Public Relations: A Practitioner's Guide (part 12)

Employee Relations (part C)

by

Charles Lamson

Employee Communications Tactics

Once objectives are set, a variety of techniques can be adopted to reach the staff. The initial tool again is research. Before any Communications program can be implemented, communicators must have a good sense of staff attitudes.

Internal Communications Audits

Both a strategy and a tactic, the internal communications audit is the most beneficial form of research on which to lay the groundwork for effective employee communications. Ideally, this starts with old-fashioned, personal, in-depth interviews with management and communicators. It is important to find out from top management what it wants from the communications team. It is also important to find out what communicators think management wants. Often the discontinuities are startling. the three critical audit questions to probe are:

1. How do internal communications support the mission of the organization?
2.  Do internal communications have management support?
3.  How responsive to employee needs and concerns are internal communications?

Audits help determine staff attitudes about their jobs, the organization, and its mission, coupled with an analysis of the existing communications techniques. The findings of such audits are often revealing, always informative, and never easily ignored.

Internal audit can be conducted by organizational personnel or consultants. Sometimes Consultants provide a more objective analysis of the situation and what is required to improve it.

Once internal communications research is completed, the public relations practitioner has a clear idea of the kinds of communications vehicles that makes sense for the organization.

Online Communications

The age of online communications has ushered in a whole new set of employee communications vehicles from email to voice mail to tailored organizational intranets to individual blogs. Such vehicles are more immediate than earlier print versions. They reach employees at their desks and are more likely to be read, listen to, and acted on. Indeed, employees without computer access are increasingly losing their voice and ability to be heard, especially the ability to submit ideas for improvement or to access a company intranet remotely.

Online communications also have the capability of reaching virtual employees at their desks in their homes, on their Blackberries or Palm Pilots, in their cars, or wherever they remotely may be.

As print publications become steadily fewer, tailored online newsletters have begun to replace them. 

Many organizations, from traditional companies to the new high-tech giants, increasingly rely on intranets to exchange information quickly and effectively. Miller Brewing company's intranet "Miller Time," sponsors an interactive forum through which employees offer suggestions to and ask questions of management. Everyone who offers an idea through the Miller intranet is guaranteed a response. Such feedback is critical to corporate credibility. 

The newest online tools, such as blogs and wikis, are still relatively unfamiliar as internal communications vehicles.

• Blogs---or technically, Web logs---are a type of frequently updated online journal. Blogs provide an easy way for employees to post opinions and views of the company on the Internet. Blogging by senior management, a potentially useful device to reach the staff, is still quite uncommon.

•  Wikis, a dynamic website to which any user can add pages, modify content, and comment on existing content, is even less widespread than blogs internally. Wikis may be better suited than a blog for a smaller group, and their ability to provide instant interactive capabilities are unmatched. 

The Intranet

Today, in many organizations, the intranet has overtaken and even emulsified print communications. Intranet Investments remain strong as companies continue to convert sites to portal technology and add streaming video capability.  

Unfortunately, having an intranet site doesn't mean employees will necessarily go there for information. Sites high in visual appeal but low in usefulness will likely be ignored. To prevent that, intranet creators should keep in mind several important considerations:

1. Consider the culture. If the organization is generally collaborative and collegial, it will have no trouble getting people to contribute information and materials to the Intranet. But, if the organization is not one that ordinarily shares, a larger central staff may be necessary to ensure that the intranet works.
2. Set clear objectives and then let it evolve. Just as in setting up a corporate website, intranets must be designed with clear goals in mind: to streamline business processes, to communicate management messages, and so on. Once goals are established, however, site creators ought to allow for growth and evolution as new intranet needs become apparent.
3.  Treat it as a journalistic enterprise. Company news gets read by company workers. That's a truism throughout all organizations. Employees must know what's going on in the company and complain bitterly if they are not getting advance notice of important developments. In this way, the intranet can serve as a critical journalistic communications tool within the organization.
4.  Market, market, market. The internet needs to be sold within the company. Publicize new features or changes in content. Weekly emails can be used to highlight noteworthy additions and updates. Just as with any other internal communications vehicle, the more exposure the site gets, the more frequently it will be used.
5. Link to outside lives. Some CEOs may not recognize it, but employees have lives outside the corporation. An intranet site that recognizes that simple fact can become quite popular. Links to classified ads, restaurant and movie reviews, and information on local concerts are ways to reinforce the internet value and the organization's concern for its staff.
6.  Senior management must commit. Just like anything else in an organization, if the top executive is neither interested nor supportive, the idea will fail. Therefore, the perceived value of an organization's intranet will increase dramatically if management actively supports and uses it. 

Employee Annual Reports

It often makes sense to print a separate annual report just for employees. Frequently, the lure of this report---published in addition to the regular corporate shareholder annual report---is that it is written for, about, and by the employees.

Most employees care about how their organization functions and what it's management is thinking. The annual report to the staff is a good place to discuss such issues informally yet candidly. The report can be both factual, explaining the performance of the organization during the year, and informational, reviewing organizational changes and significant milestones during the year. It can also be motivational in it's implicit appeal to team spirit and pride. 

Staff reports observe few hard and fast rules about concept and format. Staff annuals can be as complex as the shareholder annual report itself or as simple as a brief outline of the company's highlights of the year. Typical features of the employee annual report include the following:

1. Chief executives letter: a special report to the staff that reviews the performance and highlights of the year and thanks employees for their help.
2. Use of funds statement: often a graphic chart that describes how the organization used each dollar it took in.
3.  Financial condition: frequently a chart that describes the assets and liabilities of the corporation and the stockholders equity.
4.  Description of the company: simple, graphic explanation of what the organization is and where its facilities are located.
5. Social responsibility highlights: discussion of the organizations rule in dating, Society through monetary assistance and employee participation during the year.
6.  Staff financial highlights: general description, usually in chart form, of salaries, benefits, and other staff related expense items.
7. Organizational policy: discussion of current issues about which management feels strongly and for which it seeks employee support.
8.  Emphasis on people: in-depth profiles of people on the job, and pictorial essays on people at work to demonstrate, throughout the report, the importance of the people who make up the organization.

Employees appreciate recognition. The special annual report is a measure of recognition that does not go unnoticed or unread by a firm's workers. 

Bulletin Boards

Bulletin boards, among the most ancient of employee Communications vehicles, have made a comeback in recent years.

For years, bulletin boards were considered second-string information channel s, generally relegated to the display of federally required information and policy data for such activities as fire drills and emergency procedures. Most employees rarely consulted them. But the bulletin board has experienced a renaissance and is now being used to improve productivity, cut waste, and reduce accidents on the job. Best of all, employees are taking notice. 

How come?

For one thing, yesterday's bulletin board has become today's news center. it has been repackaged into a more lively visual and graphically arresting medium. Using enlarged news pictures and texts, motivational messages, and other company announcements---all Illustrated with a flair---the bulletin board has become an important source of employee communications. Hospitals, in particular, have found that a strategically situated bulletin board outside the cafeteria is a good way to promote employee understanding and cooperation.

One key to stimulating leadership is to keep boards current. One person in the public relations unit should be assigned to this weekly task.

Suggestion Box and Town Hall Meetings

Two other traditional staples of employee communication are the suggestion box and the town hall meeting.

In the old days, suggestion boxes were mounted on each floor, and employees, often anonymously, deposited their thoughts on how to improve the company and its processes and products. Often rewards were awarded for the most productive or profitable suggestions.

Today, the only necessity and implementing a successful suggestion box program is to ensure that there is "feedback"--- that is, management action that deals with valid suggestions.

Town Hall meetings are large gatherings of employees with top management, where no subject is off-limits and management staff dialogue is the goal. That was the conclusion of one study of 200 employees some of whom labeled these vehicles charades, phony, management games, and a joke.

Town Hall meetings must encourage unfettered two-way communication. Too often, questions from the floor are screened by the public relations people, thus causing suspicion from the crowd. The more open the format, the greater management and the organization will be trusted. 

Internal Video

As important as broadcast and cable television are as communications media in society today, video has had an up-and-down history as an internal communications medium. On the one hand, internal television, including streaming video, can be demonstrably effective. A 10-minute video tape of an executive announcing a new corporate policy imparts hundreds of times more information than an audio tape of that same message, which in turn contains hundreds of times more information than a printed text of the same message.

On the downside, internal video is a medium that must be approached with caution. Unless video is of broadcast quality, few will tolerate it---especially an audience of employees weaned on television. So there are always risks in producing an internal video.

Face-to-Face Communications

First and foremost, employees want information face-to-face from the individual for whom they work. Supervisors, in fact, are the preferred source for 90% of the employees, making them the top choice by far. The reason is obvious. You report to your supervisor, who awards your raise, promotes you, and is your primary source of corporate information. 

That's the good news.

The bad news is that despite paying attention to enhanced supervisory communications, most companies are still inconsistent when it comes to supervisors relaying important information. Thus, even though most employees vastly prefer information from their supervisor over what they learned through rumors, many still rely on the grapevine as a primary source of information.

What can public relations departments do to combat this trend?

Some departments formalize the meeting process by mixing management and staff in a variety of formats, from gripe sessions to marketing or planning meetings. Many organizations embrace the concept of skip-level meetings in which top-level managers meet periodically with employees at levels several notches below them in the organizational hierarchy. As with any other form of communication, the value of meetings lies in their substance, their regularity, and the candor managers bring to face-to-face sessions. 

The Grapevine

In far too many organizations, it is neither print nor the internet that dominates the communications but rather the company grapevine. The rumor mill can be treacherous. As one employee publication described the grapevine:

“Once they pick up steam, rumors can be devastating. Because employees tend to distort future events to conform to a rumor, an organization must work to correct rumors as soon as possible.”

Identifying the source of a rumor is often difficult, if not impossible, and it is usually not worth the time. However, dispelling the rumor quickly and frankly is another story. Often a bad news rumor about layoffs, closings, and so on can be dealt with most effectively through forthright communication. Generally, an organization makes a difficult decision after a thorough review of many alternatives. The final decision is often a compromise, reflecting the needs of the firm and its various publics, including, importantly, the workforce. 

In presenting a final decision to employees, management often overlooks the value of explaining how it reached its decision. By comparing alternative solutions so that employees can understand more clearly the rationale behind management decisions, an organization may make bad news more palatable.

As diabolical as the grapevine can become, it should not necessarily be treated as the enemy of effective communications with employees. Management might even consider ways to use it to its advantage. A company grapevine can be as much a Communications vehicle as internal publications or employee meetings. It may even be more valuable because it is believed, and everyone seems to tap into it. 

Last Word on Employee Relations

The best  defense against damaging grapevine rumors is a strong and candid internal communications system. Employee communications, for years the most neglected communications opportunity in corporate America, is today much more appreciated for strategic importance. Organizations that build massive marketing plans to sell products have begun today to apply that same knowledge and energy to communicating with their own employees

A continuing employee relations challenge for public relations communicators is to work hand-in-hand with human resources officials. In the 1950s, personnel departments began to change their name to "human resources" to more accurately reflect the personal focus of their responsibilities. Over the past half-century, human resources functions have concentrated on such areas as organization, staffing, benefits, and recruitment rather than communications.

The responsibility for communicating to employees has largely fallen on the public relations function, which must coordinate its initiatives with human resources priorities to create a culture of professionalism, accountability, and candor.

In the 21st century, organizations have no choice but to build rapport with and morale among employees. The shattering of morale and distrust of top management prevalent in the first two decades of this century will take time to repair. Building back internal credibility is a long-term process that depends on several factors. Among them, listening to employees, developing information exchanges to educate employees about changing technology, empowering them with new skills and knowledge through strategic business information they require, and adapting to the new culture of job mobility that is replacing job stability.

Most of all in this new century, effective employee communications requires openness and honesty on the part of senior management. As legendary Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has said, "We can afford to lose money---even a lot of money. We cannot afford to lose reputation---even a shred of reputation."

Public relations professionals must seize this initiative to foster the open climate that employees want and the two-way communications that organizations need. 

*SOURCE: THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., FRASER P. SEITEL, PGS. 227-238*

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Leading Human Resources (part 4 - The Podcast)

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The Rant - Leading Human Resources (part 4)

Public Relations: A Practitioner's Guide (part 11)

Employee Relations (part B)

by

Charles Lamson

Credibility: The Key

The employee public is a savvy one. Employees cannot be conned because they live with the organization every day. They generally know what is going on and whether management is being honest with them. That is why management must be truthful.

Employees want managers to level with them. They want facts, not wishful thinking. The days when management could say, "Trust us, this is for your own good" are over. Employees like hearing the truth, especially in person. Indeed, survey after survey suggests that face-to-face communications---preferably between a supervisor and subordinate is the hands-down most effective method of employee communication.

Employees also want to know, candidly, how they're doing. Research indicates that trust in organizations would increase if management (1) communicated earlier and more frequently, (2) demonstrated trust in employees by sharing bad news as well as good, and (3) involved employees in the process by asking for their ideas and opinions. Effective employee communication means that an organization's leaders have taken the time to clearly and succinctly articulate the vision of the business, show how employees can contribute to it, and demonstrate how it can be lived in the daily jobs.

Today, smart companies realize that well-informed employees are the organization's best goodwill ambassadors. Managements have become more candid in their communications with the staff. Gone are the days when all of the news coming from management is all good. In today's environment, being candid means treating people with dignity,  addressing their concerns, and giving them the opportunity to understand the realities of the marketplace.

Organizations have opted out of print publications for their employees due to the tremendous growth of email and intranet. These instant, direct devices provide greater opportunity today to increase the frequency and candor of communications. A major part of the challenge that confronts internal communications is to reflect credibility and communicating that underscores the level of respect with which employees should be held by management.

Most employees desperately want to be treated as important parts of an organization. They should not be taken for granted, nor should they be shielded from the truth. Thus, the most important ingredient of any internal communications program must be credibility.

S-H-O-C the Troops

Enhancing credibility, being candid, and winning trust must be the primary employee communications objectives in the 21st century. Earning employee trust may result in more committed and productive employees. But scraping away the scar tissue of distrust that exists in many organizations requires a strategic approach.

The question is how does management build trust when employee morale is so brittle?

Part of the answer lies in an approach to management communication built around the acronym S-H-O-C. That is, management should consider a four-step communications approach---built on communications that are strategic, honest, open, and consistent to begin to rebuild employee trust.

• First, all communications must be strategic. What strategic communication essentially boils down to is this: most employees want you to answer only two basic questions for them:

1.  Where is this organization going?
2.  What is my role in helping us get there?

• Second, all Communications must be honest. The sad fact is that while most executives pay lip service to candor and honesty, in the end, too many dissemble obfuscate and pull their punches.

They seem to fear, as Jack Nicholson raged in A Few Good Men, that the staff can't handle the truth.

 Such trepidation is foolish. For one thing, the staff already may discount anything management tells them. For another, you cannot hope to build credibility through lying.

• Third, all communications must be open. This is another way of saying that there must be feedback. The best communications are two-way communications. That means that no matter how large the organization, employee views must be solicited, listened to, and most important, acted upon.

That latter aspect is most important. Often, managers stage elaborate forums and feedback sessions, listen to employee gripes and suggestions, and yet do nothing. The key must be action.

• Fourth, all communications must be consistent. Once you begin to communicate, you must keep it up. Maintain a regular, on time, and predictable program of internal newsletters, employee forums, leadership meetings, and reward celebrations. 

On again, off again communications or programs that start with bold promises only to peter out question management's commitment to keeping the staff informed.  Generally, employee information, education, and morale boosting programs start with great pomp and promise. The CEO blusters his way through a rousing speech, literature pours out from on high, task forces plunge into quick-fix assignments, and then, over time, nada.

 Wrong. Communications, if they are to work, must be steadily, sometimes painfully, consistent.

*SOURCE: THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., 2007, FRASER P. SEITEL, PGS. 224-227*

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Public Relations: A Practitioner's Guide (part 10)

Employee Relations

by

Charles Lamson

 Strong Employee Relations Equals Solid Organizations

In the 21st century, employee relations matters---a lot.

The reason is obvious, when one considers the fortunes of employees in recent years and the growing importance of internal communications.

• First, the wave of downsizing and layoffs that dominated business and industry both in the United States and worldwide after the high tech bubble burst in the early years of the 21st century has taken its toll on employee loyalty. Although employees once implicitly trusted their organizations and superiors, today they are more hardened to the realities of a job market dominated by technological change that reduces human labor. Today, when companies lay off workers, they are often rewarded by the stock market for becoming more productive and efficient. This phenomenon has caused employees to understand that in today's business climate, every employee is expendable and there's no such thing as lifetime employment. Consequently, companies must work harder at honestly communicating with their workers.

 

•  The widening Gulf between the pay of senior officers and common workers is another reason organizations must be sensitive to employee communications.

• The move toward globalization, including the merger of geographically dispersed organizations, is another reason for increased focus on internal communications. Technology has hastened the integration of business and markets around the world. Customers on far-away continents are today but a mouse click away. Alliances, affiliations, and mergers among far-flung companies have proliferated. Organizations have become much more cognizant of the importance of communicating the opportunities and benefits that will enhance support and loyalty among worldwide staffs.

•  Finally, Research indicates that companies that communicate effectively with their workers financially outperform those that do not. One study found that companies with the most effective internal communications programs returned 57 percent more to their shareholders and companies with the least effective programs ("CEO: Worker Pay Ratio Shoots Up to 431:1," United for a Fair Economy news release. August 30, 2005).

These phenomena suggest that the value of intellectual capital has increased in importance. In the new information economy, business managers have realized that their most important assets are their employees. Employee Communications, then, has become a key way to nurture and sustain that intellectual capital. 

This was not always the case. For years, employee communications was considered less important than the more glamorous and presumably more critical functions of media, government, and investor relations.

Today, with fewer employees expected to do more work, staff members are calling for empowerment---for more of a voice in decision-making. Just about every researcher who keeps tabs on employee opinion finds evidence of a "trust gap" that exists between management and workers. To narrow that gap demands that more effective employee communications play a pivotal role.

Dealing with the Employee Public

Just as there is no such thing as the general public, there is also no single employee public. The employee public is made up of numerous subgroups: senior managers, first-line supervisors, staff and line employees, union laborers, per diem employees, contract workers, and others. Each group has different interests and concerns. Smart organizations will try to differentiate messages and communications to reach the segments. 

Indeed, in a general sense, today the staff is younger, increasingly female, more ambitious and career-oriented, less complacent, and less loyal to the company than in the past. Today's more hard-nosed employee demands candor in communications. Internal communications, like external messages, must be targeted to reach specific subgroups of the employee public.

Grounding an effective employee communications requires management to ask three hard questions about the way it conveys knowledge to the staff.

• Is management able to communicate effectively with employees?
•  Is communication trusted, and does it relay appropriate information to employees?
•  Has management communicated its commitment to its employees and to fostering a rewarding work environment?

In many instances, the biggest problem is that employees don't know where they stand in the eyes of management. In addition, they often do not understand how compensation programs work or what they need to do to move ahead. This lack of understanding leads to discontent, frustration, miscommunication, problems, and eventually to the feeling that the grass is greener elsewhere. 

Clearly, organizing effective, believable, and persuasive internal communications in the midst of organizational change is a core critical public relations responsibility in the 21st century.

Communicating Effectively in a Sea of Doubt

An organization truly concerned about getting through to its employees in an era of downsizing, displacement, and dubious communication must reinforce five specific principles

• Respect. Employees must be respected for their worth as individuals and their value as workers. They must be treated with respect and not as interchangeable commodities.

• Honest feedback. By talking to workers about their strengths and weaknesses, employers help employees know where they stand. Some managers incorrectly assumed that avoiding negative feedback will be helpful. Wrong. Employees need to know where they stand at any given time. Candid communications will help them in this Pursuit.

• Recognition. Employees feel successful when management recognizes their contributions. It is the duty of the public relations professional to suggest mechanisms by which deserving employees will be honored.

• A voice. In the era of talk radio and television talk shows and blogs, almost everyone wants their ideas to be heard and to have a voice in decision-making. This growing activist communications phenomenon must be considered by public relations professionals seeking to win internal goodwill for management.

• Encouragement. Study after study reveals that money and benefits motivate employees up to a point, but that something else is generally necessary. That something else is encouragement. Workers need to be encouraged. Communications programs that provide encouragement generally produce results. What distinguishes the communication effort at a "better place to work"?

According to Milton Moskowitz, coauthor of the 100 best companies to work for in America, six criteria, in particular, have stood the test of time.

1. Willingness to express dissent. Employees, according to Moskowitz, want to be able to feedback to management their opinions and even dissent. They want to access to management. They want critical letters to appear in internal publications. They want management to pay attention.
2. Visibility and proximity of upper management. Enlightened companies try to level rank distinctions, eliminating such status reminders as executive cafeterias and executive gymnasiums. They act against hierarchical separation, says Moskowitz. He adds that smart CEOs practice MBWA---"management by walking around."
3. Priority of internal to external communication. The worst thing to happen to any organization is for employees to learn critical information about the company on the 10:00 news. Smart organizations always release pertinent information to employees first and consider internal communication primary.
4. Attention to clarity. How many employees regularly read benefits booklets? The answer should be many because of the importance of benefit programs to the entire staff, but most employees never do so. Good companies write such booklets with Clarity to be readable for a general audience rather than for human resources specialists.
5. Friendly tone. According to Moskowitz, the best companies give a sense of family in all that they communicate. One high-tech company makes everyone wear a name tag with the first name in big block letters. These little things are most important, declares Moskowitz.
6. Sense of humor. People are worried principally about keeping their jobs. Corporate life for many is grim. Moskowitz says this is disastrous. It puts people in straight jackets, so they can't wait to get out at the end of the day.

What internal Communications comes down to---just like external communications is, in a word, credibility. The task for management is to convince employees that it not only desires to communicate with them but also wishes to do so in a truthful, frank, and direct manner. That is the overriding challenge that confronts today's internal communicator. 

*SOURCE: THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., 2007, FRASER P. SEITEL,

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Public Relations: A Practitioner's Guide (part 9)

Ethics (part C)

by

Charles Lamson

Ethics in Journalism

The Society of Professional Journalists is quite explicit in the subject Of ethics.

Journalists at all times will show respect for the dignity, privacy, rights, and well-being of people encountered in the course of gathering and presenting the news.

The news media should not communicate unofficial charges affecting reputation or moral character without giving the accused a chance to reply.

 The news media must guard against invading a person's right to privacy.

 The media should not pander to morbid curiosity about details of vice and crime. 

And so on. 

Unfortunately, what is in the SPJ Code of Ethics often does not reflect what appears in print or on the air. More often than not, journalistic judgments run smack into ethical principles. 

Ethics in Public Relations

As noted in an earlier post, ethics is, or at least should be, the great differentiator between public relations and other professions. In light of numerous misconceptions about the practice of public relations, it is imperative that practitioners emulate the highest standards of personal and professional ethics. Within an organization, public relations practitioners must be the standard bearers of corporate ethical initiatives. By the same token, public relations consultants must always counsel their clients in an ethical direction toward accuracy and candor and away from lying and hiding the truth.

The public relations department should be the seat of corporate ethics. At least four ethical theories are relevant to the practice of public relations.

• The attorneys/adversary model, developed by Jay Barney and Ralph Black, compares the legal profession to that of public relations and that (1) Both are advocates in an adversarial climate and (2) both assume counterbalancing messages will be provided by adversaries. In this model, Barney and Black suggest practitioners have no obligation to consider the public interest or any other outside view beyond that of their client.

• The two way communication model, developed by Jim Grunig, is based on collaboration, working jointly with different people, and allowing for both listening and give-and-take. In this model, Grunig suggests that the practitioner balance his or her role as a client advocate with one as social conscience for the larger public.

• The enlightened self-interest model, developed by Sherry Baker, is based on the principle that businesses do well by doing good. In this model, Baker suggests that companies gain a competitive edge and are more respected in the marketplace if they behave ethically.

• The responsible advocacy model, developed by Kathy Fitzpatrick and Candace Gauthier, is based on the ideal of professional responsibility. It postulates that practitioners first loyalty is to their clients, but they also have a responsibility to voice the opinions of organizational stakeholders. In this model, Fitzpatrick and Gauthier suggest that the practitioner's greatest need for ethical guidance is in the reconciliation of being both a professional advocate and a social conscience. 

Last Word on Ethics

The scandals in government and business have placed a premium in every sector of society on acting ethically. As one CEO put it, "There is no truer window into a corporation's soul than its approach to ethics."

The same can be said for the practice of public relations.

The success of public relations in the 21st century will depend largely on how the field responds to the issue of ethical conduct. Public relations professionals must have credibility in order to practice. They must be respected by the various publics with which they interact. To be credible and to achieve respect, public relations professionals must be ethical. It is that simple.

Stated another way, for public relations practice in general and individual public relations professionals in particular, credibility depends on how scrupulously they observe and apply the principles and practice of ethics in everything they do.

*SOURCE: THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., 2007, FRASER P. SEITEL, PGS. 117-123*

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