Part 4: Organizations, Ethics and Public Relations

Chapter List

Chapter 15: The True Reality of Everyday EthicsMaking Decisions

Chapter 16: PR and the Corporate Ethics Programme

Chapter 17: Making Business Accountablethe ˜New Breed of PR

When you finally come right down to it, everyday ethics in public relations is really a matter of being able first to recognize when you are faced with an ethical dilemma (what we've been talking about until now), and then make an ethically defensible decision about your behaviour in the situation. If your role within your organization is more strategic and you truly take on the role of public relations counsellor, then your decision may be even more critical since you may need to help the organization make ethical decisions that affect both their bottom line and their reputation. In this next section, the final one, we'll explore how ethical decisions are actually made. In addition, we need to come full circle to where we startedthe issue of what is the true foundation for our concern about ethics in the everyday practice of public relations. That foundation lies within the context of social responsibility. We define social responsibility and explore what role, if any, public relations plays in an organization's overall ethics strategy.

Finally, we'll look to the future, towards the new breed of PR practitioners who are sitting in today's college and university classrooms. Are they really learning anything about ethical public relations and, perhaps even more important, what will they be able to teach the rest of us?