Ch 9: Ethics in Government
- About 65% of PR practitioners report directly to the highest-ranking person in their org- Government PR: type of communication function that deals with the interactions of the citizenry with the government, gov't regulations, and the legislative gov't / helps to facilitate the communication with constituencies and gov't public
- Corporate Public Affairs: the type of PR that manages how an organization interacts with the gov't, gov't regulations, and the legislative branch / corporate function that helps the org maintain ties with legislators and government regulatory agencies / to engage in lobbying
Issues Management
- Begins with research to identify new and emerging issues --> any issue that can affect the future of your org, gov't, etc etc --> all worthy of identification, monitoring, and analysis
- Once an ethical dilemma enters the public policy arena, the org has less autonomy or ability to define the issue and the associated ethical evaluation
- People involved: research firm and PR manager who deals with the pros and cons of making decisions --> "the right thing to do"
- Must understand how important ethical considerations are to the credibility and long-term reputation of an org
- Their role is to inform, persuade, or change the public opinion --> must be achieved with constituencies, the interests of the news media, and within the budget of the org
The Three Ethical Approaches
1. Materialism: the decision maker should feel to satisfy his or her own needs first in a competitive arena -- based on competitive positioning
- Considered ethical because if everyone looks out for him or her self equally, suiting one's self-interest competitively should allow the best arguments and perspectives to compete successfully
- BUT it is actually less than ideal because it assumes a level of playing field and cannot contend with the issues of different informational or resource-based advantages which creates an unequal playing field for the cases
- Tends to degenerate into selfish materialism
2. Consequentialism - Utilitarianism: takes a look at the potential consequences for a decision in order to determine what is ethical
- Most fall into this approach, based on the utility of a decision as predicted by its consequences
- Maximizing certain consequences and minimizing other consequences -- the best decision will maximize good outcomes and minimize the bad outcomes
- Utilitarian calculus: predicts what the potential outcomes of different decision options might be, and applies different measures of goods for determining what is ethical
Three different approaches to define what's ethical:
Approach #1: Hedonistic -- maximizing pleasure and minimizing the pain in an ethical way
Approach #2: Eudaimonistic -- produces the greatest happiness, or applies the maximins principle to happiness
Approach #3: Ideal -- seeks its application over all of the concepts that are considered intrinsically valuable
Strengths and Weaknesses (Lee, 167)
- Most beneficial = one that maximizes the utility of the decision or the ethically right course of action
- Utilitarianism requires a more disciplined, thorough, and well-researched version of the innate utilitarian calculus that one applies in a cost-benefit analysis
- Weakness: does not lend itself well to matters that are difficult to reduce to numbers
- Always include alternative viewpoints including the smaller parties or groups
- Work to guard against disenfranchising the ideas and values of smaller publics to create ethical decisions
- Some challenges:
- You must accurately predict potential future consequences of your decisions
- You must know all of the options or decision alternatives that are possible
- You must know how various publics will react to the decision and consider all of the viewpoints
- You must try successfully to anticipate unintended consequences
- You must keep in mind that the rule of the majority should never edge out the valid concerns of the minority
- You must minimize harm
- You must not "sacrifice" a smaller public in the interest of a later public in a way that creates harm or significant negative outcomes for the minority --> is this even possible?
3. Nonconsequentialist Analysis: Deontology
- Most PR professionals use a deontological approach to ethical reasoning in their issues management
- "Decision Factor" : duty to uphold moral principle
- Concept #1: Rationality - temptation should be avoided through the use of an objective and rational perspective in which you attempt to maintain as much detachment and objectivity from the decision and its outcomes as you can - maintain professional distance
- Concept #2: Autonomy - how independent you are to make moral decisions - one must be able to engage in moral analysis without being compelled in any particular direction
- Weakness: requires rigorous study and thorough application of its tests, and in turn requires the time necessary to do so
Categorical Imperative: a rational being is obliged to act morally, and its main concepts must be considered for a decision to be deemed ethical
- Test #1: Dignity & Respect - "Does the option I'm considering maintain the dignity and respect of all the publics involved in the issue?"
- Having human dignity and being respected is based on an innate moral good that is not to be abridged
- Test #2: Intention - "What is the intention underlying this action?"
- Honesty, self-reflection, and integrity, rather than a quid-pro-quo exchange
- Test #3: Duty - "Does the decision uphold a duty to universal moral principles?"
- Is the decision still ethical if you were on the receiving end?
Ch 10: Doing Right and Avoiding Wrong with the Law and Politicians
- The efficacy of a government PR practitioner is greatly dependent upon his audience's and colleagues' trust
- How a proposed action would appear when placed within the Five Institutional Macrocontexts:
1. Occupation - Civil servants are hired by agencies based upon their knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience
2. Agency - communicative activities flow from the nature of his agency
3. Legal - It's the right thing to do
- it can give the practitioner a real sense of what is permissible and what is not, and keep him from putting his agency in legal jeopardy
4. Constitutional - A constitution holds explicit and implicit ideas about the relationship between the governors and governed, and the general goals of the nation-state
- use this power in accordance with the public's sense of right
- the public will not tolerate either elected officials or government employees deceiving their arrangements
- must make sure one's PR efforts fit or collide with the ideas in the country's constitutional ideas
5. Sacred - Bridge the gap between the particular and the abstract whole (USA), and thereby enable citizens to assume a national identity and to recognize certain rights, duties, and perspectives as a member of that nation - use narratives that tap into that nation's story
- A practitioner should think institutionally -- take the time to think if the actions are...
1. an abuse of the position
2. inconsistent with the agency's duties
3. illegal
4. offensive to the country's constitution
5. an outrage upon the sacred
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