Ethics

Wood, E and Somerville, I (2008)

'The conventions or standards which a particular group or community acts upon'

Anne Gregory (2009)

'The formal study and codification of moral principles...so that decisions can be made about what is right and wrong in a reasoned and structured way'

'The appreciation of knowledge, understanding and reasoning to the questions of right and wrong behaviour in the professional practive of PR'

• Persuasion or propaganda
• Transparency: Information disclosure
• Personal competence
• Organisational competence
• Conflicts of interest
• Whistle blowing
• Relations with the media
• Conflicts within codes
• Work accepted/declined

• Building trust with stakeholders
  • Importance of honesty
• Being an ethical guardian
• Promoting social responsibility
• Acting legally and within professional codes of conduct
• Being mindful of the reputation of the PR industry

Form of persuasion embodies concepts of:

• Manipulation
• Untruth
• Distortion of facts
• Interests of the communicator rather than reciever
• Withholding of information

• Moral awareness (acknowledging an ethical dilemma)
• Moral judgement (deciding what is right)
• Ethical behaviour (doing the right thing)

• Self
• Client
• Organisation
• Profession
• Society

• The law
• Professional
  • UK CIPR Code of Conduct
  • PRCA Code of Conduct
• Company
  • Codes of Practice
• Individual
  • Moral Codes

• Veracity - To tell the truth
• Non-maleficence - To do no harm
• Beneficence - To do good
• Confidentiality - To respect privacy
• Fairness - To be fair and socially responsible

• Recognise and clarify the dilemma
• Get all possible facts and list all options
• Test each option by asking is it legal, right, beneficial
• Make decision
• Double check - how would my family feel about this?
• How would I feel if my decision was printed in the paper?
• Take action

• Consquences of behaviour considered
  • Utilitariaism 'notion that an action is right only to the extent that it causes more good than ill' Wood, E and Somerville, I (2008)
  • Difficulties
    • Assumption that consequences can be predicted
    • Results justify the means thinking may disadvantage some individuals
    • Right for people to be treated as measn to end?

• Consquences of behaviour considered
  • Utilitariaism 'notion that an action is right only to the extent that it causes more good than ill' Wood, E and Somerville, I (2008)
  • Difficulties
    • Assumption that consequences can be predicted
    • Results justify the means thinking may disadvantage some individuals
    • Right for people to be treated as measn to end?

Prioritisation of duties and principles

• Difficulties
  • Insufficient rules to cover all situations
  • Rules open to interpretation
  • Loopholes develop
• Individual Rights
  • Conflicting

Anne Gregory

Virtue ethics considers the principles of an individual

• Bound with cultural context
  • Issues
    • Community might not have thought about your situation
    • Community might not have got it right

• No moral is absolute; situation alters the rules
• Seems sensible but ethics then looses the value of being systematically applied
• All practitioners think about the situation when making ethical decisions