Will I lie for my employer to promote a product that I am certain cannot do what it is perpetuated to do?Will I trash the competition in order to promote my client?
Will I issue a news release with only half the truth?
Will I quit my job rather than participate in a questionable activity?
In short how far can a PR professional compromise their personal morals whilst on duty?
These are some of the questions that plague the lives of many Public Relations professionals and whereas it may be argued that the true PR professional has an absolute obligation to quit any client who is unethical. It is not often that easy. Faced with problems such as mortgage and children to educate practitioners may be strongly tempted to become yes men or women and decline to express their honest views to an employer. So if quitting is not an option what do you do when you represent an organization that has a strategy that clashes with your personal morals?
3 comments:
Hi,
I think ethics is a most difficult thing for a PR practitioners because most of the time they want to sarve their clients in the expence of the public interests. It is good to be ethical but again in reality it is not possible, people can try to tell the truth but how far they they go? however, ethical PR is beneficial not only to sociesties but also to the integrity of the practitioners themselves.
Frida I do agree with you however, as much as PR professionals want to maintain loyalty to their employers or clients I think it is important to be independent. Even if your boss is happy with you because you agree with all the ideas you will eventually start losing credibility because you never really voice out your honest opinion. A true PR profesional should try and talk their employer out of ideas that are unethical by citing the possible consequences that would be detrimental to the company's image.
The PR industry has been in existence for a long time but it still hasn't attained a professional status. If I may ask, why has it taken so long for PR to be recognised as a profession? In my opinion, every industry needs to be effectively regulated, through well define codes of ethics for members. If the codes of ethics for the PR industry were to be recognised and effectively enforced, practitioners wouldn't have faced this dilemma of whether to be loyal to their clients or face the truth. They would have had no choice but to follow the set rules of the profession. Likewise,their employers too would n't have expected more than they can deliver because they will have prior information on the industry's codes of ethics, which spell out clearly what they can expect from practitioners and what they cannot. I agree practitioners have to feed their families, make money, deliver results for clients and many more but let us not forget that, they also have a duty to protect public interest and also protect the industry from bad image and low reputation.In conclusion, I wish to say that, PR people have to take their professional codes of ethics serious and always abide by them and not give in to pressures from their clients.
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