Title of Assignment:

Ethicality and Morals in Public Relations

Submitted to:
Management Development Institute of Singapore – University of Sunderland

In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Media, Culture and Communications

Name: Andini Mahindira Amiraputri

Batch: BCCD21903A
NRIC: G1221848L
 TABLE OF CONTENT

I. Introduction 2
II. Definition of Morality and Ethics 3
a. Normative Morality 3
b. Descriptive Morality 3
III. Ethical Principles 3
IV. Ethical Theories 4
a. Utilitarianism 4
b. Deontology 5
V. Public Relations Ethics 5
VI. Conclusion 7
VII. Bibliography 8

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 INTRODUCTION

“Unless we can decide what lies at the basis of our ethical decision-making, we cannot
proceed to make well founded moral decisions” Chrysides & Kaler (1993)

But in an indefinite world where morality is a vague line itself, what could be the universal
base of ethical decision making? Is morality even absolute? The concept of ethicality or what
is perceived as moral has been a debate since the beginning of mankind. In every corner of
the world, cultures and value systems define what morality means to each society.
Philosophers from ancient Greek to 17th century Britain, such as the likes of Immanuel Kant
and Epicurus have come up with ethical theories that has led to become principle foundations
of business ethics. Each theory argues different points when it comes to ethical decision
making, with some emphasizing on the outcome of the action, the motives of the action, and
so on.

Such dilemmas are evidently seen in the realm of public relations. As a public relations
practitioner, you are constantly in duty to two opposing parties at once; the organization you
work for, and the society as a whole. For that sole reason, the number of ethical dilemmas in
public relations continue to procure.

The world is blind to the power of communication and information—and from a perspective,
public relations is one to blame. The profession itself involves the control and dissemination
of information to the publics, with the objective of keeping an organization’s best interest in
mind. Their powers of persuasion lead to the rise or fall of an organization, by drawing a
specially-curated specific imagery of a certain organization into the society’s minds.

The means of public relations is not to tell a lie, but to tell a partial truth.

Just how ethical is this?

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A. Definition of Morality and Ethics
“There are two aspects of ethics, the first involves the ability to discern right from
wrong, good from evil. The second involves the commitment to do what is right, good
and proper.” (Michael Joseph, quoted in Foreman, 2010:17)

What is morality? When speaking of morality, one must differ the definition of
morality to the theories of morality. Theories are broad, arguable, and complex—
definitions are not. However, it’s important to understand that definitions are seen in
different contexts, and “Morality” itself is used in two distinct broad senses;
normative and descriptive.
a. Normative Morality
Normative definitions look at how people ought to behave—it aims to define
the rules for behavior, or what behaviors are best for the society. It refers to a
code of conduct that would be accepted by anyone who meets certain
intellectual and volitional conditions, almost always including the condition
of being rational (Gert 2020). Normative morality itself is the sole reason
ethical theories were born and debated amongst one another.

b. Descriptive Morality
Descriptive morality looks at the reality of how people do behave, and takes a
peek inside their minds to see how a person thinks they should behave (Cline
2020). It’s simple, and looks at the human behavior as they are and not as
they should be.

B. Ethical Principles
With everyone’s individual perception of morality in mind, decision-making
processes can be unique to each person. However, a common set of considerations are
used as a set of rules to define how ethical an action is. These set of considerations
include beneficence, least harm, respect for autonomy, and justice.
a. Beneficence
To put in simple terms, the principle of beneficence guides an individual to
essentially “do good”. The priority and motives to base their actions for a “good”
purpose serves as a solution to the ethical dilemma thus making it acceptable. We

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 may find that it’s foundations come from the utilitarianism theory, which strives
to generate the largest ratio of good over evil (Cline 2020).
b. Least Harm
Similarly, to beneficence, least harm sources from the principle of utility and
seeks the action that creates the least harm possible.
c. Respect for Autonomy
This principle emphasizes the role of decision making to allow autonomy for each
individual; to govern their own lives (Chonko 2020). In a sense, only you know
what’s best for you, and the type of lifestyle you want, therefore you should be
able to have control of your own life as much as possible.
d. Justice
Justice means the quality of fair and being reasonable. Thus, the justice ethical
principle emphasizes that an individual’s actions must be one that is fair to those
involved. This includes treating individuals with equality and equability.

C. Ethical Theories
a. Utilitarianism
Does good intentions equal good outcome and or consequence? In an ideal
world, this may seem like the simple formula to live by. But what constructs
good consequence? 18th century British philosophers Jeremy Bentham and
John Stuart Mill to ancient Greek philosophers such as Epicurus all agree that
the outcome of actions should be measured by the happiness, or pleasure that
they produce (Driver 2014). After all, the basic primal need of mankind is to
seek pleasure and avoid pain. This is the nature of Utilitarianism—to define an
action is right if it promotes happiness and wrong if it produces the reverse of
happiness.

This may seem to promote hedonistic values, which is driven by the ego.
However, egoism says that everyone should serve only to their own self-
interest, even if it’s at the expense of other’s interests (2020). Utilitarianism in
the other hand is “other-regarding” which means it considers the effect of the
action on other people and or beings. As said in the principle of utility, “We
should act always so as to produce the greatest good for the greatest number”
(Driver 2014) . Defining what is ‘morally good’ can differ from culture to

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 culture, but with utilitarianism, as long as it serves the greater number then it
is what’s morally good.

b. Deontology
As humans, we live by morals that are applied to every aspect of our life.
These morals distinguish what is right or wrong, and it varies from people to
people. A lot of things affect our concept of morals, so how do we define them
as a rule? Deontology is an ethical theory that uses rules to distinguish right
from wrong (Deontology – Ethics Unwrapped 2020). It’s commonly
associated with the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who believed that ethical
actions follow universal moral laws. These laws are fairly common and taught
from primary socialization, rules like; don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t cheat, etc.
This approach tends to fit well with human’s natural intuition about what is or
isn’t ethical.

Unlike utilitarianism, which judges the ethicality of an action by the results or

outcome, deontology doesn’t require weighing the costs and benefits of a
situation or action. This avoids subjectivity and makes it more objectively
judged as there is a set of rules to follow by. Even if you supposedly do an
action that would result in a positive outcome, for as long as it’s breaking a
rule, it’s considered ethically wrong by deontologists. You would then have to
disregard the possible consequences of your actions.

D. Public Relation Ethics

At this day and age researches has proven that a public stigma has been made upon
the public relations industry; that the industry is strongly associated with all things
unethical. Look deeper into the core of what the core of public relations does, and
you’ll find that manipulation and propaganda, be it direct or indirect, is almost
unavoidable. Take a look at the findings of a 2003 United Kingdom report by
Corporate Watch:

“There is a considerable body of evidence emerging to suggest that modern public

relations practices are having a very significant deleterious impact on the democratic
process... PRs have often engaged in deliberate deception on their clients’ behalf and

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have developed a deeply unhealthy relationship with the “Free press”. Furthermore,
by giving vested interests the opportunity to deliberately obfuscate, deceive, and
derail public debate on key issues the public relations industry reduces society’s
capacity to respond effectively to key social, environmental, and political challenges.”
(Lymer and Carney 2015)

The role of Public Relations is to create mutually beneficial relationships between

organizations and the stakeholders upon whom the organization’s success depends.
Emphasizing on the mutually beneficial relationship, we can already see that the
negative reputation public relations is getting undermines the credibility and
effectiveness of the public relations’ function in society. This is where ethicality
comes to play to foster professionalism within the practice.

According to the book Fundamentals of Public Relations and Marketing

Communications in Canada by William Wray Carney and Leah-Ann Lynner, a
society judge PR to be of value when it:
1. Promotes the free, honest, and ethical exchange of ideas, opinions and education;
2. Identifies the sources and goals of the participants in the discussion;
3. Is conducted in an ethical, open, and transparent way
(Lymer and Carney 2015)

We can conclude from those statements that society demands public relations to put
fairness and equality to the public as their top priority. In other words, defining
morality in the context of public relations is the act of being moral to the society.
From then on, we can use this as a foundation to what lies in the base of our decision-
making process.

Utilitarianism is possibly a viable route to take, as its nature defines an action as right
if it promotes happiness and wrong if it produces the reverse of happiness. However,
that becomes invalid when the subject of “promoting happiness” becomes biased to a
certain party, which in a public relation practitioner’s case, would be the organization
—inevitably, resulting in unfairness on the public’s part. Thus, the best routes a public
relations practitioner can take with ethicality in consideration is to embrace
deontology. Deontology uses clear rules to distinguish wrong from right, making the

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decision-making process as objective as possible. It also takes the four principles of
ethicality into one broad sense used as the foundation of ethical decision making.

E. Conclusion
Public Relations is a practice that creates mutually beneficial relationships between
the organization and its publics. It’s a powerful form of persuasion, dealing with the
control of information dissemination to the public with an organization’s best interest
in mind. Inevitably, such practice often goes hand-in-hand with manipulation and
propaganda. This reality creates an ethical and moral dilemma which sparks up
controversy on the real function of public relations within a society. The public
demands honesty, transparency, fairness and equality—whilst a public relations
practitioner’s job is not to tell lies, but half-truths. Just how can ethicality exist in this
reality? With morals yet being a subjective issue, there are only streams of indefinite
answers. However, if we strictly underline our morals on giving fairness and
transparency to the public, the most viable option would be to embrace deontology. It
ensures objectivity when it comes to the decision-making process, as it clearly states
rules that define wrong from right. This way, a public relations practitioner can rule
out their decision making based on a set of rules and not indefinite morality, which
can differ from individuals or societies. Thus, fairness is achieved between public
relation practitioners and its publics.

Bibliography

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