"Ethics" is a term imbedded into the very practice of Public Relations. Ethics are the "moral principles that govern a person's (or organization's) behaviour or the conducting of an activity"(Thank you Google for this fine definition)!
My work colleagues were very humble, respectful, and friendly people. I also rarely came across ethical misconduct issues in the work place, it was always smooth sailing. however, i can recall one occasion where i felt a little on edge, or perhaps i was just overreacting, I'll let you decide.
I was working on a project for one client (who i choose not to name). This client had strict guidelines about the types of people they wanted to sponsor/involve in their project, and they purposely chose not to include other, but similar, types of people/organizations. My role was to research potential sponsees in the assigned field, and present my recommendations to the client.
Even though I stuck to the guidelines and though my recommendations were excellent, my first attempt didn't go so well. I was kindly told to steer away from some organizations, I gathered that it was because there weren't perceived as 'important enough' or 'beneficial enough' to the client.
In the end, I understand that the client has the ultimately choice of who they want to associate with. However, this makes me wonder about the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and whether it's actually the defining criteria for businesses when they chose to "give back"!
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| (Photo from divvela.com) |
I could've been entirely overreacting like i previously stated, however, I'd like to pose this question to my readers:
Do you believe that businesses give back simply out of goodwill, or is the decision still strictly BUSINESS with a CSR overlay?
Thank you for your time and contribution.
Also, watch out for my final blog on my PR journey to Malaysian.
Naomi James
Curtin University, Bentley.
