Are we well-placed to be the so-called 'ethical guardian'?

Jaquie L’Etang’s paper The myth of the ‘ethical guardian’: An examination of its origins, potency and illusions will be 20 years old this coming year. It is as relevant today as it ever was, and I thank Dr Heather Yaxley for reminding me of it at our recent CIPR Crisis Communications Network webinar entitled Ethics – How to Work Out the Right Thing To Do in a Crisis. 

The PR professional as adviser and more on ethics is long rooted in PR academic thinking, as L’Etang points out, but it is a difficult challenge to meet. We decided to put together an expert panel to help us prepare for those occasions in a crisis when we are asked what the right course of action is for the organisation to take.

Dr Heather Yaxley FCIPR opened proceedings with a focus on ethical crisis leadership – including insight into problem solving methods relating to the set of ethical resources that she created for CIPR, and which members can access for their CPD.  

Heather pointed out that as PR professionals, part of our ethical responsibility is to avoid what she called “truth decay”. Facts are always important but can be hard to obtain in a crisis making our job all the more difficult. Even with the facts we do have, it is important to remember that how we organise those facts to create the crisis narrative involves a degree of framing. Are we doing this fairly, free from bias and in a way that puts the victims at the heart of the organisation’s response?

As we all know, many organisations struggle to understand and respond adequately to the emotion involved in a crisis. Facts vs emotion is not a good look and rarely will win over the doubters. Sometimes our job as crisis communicators involves sitting at the intersection where facts meet emotion and explaining the importance of engaging, rather than dismissing, the emotional response stakeholders may feel.

Heather had some good advice too when it comes to anticipating and preparing for crises that lead to ethical dilemmas. She urges us to look out for the “integrity indicators” in the same way as we look out for the more usual risk indicators. Where might the moral disagreements come from between the organisation and its stakeholders? This is of course a dynamic process that requires constantly holding up the mirror to the senior leadership team.

Finally, Heather reminded us that ethics certainly requires ongoing reflection and questioning of our own personal understanding of the world. This type of “what’s the right thing to do?” advice is becoming more expected of the PR professional. We need to make sure we are always prepared to be put on the spot this way.

Eva Maclaine FCIPR reminded us of the CIPR’s ethical code of practice. Eva is a former Chair of CIPR’s Professional Practices Committee and therefore well-placed to comment on the ethical issues facing us. The code has six main principles at its heart: integrity, honesty, respect, upholding the reputation of the profession, abiding by the code, and ensuring others do also, and to encourage professional training and development.

Codes such as the CIPR’s can only ever be a guide and they are unlikely to be able to deal easily with every occurrence we may face in and of themselves. Fortunately, there is a suite of CIPR materials to help which you can find here. Eva made particular use of the CIPR’s Ethical Decision Tree.

Finally, Rachel Roberts, 2022’s CIPR president, presented us with some real-life ethical dilemmas faced by individuals and companies during the recent Covid pandemic. We were grateful for her reminder to think about our teams in a crisis and to remember human relations as well as public relations. What we say as PR professionals affects real people and real lives. A salutary reminder of the influence we have in difficult situations.  

To me, L’Etang’s paper always serves to put us in our place, reminding us that it is still possible to practice PR without being a member of a professional body let alone sign up to any kind of ethical code. Many PR practitioners have had no ethical training of any kind at all, and in many respects this goes to the heart of the reputational challenge the industry faces as it embarks on a process of professionalisation. It helps us understand the emphasis the CIPR places on this important topic and reminds us of the role we can play.

Chris Tucker is Chair of the CIPR Crisis Communications Network.

This post was first published by the CIPR Crisis Communications Network. Read the post.

Image by Andres Victorero on iStock.