I think the 2 key points to remember from this week's readings is the role of ethics in Public Relations and the importance of corporate social responsibility PR practitioners have to sustain for the benefit of society.
Firstly, it is essential for PR practitioners to assess ethical implications of their strategies and tactics. This can be done by assessing their personal, professional and institutional ethics. Keeping in mind of the core five parties are individual, employer, client, profession and society. The readings made me think of how one should look within one self’s own set of values to assess and judge what is wrong and right to carry on the plan. It made me think of the common phrase of how one is his/her own best judge. However, I feel that this is quite tricky since we are humans after all and committing an error in judgments is possible. Therefore, I propose considering possible alternatives with the help of other employers to double check one’s actions.
The role of a counselor, as mentioned in the readings, would also be helpful to the practitioner where making a decision is a concern. The readings made me think of the practice of objective observations analysis of a client’s/ employer’s situation. For the practitioner to achieve in these practices, practitioners would be better at analyzing how their future actions would be seen by various stakeholders.
The readings also made me think of PR practice on how social responsibility should also be exercised. Like what was mentioned in the readings, one should aim to ‘go beyond the pursuit of profitability’ where forgoing short-term profit goals brings long-term goals of maintaining interests of the organizations’ stakeholders.
In today’s world where companies are placing more importance on non-financial indicators, like assessing the quality of the workplace tells a lot about the company’s policy of exercising corporate social responsibility. Though I do agree on this, good quality of the workplace however, does not determine the ‘mood’ of the organization where there might be disagreements within.
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I thought your point about the importance of corporate social responsibility PR practitioners have to sustain for the benefit of society was interesting in that it raises the question of what exactly is beneficial for society. Do benefits come in the form of reduced fatality or health risks when they consume products or do they add more usefulness that people can do with? Or perhaps a benefit is a compensation for an added inconvenience caused by the product/services provided? Certainly those questions must be addressed by PR practitioners in order to clearly understand what the product/service is about before it can be effectively marketed. The question of ethics is definitely not far off in doing so.
ReplyDeleteI feel that benefits comes in various forms. Most importantly, it is important to take note that it depends on how society look at companies exercising corporate social responsibility.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt,society are always assessing the intentions of these companies thereby, it is essential for companies to continue from one corporate event to another. It has to be in a continous process to win the hearts of the society.