Public Relations & Professional Public Relations & Professional EthicsEthics

31 July 201531 July 2015

Johanna Fawkes Johanna Fawkes

• Senior Lecturer in Public Relations at Charles Sturt University

• Devised and delivered some of the first PR degree and professional courses at three UK universities

• Written papers for international journals and contributed chapters to leading PR text books

• Author of Public Relations, Ethics and Professionalism: The Shadow of Excellence.

PR & Professional Ethics

Bad barrels: public relations &

professional ethics

Johanna Fawkes, PhD MCIPR

•PR Ethics – summary of problems•A Jungian approach•Applied to PR ethics•Issues for the profession•Q & A

Overview:

• Claim to professional status rests on expertise,

national body, social value and ethical standards

(Cooper, 2004)

• Changing 21C status of professions, given

technological, knowledge & societal shifts, inc.

managerialism

• Emerging professions’ need for recognition &

autonomy; crisis of trust/threat of regulation

Questions of professionalism

• Core texts & professional codes stress duty and/or consequences using limited sources of ethical theory

• Can be seen in claim that PR acts as ‘ethical guardian’ & contributes to democracy

• Critics reject such ideals; accuse PR of propaganda

• AND many practitioners prefer the ‘taxi/lawyer’ model – no social claims

PR approaches to ethics

Persona = Public face Over ID with Persona leads to delusion

Shadow = rejected, neglected aspects leads to denial & blame (the Other); later = mid-life

crisis Jungian ethics constructed from process of

individuation Elements (of individual or group) are fragments of

whole – task is to create dialogue between elements Challenges ideals, aims for maturity

Jungian psyche

Ethics emerges from self-acceptance, leading to other-

acceptance

Persona/Shadow is not about good/bad; Integration =

wholeness

Conscience triggered in process = ethical attitude =

integrity (Solomon, 2001; Beebe, 1992)

Integrity emerges through dialogue – with self and

others

Jungian ethics

Jungian ideas applied to organisations – now to professions Persona/Shadow split can be seen in idealised

professional codes vs Bad Apples (or Bad Barrels? Zimbardo, 2007)

In PR, Excellence = persona; critics = shadow (Fawkes, 2014)

PR split into ethical ‘guardians’ vs advocates, or Saints & Sinners (Bowen, 2008; Baker, 2008, Fawkes, 2012)

Ethical conflict can cause distress in PR practitioners (Kang, 2010 )

Individuation is triggered by mid-life crisis; is PR facing one too?

Applying Jungian psychology

What words/symbols/images, does the profession use to promote itself?

What stories do we tell? Hero or victim? Who are we? Who is missing? How do we see our role? Ethical

guardians, service providers, lawyers? How do we see our role in society?

Upholding or undermining democracy?

Jungian toolkit – ID Persona

Who do we hate/distance ourselves from? How well do we manage mistakes? How

fallible can we be? Who do we blame? Board/bad apples/publics? What do we deny? Who can’t we hear? What

topics are taboo? How do we deal with criticism? How badly does

it hurt us? How are we perceived by others? Who teaches what to next generation? Who can we ask, where do we look, for

guidance?

Jungian toolkit - ID Shadow

Embrace multiplicity of roles, identities

Allow for imperfection, moving away from idealised

codes

Create space for dialogue around ethics – including

mistakes

A different kind of communication - based on

reflection

Implications for profession

Acknowledge messy, everyday ethics

Admit mistakes (to self if not others)

Monitor & respect discomfort

Encourage debate, delay, reflection

Implications for practitioners

Ethics without reflection are empty Professions like PR need stronger tools for

inventory Workplaces and individuals can also use toolkit to

generate self-awareness Jungian ethics provide questions, not answers Doubt, self-doubt and ‘delay’ are essential to

ethical practice = “Are we sure?”

Conclusions

• Baker, S. (2008). The Model of The Principled Advocate and The Pathological Partisan: A Virtue Ethics Construct of Opposing Archetypes of Public Relations and Advertising Practitioners. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 23(3), 235-253.

• Bowen, S. A. (2008). A State of Neglect: Public Relations as 'Corporate Conscience' or Ethics Counsel. Journal of Public Relations Research, 20(3), 271-296. doi: 10.1080/10627260801962749

• Cooper, D. E. (2004). Ethics for professionals in a multicultural world. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

• Corlett, J. G., & Pearson, C. (2003). Mapping the organizational psyche : a Jungian theory of organizational dynamics and change. Gainesville, Fla.: Center for Applications of Psychological Type.

• Fawkes, J. (2012). Saints and sinners: Competing identities in public relations ethics. Public Relations Review, 38(5), 865-872

• Fawkes, J. (2014). Public relations ethics and professionalism : the shadow of excellence, London & New York: Routledge

• Fawkes, J. (2015) A Jungian conscience: self-awareness for public relations practice, Public Relations Review, online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2015.06.005

• Kang, J.-A. (2010). Ethical conflict and job satisfaction of public relations practitioners. Public Relations Review, 36, 152-156.

• Ketola, T. (2010). Responsible leadership: building blocks of individual, organisational and societal behaviour. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 17, 173-184.

Bibliography

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Five awkward questions about the future of public relationsFive awkward questions about the future of public relations

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