Why Should Public Relations Practitioners Be Aware of Laws and Legal Principles

Parkinson, M. (2001). PRSA`s Code of Professional Standards and the Code of Ethics for Members: Why they are neither professional nor ethical. Public Relations Quarterly, 46(3), 27-31. This article is a good read for all members of professional associations to encourage them to think beyond the recommendations of codes of ethics. Parkinson points out that these codes often become useless and discusses the mistakes they make. Through his excellent reasoning, we see the problems we should consider to solve ethical dilemmas. Pratt, C. B. (1991). Public Relations: Empirical research on the ethics of practice. Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsethik, 10, 229-236. These laws provide a legal platform for organizations to establish their identity and brand.

Laws provide authenticity to carry out public relations activities without worrying about losing customers or copying information by other companies. In other words, laws help the business operate without fear of losing information that shouldn`t be used by others. You don`t have to accept this offensive advertising, but you also don`t have to give up your publication`s advertising revenue (again, we weigh two competing obligations – your commitment to your own standards versus your commitment to your media organization to generate revenue). IABC research on grants (Bowen et al., 2006) has shown that while a large number of public relations practitioners reported advising their CEO (30%) or senior management (35%), 35% of public relations professionals reported not having access to their organization`s dominant coalition. These practitioners implement the strategic decisions of others instead of making their own contributions in the areas of organizational strategy, issue management or ethics. Public relations cannot contribute to organizational effectiveness without advising management on the views of the strategic public – or advising on ethical issues and dilemmas that damage organization-public relations, diminish credibility and tarnish reputation. Borowski, P.J. (1998). Manager-employee relations: guided by Kant`s categorical imperative or Dilbert`s business principle. Zeitschrift für Geschäftsethik, 17, 1623-1632. Fearn-Banks, K.

(2000). Crisis communication: an overview of some good practices. In R. L. Heath (ed.), Handbook of Public Relations (pp. 479-485). Newbury Park, California: Sage. In some cases, these standards may have both a legal and ethical basis.

To adhere to these standards, the communicator must consider both „positive commitments“ (things you should always look for) and „negative commitments“ (things you need to protect yourself from). Grunig, J. E. and Huang, Y. H. (2000). From organizational effectiveness to relational indicators: precursors of relationships, public relations strategies and relational results. In J. Ledingham & S. Bruning (Eds.), Public relations as relationship management: A relational approach to the study and practice of public relations (pp. 23-53). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Dozier, D. M., Grunig, L. A., & Grunig, J. E. (1995). Manager`s Guide to Excellence in Public Relations and Communications Management. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Bowen, S. A. (2004).

Organizational Factors that Promote Ethical Choices: A Case Review. Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsethik, 52(4), 311-324. This article provides evidence of how organizational culture and ethical decision-making interact and concludes that the exemplary organization examined does so correctly. This organization, known for its high ethical standards, provides an example of what you should and shouldn`t do to create a more ethical culture in your own organization. Questions such as „Who should be responsible for ethics“ and „Isn`t ethics a decision of personal value?“ are addressed. This article is a must before starting an ethical initiative. Bowen, S.