The Importance of PRaising Ethical Choices

Samantha Morsink
sm362415@ohio.edu

Trust is an essential part of a company's success regarding any field or industry. It is the backbone of building relationships, creating a positive brand, and being believable to your audience. This is why in the public relations field, it is one of the most essential components of success.

Many people pin public relations as the industry that fights journalists. There is a common notion that journalists are out to expose the truth and public relations specialists are out to cover the truth in order to keep corrupt information under wraps to save the name of the company. However, as a student entering public relations, I have seen first hand the effort that people in the public relations industry take to do what is in the public's best interest.

Photo taken from: http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2017/11/20/who-can-you-trust

It seems that there are many reasons why the public relations industry would be willing to lie to the people. Their job is to protect their company and choosing what is best for the people at the company's sake will most certainly result in them losing their job.

So what motive would the public relations industry have for keeping the public's interest at heart?

Credibility. It has been shown that without credibility, a companies message and public relations efforts are useless. Being credible and honest is the only way that a company can have any kind of positive public relations efforts. Being transparent makes a company reliable and in turn, builds a stronger network of returning customers and relationship with the client. So instead of using a strategy that relies solely on one's ability to lie and hide the truth at the risk of the company, it is much easier for public relations specialists to prevent any lies from getting out, by being honest from the start.

Lying to the public is a major PR risk, especially in today's society. With the emergence of the internet, the likelihood for company secrets to come out is at an all-time high. This is why companies praising and encouraging the public relations industry to be transparent and honest is an important business move for companies that want to be successful.

Companies and those who oversee the public relations professionals are a key component to ensuring the safety of their own business. While there is a level of personal ethical and moral values of the individuals, pressures from companies to publish lies or face termination can influence some to make decisions they don't believe in. This is why many public relations professionals are being doubted by the public. It is because they believe companies pressure them into doing things they don't support, meaning the doubt of the customer is with the company. This is a major public relations concern for public relations professionals, their job is the exact opposite of the superiors who may be asking for unethical actions to be taken, causing tension and contradicting information to be sent to the public.

The public relations professional is instead trying to gain back the trust of the public, which is much easier to do when the company is making ethical decisions. This is why for companies to be successful it is important that they encourage ethical choices to be made and invite their public relations staff to be transparent with the public. Personally, I feel that companies who issue sincerely apologize, look much more relatable and trustworthy, even in light of information being released that may not be the best for them.

I believe that even if there is pressure from their superiors, the best public relation specialists will not be influenced to make ethical choices. Public relations professionals do their job to build public trust and keep their interest at heart. A truly good public relations professional will stand by their own set of ethics and moral values regardless of the risks. The risk, in fact, to lie is a far greater risk. If a company is caught lying and the public knows that you as a PR professional supported and aided this lie, your credibility is destroyed and you most likely will not be able to get a job with any other company again, which is much worse than being fired from an unethical company, where you can go on to work somewhere else who has similar values to your own.

A public relations professional knows that the risks of losing their credentials is far worse than losing their job for a corrupt company that doesn't have values that align with theirs anyway. Being trustworthy, honest and ethical is the greatest PR skill you can have.