One of the key issues that public relations professionals have to address both in their research and practice is ethics (a set of moral principles). Public relations professionals are unfairly perceived as being unethical – from being called “spin doctors” or “flacks” – the profession as a whole has this negative perception and reputation for not being ethical. However, a recent study in the Journal of Public Relations Research has said that public relations professionals are actually more ethical compared to accounting students, surgeons, and business professionals.
The study focused on looking at the “moral development” of current public relations professionals through a random sample of professionals working at PR firms. The researchers asked the participants to take teh Defining Issues Test (a test that measures five areas of ethical reasoning) while being presented with six ethical dilemmas, and then rank 12 statements based on how important it was to making the decision. After taking the test, the researchers compared the scores to other groups that have taken the test previously in the past.
Even though this study does present a positive view of public relations as a profession – there are some issues with it. The DIT test measures ethical reasoning in five areas: business concerns, internal motives, truth and respect, religious influences, and external influences. Are there other factors that the authors might have considered to incorporate? Also, why didn’t the researchers conduct a pilot study to test their instrument before sending it to the PR professionals? Another thing that I noticed is that they could have done preliminary qualitative interviews with PR professionals before conducting the quantitative research study. If they did this, they might have been able to add a few items that arose from the data that might have been interesting to include in this study. Well, I guess that this can be done in future research studies. 🙂
One thing that I think that the researchers should have done in their paper is to acknowledge the limitations of their study, and provide future directions to contribute to the body of knowledge in public relations. The author make a point or two at this throughout their paper, but they needed to have a clear and strong statement at the conclusion of their paper on where they see this area of research going, and what we as PR professionals can do to improve ethical practices in the profession.
These are just a few of my thoughts on the subject. 🙂 Hope you all are having a great day. 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen
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