PR Ethics and Responsibilities (part 2)
by:
Charles Lamson
Foreign Governments and Locations
Working with, within or for foreign governments poses some complex ethical questions because of different cultural patterns. One CEO from a multinational said in confidence:
I wish each nation's government would make paying bribes explicitly illegal. We pay bribes abroad---all kinds---to do business. These crooks just soak us---all the way from border guards to get materials moved among the countries to the heads of state. We have to pass the costs on to our customers. I hate it. It makes me sick. But there is simply no other way to get things done abroad.
Anyone who has lived in such an environment can appreciate his comment even without agreeing that bribery is necessary (This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations; 9th ed., by Doug Newsom, Judy VnSlyke Turk and Dean Kruckeberg; pg. 158).
In response to the surfacing of "questionable" payments by corporations doing business abroad, legislation was passed in the USA making bribery illegal. However, where do you draw the line between bribes or kickbacks and such rationally acceptable practices as tips, gratuities and gifts? When do these become conditions for doing business? Even in foreign countries where bribes and kickbacks are illegal, such practices may exist in custom, which is difficult to work around.
In Egypt, as in the USA, regulations bar payment of commissions on contracts. However, despite regulations in both nations, Lockheed Corp. just prior to its merger with Martin Marrietta in 1995, pleaded guilty to having paid an Egyptian lawmaker $1 million for helping the company sell C-130 aircraft there following the documentation of 100 cases between April 1994 and May 1995, in which, US firms lost contracts valued at $45 billion to foreign companies that pay bribery. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal commented that it doubted that a global anti-bribery law is workable. Corruption, it noted, is "just the usual slime on the still waters of any system." How poetic.
Some companies, like multinational, Ingersol Rand have tried to protect themselves by establishing a committee of outside directors charged with investigating all business practices; from an outside director's point of view, the role of adviser is probably preferable to that of police inspector. However, all companies are trying codes of conduct, outside directors, and anything else they can think of to reinforce corporate morality. Multinationals have a social responsibility to all of their publics, not just the nation in which they were originally chartered.
Furthermore, public relations firms in the USA are being purchased or merged with agencies based in other countries, which creates the potential for differing cultural beliefs. Ethical conflicts in these areas can arise over the status of women and children, hiring practices, just to name a few.
Working directly for foreign governments poses even more ethical questions. Some questions have been raised about U.S. political strategists, pollsters.and political PR campaign managers, who handle candidates in other countries even when the elections are "free and open." Although attorneys represent clients with public and professional impunity, public relations firms share the image of their clients. Not only the firm but also the individual handling the PR account may find it difficult to defend working for a country that has a reputation for being repressive.
Many countries with records of human rights violations have turned to U.S. public relations firms for help and the desire to look good in world public opinion. U.S aid payments are bigger to nations with better reputations in this area. Tourism may increase as well. Some firms accept only foreign clients with reputations as responsible world citizens.
Foreign governments rely increasingly on U.S. public relations firms for both government contracts and media relations. Some media people say these firms are not effective, and that the embassies of the countries could do a better job. Others consider the embassies less skilled at media relations. The only effective PR people are those whom media people accept as credible sources when their own media contacts have not worked. Foreign countries have often turned to advocacy advertising.
The ethical practices of the world's media are yet another issue because they factor in the media relations aspect of public relations and have an impact on opinions. In a study of Europe's media systems three functions seem to be held in common; accountability to sources and referents and protection of professional integrity.
End
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