Ethics and Professionalism

Equally important are the ethical and professional values that you bring to your work.

Ethical considerations, like the law, are often ambiguous and subject to interpreta­tion. Most situations are neither black nor white but rather various shades of gray. Although the public relations writer is an advocate and must convey information in a persuasive way, this does not excuse the presentation of false or misleading informa­tion. In sum, you have to ask not only whether something is legal but also whether it is the right thing to do.

It is argued that public relations practitioners have five moral obligations.

• To ourselves — to preserve our own integrity

• To our client — to honor our contracts and to use our professional expertise on our clients' behalf

• To our organization or employer — to adhere to organizational goals and poli­cies

• To our prof ession and our prof essional colleagues — to uphold the standards of the profession and, by extension, the reputation of our fellow practitioners

• To society — to consider social needs and claims

Unfortunately, personal conflict is often involved in trying to serve the needs of these groups. An employer or a client, for example, may think it in the organization's interest to hide information that may be detrimental to its reputation or sales. As a public relations writer and practitioner, do you go along with the organization's wishes, or do you adhere to your own personal values and the standards of the public relations profession?

The answer depends in large part on how you view your role. Some writers consid­er themselves technicians whose responsibility is to prepare materials as the organiza­tion or client wants them, even if the result is dishonest or misleading. They are the literary equivalent of "hired guns", available for any and every cause. Professionalism to them means writing good, persuasive copy even if they don't believe in what they are writing.

Other writers feel that they serve as lawyers in the court of public opinion. All parties, they believe, are entitled to tell their side of the story and be represented by public relations counsel. In this mode, the writer's obligation is to present the best possible defense of the client. Thus a public relations firm should have no qualms about representing a foreign government accused of human right violations, a racist hate group, or a cigarette company.

Making an ethical decision on the kind of organization or cause that you want to have as an employer or a client, however, is only one part of the equation. Moral and ethical decisions also have to be made almost daily about the content and structure of various messages. Do you say that an executive has resigned "for personal reasons" even though you know that the person was fired for incompetence? Do you exagger­ate the number of people attending an. event? Do you say that a product is safe even though tests have revealed a potentially dangerous design flaw? Do you write about a company's restructuring to be more profitable without mentioning the layoff of 1,500 employees?

There are no easy answers to such questions. The simple, axiom "Always tell the truth" understates the complexity of the decision process.

Appendix A