This week the most interesting ethics content came down to one theme: ideas. From new frameworks for making decisions, to new failures to consider, and new learnings from South Asia, there is something here for anyone interested in ethics.
Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA
Mark W. McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA, is the general manager of C+C's Boston office. C+C is a communications agency all about the good and purpose-driven brands. He has more than 20 years of tech and fintech agency experience, served as the 2016 National Chair of PRSA, drove the creation of the PRSA Ethics App and is the host of EthicalVoices.com
What do ethical PR professionals do when they are faced with conflicting loyalties? Todd Van Hoosear
Todd Van Hoosear, the Chief Engagement Officer for Business Breakthrough Network and a visiting instructor at Boston University, discusses a number of important ethics topics, including:
1) What do ethical PR professionals do when they are faced with conflicting loyalties?
2) The ethics challenges of a post-truth era
3) The need for action to change the perception of PR
As always, I didn’t have a problem finding PR ethics issues to highlight this week. While the limo ride is an obvious example, and one I plan to discuss in class tonight, I wanted to focus on a few other interesting stories including various forms of censorship:
Mark Cautela, the Head of Communications for Harvard Business School, discusses a number of important ethics topics including:
1) Why you need to act quickly and decisively on even small ethics concerns
2) When company and team before self is not ethically appropriate
3) What to do when your boss asks you to fudge numbers on an award
The PRSA and PRCA ethics months are over. Does that mean we are going to stop discussing ethics? Heck no! That is not how we roll at EthicalVoices. Please note: this week we will not be discussing the ethics of tax returns or sharing confidential documents – others are doing that quite well. Rather I decided to build a cornucopia of the most interesting ethics stories of the past week including effective ethics training.
Sam Villegas, APR, a Senior Consultant with Raftelis shares insight on:
1) What do you do when you are asked to stonewall on a public health issue?
2) When should you act as a whistle blower?
3) How do you effectively respond to disinformation and fear-based attacks?
This week PR ethics issues revolved around the slippery ethical slope of intent. From TikTok’s social media coalition to the ethics of the Social Dilemma, media buying, and corporate donations to non-profits…there is a bit of insight for everyone. To cap it off, the PRCA has a great, free, upcoming webinar on ethics and government relations.
Joining me on this week’s episode to discuss setting ethical boundaries is Tracy Schario, APR of MITRE. She discusses:
1) How do you set ethical boundaries with your boss?
2) What work can a department ethically claim as its own?
3) Are the unexpected ethics benefits that will come out of businesses reaction to COVID?
4) How do you effectively set ethical boundaries with partners?
COVID and culture dominated the ethics headlines this week. There were articles on COVID and ethics that looked at everything from when do you share information, to the decline of trust, and the increase in pressure to act unethically. Beyond COVID, there were great articles on managing conflicts in a cancel culture environment, and a brilliant call to action to take concrete steps to end racial inequality in PR.
Top Ethics Challenges in Healthcare Communication, Patient Engagement and Collaboration: Kelli Bravo
Kelli Bravo, the vice president of healthcare and life sciences for Pegasystems, discusses a number of important ethical issues, including:
1) The ethical considerations in admitting an error in your software
2) How do we ethically fix what is broken in the healthcare system
3) Top ethics challenges in healthcare communication, patient engagement and collaboration
4) How do you ethically balance transparency and confidentiality