ECI IMPACT Conference Delves into #PRethics Education Gaps
One of the most important but often overlooked elements of a company’s ethics and compliance culture centers on how it chooses to communicate, manage stakeholder relationships, and steward brand reputation.
These areas compose the core wheelhouse of public relations.
But if ethical PR isn’t fueling those routine functions, then problems quickly manifest and escalate. That’s why #PRethics is one of the most important aspects of overarching corporate ethics and compliance.
For example:
Does good faith undergird all communication strategies, tactics, and messages?
Does management categorically reject any behavior, decisions, or policies that might intentionally seek to deceive people?
Is a culture of transparency and disclosure interwoven throughout the organization, so that PR team members can feel free to speak up, if they think they’re being told to communicate untruthful messages?
These are the questions that PR leaders must consider, but so must cross-functional disciplines within the management team. Ethics and compliance leaders must be aware of how these issues impact PR and the strategic-comms function’s management, for the sake of brand integrity.
At this year’s IMPACT Conference of the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI), I will be facilitating an interactive session led by Dr. Shannon Bowen, a foremost academician in public relations ethics.
Dr. Bowen is a professor at the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She’s also founder of the Global Strategic Communications Consortium, which focuses on ethics and futurism in PR. The GSCC includes public relations academicians worldwide.
At ECI’s IMPACT Conference, Dr. Bowen will peel back some layers of fundamental ethics education that are missing in current PR curricula at colleges and universities.
Our discussion will focus on addressing the ethics gaps in PR education, through the lens of Dr. Bowen’s recent co-authorship of published research:
These missing pieces must be addressed, so that the up-and-coming generation of New Professionals are sufficiently equipped to be ethics champions within their organizations throughout their careers.
We need voices from the ethics, compliance, and risk-management sector to help advocate for stronger PR ethics in corporations, as well as in agency, non-profit, and government arenas.
That process begins with stronger and more abundant ethics content in PR collegiate education, so that long-term, #PRethics truly drive authentic stakeholder trust, stemming from practitioners possessing a firm grasp of the issues and core competencies.
I’m proud to support Dr. Bowen’s work and also that of ECI, and I look forward to Dr. Bowen’s session at the IMPACT Conference, which includes an overall lineup of amazing speakers.
Follow #ECInitiative and #IMPACT2024 for posts from the conference.
Also, join the The #PRethics Community on LinkedIn, to follow the latest PR ethics content in this newly launched, growing community of public relations leaders:
Mary Beth West, APR, FPRCA, is the sponsor of the largest study of global PR ethics codes released this decade, “The State of Ethics Codes in the Public Relations Industry: A Global Analysis” which includes independent analysis of 24 PR industry association ethics codes by the London-based Institute of Business Ethics. It is free to download.