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Conflicts of duty and the virtues of in public relations ethics: Continuing the conversation commenced by Monica Walle.

John Harrison University of Queensland

point of a triangle with excess and deficit at the Monica Walle’s commentary on codes of other points. All three; excess, deficit and mean, ethics from five national public relations are opposed to each other: associations “What happened to public responsibility? The lack of society in public There are three kinds of disposition, relations codes of ethics”, in the last issue of then, two of them vices, involving excess PRism (2003), made several useful points about and deficiency respectively, and one a potential conflicts of duty, and the manner in virtue, viz. the mean, and all are in a which the various codes are silent on the duty of sense opposed to all; for the extreme the professional to the public interest. Indeed, it states are contrary both to the is this very of service to the community, intermediate state and to each other, and and the upholding of the public interest against the intermediate to the extremes; as the private interests--or the singular interest of equal is greater relatively to the less, less publics--which is at the core of any definition of relatively to the greater, so the middle what it means to be a profession (Sallot, states are excessive relatively to the Cameron, & Lariscy, 1997). Issues arising from deficiencies, deficient relatively to the Walle’s discussion of conflicts of duty, as well as excesses, both in passions and in actions. several broader questions about the and (Aristotle, 1955, Book II.8). functions of ethics codes, are discussed further here and illustrated by the recent and Nor does Aristotle write about “thinking and controversial ‘Timberlands’ case from New acting in extreme ways” but about “acting and Zealand. feeling” (MacIntyre, 1984, pp. 149-150). Secondly, Aristotle was not concerned with The of duty is but one of the dimensions resolving conflicts between competing duties, of ethical decision-making. Walle (2003, p. 2) such as duty to society versus duty to client, as suggests that the resolution of conflicts of duty Walle argues. Aristotle’s whole ethic of virtue lies in the pursuit of an Aristotelean mean: transcends duty-based (or deontological) approaches to ethics, with an ethic based on Aristotle argued that ethical behaviour dispositions or habits of good character. is the balance of the “mean” between Since the publication of MacIntyre’s After thinking and acting in extreme ways Virtue in 1984, Aristotle has become a major, if (Martinson, 2000). To Aristotle then, the not the major, influence on applied ethics among ethical practitioner would be the one who academics and practitioners who are working to balances between the welfare of the foster integrity and ethical conduct in public and the welfare of the client. organisations and professions. This neo- Aristotelian approach is different from the other Two preliminary points need to be made about two major approaches to ethics: deontology and Aristotle’s approach to ethics, which is set out in consequentialism. Although deontology (from Nichomachean Ethics. First, contrary to Walle’s the Greek deon duty) draws on ancient argument, Aristotle did not construe the mean as codes of behaviour such as the Ten the balance point between extremes, but as one Commandments, it also owes much to the Harrison, J. (2004). Conflicts of duty and the virtues of Aristotle in public relations ethics: 1 Continuing the conversation commenced by Monica Walle. PRism 2. Available at: http://praxis.massey.ac.nz

Enlightenment philosopher who to achieve the good life.” We need to note three formulated duty-based ethics on the basis of the things about virtues: two of universalisability and reversability. It is these principles that underlie (a) Virtues are acquired human qualities. modern codes of ethics in the professions. Aristotle believed that virtues were habits Twentieth century formulations of Kantian ethics acquired by . can be found in Sir David Ross’ The Right and the Good (1930) and John Rawls’ A Theory of (b) Virtues are excellences of character. Such Justice (1971). As indicated in the illustrations excellences (in Greek: arete) are achieved by from advertising and journalism discussed below, seeking the middle way, not extremes of action some professions are drawing back from and feeling. prescriptive deontological approaches to ethics, in favour of a virtue approach, in which codes (c) Finally, virtues enable the individual to begin to express the values that members of the achieve the good life. Here we come back again profession are encouraged to internalise. to the ancient Greek of “happiness”, The other major approach to ethics, “pleasure” or “the good life” (in Greek: consequentialism, also sometimes termed eudaimonia). Unlike utilitarianism, which seeks , is directed towards securing the right the greatest good, or pleasure, for the greatest outcome. While both self-interest and altruism number, seeking virtue provides happiness, are consequentialist, the most common form of pleasure, and the good life for the individual. consequentialist ethics is utilitarianism--the This is both a strength and a weakness in virtue philosophy of the greatest good for the greatest ethics. number--derived from the thinking of Jeremy Bentham, set out in his Introduction to the How then are virtues acquired? According to Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789). Aristotle (Book II.i): While both deontological approaches and consequentialist approaches are regularly ...the virtues we get by first exercising construed as opposite sides of the same coin; them, as also happens in the case of the duty versus outcomes, virtue ethics is concerned arts as well. For the things we have to with character. When we talk about moral learn before we can do them, we learn by virtues, what sort of things are we talking about? doing them, e.g. men become builders by In general terms, we are talking about building and lyre players by playing the dispositions of character such as honesty, lyre; so too we become just by doing just integrity, sensitivity, good judgement, or a sense acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, of social responsibility. We are not talking about brave by doing brave acts. cognitive abilities like ; nor are we talking about psychomotor skills like good hand Thus, Aristotle saw virtue as the mean as eye co-ordination, or a well-muscled physique, between excesses and deficits, not a although these may contribute to virtue. In balance between legitimately competing duties. Nichomachean Ethics Aristotle made a His virtue of justice, for example, was that it was distinction between intellectual virtues and the mean between the injustice that comes from moral virtues; the former he listed as an excess of law (zealous over-regulation), and intelligence, practical wisdom, understanding, the injustice that comes from too little law and good sense (VI i); the latter as courage, (lawlessness). His virtue of courage was the justice, temperance, and prudence (II vii). mean between the excess of rashness and the How then, do we define a moral virtue? One deficit of cowardice. (Book II viii). The definition comes from Mintz (1996, p.827) who practitioner of Aristotle’s virtue ethics poses the says, “Virtues are acquired human qualities, the question not, “what is my duty”, but “how ought excellences of character, which enable a person a person of good character, a person of integrity,

2 feel and act in this situation”? Where, then, does revision was a renewed focus on the values this leave codes of ethics? underpinning the code, as stated in the preamble: “MEAA members engaged in journalism commit The institutionalisation of ethics themselves to honesty, fairness, independence and respect for the rights of others”. The other Over the past decade, the fostering of ethical code revision was that undertaken by the behaviour in business and the professions has Advertising Federation of Australia (AFA, 2001). been undertaken through the use of ethics audits Having read hundreds of ethics codes over the (Murphy, 1988; Lewis, 1992; Malachowski, past five years, I find this code one of the most 1993), and the application of ethics codes (Hunt refreshing documents of its type and worthy of & Tirpok, 1993; Kruckeberg, 1993; Cassell, publication in full: Johnson, & Smith, 1997). Harrison (2001) defines ethics audits in terms of compliance AFA AGENCY CODE OF ETHICS audits, culture audits, and systems audits. ...It's what we in advertising stand for Although both audits and codes are seen as essential components of the process of How To Behave institutionalising ethics, the tendency for audits to be a one-off process makes them problematic Every day we can be faced with ethical as an ongoing means of fostering ethical dilemmas. These guidelines will help you to do behaviour. The application of codes, in particular the right thing. Ethics can't be imposed. They their effectiveness and enforcement, has been have to grow from within each of us. And be even more problematic (Brooks, 1989a, 1989b; understood by all of us. Wright, 1993). In both Australia and New Zealand, Public Relations Institutes have What We Believe encountered difficulties enforcing codes and sanctions in recent . In one case, 1. Stand up for what you believe is right. investigation of a complaint by the Institute’s ethics committee was aborted and handed over to 2. Honour all agreements. a QC (Espiner 2000a, 2000b). Indeed, there is a growing body of literature critical of the use of 3. Don't break the law. Don't bend the law. codes, suggesting they are counter productive (Farrell & Cobbin, 1996; Schwartz, 2000). 4. Respect all people. All codes of ethics can be classified as falling at some point on a spectrum between prescriptive 5. Strive for excellence in everything you do. and aspirational (Farrell & Cobbin, 2000). Walle (2003, p.4) rightly makes the point that the five 6. Give clients your best efforts and advice, PR association codes she examined were “posed without fear or favour. in the negative”. She concludes that “codes should include explicit directives ...[o]nly this 7. Look after your colleagues. way will the profession ...begin to address its own poor reputation” (p. 4). 8. Compete fairly. Current best practice in ethics code design is towards shorter, more aspirational codes, which 9. Think before you act. focus on values rather than prohibitions, as two recent Australian examples show. In 1997, the 10. Be honest Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) undertook a revision of the Australian When codes fail: the Timberlands case journalists’ code under the guidance of Jesuit priest Frank Brennan (Media Entertainment and Longstaff (1994) suggests that codes fail not Arts Alliance, 1997). The outcome of that because of their provisions, but because of

3 enforcement. First, the failure to have effective was set up under the State Owned Enterprises sanctions, second, the failure to enforce Act of 1986 as part of the privatisation of public sanctions, and finally, the failure to publicise assets that occurred in New Zealand during the action taken and sanctions imposed under the 1980s. According to the Chairman of code. Certainly, evidence from other areas of Timberlands, Warren Young (2001): regulatory practice (Irani, Sinclair, & O’Malley, 2002) is that public trust is enhanced by The principal objective of a State- regulatory bodies having effective sanctions owned enterprise (SOE) is to be a against misconduct and enforcing these regularly successful business. Incidental to being a and publicly. The problem for most professional successful business is the need for associations is their fear that publicity about their companies operating under the SOE Act policing of professional misconduct will further to be as profitable and efficient as damage the reputation of that profession. comparable businesses not owned by the Additionally, there is the risk of defamation. The Crown, to be a good employer, and to problematic nature of code enforcement in public exhibit a sense of social responsibility by relations has been well illustrated recently in having regard to the interests of the local New Zealand, in what has become known as the community. (n.p.) Timberlands case. Moreover, it is a case in which arguments about conflicting duties--to the client Timberlands was established, according to the and to the public interest--are paramount. company website, because the unique situation The Timberlands case has been the of on the West Coast required special management intense scrutiny from an ethical perspective, first (Timberlands West Coast Ltd., n.d.). Under the by the authors of Secrets and Lies: The Anatomy Act, the sole shareholders are Ministers of the of an Anti-Environmental PR Campaign, Nicky Crown. Hager and Bob Burton (1999), secondly by the ethics committee of the Public Relations Institute Ethics complaints of New Zealand (PRINZ), and thirdly by a New Zealand QC, Hugh Rennie. Rennie was Hager and Burton made 18 complaints to the appointed when the internal PRINZ ethics review PRINZ Ethics Committee in October 1999 was aborted after complaints about lack of due (Rennie, 2001), of which Rennie chose to process from two of the protagonists, Klaus investigate five. Two related to tactics, and three Sorensen and Rob McGregor of the public related more generally to acceptance of client and relations firm, Shandwick (Rennie, 2001). At the project, and strategy development. Rennie of the Timberlands case, the Council of PR acknowledged the need for an ethical distinction firms ranked Weber Shandwick as the second between strategy and tactics, observing that, “if largest PR company in the world after the objectives pursued by Shandwick were Fleishman-Hillard with revenue of $US 334 legitimate…that does not legitimate the means million in 2000 and more than 2600 staff adopted to achieve them” (Rennie, 2001, p.26). (Council of PR Firms, 2001). In considering the tactics used, Rennie found This case illustrates well the limitation of that Shandwick had paid a student at Victoria codes, and supports arguments as to the University in Wellington to spy on the Victoria problematic nature of code enforcement. In 1999, Environment Group, opponents of Timberland’s Hager and Burton lodged a complaint with activities, but that neither Sorensen nor PRINZ that, in their campaign for Timberlands McGregor was responsible for this payment. West Coast, Shandwick executives had breached Rennie (2001) found the spying to be unethical the PRINZ Code of Ethics. Shandwick’s client, and appeared troubled by the failure of Sorensen Timberlands West Coast Pty Ltd, was a and McGregor to categorically reject such a government-owned corporation established in tactic as unethical. The related tactic of drafting 1990 to manage the rich forest resources of the letters for use by Timberland supporters in the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island. It community, he found not to be unethical;

4 although Rennie found some confusion about the accountability and transparency of State Owned origins and status of a group called the Coast Enterprises rather than the consultants. Should an Action Network. Were the Coast Action Network SOE, responsible directly to a Minister of the to be a Timberlands front organisation, then this Crown, be attempting to thwart the free would be, Rennie said, “plainly unethical” expression of opinion by the citizenry, and adding, “[b]ut this is not what occurred here” should it do so in a clandestine fashion, using the (Rennie 2001, p. 35). So, Rennie found one resources of the state to do so? In this instance, tactic unethical, the other acceptable. the Shandwick executives were simply On the wider questions of client and project instruments by which this state enterprise was acceptance, and of strategy, Rennie was much seeking to bend public opinion to its will. State more equivocal. The complaint, labelled by Owned Enterprises provide a convenient Rennie as A4, is about the use of the term distancing for governments who wish to ‘extremist’ and the broader portrayal of maximize the outputs of their resources, and Timberlands’ opponents by both Timberlands minimize their own accountability to Parliament and Shandwick as extremists. Rennie questioned and the electorate. ethical issue at stake the extent to which it was appropriately ethical here is; where was the accountability of professional behaviour for Shandwick Timberlands to its shareholding Minister? This consultants to adopt the ‘mindset of conflict’ held question was beyond the scope of Rennie’s by Timberlands: adjudication under the PRINZ Code, and he refers to: Should the public relations professionals [have] implemented a campaign on these …tantalising hints in the documents that lines? That is the difficult ethical Ministers of the then government were judgement to be made… comfortable that Timberlands was There is an old legal adage that the operating a strategy through reason one has a lawyer is so that the Shandwick…But the evidence is obscure as professional keeps his or her head when to who had approved what actions, and everyone else is losing theirs. Such when, and on what authority (Rennie, moderating influence might be expected of 2001, p. 24). a public relations professional, rather than the implementation of the ‘opinions’ of From the point of view of making a judgement Timberlands… The complainants argue as to whether the actions and behaviour of that the higher ethical duty should have led Sorensen and McGregor were ethical, it would Shandwick…to: 1. Advise the client of the seem that, having accepted the client, the nature ethical issues. 2. Counsel against such an of the project and the strategy were implicit in approach. 3. If instructed to proceed, that acceptance. It is this responsibility, that of decline to undertake the work. (Rennie, making a judgement call on the entire package, to 2001, p. 33). which Rennie is referring when he writes of the “higher ethical duty” (Rennie, 2001, p.33) argued While this may appear to be a discussion by the complainants. At this point Rennie about strategy, it does in raise serious equivocates and refers the issue of the exact questions about client acceptance, which takes us nature of this ethical duty back to PRINZ, to the core of the final complaint that Rennie making the judgement that this is an issue for a adjudicated. In this instance, Hager and Burton council of peers (i.e. PRINZ) to determine. Thus (1999) complained that Sorensen and McGregor for Shandwick, there were really only two breached the PRINZ Code of Ethics, which said possible points of ethical reflection in this case. that members should not abuse public Firstly, whether to accept the client, given that communication channels or the processes of the strategy was already implied; and secondly, government. In , this complaint raises at the point of selecting the tactics. questions about the client; about the

5 Outcomes religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. By approaching ethical considerations What were the outcomes in this case? First, in through reflection, the mutually beneficial this case, the notion of industry self-regulation relationships between organisations and was compromised by the unwillingness of stakeholders may be mediated by the public Sorensen and McGregor to accept the PRINZ relations role, rather than having the need for process of dealing with ethics complaints and public relations practice to be governed by a set their threats of litigation, notwithstanding their of codes. For the professional associations and claim that the PRINZ process may have denied their office bearers, for public relations educators them natural justice (Mulrooney, 2000; Espiner and for those devising and conducting 2000a, 2000b). The Shandwick executives did professional development programmes for the further damage to the principles of industry self- industry, the challenge, therefore, is to move regulation and peer review of professional beyond an approach to ethics education and practice by publicly resigning from PRINZ, training which simply says, ‘here’s the code of while asserting their commitment to the ethics, now follow it’; to an approach that maintenance of the highest ethical standards. In a genuinely fosters habits of good character in media release on the day Rennie’s report was practitioners. This is not a direction easily handed to PRINZ, Sorensen and McGregor said: pursued, but one which implies authentic professionalism, and we could learn much, in For the Institute to treat two terms of professional socialisation, from the individuals with a total of 32 years’ traditional ‘helping professions’ such as public relations experience in this way is medicine, nursing, dentistry, and the therapies. appalling. They bent over backwards to entertain complaints from those who References simply sought to promote themselves and in the process ignored the rights of their Advertising Federation of Australia. (2001). The members and the Institute’s obligations to AFA agency code of ethics. Retrieved November them … Mr Sorensen said he and Mr 22, 2001, from: McGregor would continue to maintain http://www.afa.org.au/WebStreamer?page_id=46 high ethical standards without the Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics (J.A.K. Thomson, assistance of the Institute (Weber Trans. 1955). London: Penguin. Shandwick, 2001). Bentham, J. (1789). An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation. London: T. A process of ethical reflection, as opposed to Payne. taking a deontological approach to ethics, Brooks, L. J. (1989a). Corporate codes of ethics. facilitates the practice of dialogic communication Journal of Business Ethics, 8, 117-129. encompassed in a two-way symmetrical Brooks, L. J. (1989b). Ethical codes of conduct: communication model proposed by Grunig Deficient in guidance for the Canadian (1989) as a way for public relations practitioners accounting profession. Journal of Business to address the issues faced in a global economy. Ethics, 8, 325-335. Increasingly, differences in values will be a Cassell, C., Johnson, P., & Smith, K. (1997). source of conflict in a mediated, global society Opening the black box: Corporate codes of ethics where diverse cultures, and thus values, are in their organizational context. Journal of brought together and interpreted at strategic and Business Ethics, 16, 1077-1093. tactical levels. A process of ethical reflection that Council of PR Firms. (2001). Council of PR Firms' accounts for a wide range of values provides a top 50 worldwide and U.S. ranking for 2000. more sound basis on which to make ethical Retrieved November 22, 2001, from: decisions than simple reliance on codes of ethics http://www.odwyerpr.com/pr_firm_rankings/cou whose origins lie in deontological notions of ncil_top50.htm right and wrong derived from the monotheistic

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