Central Themes

• The practice of public relations can present unique and challenging ethical issues that should be considered when making decisions and acting on behalf of organizations and stakeholders.
• Protecting integrity and the public trust is fundamental to the profession's role and reputation.
• Organizations are responsible for their actions; so too are public relations and communications management professionals.
• Practicing across borders may place the values of home and host societies on a collision course, which calls for the articulation of professional, corporate, and industry codes of ethics and the clear setting of aspirational values.

Introduction

The recruitment, hiring, and training of public relations professionals in various world locations are complex but important tasks. There are locations where talent is abundant. There are places where public relations is taught in higher‐education institutions. Other would‐be professionals study journalism and gain additional training in seminars and conferences. It is not uncommon to find lawyers, business administrators, and engineers managing the public relations function in all types of organizations worldwide.

Most multinational corporations (MNCs), multilateral organizations, agencies, and consultancies normally staff the public relations function with a combination of local professionals and expatriates. It is expected that once a professional becomes a member of the public relations and communications team, he or she will be embedded in a corporate culture and management philosophy that somewhat standardizes ethics, norms, and professional practices. It is customary that organizations and agencies will employ local talents whose values, experience, and preparation are close rather than distant from those of employers. There are regions in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America where recruitment and hiring do not happen in the target country for a new or expanding operation, but in neighboring countries. South Africa, South Korea, Slovenia, and Argentina, to name just a few, are countries that supply educated and skillful public relations and communications professionals to multinational organizations (MNOs) and agencies expanding to neighboring countries. They have demonstrated high levels of professionalism because of a constant evolution of the practice and field of study in their home countries. These countries also exert leadership in the development of public relations and communications management in their regions.

The educational and professional levels of local talent may be closely related to the level of professionalization of public relations in a given country. The level of sophistication and advancement of public relations in a location may be bound to local socioeconomic and political conditions, among other factors. The modern practice and area of study originated in the West, but has spread worldwide. This expansion or emergence does not seem to be equally institutionalized in every market. Thus, this chapter explains what it takes for an occupation to become or be called a profession, what are the indicators of professionalization, and how these indicators vary in different national and regional contexts and change over time, with implications for the status and practice of public relations. Moreover, the chapter also addresses ethical standards and issues that shape the practice locally and globally.

What Defines a Profession?

From a market perspective, a profession is a set of distinctive specialized practices that have achieved legitimacy in the labor market. Sociology of the professions informs this brief definition. These are the most cited indicators that characterize a profession:

• Recognition as a specialized function within organizations of all kinds.
• Foundations in a formal academic and scientific body of knowledge; that is, an area of study that is the focus of a critical mass of devoted scholars.
• Possession of unique applied knowledge and techniques that confer those who practice the craft a special status in the labor market.
• Differentiated practices from other related fields; in the case of public relations, a practice different from advertising, journalism, and marketing. This indicator may be challenged by integrated practices that emergent communications technologies allow. However, integration also means coordination of the commercial and institutional messaging systems of organizations.
• A requirement that practitioners earn a license or accreditation to practice; permission to practice that may be regulated or enforced by trade or governmental entities. In public relations, most countries with professional associations have opted for the accreditation requirement, but in a voluntary fashion.
• Formal studies in higher‐education institutions that confer degrees, certificates, and diplomas. Formal public relations education is growing worldwide, though most programs are in the United States and Western Europe.
• Underpinnings in an ideology and ethical principles that explicitly imply a commitment to the wellbeing of society. This important indicator will be discussed later in the chapter.
• Trade or membership associations that unite professionals for the achievement of mutual benefits and career advancement.
• Acknowledgment by the state in laws and legal codes as a particular occupation or professional practice in the labor market. The state, through legislation, establishes the requirements of who could be hired or who could practice a profession in public and perhaps private and other types of organizations or agencies. Very few countries and territories have enacted such specific legislation to regulate the practice of public relations and communications management, including Brazil, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Nigeria. There are not systematic data and reports on how public relations legislation is enforced, how many practicing professionals are licensed and how many professionals are practicing without being licensed.
• Operations in a labor market where professionals have a certain level of control over supply and demand of services, as well as over the cost of services, other fees, and salaries.
• Power of organized professional groups before governmental agencies to influence decisions that may affect professionals and their practices. Similarly, capacity to influence the education system regarding the development of the body of knowledge and programs needed to learn and obtain degrees with an emphasis in public relations and communications management. The close relationship between the professional and academic communities has in many countries become essential to shaping education and training in the practice and field of study. In fact, many professionals have opted to practice and teach simultaneously or to transition to a teaching job after years of professional experience. The model of professional in residence at higher education and training institutions has become popular and necessary to withstand the growth of the practice. Research teams that include academics and professionals have become common, in order to delve into conceptualizations and theories that inform major aspects of concern and challenges for the practice and education of future professionals.
• A system of labor access and promotion in which nepotism and personal influence or favoritism are discouraged and skills, abilities, and knowledge are encouraged, being the main criteria for recruitment, selection, and advancement.
• Dispute‐resolution, arbitration, or sanction mechanisms in the case of conflicts between professionals and employers or clients.

Professionalization in Global Public Relations

As a modern profession, public relations has escalated hierarchies in organizations to occupy the seat of the chief communications officer (CCO). Again, this is not happening uniformly worldwide. Therefore, the higher the levels of professionalization, the higher the esteem, legitimacy, and influence of the public relations function in organizations in a given society. With higher levels of professionalization, an occupation or profession can attract better quality talent and resources, and have a greater impact on business and society. The better organizations act and communicate their interests, the better they can engage their stakeholders and the more likely they are to achieve their goals. Indicators of professionalization imply a certain order of the field of practice and study in the labor market. When the rules of the game are clearer, service and consulting transactions tend to flourish in a positive and productive environment.

A professionalized and institutionalized occupation should be associated with more employment opportunities, a greater number of educational offerings, and a healthier pool of talent. The authors of this publication have noticed that global agencies open branches in countries that reach stable levels of growth and governance, such as Poland in the 1990s and Peru in the 2000s. Professional and academic events seem also to follow the emergence of public relations as a modern profession on the global stage.

The State of the Profession Across the Globe

Assessing the professional status of public relations and communications management worldwide is a daunting task. It is challenging because, as explained before, professionalization has a variety of market‐driven dimensions. Nonetheless, we will highlight the regions of countries that appear to excel in the professionalization indicators for which information is available.

In two content analyses of peer‐reviewed academic publications, North America, Western Europe, and East Asia ranked as the regions with the most scholarship on the profession, the professional, and the practice (Rajul et al. 2014; Molleda and Laskin 2005). The United States and United Kingdom are best represented in the scholarship, followed by South Korea, Germany, India, China, and New Zealand. Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean are the least represented regions.

Licensing or Accreditation?

In 2014, the first author of this textbook participated in the Brazilian Special Commission of Professional Flexibility, which was coordinated by the Federal Council of Public Relations Professionals (CONFERP). The commission's aim was to modify the law that regulates the practice in Brazil to allow people with higher‐education degrees other than public relations and work experience to register as public relations professionals within certain limits and meeting some requirements. CONFERP was created in 1969 to enforce the public relations license enacted in 1967 (CONFERP 2014). Brazil became the first country in the world to enact such legislation to regulate who practices public relations. Since the council's creation, the enforcement of the law has been challenging.

As already noted, license and accreditation is one of the requirements for an occupation to evolve into a profession. The debate of whether to adopt one or another has been lost‐lasting. Only a very few countries have adopted the licensing requirement. Three of them – Brazil, Panama, and Nigeria – did so under military governments. The need for a licensing requirement has been given low ratings in US‐based studies (Cameron et al. 1996; Sallot et al. 1997, 1998). The need for a license or accreditation was rated low in Latin America (Molleda et al. 2010). However, Gupta (2007) found that licensing was rated very high by Indian professionals. Most countries have embraced the option of accreditation, which is based on professional knowledge, skills, and experience. The pattern is mixed, but the debate is on.

Established in 1957, the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA) has developed a layered system of professional accreditation. The PRISA Registration System is based on expertise and academic qualifications, which is consistent with international accreditation standards such as the Accredited Public Relations (APR) in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States (PRISA 2013). The APR program includes four steps: application by a potential candidate; an orientation session; a verification process and portfolio of evidence; and a final assessment (written and oral) by an accreditation committee.

Accreditation is voluntary. It needs to be supported by an infrastructure that may include other requirements of established professions, such as higher education programs, practical training, representative professional associations or institutes, and a body of knowledge. Accreditation sets experience and education standards and demonstrates commitments from trade groups (which promote it) and professionals (who go through the assessment process to earn accreditation).

For example, in 2014, the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) hosted its Second Research Colloquium and Eighth World Public Relations Forum (WPRF) in Madrid, Spain. For these academic and professional events, GA partnered with the Spanish Association of Communication Directors (DIRCOM). In the same year, the organization also sponsored the GA COMM PRIX Awards, recognizing outstanding performance in public relations and communications management around the world. The GA also furthered its leadership workshops, speakers' bureau, and scholarship program for a Master of Science in Communications Management in partnership with the USI Università della Svizzera Italiana and a Reputation Management Learning Program in partnership with the US Reputation Institute.

The GA aims to represent and assist in the development of national, regional, and international public relations associations. The GA's mission includes unifying the profession, raising professional standards across the world, sharing knowledge for the benefit of its association and institutional members, and becoming the global voice for the profession in the public interest. In particular:

The Global Alliance's vision is to enhance the role and value of public relations and communication management to organizations, and to global society. We pursue this vision through leadership and service to the profession, defining universal principles that unite our professional associations and their members, while embracing a diversity that enables different applications in different parts of our global community.

(GA n.d.)

The GA started its operation in 2002, after a series of conversations and a foundation period beginning in 1996 (GA n.d.). The leading organizations that achieved the creation of the GA were the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS), UK Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), International Public Relations Association (IPRA), Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII), PRISA, and Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Many local, national, regional, and international public relations and communications associations are yet to become members of the GA network, which represents an opportunity for growth.

Why Are Ethics in the Profession Important?

The public relations profession and professionals have dual responsibilities and divided loyalties with organizations and stakeholders. A true relationship and honest dialogue can only be achieved with a trusted broker or boundary spanner. Public relations and communications management professionals, moreover, have the duty of interpreting their organizations and clients to target publics and of interpreting the publics to the organizations and clients.

Most importantly, the profession's and professionals' best weapon is credibility. This credibility is internal to their employers and clients and external to their partners and stakeholders, such as communities, businesses, governments, and media. For instance, a credible professional is likely to maintain and achieve mutually beneficial relations with media representatives. Similarly, credible professionals should be able to gain access to the decision‐making table of their organizations and clients.

The prestige of a professional follows him or her wherever the job opportunities are. Integrity and reputation can be achieved by embracing personal, corporate, and professional values and following ethical principles in making decisions and taking actions.

Code of Ethics for the Practice

The practice of public relations can present unique and challenging ethical issues. At the same time, protecting integrity and the public trust is fundamental to the profession's role and reputation. Bottom line, successful public relations hinges on the ethics of its professionals. The current state of ethics in public relations practice depends heavily on the codes of ethics held by the major professional associations. Membership in these groups is voluntary, meaning that one is not required to belong to such an association in order to practice public relations. Members agree to abide by a code of ethics that is written for the entire group. Some codes of ethics are written in terms that forbid a list of certain activities; others espouse a set of ethical principles that should be followed. Whether written in positive or negative terms, most of the professional associations in public relations have a code of ethics.

The organization PRSA has a code of ethics that is widely regarded as the industry standard. The code created and maintained by the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards sets out principles and guidelines built on core values. Fundamental values like advocacy, honesty, loyalty, professional development, and objectivity structure ethical practice and interactions with clients and the public. Translating values into principles of ethical practice, the Code advises professionals to:

• Protect and advance the free flow of accurate and truthful information.
• Foster informed decision‐making through open communications.
• Protect confidential and private information.
• Promote healthy and fair competition among professionals.
• Avoid conflicts of interest.
• Work to strengthen the public's trust in the profession.

Code guidelines stress the use of values and principles when facing everyday tasks and challenges. Professionals should:

• Be honest and accurate in all communications.
• Reveal sponsors for represented causes and interests.
• Act in the best interest of clients or employers.
• Disclose financial interests in a client's organization.
• Safeguard the confidences and privacy rights of clients and employees.
• Follow ethical hiring practices to respect free and open competition.
• Avoid conflicts between personal and professional interests.
• Decline representation of clients requiring actions contrary to the Code.
• Accurately define what public relations activities can accomplish.
• Report all ethical violations to the appropriate authority.

While the Code covers members, PRSA maintains that all public relations professionals should look to it as a model of professional behavior. Additionally, PRSA regards the Code as a model for other professions, organizations, and professionals. The GA bases its professional principles on the fundamental value and dignity of the individual. It believes in and supports the free exercise of human rights, especially freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the media, which are essential to the practice of good public relations. Following this, the GA pledges:

• To conduct ourselves professionally, with integrity, truth, accuracy, fairness, and responsibility to our clients, our client publics, and to an informed society
• To improve our individual competence and advance the knowledge and proficiency of the profession through continuing education and research and, where available, through the pursuit of professional accreditation
• To adhere to the principles of the Code of Professional Standards for the Practice of Public Relations.

Corporate Transparency

Corporate transparency has taken on a new meaning in today's world. Not long ago, the only public statements a company ever made were professionally written press releases and the rare, stage‐managed speech by the chief executive officer (CEO). Now organizations share information and post internal memos and even strategy goals online. McDonald's VP of corporate social responsibility believes that credibility is a form or currency that is achieved through transparency. Transparency is not only about what companies communicate but also about how they communicate.

MNCs are being forced to open up in a host of reporting areas, from tax and government contracts to anti‐corruption and sustainability programs. Governments are demanding greater corporate accountability, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are pushing for increased corporate transparency. Transparency International (TI) has published a study on corporate reporting, evaluating 124 big publicly listed companies based on the clarity of their anti‐corruption programs, their corporate holdings, and their financial reporting (see Table 4.1). The list on the left presents the most and least transparent firms globally. One measure on which the firms are judged is country‐by‐country reporting of profits, taxes paid, and the like. According to TI's research, most companies aggregate their accounts in a way that makes it hard to see what assets and revenues they have in any given country. The biggest push for greater openness has been among the extractive industries. Progress has come at the regional level: EU states have begun to pass into law a new directive requiring country‐by‐country, and in some cases project‐by‐project, reporting of extractive groups' payments to governments. Oil producers, meanwhile, are starting to publish more details of production‐sharing contracts with governments.

Mounting evidence suggests that the market gives a higher value to firms that are upfront with investors and analysts. Organizations that share the key metrics and performance indicators that investors consider important are more valuable than those that keep information to themselves.

Beginning in the late 1990s, a private movement emerged that pressured apparel corporations to disclose the identity of their global supplier factories. The brands targeted, such as Nike and Levi Strauss, were reluctant to release information on their contracts, citing the relationships as proprietary. Nike's business model was built on outsourcing to factories for which it took no responsibility in terms of monitoring, compliance, and reporting. A student movement (United Students Against Sweatshops) was launched with the intention of using the market power of students to force the companies to examine workplace conditions at factories they owned or with which they worked. The mounting pressure led to companies like Nike and Levi Strauss publishing their supplier lists in 2005.

A lesson learned from this example and many others is that the organizations that do best in today's co‐creation environment are those that have integrated transparency as part of their organizational culture and not just their communications strategy. The case study on Foxconn discusses some of the ethical issues and challenges faced by modern MNCs.

Discussion Questions

1. 1 Which do you think had a greater impact on Foxconn's public perception: the delay in the response or the way it communicated the crisis publicly?
2. 2 What steps could Foxconn have taken early on to prevent such a fallout as a result of the crisis?
3. 3 What was the most unethical or unprofessional aspect of this case? How could it have been changed or prevented?

Class Activity

In 2006, a blog appeared called “Wal‐Marting Across America.” It featured the adventures of Jim and Laura as they traveled from Las Vegas to Georgia by RV, staying in park‐for‐free Walmart store parking lots. While at these different Walmart locations, the couple would interview employees about their jobs. They decided to get approval from Working Families for Walmart, an organization that Laura had signed up to in order to show support. Working Families made the decision to pay for Jim and Laura's entire trip.

So, where was the problem? The fact that these were paid bloggers and hired by the public relations firm Edelman was not disclosed. Readers were led to believe that the tour had no relation to Walmart and that it was just two people who had decided to start to make a blog about their experiences. Once the secret was out, the story blew up in the public relations world. Students should discuss in groups the ethical implications of this case for Edelman and for Walmart. This happened in 2006. Considering how the social media space has changed, what could Edelman or Walmart have done differently today?

References

1. AsiaOne. (2010). “11th Foxconn employee commits suicide at work.” Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20100526‐218580.html.
2. Balfour, F. and Culpan, T. (2010). “The man who makes your iPhone.” Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_38/b4195058423479.htm#p1.
3. Barcelona Principles 2.0. (2015). Institute for Public Relations Website. Retrieved March 11, 2019, from https://instituteforpr.org/barcelonaprinciples‐2‐0‐updated‐2015/.
4. Cameron, G.T., Sallot, L.M., and Weaver‐Lariscy, R.A. (1996). Developing standards of professional performance in public relations. Public Relations Review 22 (1): 43–61.
5. Chan, J. (2013). “A suicide survivor: The life of a Chinese migrant worker at Foxconn.” Japan Focus. Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://japanfocus.org/‐Jenny‐Chan/3977.
6. China News. (2010). “Another Foxconn employee falls to death despite company, government appeals.” Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://english.sina.com/china/2010/0526/321604.html.
7. CONFERP. (2014). “Legislação.” Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://conferp.org.br/?s=Legisla%C3%A7%C3%A3o.
8. Foxconn. (2010). “2009 corporate social and environmental responsibility annual report.” Retrieved January 10, 2019 from https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/4550491/foxconn‐2009‐csr‐report.
9. Foxconn. (2011). “2010 corporate social and environmental responsibility annual report.” Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://www.facing‐finance.org/wp‐content/blogs.dir/16/files/2012/04/Foxconn_CSR‐Report_2010.pdf.
10. Foxconn. (2014). “Group profile.” Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://www.foxconn.com/GroupProfile_En/GroupProfile.html.
11. GA. (n.d.). “Who we are.” Retrieved January 10, 2019 from https://www.globalalliancepr.org/who‐we‐are/.
12. Gupta, S. (2007). Professionalism in Indian public relations and corporate communications: An empirical analysis. Public Relations Review 33 (3): 306–312.
13. Heffernan, M. (2013). “What happened after the Foxconn suicides.” CBSNews. Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what‐happened‐after‐the‐foxconn‐suicides.
14. Jain, R., De Moya, M., and Molleda, J.C. (2014). State of international public relations research: Narrowing the knowledge gap about the practice across borders. Public Relations Review 40 (3): 595–597.
15. Johnson, J. (2011). “1 million workers. 90 million iPhones. 17 suicides. Who's to blame?” Wired. Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://www.wired.com/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/all/1.
16. Li, R. (2010). “Foxconn seen as bullying the media.” South China Morning Post. Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://www.scmp.com/article/715795/foxconn‐seen‐bullying‐media.
17. Molleda, J.C. and Laskin, A.V. (2005). “Global, international, comparative and regional public relations knowledge from 1990 to 2005: A quantitative content analysis of academic and trade publications.” Retrieved January 10, 2019 from https://instituteforpr.org/pr‐knowledge‐2005/.
18. Molleda, J.C., Moreno, A., Athaydes, A., and Suárez, A.M. (2010). Macroencuesta latinoamericana de comunicación y relaciones públicas” [Latin American macro‐survey of communication and public relations]. Organicom 7 (13): 118–141.
19. Muyuan, C. (2014). “Foxconn soldiers on in Shenzhen.” China Daily. Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2014‐04/23/content_17457219.htm.
20. PRISA. (2013). “Accreditation.” Retrieved January 10, 2019 from https://www.prisa.co.za/accreditation/.
21. Sallot, L.M., Cameron, G.T., and Weaver‐Lariscy, R.A. (1997). Professional standards in public relations: A survey of educators. Public Relations Review 23 (3): 197–216.
22. Sallot, L.M., Cameron, G.T., and Weaver‐Lariscy, R.A. (1998). PR educators and practitioners identify professional standards. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 53 (2): 19–30.
23. Yu, X. (2010). “Better relations to curb frustrations.” China Daily. Retrieved January 10, 2019 from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010‐05/31/content_9909192.htm.