Module 10: As a public relations practitioner you are part of your company’s team bidding for a large upcoming PR campaign when you discover you are very good friends with one of the members on the bid-assessment panel. Knowing this person so well, you can make a very good guess about what they will be looking for in the campaign bids. Is using this knowledge an ethical practice? Explain what your own standards of ethics would be in this situation.
Source: Pop & Hype
In the given scenario of acting as a public relations practitioner within a company seeking to successfully win a public relations campaign bid reviewed by a bid-assessment panel; would it be ethical practice to use knowledge established from a prior personal relationship with a member of the panel? Quite simply it’s up to the individual, but is really not a factor.
In consulting the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) code of ethics, (available for viewing here) there is really only one clause that remotely pertains to the mock scenario and it stands as follows:
7. Members shall inform their employers or clients if circumstances arise in which their judgment or the disinterested character of their services may be questioned by reason of personal relationships or business or financial interests.
Abiding by this clause the practitioner may wish to make this relationship known to all parties involved. However, the PRIA code of ethics is in essence simply a code of personal practice ethics rather than a professional and legally binding code. Kerslake (2015) notes that there are two significant pitfalls in regard to the code, these being (a.) breaches of the code are not dealt with via any legal means, and (b.) the Code of Ethics are only applicable to members of the PRIA.
Source: Deep Green Permaculture
Failing to see the practical advantages of joining the PRIA as a public relations practitioner, I would opt to not become a member of the organisation. Without the constraints of the PRIA in this scenario and the pressures of professional life, I would then use this personal information to the best of my abilities in successfully winning the campaign bid.
References
Ethics, n.d. digital image, viewed 6 May 2015, http://popandhype.com/2015/02/16/ethics-in-business-and-the-media/.
Kerslake, T 2015, Module 10: Public relations issues – ethics, course notes, COMM11110 Introduction to Public relations, CQUniversity e-courses, https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/.
Public Relations Institute of Australia 2009, Code of Ethics, viewed 6 May 2015, http://www.pria.com.au/documents/item/6317.
Right and wrong, n.d. digital image, viewed 6 May 2015, http://deepgreenpermaculture.com/permaculture/permaculture-ethics/.