Practice the Ethical Theory in Public Relations: Confessions of a Public Relations Intern

 

 

 

In a working environment, it is the moral philosophy to be ethical in your decision making. It based on the working values, honesty, fairness, loyalty and respect in between stakeholders and individuals. It is all about on how honesty the business dealing is.

The ethical duties are applicable in Public Relations for the client, the society, within the profession, and among the employees in compromising with others under the standard code of ethics. It is important to analyze the ethical decisions to avoid any ethical dilemmas. Sometimes it depends on the situation for example when under pressure the decision making can cause conflict needs  and interest in between the relationship in the organization and the external stakeholders.

Recently at Momentum Forum Events it had been hectic in seeking sponsors. With Men In Black Ball night around the corner, the time is crunching. By this time, any updates on corporations joining for premium sponsorship would be exciting news to Momentum.

Recently there is an interested corporation in joining Momentum. This  premium sponsor is a high profile corporation and due to privacy concerns I will not mention it in this blog. Momentum Forum Events managed to get this premium sponsor on board. Veritably this is really good news for Momentum in gaining exposure. The interested party had communicated back and forth which even included logos to be released and authorized to be printed on the Men In Black flyer.

During that time the Men In Black flyer was reprinted with the added sponsor’s logo. There were around 2000 flyers printed. The flyers were to be distributed to the main clients and stakeholders of the company. Later that week, the sponsor contacted Momentum. Unfortunately they are no longer on board with the sponsorship. Reason being was the company did not meet the requirements on having a specific registered license for a charity to apply with the sponsor’s program. There is a legislation needed from their side.

This seemed unexpected, with the flyers being printed and distributed, with the logos of the sponsor being released by the authorizer this was an unfair bargain to Momentum when the sponsor bailed at the last minute.  

It was not Momentum at fault but the misleading confirmation from the other side of the sponsor corporation verified that they were agreeing to sponsor for Momentum. In short it was poor ethical decisions made from this specific sponsor marketing department in which they claim to deliver but was unable to. This was not expected from such a high profile company. It was a public relations disaster. Momentum Forum Events had to stop distributing the flyers and make amendments which was time consuming and costs money to redesign.

This is my main point with the essence of ethics in decision making; one must follow the standards and qualities in building trusts and maintaining relationships with other clients. Even though, this was an unfortunate turn of events, the communication building between Momentum and the specific sponsor is still under professional terms. I have learnt that the performance to overcome controversial and conflict issues is to face the problem and solve them to avoid any negative perceptions. 

The specific corporation that could not deliver apologized on behalf and made amends by keeping their bargain in exposing Momentum by providing sustainable management in promoting Men In Black Ball 2013. Therefore in conclusion, the importance of ethics is to address morality in influencing others to practice responsibility through policies and activities. This is socially expected in the working place that should be practiced ethically to increase the corporate social responsible performance among the internal and the external stakeholders.     

 

Below is a Cartoon image to put some humor in relevance to my situation. Have a good day ahead everyone.