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.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Confessions of a PR Intern: Oops! I did it again

Hi everyone,

If you are an intern like me and relatively new to the “real PR world”, I expect you’d have made some mistakes in the course of your work by now. That’s normal and part of the process of learning.  

In fact, I think if you went your whole internship – which in my case is 19 weeks – without making a single mistake, while submitting flawless, well-written, content perfect reports and press releases, your bosses would be falling over themselves in a rush to get your signature on the perm staff list. Wouldn’t that be fun to watch? I wish.

It’s not just interns who make mistakes, too. A colleague told me the learning curve is steepest when you first do something new – the transition from school to your first work internship, a mid-life career change, an inter-company department swap, et cetera. And along with that steep learning curve comes the mistakes. It’s like a 2-for-1 package deal.

An intern friend of mine also shared something that I thought made sense, too. It’s not always your fault when you get something done wrong. Maybe you weren’t briefed properly, maybe you needed more guidance, or maybe, more time. It can be really frustrating for both parties when one doesn’t get the other.

I’ve had days where I feel pretty dumb for messing up and wish I had the guts to kick myself in the shin. But after a couple of breaths, it also helps to know that won’t do much for the situation except to leave an ugly bruise on my leg.

So… I’ve established that everyone – and I mean, even Donald Trump – makes mistakes. The question is, how serious was the mistake? Was it an honest mistake or could you have avoided it? And, what did you do after you’d realised your big boo-boo?

My dilemma

Within my first two weeks at FH, I’d made my first mistake, and it was a pretty serious one. Also no one else’s fault but mine.

I spelt the brand name of a client wrong. That spelling error was splattered throughout a pitch e-mail that went out to a journalist.

Media. I know. (Buzzer goes off; fade in music; cue horrified looks from audience.)

Just penning this whole episode now – three months later – still makes me cringe.

How did I find out? I was sitting in a meeting for that account, and finally took my first long, hard look at the company logo. I remember thinking, “Something doesn’t look right here. Is it supposed to be spelt like that?” Three seconds later, “Oh, %&#@! Oh no, oh no, oh no.”

As soon as that meeting was over, I rushed out of the room, face pale. Checked my ‘Sent Items’ folder on e-mail – ta-dah! There it was! My glaring error plastered all over the pitch note.

The whole team was copied on that e-mail, but no one had realised it yet. My immediate dilemma was if I should tell someone so they could rectify the error. Obviously, I’d considered that in doing so, they might also reach for my neck and the nearest penknife.

Do I tell them? Admit to it, run away and never come back? Do I hide? Where do I hide? Who do I tell? When? Have I even completed 21 days here?!

It seemed like a long time to me, but I made my decision within the next five minutes. I told the two Account Managers on the team and apologised. Their reaction surprised me, actually.

One: They left my neck intact. Two: After the initial shock, they laughed and said they’d both read through the e-mail, thought I’d done a good job writing it, and never realised the error. Whoa. Of course, they also told me to be careful, but that’s to be expected.

My point is: I felt that the whole incident was an ethical and moral dilemma for me because I knew it wasn’t a mistake small enough to be overlooked. And in my mind, the incident could have been bad if the journalist had copy-pasted my e-mail into his story. I don't know. I can be pretty imaginative.

But it was a wake-up call to me to not take my awesome spelling skills for granted and check next time instead of assuming I’d be right. Complacence, you see.

At school, we learn the basic Code of Conduct for journalists and PR practitioners - being honest and truthful when telling a story, acting in the best interest of our company and our clients, respecting privacy rights, declaring a conflict-of-interest, et cetera. While this dilemma of mine involved none of the above (thank god), the act of owning up to my mistake wasn't an easy thing to do too.

An internship teaches you more than just work skills. Along the way, if you’ve got the willingness to learn from your mistakes, you might also pick up some life lessons.

For me, I was impressed with the way the two Account Managers handled things. They accepted that it was sent, that nothing could be done further, and they dropped the matter quickly. It’s one of the things I love about FH – the open, comfortable working culture helps that I’m not afraid to ask questions and own up to mistakes. I think that’s an important trait to remember when we become supervisors ourselves and have to manage a team.

Here are some articles by the experts, for your reading pleasure:

• “You’ve made a mistake. Now what?” by Amy Gallo

• “10 things you should do if you made a big mistake” by Calvin Sun

• “Owning up to my corrections” by Randy Cohen

Got a "Oops! I did it again" moment? I'd love to hear about the mistake and how your colleagues reacted. What did you do in the end?

Till the next time, cheers!

Cheryl 

15062105 / Curtin Singapore

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Still don't know the Code of Conduct for PR practitioners? No worries! See, PRIA's Code of Ethics here.

> To learn more on how I ended up at FH, see "Confessions of a PR Intern: Just Getting Started!"
> Some lessons you just can't learn in school. See "Confessions of a PR Intern: What School Doesn't Teach You"
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International for some, local for me!

Hi everyone,

My name is Grace and I'm currently in the midst of completing my undergraduate degree in Curtin Singapore. Having completed all my academic PR modules earlier this June, I'm so glad that it is now time to put my knowledge to the test in the real world. 

As I pen my first entry, I am also pleased to share that I've already completed two of three months with my internship company of choice, Touch Communications. Touch Communications is a boutique PR agency specializing in providing companies with the finest, most personal touch to their media relations, events and copywriting. Specialising in beauty, F&B, sports and lifestyle industries, their area of expertise reaches beyond traditional media and encompasses social media, web development, media training, overseas media junkets, crisis communication, events management and advertising.

The last two months have been a nervewrecking but nonetheless, enjoyable journey! While I'm eager to share everything in this one post, let's not jump on the bandwagon as yet. Instead, I would like to tell you about a meaningful struggle I had when looking for my internship placement.

I knew I wanted to start my internship search early as I was afraid it would be difficult to get a place.While many wonder about the question of doing in-house or consultancy, that was never an issue to me as I have always known that I wanted to gain some agency experience first. Instead, I recall a vivid memory as I questioned myself if I wanted to start my PR career with an international PR firm such as Hill & Knowlton, Fleishman-Hillard, etc. or a local boutique agency. Getting this right is important to me as more than one has advised me earlier that it will determine a large part of the course of my career path going forward in terms of exposure to the right contacts, starting remuneration, scale of work, scope of work, etc.

The default was that many urged me to try for international companies because of the boundless opportunities it may present, a stellar on my resume and of course, not forgetting a fatter paycheck. However, I have also heard of horror stories from seniors about unrealistic expectations, limited learning (everyone is too busy to teach and in a larger company, job scopes are usually more defined) and people constantly jumping at your throat.

On the other hand, there was a nagging thought that tugged at my heartstrings to tell me that I should join a local boutique agency as I wanted to take things slow and be exposed to as many aspects of PR as possible first. Having sat through lectures on the different types and sizes of PR firms, I knew that being in a boutique firm would mean fewer accounts to service but more exposure in terms of work responsibilities as there are fewer employees and job scopes are not entirely defined. 

I made the decision eventually, to send resumes to only local boutique agencies. After all, this is an internship and my first experience with hands-on PR. I would prefer not to let fear engulf my passion in my first job. I am glad to say that I managed a few interviews within the week and by May, secured a three months internship with Touch Communications starting 18 June 2012.

Interning with a local boutique agency turned out to be everything I thought it would be and more. Indeed, job scopes are not defined as servicing a client account meant taking care of their every need, those including PR and those that don't. This can be exceptionally taxing. However, I have a small but supportive team behind my back as well as a very kind boss who constantly acknowledges my presence and work contributions. Deep down, I give myself a pat on the back for making the right decision for me.

Busting the myth of bosses jumping at your throats in international PR firms, my classmates who are working there tells me that they too are enjoying their internship and have good bosses. They did share though, that they have more accounts to handle and more overtime to do. I guess this means that there is no one choice that is more right than the other. Ultimately, it boils down to your personal preference and what you are looking for in your internship.

For those who shares my dilemma, I  hope this entry helped you in some way or another!

Until the next,

Grace Ong

Curtin Singapore

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