Ethics in public relations: a guide to best practice

Abstract

Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to Best Practice. Patricia J. Parsons. Sterling, VA: Kogan Page Limited, 2004. 187 pp. $35 pbk. Ethics in Public Relations fills a textbook void by acknowledging, upfront, the inherent dilemmas and conflicts that may arise among practitioners who are faced with ethical situations on the job. The book then provides a breadth of decision-making tools that may be used to grapple with issues and to reach responsible and defensible solutions. The author, who teaches strategic communication and ethics, brings the issues pragmatically to the forefront for examination by future public relations practitioners. Patricia J. Parsons, associate professor and past chair of the Department of Public Relations at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, brings a wealth of professional and classroom expertise to the textbook. She has written two other public relations books: Manager's Guide to Projects: A Practical Approach in 2003 and Beyond Persuasion: The Healthcare Manager's Guide to Strategic Communication in 2001. Additionally, she serves as a public relations consultant in the health care arena. After acknowledging the tendency to judge public relations ethics as an oxymoron, Parsons avoids the black-andwhite approach and shows novice practitioners how to navigate through the grey haze of ethical public relations practice. Yes, it can be done. The book is divided into four sections. It does not wax poetically about the great philosophers. Rather, readers will receive a brief grounding in ethical principles, particularly as they relate to this discipline, with the remaining three-fourths of the book devoted to doing ethical public relations. The first part of the text addresses principles of ethical thinking, including roots of professionalism, truth-telling, responsibilities, rights, and loyalties. It's a quick look (forty-seven pages) at the basic foundations, including deontology, utilitarianism, and situational ethics. The second part focuses on the individual's moral sense of self, including moral development, ethics codes, conflicts, and the inherent dilemmas of the practice. The strategies and tactics section delves into those dilemmas more fully and outlines potential strategies for dealing with them. Here, Parsons does an exemplary job shedding light on the nuances of ethical persuasion. In the last section, she focuses on public relations practitioners' roles in the ethics of an organization. It is within this section that various decision-making tools are introduced-the Potter Box, use of PR pillars, Peter Drucker's mirror test, and criteria for second guessing. …