Public relations practitioners serve as liaisons between organizational goals of the clients they represent with the information they provide to the public(s). The ethical dilemma arises when organizational goals conflict with professional standards of protecting public trust and ensuring the integrity of the profession.
From a professional standpoint, public relations practitioners or integrated marketing firms are in the business of providing a specific return of investment for the clients they represent. Basically, a client wants to see where they money is being invested for a desirable result, which could be influencing the publics perception or the medias perception of the organization and its goals.
The goal of public professionals is to promote corporate responsibility through the concept of full disclosure of corporate practices and goals to the publics PR professionals serve within their communities. In essence, the PR professional is not only accountable to the client they represent, but to the public they serve.
What is corporate responsibility? According to Jacquie L'Etang and Magda Pieczka in "Public relations: critical debates and contemporary practice" the authors states “corporate responsibility” has two distinct characteristics. The first is those voluntary and benevolent actions taken by corporations in society outside the primary economic function and the second those actions taken by corporations in response to corporate disasters
The focus will be on the former of these two distinct characteristics of corporate responsibility in public relations. As a public relations practitioner, the goal of corporate responsibility is not always the agenda of the corporations.
Many corporations utilize public relations programming and tactics to alter negative pre-existing perceptions about the nature of their business. This is including using new platform stages such as blogospheres. There have been some notable instances, where these tactics have backfired including the Walmarting Across America.
Let’s paint the picture. Wal-Mart hired the public relations firm of Edelman for a campaign to help clean up the company’s public perception of the treatment of their employees. Steve Rubel, one of the best and the brightest in the blogosphere, joined the firm and has been in the forefront of figuring out how to intertwine public relations and the world of blogging.
Well, he developed the Walmarting Across America campaign where a couple named Jim and Laura would park a RV in Wal-Mart’s parking lots and write folksy blogs about how the employees all “love” working for Wal-Mart. The couple was hired by Edelman and Wal-Mart to perform this task.
Well there were two smelly elements to this picture. One is the couple did not let the audiences know they were hired employees for Wal-Mart by way of Edelman. Secondly, they were professionals. Laura, was freelance writer and Jim was a staff photographer for the Washington Post.
You might be asking yourself this, “what’s wrong with it?” It is called disclosure to your audience and it backfired. Wal-Mart and Edelman perpetuated the corporate idea that full disclosure is not part of the agenda of the corporate community.
It is about maximum results on image and less on being responsible to the community where these businesses operate. Also, it is about quick a return on investment with no accountability. Social responsibility in my opinion is a conscious concept that corporations and public relations practitioners must take time and careful consideration before it can be established in the mindset of the public.
It involves disclosure as well as consideration to all publics where these entities operate and serve. If these elements are not present, it is nothing more than just a quick tactic or program to alter public perception.
I believe if there is a negative pre-existing perception of corporations and if they choose a “quick fix” approach with public relations tactics. Positive perception will only be short termed because the bigger issue was not really addressed in the public mindset.
My advice for any public relations practitioner, who uses the blogosphere for PR initiatives or tactics, is to be honest and practice full disclosure. We are living in a digital age and where professional credentials can be easily verified.
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