Creating and Maintaining an Ethical Workplace

Rachel Gies
rg265214@ohio.edu

Via http://apps.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/EthicsMonth/EthicsMonth2016

While building a career as a public relations professional, it is crucial to develop your own personal ethics codes to build and maintain your credibility in the field. Without credibility, you are worthless to any employer regardless of how good you are at your job.

Know Your Company

The role of PR in a business, company, agency, etc., is all about influencing or persuading people to think a certain way, while also building, maintaining, and managing the reputation of your client or product. However, it is critical that you provide the truth and stick to the facts. As a PR professional it is your job to keep the credibility of your company by being transparent and taking responsibility for any problems that occur. In order to do this, you must be familiar with your company's ethical practices and the workplace norms. If you are able to identify flaws in the system, then it will be easier to implement ways to create a more ethical workplace. If you even want to attempt to build your customers trust you must first ensure that your entire company relies on the same ethical principles. If there is a standard way to react to a situation, then it will be easier to ensure that employees know how they should react. If you're looking for a good example of this, Clorox is a company that strives to meet this model.


Communicate Your Values

Along with having corporate-wide ethical practices in place, it's important to make sure you also have your own ethical code to abide by. In a crisis situation, it will be especially helpful to be prepared ahead of time to know how you will react. If you're unsure where to start with your code you can begin by looking at the PRSA Code of Ethics. This code is based upon advocacy, honesty expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness. These code also covers specific issues such as free flow of informations, competition, disclosure of information, safeguarding confidences, conflicts of interest, and enhancing the profession. You can apply this code to any ethical dilemma you are facing in the PR field. However, by creating your own code of ethics you can customize the code to fit your own personal beliefs.

"Don't Be a 'Yes Man'"

Once you have your values in line it will be easier to stand your ground and stay firm in your beliefs when someone tests you. In the Bulldog Reporter article we read for class one person said, "the 'yes man has no value, no value whatsoever', in PR" (Bulldog Reporter, 2013). This means that the person who just agrees to do whatever they are told to do has no worth because being able to have your own opinion about what is right and what is wrong is much more valuable than to just do what your told. It is okay to disagree with leadership and let them know how you feel and why you feel this way. Having your own code of ethics should be very respectable because having diverse thought is very important in the workplace.

In conclusion, there is nothing more important for both your own personal brand and your company's brand than maintaining your integrity whether it be through everyday business or in the midst of a PR crisis. If you equip yourself and the company with the proper tools and training, then getting your company all on one page then it will create a much more ethical environment where you will face less ethical challenges.