Lesson 5 - Part 2 - Ethical Practice

My mum always teaches me to ‘Do The Right Thing’ in any circumstances. Even though if I am in dilemma, I should not choose the outcome that would harm or damage the relationships with each others.

That’s called ethics.

Ethics is not equal to morality. It is the personal values which emphasize the behavior and moral choices made by an individual response to a specific situation. It is the standards of integrity.

So how do the practitioners put the ethics into practice?

I think the key points to remember from this week’s reading are the public relations consultant use the Potter box technique to help them in making more precise decisions and actions.

The Potter Box

Besides the potter box that helps to identify consistent and inconsistent values,principles and loyalties, there are three basic ethical doctrines, which are:

- Deontolory (doctorine that ethics is duty-based and relies on moral obligation)

-Telelogy (an outcome-based ethics doctrine where 'the ends justify the means ')

-Aristotle's Golden Mean (based on what is best for majority )

The readings made me think more about public relations theory or practice in that there are actually several roles that played by PR practitioner.The four major roles are counsellor,advocate,corporate monitor and corporate conscience. The best practice of public relations serves the public interest by devoloping mutual understanding between the organisation and its publics.

There are empirical evidence shows that practitioners who based on their decision-making and recommendations to management on ethicasl principles are more likely to have a greater role in management decisions and activities.(Grunig 1992:309)