To quit or not to quit?

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?

8 comments:

Rainfrida Ngatunga said...

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.

Winifred said...

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.

Nana Tuffour. said...

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.

Anonymous said...

Could any of you provide me with possible ethical dilemmas that public relations practitioners do and could face? I am currently working on a PR assignment and need real life examples.

Aniebiet Okon said...

there is no honor in PR profession if PR experts depend on their clients to "survive"...inasmuch as PR practitioners owe the public their credibility, the also owe their client the duty to redeem their image & there after, get paid..& contract is sealed...until these happens, the objectives of PR ain't achieved. So, if u're a PR practitioner, and u choose to listen 2 ur conscience and not ur client, I'm afraid, u'll have to quit d job.........

Anonymous said...

Good site.

Unknown said...


Hai people kindly help with the follwoing case study

CASEN STUDY
The Worldwide Widget Co. (WWC) has a non-disclosure policy that’s set stone. Sombe and Sombe Public Relations has just won the WWC account and all the account personnel working on the account have signed WWC’s non-disclosure policy form. The forms are on file in WWC’s law Dept.
Three weeks after work for the new client as started, the account team is given a briefing about a new product that will revolutionize the widget market. The new widget model is half the price of conventional widgets and does the work in half the time. In addition, secret tests show that it lasts twice as long. The account team is cautioned not to say a word about this to anyone – not even other S and S PR employees or family members.
After a month of work on a dynamite new public relations program that could pre-empt the market, S and S PR staffers are invited to a fund raising party for a number of orphanages in Lusaka. The top echelon of influential Lusaka citizens are at the function, where food and wine flow like – food and wine! An S and S PR junior staffer assigned to WWC account lets wine flow too freely and, before anyone can do anything about, he discloses all he knows about the new widget to an editor with the Daily News. You are president of S and S and hear him blab the final piece of information to the editor. You pull the staffer aside.
What are your next courses of action? With the staffer? With the editor? With your client?
OTHER QUESTIONS:
1. Define the specific ethical issue/conflict.
2. Identify internal/external factors (e.g., legal, political, social, economic) that may influence the decision.
3. Identify key values.
4. Identify the parties who will be affected by the decision and define the public relations professional’s obligation to each.
5. Select ethical principles to guide the decision-making process.
6. Make a decision and justify it.

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