Ethics and

Professionalism

Ethics Defined:
Ethics is concerned with how we should
live our lives. It focuses on questions
about what is right or wrong, fair or unfair,
caring or uncaring, good or bad,
responsible or irresponsible, and the like.

(Jaksa and Pritchard, Methods of Analysis)

Four-Way Test for Ethical Decision Making

(from Rotary International)

Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Professionals have the burden of making

ethical decisions that satisfy:

The public interest

Their employers (or clients) self interest
The standards of the profession
Their personal values

In an ideal world, these four areas would not conflict but in reality they
often do.
How many PR people have been
asked to over-represent a product? How many agencies have
been asked to take sides on issues that conflict with a healthy
environment? The answer is that many of us participate in areas
where ethical standards are vague at best. (comments from a
senior PR executive in PRSAs The Strategist)

Public Expectations of PR?

Society, in general, expects public relations people to be

advocates, just as they expect advertising copywriters to
make a product sound attractive, journalists to be objective,
and attorneys to defend someone in court
But communication efforts will not attempt, for example to
present false/deceptive/misleading information under the
guise of literal truth no matter how strongly the practitioners
want to convince others of the merits of a particular
clients/organizations position/cause(from Martinson, Florida
International University)

Professional Codes of Ethics in PR

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSSA) Code of

Ethics
PRSA Code (more detailed) online at:
http://www.prssa.org/downloads/codeofethics.pdf

The Codes core values:

Advocacy Independence
Honesty Loyalty
Expertise Fairness

PRSA, with 22,000 members in 110 U.S chapters, is the worlds

largest national PR organization
South Carolina PRSA Chapter: http://www.scprsa.org/
In second and third place (size-wise) are the International
Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the International
Public Relations Association (IPRA)

Personal Ethics

Be honest at all times

Convey a sense of business ethics based on your own
standards and those of society
Respect the integrity and position of your opponents and
audiences
Develop trust by emphasizing substance over triviality
Present all sides of an issue
Strive for a balance between loyalty to the organization and
duty to the public
Dont sacrifice long-term objectives for short-term gains