Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to Best Practice (PR in Practice) - page 21

NOTES

Institute of Public Relations Code of Conduct [accessed 5 August 2003]. http://www.ipr.org.uk/direct/membership.asp?v1=code
Canadian Public Relations Society Code of Professional Standards [accessed 5 August 2003]. http://www.cprs.ca/AboutCPRS/e_code.htm
Martinson, David L [accessed 19 May 1998] Educators define telling the ˜truth in PR, published by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication No. 33, November 1993. http://www.usc.edu/ schools /annenberg/asc/projects/prd/33martin.html
O'Malley, Peter [accessed 5 August 2000] In praise of secrecy . http://www.omalco.com/cprs.htm
Green, Mitchell [accessed 5 August 2003] Truthtelling. 5 August 2003 http://www.people. virginia .edu/~msg6m/TRUTHTEL.pdf
Weisul, K & Merritt, J (12 December 2002) You mean cheating is wrong? Business Week , p 8
See Students in Free Enterprise Web site. http://www.sife.org
Sims, R (1993) The relationship between academic dishonesty and unethical business practices, Journal of Education for Business, 68 (4), pp 207-211
Yoon, Lisa [accessed 5 August 2003] Double-dealing duffers (October 2002). http://www.cfo.com/printarticle/0,5317,7873C,00.html

Chapter 3: To Do No Harm ”the Issue of Trust

OVERVIEW

Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.

”Warren Bennis

Telling the ˜truth isn't always enough. It may be a good place to start in a field like public relations but it falls short of fulfilling your ethical responsibilities as a professional in a public communication function. Sometimes you tell the truth and you are still left with a dilemma. Trust is the key element in the development of your employer's or client's relationships with their publics, but it is equally an important part of your own professional relationships. With trust, much can be accomplished; without trust, your efforts to accomplish anything will feel like an uphill battle.

TRUTH AND TRUST

To understand the relationship between telling the truth and the subsequent ability to nurture a trusting relationship, we need to examine exactly what trust consists of. Webster's Dictionary defines trust as ˜a confident reliance on the integrity, veracity, or justice of another; confidence; faith. ^[1] The definition itself clearly defines the relationship between truth and trust. If you don't tell the truth, then your publics, once they are aware of this, have difficulty trusting you. If a public does not trust you, then the relationship deteriorates. It's as simple as that.

What is less simple, however, is determining what truth really means in business today.

German philosopher Immanuel Kant, whose work is widely taught in ethics courses, believed that ethics consists of fulfilling our duties categorically. For example, as far as Kant was concerned , telling the truth was one of those categorical duties. We have an obligation to tell the truth ” under all circumstances . In today's world of business, it seems clear that telling the truth is sometimes overshadowed by other duties. We have already established the fact that telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is for the courtroom and that sometimes we have a duty to withhold information to protect people, a decision that clearly requires a judgement call, but when does even telling the truth mislead and contribute to mistrust between organizations and their publics? Here's a case that illustrates this point.

^[1] Webster's Dictionary (1992) PMC Publishing Company, New York, p 1038