Law and Ethics

Ok so this week our readings were concerned with law and ethics related to the public relations function. I found that this two chapters and the content were particularly pertinent in the environment of today where public disclosure and corporate social responsibility is premium. Corporate collapses such as Enron and closer to home HIH and OneTel have meant tighter controls on disclosure and organisational due diligence. Laws and ethics relating to organisations have been implemented not only to protect publics (stakeholders) but also the organisations.

I will admit I found the law chapter particularly boring (perhaps it was just me). That said it was helpful in defining the different aspects of law the PR practioners must be aware of in order to correctly protect not only themselves but clients and also respective publics. Laws are often evolutions of ethics, whereby that community value is thought high enough of to warrant legislation. Laws are often legislated by government bodies and have penalties, such as fines and jail, imposed if they are broken. Particularly interesting was the defamation information – interesting because of the electronic world that we live in nowadays and how defamation is affected by the Internet and our global community. PR practioners aren’t offered the same protection as journalists, although there have been moves to change this (Walsh, 2006), and as a result they must thoroughly ensure that the message delivery follows the letter of the law. The concept of ‘new journalism’ (Walsh, 2006) has afforded some increased protection however this is not absolute.

Ethics is a particular aspect of PR (more so Marketing) that I find very interesting and therefore I found the second chapter much easier to read and more insightful. Ethics, as opposed to laws, are often more complex in nature as they refer to one’s person and moral values. Organisations abide by a code of ethics that might be communicated by an industry regulatory body (such as PRIA or the AMA) and often penalties are condemnation by that regulatory body. Johnson and Zawawi highlight that PR has gone through an evolutionary change in regards to ethics and highlight that they are no longer subservient to organisation’s commands but rather they should be an active participant in the formulation of organisation strategy.

The key parts for us to remember from these readings is that the laws governing the dissemination of information in the PR functions is highly complex and often requires specialist information. With the increase in court action in regards to defamation and consumer protection, it is often the PR professionals in the front line and therefore they need sound legal advice to protect themselves, clients and the stakeholders. From the ethics chapter I took that PR are now more actively involved in setting the organisational agenda and they should always take an objective view when working with clients.

References

Johnston, J. and Zawawi, C. (2004) Public relations: theory and practice. 2^nd edition. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin

Walsh, F. (2006) Qualified privilege: A defense for the public relations function, Public Relations Review 32, pp377-385

today I commented on Larissa's blog http://www.cmns1290larissaadamczyk.blogspot.com/

Strategy and PR....

Strategy and PR….an interesting concept and one I am yet to make a decision on where is fits in the organizational structure. Last weeks tutorial/workshop provided insight into where a ‘PR’ function might fit into the organizational structure and it really helped me in realizing that separating the Marketing and PR function might be necessary for a company, however this weeks chapter from Zawawi and Johnson, just brought me back to thinking that PR and Marketing are too much alike to be separate functions.

I agree with Zawawi and Johnson that strategy is important because it provides the underlying rationale that guides an organisation (as one of my lecturers might say “strategy is the blueprint, the mission, vision and objectives are the recipe”). I also understand that in order for the strategy to be successful it needs top-down commitment and involvement from employees on all levels of the organisation.

The Zawawi & Johnson reading was all about strategy from how important strategy is, to outlining a strategic plan for an organisation. The begin with a rough outline of the history of strategy – eluding to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Zawawi and Johnson go onto to say that strategy evolved into a managerial skill, again something that I am not totally agreeing to. Sun Tzu’s book, written over 2,500 years ago, was a military textbook, but today is used mainly as a management textbook. Planning is vital to the success of strategy but to say that strategy is a managerial ‘skill’ is a fallacy.

Zawawi and Johnson replicate Porters ‘ten-step strategic communication plan’ however it is lacking detail in the definition of the steps. It is also outdated; we live in a world of rapid, volatile, discontinuous change and Porters doesn’t emphasise the importance of the situational analysis. Sahlman (1997) believed that plans today don’t have enough emphasis on the main issues – the people, the opportunity, the context and risk and reward. I believe that Sahlman’s framework can be applied to not only a business plan but also a Marketing plan and more importantly (at least in this context) a PR plan.

But where does a PR plan fit into the organizational structure? The text book gives a great outline as to what a strategic plan must entail and will no doubt prove useful in the formulation of our final project. But it is my view that it lacks some of the direction as to how it fits into the overall structure, sure it provides a case study of how PR can be used in the completion of a strategy (in the case study example of EKL) but it misses the point the PR isn’t involved in the completion of every strategic plan.

References

Sahlman, W.A. 1997, How to write a great business plan. The Harvard Business Review 75(4), pp98-119.

Johnston, J. and Zawawi, C. 2004, Public relations: theory and practice. 2^nd edition. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin

I have just posted a comment on http://cmns1290kellieosullivan.blogspot.com/2007/08/tymson-lazar-reading-and-chapter-7-on.html

Still a Cynic.....

Unfortunately I couldn’t get access to the reading by Tymson, Lazar and Lazar for this week, so I will blog on about chapter 11 from the Johnston and Zawawi text.

Chapter 11 concentrated on the importance of internal PR and community relations. The text went into great deal about how organizations can manage and measure how effective the internal relations are and why in this day and age it is so important the organizations instigate internal relations. The text cites examples of organisations doing this well such as BHP whereas Patrick Stevedores could have handled their internal relations a little better when faced with the decision to sack 2000 workers. It is an interesting concept to think about as firms look to further increase shareholder value through downsizing and retrenching staff.

I tend to agree that ‘trust, honest and community’ are three essential aspects that organizations must manage well in order to be successful as companies compete their way to homogeneity, often it is only the image of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that sets them apart from their competitors. However as the text indicates, it must be genuine CSR in order to be effective. Johnston and Zawawi recognize that an organizations public image begins with their internal culture. Johnston and Zawawi talk about the need for an open information culture, where all information is disseminated throughout the organisation which seeks to dispel the rumours created by ‘talk around the water cooler’. In keeping information open, organizations have a better chance of minimizing the chances of rumours being created and having a negative impact on the organisation. More and more organizations are extolling the importance of company values on staff as a means to ensure a happy workforce. Johnston and Zawawi also outline that using participative decision making can assist in helping employees better connect with the organisation and therefore be more inclined to be positive in their promotion of the organisation.

The text went onto explain the means available to organisations in disseminating the information such as newsletters, memo’s, awards, events etc. I am somewhat critical of the award mentality as if it is not instigated effectively it can put employees competing against another for recognition which may do more harm than good (especially in a small organisation). The text, touches on the emergence of technology such as online noticeboards and email which in many cases has enabled larger organisations to better manage internal relations through such applications as Lotus Notes.

The second part of the chapter focuses on community relations – meaning organisations recognizing the importance and their impact on external stakeholders and the various approaches to community relations, such as environmental scanning and consultation.

Both parts of chapter 11 discuss the trend towards more two way symmetrical information. An aspect that I found interesting as it is a move towards a marketing environment, where organisations are concerned with finding out what their market wants and then developing the product or service instead of first making the product and service and then trying to market it to society.

I have been somewhat critical in the first few weeks of this course as I have the mindset that PR should not be a single business function but rather intertwined with existing business functions. This chapter has reinforced my viewpoint. The first part – internal relations – seems to be more the role of the HR department while the second part – community relations – should again be part of the marketing department. I will concede that ‘consumer insights’ may well be a new division of the existing marketing department but not a single business function. I do agree with the text that organisations need to manage internal and community relations even more so in today’s business world, I just tend to believe that this can be done within existing business units.

The second reading, Insider Info, gave insight into the life of a PR practioner through the eyes of people currently in the industry. This reading too reinforced my belief that PR is not a separate business function. Ok, ok I understand it is a highly specialized function and seemingly requires it’s on degree I just don’t get how it is different from other marketing specializations such as e-marketing. The principles are the same. I know that I am biased because of my degree so far but seriously……

this week i commented on Taegan's blog http://taeganreidcmns1290.blogspot.com/