Ethics as Electives: How import is ethics in relation to strategic communication

by Rashida Douglas

Why is business ethics distinguished from ethics in general? Is it because there is a separate code of conduct that is acceptable in business that is not acceptable in interpersonal relationships? The “Handbook of Corporate Communication and Public Relations: Pure and Applied” discusses the lack of emphasis placed on ethics in strategic communications academics and how this lack of proper ethics engagement results in public relations catastrophes like that of Enron and Arthur Anderson. Albert S. Atkinson, a contributing writer to the book, goes on to say that there was not enough culpability placed on the corporate communicators who acted as the “faces” of these organizations. “I found that out of 13 universities offering advanced accounting degrees only one required an ethics course, while of the 12 universities offering advanced communication degrees, none made ethics a required course.”

According to the book the public also has a keen sense of where the ethical barometer lies according to profession. Polls indicate 90 percent of individuals surveyed believe fire fighters have a high ethical standard, 58 percent for college teachers, 25 percent for executives and 11 percent for advertising professionals--the category most closely related to public relations. How can PR practitioners create the soul of an organization if they have no ethical framework for guiding their decision-making? Essentially, the text indicates there should be more emphasis placed on how ethics fits into strategic communications and the level of responsibility practitioners have for disseminating proper and correct information to target publics.

PR on a Budget

By Rachel Forsyth

PR on a Budget by Leonard Saffir is a very interesting and entertaining how-to guide; a must read for all public relations professionals. The book is structured as an informal guide for ‘free, cheap, and worth the money strategies for getting noticed.’ This book seemed like an interesting choice based on the premise of ethics in public relations because conducting public relations in a cheap or free way, should always be ethical.

The strategy the book discusses that I found most interesting is the effective use of media and media lists. Saffir states the importance of forming a media list as the crucial “blood line of public relations.” The book explains to the reader about how to find media contacts that are important to each specific market.“There’s more out there than the New York Times,” the book preaches. Local television, radio and newspapers can be the most beneficial when used effectively.

The book also discusses the importance of social media, or “internet PR.” The Internet makes it possible for the “small practitioner [to have] the same opportunities for success in public relations as the giant companies.” As I near graduation, I too have found that social media is a major element to every public relations arena, big or small. Doing research for an organization seems to most frequently be done online. ‘Wikis’ such as Wikipedia, are “web applications that allow users to add content." Although research is efficient online, there are no ethics police or accuracy police online. It is important to be weary of any and all information retrieved online on behalf of a client. The Internet is a never-ending portal to all businesses, people and networks; therefore ,when using it, the golden rule is important.

PR on a Budget was an excellent book for anyone interested in entering either non profit or for profit public relations. The book offers lots of real-life success stories about businesses that have used public relations effectively ‘on a budget.’

Public Relations Disasters

by Matthew Burris

For my ethics book discussion, I read “Public Relations Disasters: Talespin – Inside Stories and Lessons Learnt” by Gerry McCusker.

According to McCusker's website, "With a 20-plus year PR career that includes stints as an advertising copywriter and senior creative, Gerry is a senior creative and PR counsel." [Emphasis: original]

McCusker takes a look at some of the most memorable Public Relations disasters of recent memory and tries to boil them down to something that is understandable. The result is an easy to read, if sometimes hokey, narrative of a series of foibles from the industry and the morals we should all take from them as we move into our professional lives.

The book talks ethics both subtly and overtly.

Occasionally the “disaster” is a major ethical breach, such as the creation of the National Smoker’s Alliance. Designed as a front group for the big tobacco companies, the NSA was championed as a “smokers rights” group.

When the public caught wind of the deception, the NSA was dragged through the mud, and took the entire field of PR with it.

The moral, according to McCusker, is that, “transparency is one of the fundamental tenets of most of the world’s professional PR associations.”

This is just one of the many well chosen case studies covered in the book. Many others go into great detail and illustrate the need for solid ethical conduct by PR practitioners.

Anything less may well lead to major issues.

Public Relations: A Practical Guide to the Basics

by Callie Cady

The book I read was written by Philip Henslowe and is called Public Relations: A Practical Guide to the Basics.
This book is basically used as a beginner's guide to public relations. Henslowe, who is from the Institute of Public Relations, describes the process of creating a PR campaign. This is very helpful because he includes chapters on the role of PR, sources, ethical and legal concerns, suppliers, publishers, printers, photographers, designers, video, exhibitions, promotions, visits, sponsorship, business writing, crisis management, the media, planning, and evaluation. The author pulls alot of his research from codes of conduct, a brief legal guide, sample documents, checklists, and guidelines.
One of my favorite quotes from this book is "Public relations is not, nor should it be, a 'stand alone' profession in isolation from the rest of the business world." I like this quote because the author goes on to explain that internal as well as external communication is becoming increasingly important in the business world today. He also states that public relations is a necessary practice in all businesses and organizations.
I really enjoyed this book because it outlines the underlying principles of PR. It breaks it down in a way.

How Decisions are Really Made

How Decisions are Really Made
By Natalie Beasley

In Interactive Ethics: How Ethical and Unethical Decisions are Really Made in Organizations, Thomas Schear gives a inside look on how he believes that decisions are really made. He uses a model called the Interactive Ethics Model or IEM, that describes just how decisions are made, and how that determines if the outcome is one that is ethical or unethical. This model is a very systematic and thought out process that he believes gives everyone a better understanding on the decision making process.

Schear argues that although many people believe that all ethical dilemmas can be solved by looking back to a code of ethics, like the PRSA Code of Ethics, or by apply a decision making process, it may or may not be true. He states that these could be options but it is not what “really” goes on in the workplace of organizations. His argument is that the fact remains that some organizations consistently make unethical decisions and then there are some that have greater struggles when faced with a dilemma, as well as there are some that are not consistent in their decision-making. This is where the IEM model comes into play. This model suggests that there are reasons as to why some ethical and unethical decisions are made. A few reasons given in the book are that people often react to a dilemma with their emotions before they seek reasons for their actions. Therefore they are relying too much on their emotions instead of the actions they should be taking. Another way is that dealing with such dilemmas does not help to build the character of the individual, but it actually reveals the “true colors” of the all the parties involved. Schear describes these things as “baggage”. These reasons including a person’s ego, self-control, and dependency on others lead the individuals or organization to be less consistent and more predictable with their decisions.

Throughout the book, Schear gives different perspectives and insights on how organizations deal with an ethical dilemma. He goes more indepth about the IEM and gives a better understanding of the intentions of the IEM. Basically the IEM proves that decisions are not made by a carefully thought out process, but that it has much more to do with the psychological and social state of the organization or individual handling the dilemma.

In some ways some people may find Schear’s book controversial because it argues against what many of us learn in our college educations. Different codes of ethics have always been stressed in class, so it was interesting to get a different perspectives from Schear showing that in the “real-world” decisions aren’t always made based on those codes.