Being Proactive: How to Build an Ethical Culture
Providing ethical leadership in public relations involves more than just speaking up when an issue arises. Senior public relations executives and professionals engage in more proactive initiatives as well. Companies and organizations now routinely promote their core values as a means of distinguishing themselves from others, a trend referred to as employer branding (Ambler and Barrow 1996; Foster, Punjaisri, and Cheng 2010; Lloyd 2002; Moroko and Uncles 2008; Neill 2016b; Vallaster and de Chernatony 2005). Business leaders have increasingly understood there is not only a need for establishing a brand, but also an even greater need to protect the brand. Employer branding efforts are motivated by desired outcomes such as employee recruitment, retention, engagement, and loyalty.
These outcomes require employee professional development and training opportunities, promotion or advancement potential, competitive salaries and benefits, and a sense of belonging and purpose (Ambler and Barrow 1996; Backhaus and Tikoo 2004; Berthon, Ewing, and Hah 2005). Employer branding communication campaigns are focused on communicating to current and prospective employees that it is a great place to work (Lloyd 2002). Neill (2016b) defined employer branding as the “promotion of core values to build employee identification and an ethical workplace beginning with employee recruitment and orientation followed by routine communication and rewards systems” (p. 7). Core values are “deeply ingrained principles that guide all of a company’s actions” and serve as “cultural cornerstones” (Lencioni 2002, p. 6). Some examples of common core values include “collaboration, respect, honesty, integrity, humility, character, innovation, workplace safety, and customer service” (Neill 2016b, p. 11). One Page Society member said that core values should be well understood and adopted by employees throughout an organization:
In this day and age with the intensity of transparency and social media, and immediacy and the 24-hour news cycle and the boundless, borderless geography, you simply do not have time to have a conversation for the first time [about] who are we and what do we believe in and what are our values. Those have got to be established and everybody has to understand and everybody has to be empowered with what those values are and what is the sense and purpose of this company and then it becomes very, very clear, and you don’t have those debates.
In a previous study, Sison (2010) found that the CEO, often in collaboration with the executive team, develops the core values as part of a strategic planning initiative and then makes revisions, occasionally with the support of communication professionals. The two stages when communication executives have the most influence are (1) when they develop communication strategies and programs to promote those values, and (2) then distribute those messages through events and newsletters. These two stages are often completed in collaboration with human resources (Sison 2010).
Neill (2016b) examined the trend of employer branding through in-depth interviews with 32 communication executives specializing in internal communication. These communication responsibilities also were discussed with the PRSA Fellows and Arthur W. Page Society members who participated in the current study. One Page Society member said this is a core responsibility:
As CCO’s [Chief Communication Officers], our role is basically to be a conscience counselor that ensures the company’s actions match its rhetoric, that our values are practiced and not merely preached, and really that the company’s behaving responsibly and transparently with the interests of all the stakeholders in mind.
Based on the personal accounts of internal communicators, Neill (2016b) identified six best practices that companies and organizations should adopt to promote an ethical culture (see Figure 8.1):
1. Employers should communicate ethics in a culturally relevant way through employee testimonials and historical anecdotes.
2. Employers should review their core values to identify any inconsistencies with their policies and reward systems and then make necessary revisions.
Figure 8.1 Six practical recommendations for building employer branding
Source: Graphic created by Arlington/Roe and Co for PRSA’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards. Used with permission.
3. Employers should review their recruitment and orientation materials for inclusion of core values and consistency with their employer brand.
4. Employers should evaluate their existing ethics programs and determine if any additional resources should be added.
5. Employers should conduct routine surveys to determine how employees rate the company/organization’s performance in regards to their core values.
6. Employers should evaluate and reward employees who model ethical behavior through annual performance reviews and awards programs (p. 3)
These six ideas, as practiced by the professionals interviewed, provided a set of tactics to promote an ethical culture. Some of these tactics are employed by public relations executives and their staff. Others, however, require collaboration with colleagues in other departments.
Routine Communication and Anecdotes
Scholars have stressed that employers must communicate their values and ethics because “if people do not hear about ethics and values from the top, it is not clear to employees that ethics and values are important” (Trevino, Hartman, and Brown 2000, p. 135). Ethical leadership is defined as “the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relations, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement and decision-making” (Brown, Trevino, and Harrison 2005, p. 120).
Some of the most common communication tactics that reinforce core values include employee newsletters, town hall meetings, lunch and learn sessions, and posters (Neill 2016b). One Page Society member said his responsibilities include training and routine communication about ethics and values:
A lot of the counsel I provided was in helping create the ethics training and reinforcing the corporate values, making sure that we had the corporate values front and center in the internal comms, making sure that we identified people who were living our corporate values and highlighted them in our internal magazines and on the intranet and even social media once that became a thing, and so a lot of that counsel was just really finding those stories so that we could help other employees become aware with how we expected everybody to behave.
This description highlights two key responsibilities of public relations executives: (1) routine communication about ethics and core values and (2) using storytelling as an effective tactic. Neill (2016b) found internal communication executives created editorial calendars to help them consistently reinforce core values, while also routinely verifying that all communications that should include core values do so. Storytelling, whether conveying a positive or negative narrative, can be an effective tool in those efforts. One VP of communications relied on positive content to emphasize values, “We are always building feature narrative or feature editorial coverage…and then also using case studies of employees and of managers who are really demonstrating our values or bringing our values to life” (Neill 2016b, p. 14). By contrast, a Page Society member said his department provided examples of unethical behavior, such as employees not paying for cafeteria food, as reinforcement:
We have a number of self-serve kiosks for food, and we talk about there have been recourse when people will fake paying for food, when they’re not really paying for the food, so they’re stealing it. We can’t have that. So we talk about real-life situations that are hard to comprehend that they actually happened. And so it’s kind of hard to tell a story like what I just described. You mean to tell me somebody inside this building fakes paying for food? But that has happened. And so we talk about it. So we take the uncomfortable scenarios and talk about them very plainly and very directly with all employees. And every single all employee meeting and every meeting…leads with our mission and our standard.
Another Page Society member maintained that communication executives, using their strong language skills, can give meaning to abstract concepts like values:
This is where the communications person can really help is making it, defining it, helping an organization define it. But if they do it by themselves, they don’t have the backing of the leader, the senior leader, then it will go nowhere. So it has to be something that has meaning within the organization. They get it, they know why it’s there, and that could solve a lot of problems and help people understand how it applies to their daily lives.
Public relations professionals also can use their creativity to bring attention to ethics. One Page Society member described how they developed a screen saver using a map theme:
We saw it as a journey and the ethical piece is a journey and how do you find your way…So we created a screen saver with a little map that kind of danced around the screen to promote this and then we surprised the entire organization with the screen saver. So we didn’t tell anybody it was coming. They happened to walk back from a meeting, what’s that going on on my computer? What is that? So they had to look at it. They had to think about it. And it lasted a minute. That’s much more effective than sending out a memo.
Reviewing Core Values for Inconsistencies
Stevens (2008) pointed out that “the mere existence of a corporate code of ethics does not prevent acts of egregious behavior” (p. 603). To be effective, core values need to be clearly communicated and embedded into the culture (Stevens 2008), meaning the code of ethics is actually used to make decisions, that those who behave consistent with the code are rewarded, and that leaders actually model behaviors consistent with the code. This PRSA Fellow said she has learned that is not always the case:
Too many organizations go through these vision and values exercises, and they create a list of values that in some cases they are merely platitudes and they make a nice poster on the wall, but nobody is living them and…I always assume it is my job rightly or wrongly to challenge those values and also to make sure that… are they being lived as well as we possibly can align and live them.
When companies and organizations promote core values, but do not follow them, it can lead to employee disengagement. As mentioned in Chapter 3, a chief marketing officer said her organization faced that risk when it emphasized collaboration as a core value, but instead chose to reward individual achievements rather than teamwork.
Recruitment and Orientation Materials
Prospective and new employees are typically introduced to the company’s core values during recruitment and employee orientation. While human resources has traditionally managed both of these efforts, Neill (2016b) found that corporate communications and marketing are now helping to develop some of the promotional materials, such as videos and brochures, used in those recruitment and orientation activities. One communications director explained that her organization’s orientation programs have changed from a focus on compliance to culture:
It was very poor…it initially was really just almost a compliance sort of orientation where you went through HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act], you went through what your benefits were; you went through safety and security…So what we’ve done is looked at it from a content perspective, what is it that we want each employee to really focus on…we also want to make sure that they get sort of a history and because [name of employer] brand is so strong, an idea of just the magnitude of the importance of work that [name of employer]) has done over the years, so we have a pretty strong video…we’ve helped them make it more engaging. (Neill 2016b, p. 13)
Identify Additional Resources
Identifying and promoting core values are not enough. Employers also must recognize and remove barriers to ethical behavior. McDonald and Nijhof (1999) recommended that employers evaluate five factors that can impact ethical decision-making. The first factor involves identifying existing norms and values and determining whether those are encouraging or discouraging ethical behavior (McDonald and Nijhof 1999). The other factors include examining the work environment, specifically the decision-making processes, the availability of essential resources, and employees’ abilities to make ethical decisions.
Scholars recommend that employers offer a range of ethics resources for their employees including ethics training, a code of conduct, reward systems, ethics hotlines, an ombudsperson, routine ethics audits, and decision-making trees (Bowen 2004; McDonald and Nijhof 1999). One Page Society member listed several resources her company provided including a chief ethics officer who reported directly to the CEO, an ethics council comprised of several senior executives, annual ethics training for employees, an ethics coordinator or champion in each business unit, an anonymous hotline, and toolkits for managers. She said her company gave more than lip service to ethics:
Be sure that you take action on ethical concerns. So we were very clear that we had a zero tolerance policy for ethical issues, and if you were found to be acting in an unethical manner that was grounds for immediate dismissal. That’s pretty powerful too…You have to do the training and it’s a great annual reminder, but if you don’t see the behaviors modeled around you on a daily basis, and if you don’t see your leaders taking action based on core values or ethical issues and talking about that actively—if you don’t have that behavior in your organization, then all the training in the world isn’t going to do you any good.
While some of these resources were in place, Neill (2016b) found others were not being provided by the companies and organizations that she studied, specifically ethics audits and decision-making trees. In Chapter 6, it was reported that some senior executives warned that internal reporting systems were not always safe to use. This Page Society member said his company now offers such protection:
We’ve got a new speak up policy. It talks about the responsibility and obligation that…employees have to report or point out things that they hear are wrong, and it is backed by a commitment from the organization that there will be no retaliation and you have nothing to fear if you point out something that’s wrong. So it guarantees protection, and it’s very firm. The expectation and obligation is to speak up and the guarantee is when you do so, you have nothing to fear.
Another Page Society member provided this recommendation regarding an internal reporting system:
It’s really important to have an ethics department that reports to the board and not up through the leadership of the company, so they can truly be independent and that they have an investigative arm with an anonymous tip line. I have worked in companies where there was absolutely retaliation for people raising concerns. I saw it firsthand and it was the way it was structured. And so people couldn’t raise concerns without other people knowing who raised those issues, and people will be moved out of positions or direct reports stripped away from them or there would be other retaliatory steps taken.
In companies and organizations without some of these ethics resources, senior public relations executives might want to collaborate with human resources and the senior executive team to enhance their programs. Some employers also may have ethics officers who provide oversight of ethics programs and resources, and in those cases, they should be consulted and involved in any improvement efforts.
Routine Surveys
In two different studies, communication executives reported that their organizations evaluate management’s performance related to their core values through survey research with employees (Neill 2016b; Neill and Jiang 2017). As a human resources manager said:
I’ll look at our values scores too. So our values are supposed to be integrity, courage, curiosity—I’ll look to…say, “Alright, how are we doing here?” Because if we’re struggling in an area it makes me wonder are we not communicating well? Are we not being honest? Or are we not being perceived as being honest. (Neill 2016b, p. 12)
A director of communications for a nonprofit organization agreed that survey research with employees helped the organization identify areas for improvement:
They did a staff survey just this past August, and one of the primary concerns that resulted from that staff survey was lack of internal communications. When you dig a little deeper into survey results, it’s a lot more than just communicating and getting news out. I think it touches much more with issues of lack of training or lack of connecting with the core values, or getting folks involved and engaged. But I think that when the survey results came out, the senior management team realized “Wow, everyone’s really concerned about lack of communication.” (Neill and Jiang 2017, p. 854)
Neill and Jiang (2017) found that most of the communication executives they interviewed assessed the company’s performance through the prism of its core values through several methods, the most common of which were biannual or annual surveys. Other feedback tools included focus groups, “pulse” surveys,1 and employee resource groups. A Page Society member provided a clear description of pulse surveys as “small, short ones, 6, 7 questions maybe, and you’re doing a group of people not the entire employee base, but enough to get a good sample to see how things are going.” The pulse surveys were especially influential in encouraging management to be more forthcoming with employees about possible facility closures that might impact their jobs. As a member of the Page Society recalled:
From the results of the survey, we could see that the employees were really having anxiety…we used that survey and the results as communicators to present to management, so that they would have a clear idea of the environment, and that helped them make the decision to go ahead and inform.
Another senior executive, a vice president of communication, said his organization relied on employee resource groups for insights:
Employee resource groups are…pretty common in large companies. They are groups that are dedicated to specific topics or areas of interests for employees. So for example, we have a professional women’s group, we have a group that addresses LGBT, we have a group for military individuals. So these are…diversity and inclusion type groups. But they’re very very good. First of all, they’re very active in my company, and secondly, they’re a very good place for us to gather input and research ideas about engagement and communications. (Neill and Jiang 2017)
Evaluate and Reward Employees
Some employers reinforce ethics and core values through annual awards programs and performance evaluations. Human resources typically manages both of these programs, though public relations practitioners may produce content about the awards programs for newsletters, the intranet, or internal social media channels. A human resources manager described her company’s specific efforts:
Our recognition program is based on the values. So when someone receives an award or gets a nomination for an award, it has to be related to one of the values. And then we have values painted all over the office on the wall, so those are the two big reinforcements. And then they’re also…rated on the values in your annual performance review. (Neill 2016b, p. 14)
Similarly, the director of corporate communication for a global transportation company said core values are a part of every employee’s annual performance evaluation:
It’s almost not even an option. So when you get your job review, you’re…bucketed in ways by your manager on how are you delivering passionately personal service? How are you with bringing in new ideas and getting on board with the new ways of doing things? How well are you executing your operations, in addition to your core expectations of getting goals and objectives completed?…It’s more about the how you’re going about doing what you’re doing, versus just what you’re doing…If you’re getting them done, but you’re burning everyone down to the ground to get them done, that’s not the way we want to operate as an organization. (Neill and Jiang 2017, p. 858)
On the opposite end of the spectrum, employers also have to be willing to take action against unethical behavior. As a member of the Page Society recalled:
Our CEO, he had to let somebody go who was a beloved and well-respected leader, and he said, “This wasn’t a hard decision. It was one of the easiest decisions I’ve had to make.” If you violate our core values, you can’t stay…there’s disappointment, but there wasn’t any anx [anxiety] or agony over the decision.
All of these efforts can gather beneath the umbrella of employer branding with a focus on developing both intellectual and emotional buy-in among employees so they are committed to the organization, live out the brand’s values, and become brand ambassadors (Mahnert and Torres 2007; Thomson, de Chernatony, Arganbright, and Khan 1999).
Public relations executives’ role in ethical leadership involves proactive efforts to promote and reinforce the organization’s core values. This role involves collaboration with the senior leadership team and colleagues such as human resources and ethics officers. Six best practices describe public relations’ efforts to cultivate an ethical workplace, all focused on creating an ethical culture and improving employee engagement and loyalty.
Questions to Ponder
1. What types of activities do public relations executives engage in to help promote ethics and values in their companies and organizations?
2. Which responsibilities associated with promoting ethics and values involve public relations executives’ collaboration with others in their company or organization?
3. Which of the six recommendations would you feel prepared to advise your employer to adopt and why?
1 Pulse surveys are quick surveys involving a small number of employees to get a sense of the “pulse” or sentiment regarding the state of the workplace.