...occupational standing.” (Piezka & L’Etang, 2006, 270). Discuss this in the light of professionalism in the public relations industry Professionalism in public relations is a multifaceted construct that discusses the ethical standards and skills required for PR practitioners and some of the criteria that are central to the profession are a body of knowledge, ethical practice, certification, importance to society and review by peers (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). The core professional value that serves as the ethos for the whole profession is the foremost among these criteria (Grunig, 2000), however, some practitioners discount it for its lack of pragmatics due to failing to master communication techniques that are known by the average citizen, people today who call themselves public relations practitioners still do not measure up to professional standards and lack of training (J. Grunig & L. Grunig, 1992; Grunig & Hunt, 1984; Dozier, Grunig, & Grunig, 1995). Several issues are identified from this definition for the core professional value that serves as the ethos for professionalism in PR. The issues shall be the discussion of the use of professionalism in the PR industry. As PR is a specialised professional occupation encompassed with its own set of values and beliefs, debates on the role of the professionalism development and education are inevitable among the public. To have a breakthrough in the profession, the profession should not be confined to restrictions of values...
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...points in their careers, public relations (PR) practitioners are likely to face decisions that are ethical in nature. Such decisions reflect a range of ethical dilemmas between, for example, truth vs. loyalty, justice vs. mercy, short-term vs. long-term consequences, and the individual vs. the collective (Kidder 1995, p. 18; Stacks & Wright 1989, pp. 53-67). Public relations practitioners, by nature of their position and job responsibilities, are often in a crossroad of a range of competing interests. Often, the tension may be between the practitioner’s own values and the culture of the organization. In other cases, it may be a conflict between the practitioner’s professional code of ethics and organizational norms and expectations. In yet other circumstances, they may be faced with competing interests between the organization and its various publics. At the very least, practitioners will frequently confront contradictions between business demands for economic performance and public expectations for ethical conduct. Concerns over these competing responsibilities and the ethical dilemmas they produce for public relations are the subject of this essay. In it, a range of challenges faced by public relations practitioners related to issues of ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are explored. It is argued that CSR has, in many respects, altered the expectations and demands placed on the profession. As a profession, public relations have a long and contested...
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...Luke Piatek Compare and Contrast Codes of Ethics November 5, 2012 The codes of ethics for journalists, broadcasters, advertising industry professionals and public relations professionals are related in that they outline the accepted behavior of media professionals. However, apart from that, each group has its own issues and concerns unique to the branch of the media they work in. And these guidelines are more like suggestions in that they cannot be legally enforced. The First Amendment guarantees freedom for media professionals to stray from the suggestions in each code and they often do. The Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics is the most comprehensive and detailed of the four. It covers acceptable behavior for all types of stories and many different subjects. It is also the most idealistic in that it clearly states that the role of a journalist is to be the foundation for democracy and to inform the public in order for citizens to make educated choices. Because the goals of the SPJ code are the most idealistic and high minded, I believe it is also the code that is broken the most. Because the code encourages fair and unbiased reporting and protection of innocent subjects, it can be argued that many journalists’ sole purpose is to break the code or else they would be fired. With news outlets that cater to partisan politics and tabloids that thrive on sensationalist stories, the code is bound to be broken. Even with so called straight news wires, human bias...
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...is the PR industry in that country to resolve or draw attention to them? Introduction India is fast becoming one of the world’s largest democracies, it is known now to be a country with remarkable growth and this is changing the nature of society. This inturn has caused the rise and growing demand for public relations practice. Some experts claim that public relations in India traces back to about 2000 years when rulers used persuasive communication to disseminate information and instructions to their publics (Reddi in Singh, 2000). There are many arguments about when it was exactly that public relations started in India. However the origins of public relations in India can be traced to a few key moments for example dated back through the struggles for independence. Mahatma Gandhi made the most of newspapers and used them to shape public opinion, to make a strong case against the British rule at the time. The history of public relations in India arguably has three components or phases: Propaganda, publicity and public information. However public relations nowadays in India has grown to extreme amounts and accomplished so much. So many people in India are now going into public relations. With a workforce of about 10,000 people working at about 700 public relations firms in the country, the public relations industry registered revenues in the range of Rs 1.2- 1.6 billion in the year 2004 (Gupta, 2007). In order to really understand where public relations practice stands...
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...In the United States, Public Relations dates back to the Revolutionary War. The strategies and tactics used to swell the ranks of patriots dedicated to the Revolutionary cause and staging of the Boston Tea Party are examples of early public relations. President Thomas Jefferson first used the term “public relations” in 1807. In his “Seventh Address to the Congress,” he replaced the words “state of thought” with “public relations.” Unfortunately, the perception of public relations has not always been positive. In the 1800s, P.T. Barnum became a master publicist by generating article after article for his traveling circus. His “public be damned” philosophy and the use of exploitative publicity methods, however; have contributed to criticism of the profession. Another significant component to the profession’s development came from the Creel Committee during World War I. A member of the committee, Edward L. Bernays, later considered by many to be the father of public relations, was part of a massive verbal and written communications effort to gain support of the war. According to Bernays, “this was the first time in our history that information was used as a weapon of war.” There were other key people and events, which were very influential in promoting the growth of the public relations industry such as: * “Public be informed era”, Ivy Lee – “father of PR” * WWII – the Office of War Information * “Counseling era” – Edward Bernays taught the first PR course at NYU in...
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...What is Public Relations, Anyway? * Marston’s 4-step Race Model * R = Research * A = Action * C = Communication * E = Evaluation * The model describes the public relations process * Public relations is a planned process to influence public opinion, through sound character and proper performance, based on mutually satisfactory two-way communication * Public relations helps an organization and its publics to mutually adapt to each other. * Public relations is an organization’s efforts to win the cooperation of groups of people * Sharpe’s 5 Principles * Honest communication for credibility * Openness and consistency for confidence * Fairness of actions for reciprocity, goodwill * Two-way communication to build relationships * Research and evaluation to determine actions and to adjust for social harmony * Roles of PR * 1. Management * To succeed, public relations must report to top management, unimpeded by any other group. * 2. Action * True public relations cannot take place without ethical, consistent action. No amount of persuasion will cover up for poor performance. * PR as a management interpreter * Public relations professionals interpret these roles of management to the public * Philosophies * Policies * Programs * Practices * PR as public interpreter ...
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...Oil Company: An Examination of Corporate Ethics by Peter Fischer A Paper Submitted in Fulfillment of the USD School of Law Writing Requirement Energy Law Professor Burleson Spring, 2009 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Background 3 The Need for CSR at Home and Abroad 7 Case Study Analyses: Four Critical Events in the Oil Industry and their Effect on CSR Case Study #1: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 9 Case Study #2: Occidental and the Piper Alpha Disaster 12 Case Study #3: A Two-Part Analysis of Shell in the Mid-1990s a) Shell’s Human Rights Violations in Nigeria 16 b) Shell’s Response—Outsource CSR 21 Case Study #4: BP’s Major Advances in CSR 24 Ethics and the Problem of the Public Relations Quick Fix 27 Analyzing the Current Corporate Culture: Failure to Meet the Triple Bottom Line 32 Conclusion 38 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...…………41 Introduction Over the past twenty years an irrefutable shift in the oil industry has occurred—the shift to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).[1] The purpose of this paper is to analyze the motivation behind this shift and determine if these CSR practices are genuine. In other words, does the adoption of CSR denote a tangible change in the way oil companies operate, or is it merely an elaborate public relations exercise? To answer this question, the paper...
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...hold back on certain company details. Nike dealt with criticism from right activist, media, and face labor rights violations. However, over a period of time and after making some important adjustments; Nike is working on improving its company image. Nike used traditional advertising methods to broadcast its product. Nike public relations tactics dealt with the wage policy, visiting campuses on universities, personal letters, corporate responsibility and using celebrities as spoke person for its product. Nike launch campaigns regarding child labor, low and non- existent wages. Nike believes that the U.S dollars were meaningless because the cost of living was different in other countries. Nike held press conferences for newspaper staff at colleges. These were ways for Nike to make proactive efforts to address the concerns of activists protesting against their products. Nike made a few mistakes in handling the negative publicity. Three mistakes that Nike made in handling the negative publicity is its intent to ignore the negative publicity, its marketing strategy, and its public relations tactics. They focus their attention more on public relations which lead them to a lawsuit. According to the author, “Nike response to the issues are more of a damage- control stunt than a sincere attempt at labor reform” ( Ferrell,...
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...Organizational Ethics ETH/316 May 4, 2015 Organizational Ethics My intent in writing this paper is to describe how ethical principles can address organizational issues. The organization that I have chosen to explore is the Boeing Company specifically and the aerospace manufacturing industry as a whole, more generally. I will cover the role that external social pressures play in influencing the industry in both their compliance with government and professional ethics. I will also endeavor to highlight how the pressures brought to bear on the industry by the public and the government is relevant to their decisions both corporately and individually by their employees. Finally, I will share my thoughts on the relationship between legal and ethical issues with regard to the industry. To begin then, let’s explore what role external social pressures have in influencing the Boeing Company and by extension, the aerospace industry’s organizational ethics. The level of trust that must be present by the public in the company that builds the airplane they fly in is best described in the words of the Boeing employee code of conduct “…must not engage in conduct or activity that may raise questions as to the company's honesty, impartiality, or reputation or otherwise cause embarrassment to the company.” (Boeing, 2014) Boeing and the entire aerospace industry are hyper aware of their image and the...
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...Canada Global Cultural José A. Rivera Osorio GRST 500 Research Paper Prof. Jared Mink April 8, 2014 Abstract Canada is the second largest country in the globe with population of over 32 million, the largest and most important industry Canada has is oil and logging. For businesses who want to expand towards Canada they are eight dimensions of business culture that will be detail in this analysis, and how NAFTA was formed. The agreements between U.S. and Canada with provisions that will benefit both countries, Canada also has bilateral agreements in trade with European Union and Asia, however we will only analyze U.S.-Canada cultures in business. Canada’s History The first inhabitants of Canada were native’s Indian people, primarily the Inuit “Eskimos. The Norse explorer Leif Eriksson reaches the shores of Canada at Nova Scotia in the year 1000, but the country actually begun 1497 with the introduction of the white man, John Cabot Italian at the service of King Henry VII of England reaches Nova Scotia. Canada was lost to the English in the year 1534 by Jacques Cartier which was the settlement of New France 1604, but was then was Nova Scotia in 1608. Quebec was founded, France’s colonization were not successful and ended at the end of 17th century. They penetrated beyond the Great Lakes to the western prairies and south along the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. The English Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670 establishes themselves because of the abundance of fisheries...
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...PR History…The American Experience The field of public relations sure has evolved! Review the public relations timeline below, then seek more information from the text and the web to fill in the blanks and explanations. Early American Period -Founding of the Republic -Use of public opinion, managed communications and persuasion Early American Experience -Sam Adams – Committees of Correspondence to distribute the news -Staged Events – Boston Tea Party -Thomas Paine – wrote persuasive pamphlets The Federalists Papers -Letters to newspapers 1787-88 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay -Pressure group PR campaign to gain acceptance for the Constitution -Used accurate facts and sound ideas -“History’s finest public relations job.” –Allen Nevins Antifederalists -Letters in newspapers criticizing new constitution, urging against ratification -Concession for Bill of Rights -Negative name -Antifederalists went away -Federalists became a party. Early PR Men in America – 1800s -John Beckley for Thomas Jefferson -Amos Kendall for Andrew Jackson. Kendall was first press secretary -Mathew St. Clair for Davy Crockett Robber Barons and the Muckrakers -Adversarial PR & Press Relations -Press Agentry: Provocative act to get publicity and draw attention toward an idea or grievance (P.R. Barnum, 1830s) -First corporate PR department established by George Westinghouse -First publicity agency: The Publicity Bureau, Boston, 1900 The...
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...RELATIONS CONSULTANCY Overview In the modern days public relations services are also hired by way of consultants so as to keep the company image steady and strong. The students will be explained the definition of a public relations consultant besides evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of such an exercise., We will also study the ethics of public relations with special reference to the professional conduct and character of the public relations consultant. Moreover, the students will also be told about the market and its related dilemmas as well as the public relations role in educating the market. Definition of A PR Consultant? " It is the provision of specified & creative services by an individual or a group of individuals qualified to do so by reason of experience and training by way of professional fees paid for its services by clients under an agreed contract." Advantages Of A PR Consultancy ·It is an independent advisor, able & willing to criticize. ·It has wide experience gained with many clients requiring diversity of techniques. ·It is familiar with more media than the staff PR manager. ·It has more facilities & has access to specialist services with whom good working relations are enjoyed, like printers, photographers, research units, translators etc. ·It has skilled specialist staff. ·It may have central urban location close to media, venues for receptions & suppliers of services. Disadvantages ·It is remote from the internal organization of clients...
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...Ford Ethical Organization Profile Introduction The organization that is being discussed is a public relations firm, named Ramirez, Patterson, Knight, & Cash. The PR firm’s basic clientele are members of the entertainment industry (i.e., musicians, actors, actresses). The firm is built on strong moral values, as well as a strictly defined code of conduct. There is a great deal of internal focus on the training, monitoring, and enforcing of the companies policies and procedures, including but not limited to the code of ethics and the companies moral obligations. The current moral and ethical issues faced by the firm are the advertising, marketing and promotions of the company to obtain and/or promoting clientele. Other moral and ethical issues facing the firm are the standards and liabilities of the client’s confidentiality, and how to address situations on a client by client basis. Finally, the firm is faced with maintaining a moral and ethical public image for the clients as well as the firm as a whole. The current moral and ethical issues concerning the advertising, marketing and promotions of the company to obtain and/or to promote a client is what information will help to maintain or to promote a client. What information will be pertinent for the marketing department to release and what will keep the client in the “limelight?” When dealing with the relationship between ethics, morality, and social issues in the legal environment the company will refer to the internal handbook...
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...MarketingMarshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Management Faculty Research Management, Marketing and MIS 1-1-2001 Employee Relations Ethics and the Changing Nature of the American Workforce Chong W. Kim Marshall University, kim@marshall.edu Dennis Emmett Marshall University, demmett@marshall.edu Andrew Sikula Sr. Marshall University, sikula@marshall.edu Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/mgmt_faculty Part of the Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons, and the Labor Relations Commons Recommended Citation Kim, C.W., Emmett, D., & Sikula, A., Sr. (2001). Employee relations ethics and the changing nature of the American workforce. Ethics & Behavior, 11 (1), 23-38. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Management, Marketing and MIS at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Management Faculty Research by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact zhangj@marshall.edu. clash between entrepreneurship and stewardship or capitalism and spiritualism remains. The war between economics a~d ethics continues, using newer concepts as surrogates for past phrases (Rice, 1994). However, whether explained by global competition, continuous improvement, reengineering, telecommunications, virtual employees, pay-for-performance, management by objectives, management by results, Total Quality Management, or value added situations...
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...marketing in a services industry context Core concepts: definition of marketing, customer needs, wants and demands, product and services markets, value, customer satisfaction/retention, quality, cost/benefits, efficiency/effectiveness, profitability, the growth of consumerism, strategic/tactical marketing, reasons for growth, marketing as a business philosophy, relationship marketing, changing emphasis of marketing Marketing environment: micro environment of the company; stakeholders eg suppliers, intermediaries, owners, financiers, customers, competitors, local residents, pressure groups; macro environment demographics eg economy, society, ecology, technology, politics, legal, culture; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis; political, economic, social, technical (PEST) analysis; Porter’s competitive forces Consumer markets: central role of the customer, customer culture, models and types of behaviour, consumer orientation (internal and external), competitor orientation, decision process, value chain, value and satisfaction, long-term relationships Market segmentation: principles of segmentation, targeting and positioning, segmentation bases eg geographic, demographic, behavioural, lifecycle stage, income, gender Ethics and social responsibility: sustainability, social audit, public relations, legal and regulatory considerations, public policy, third world issues, trends eg green issues, environmentalism, pressure groups Services industry context: contexts...
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