Ethics

It’s an embarrassment that we don’t walk the talk. The arrogance and lack of understanding about how to establish internal controls, education and monitoring of performance leaves us vulnerable again and again. Just because the culture of an organization focuses on responsible, honest behavior, is no guarantee that there won’t be criminal behavior.

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January 30, 2006 [Anonymous Contributor]

Consider losing the section on Ethics. It may well be the site of offensive fodder to your retainer clients (or point to reasons not to select candidates, or even hinder current employees of your retainer clients that have worked at these agencies). While “rants and raves” has a huge audience appeal, employment litigation is certainly a factor you should consider on behalf of your corporate clients. You wouldn’t want to do anything to suggest there may have been a “hostile” work environment.

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January 30, 2006 [Judy Cushman]

Opinions about whether this subject should be on the blog range from “drop it” to the absolute necessity to have it on the site. This is no easy subject and I strongly believe we need to critique our performance and open a dialog on this important topic.

Agencies have been caught in outright illegal behavior by their senior executives. They have admitted to the need to fix the problem and hopefully will not have to go through the drill again. But is that just a hope? What internal controls have been and will be put in place? What training will ground employees in recognizing and then defining ethical issues? What behaviors will change? What dollars will be needed to put the systems and infrastructure in place to avoid a repeat? Unfortunately we cannot trust that our people will know what “the right thing to do” looks like and promulgating a set of guidelines is no guarantee the problem is solved.

I am troubled by the inherent conflict, particularly on the agency side between theoretical discussions about how important people are to the business and failure to provide “investment grade” training programs. By that I mean, on-going, time consuming, costly educational opportunities that enhance the talents of staff and offer them new ways to look at how they do their job. The pressure to perform and meet client deadlines is simply so “present” that training at this costly level is hard to implement. Is there an agency that meets the gold standard? I’d love to give them credit.

There is so much emphasis on Corporate Governance and consulting about good business practices, that organizations are not spending the time they should focusing on their internal operations. It is time to install controls and accountability regarding ethics. Is defining ethical behavior, helping employees understand ethics and ethical issues, part of the performance review process?

Ruder Finn launched a new ethics consulting practice as of January, 2006. In the press release, Emmanuel Tchividjian is named head of the practice. The firm said it will counsel and assist clients develop ethics programs that include risk assessment, development of internal and external strategies as well as executive and employee training. He and I have had several interesting discussions about the long history of the firm’s focus and a variety of internal programs that are in place regarding ethics.

I feel that Ruder Finn, by announcing this practice, has an obligation to set the standard for what a successful ethics program should include within the firm. I believe it is incumbent upon the firm to describe their internal activities and controls for self monitoring, to the standards the firm has articulated. That will give clients and our industry additional data to help build a successful ethics infrastructure. It is time to walk the talk and if we need to bring in an outside firm to audit our organization’s performance, that should be implemented. No doubt, RF will be subjected to criticism and scrutiny, but I hope that only strengthens how the firm behaves and how it adds value to its clients.

In soliciting comments, other sites have been mentioned in emails. They offer additional research and input on this important subject. I hope we will learn about companies that have made the commitment and are also making progress in an effort to assist employees behave in a more ethically responsible manner and change the culture. (Survey results from the Ethics Resource Center on the www.ethics.org site are pretty disappointing.) The business community has lost credibility for good reason. I’d like to see substantive and fundamental change around ethics and how PR firms and businesses act. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and a closed system is fundamentally vulnerable to corruption. If the heads of PR firms or Corporate Communications officers think, “It can’t happen here.” It will.

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January 30, 2006 [Anonymous Contributor]

Research indicates that environments are more ethical when people talk about ethics at work, have a code of ethics and leaders model ethical behavior -- see www.ethics.org for more.  Talking more about ethics to raise awareness -- whether that is in our businesses, our schools, our profession -- is important.  In the past, people learned basic values from their families, churches/temples, schools but all that has changed over the last 40-50 years. Research also shows that more people are entering the workforce without a sense of what is right and wrong; e.g., students don't think there is anything wrong in cheating or plagiarizing using the Internet.  That behavior finds it way to the work environment whether that is business, academic, government.  This is a problem.

The dialog about ethics has already begun on college campuses, where forums are being created for discussion especially in the business schools but it probably needs to extend to all parts of the university. Organizations - both profit and non-profit - need to have a code of ethics, provide a forum to talk about ethics, and reaffirm values. Sarbanes-Oxley figures into the conversation as well.  Auditors are beginning to assess organizations on whether they have ethics codes in place, whistleblower policies, etc., in this new era of more transparency.

(This contributor also mentioned www.communitelligence.com.)

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January 30, 2006 [Anonymous Contributor]

As “PR” continues to change and evolve, my greatest challenge is seeing what has carried over from the dot.com boom days: how senior leadership is lacking to guard against intolerable and inexcusable things like a major lapse in ethics.

I like the topics you’ve outlined; you’re unafraid to talk about the unpleasantries in this business while holding ALL practitioners to the same standard. It’s refreshing and welcome, and I look forward to reading your blog on a regular basis.

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