus, as Courtney mentioned, “in public relations, there are no "small" or "trivial" ethical decisions,” because every single ethical decision affects the trustworthiness and credibility of a public relations professional
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