Ideological Critique of PRSA Ethics

For this assignment I will be analyzing the Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) Code of Ethics. The full coding may be found on PRSA's web site: http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/CodeEnglish/.



Ethics, in general, are an important aspect of any business; the ethical ideology of a company can make, break, confirm or deny a sale or collaboration. The ethical stance that a company or group of individuals takes is vital to the overall identity of that particular organization. While the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is not a technical "company" it is a collaboration of public relations professionals with the common ground of wanting to further their field. The PRSA is a professional society that is meant to coordinate the specialized knowledge learned by all individuals. The code of ethics includes a short preamble that discusses the intentions of the code and also the consequences of violation. “Ethical practice is the most important obligation of a PRSA member” (PRSA Website). The PRSA code of ethics contains segments on advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness; these help to make up the ideology of PRSA that public relations professionals are ethical by way of a strict code of provisions and values.

The code of ethics includes the obvious of ethical provisions of behaving in a way that reflects well of the PRSA and the public relations field as a whole. Not only does the PRSA hold its member accountable for unethical behavior, it can collaborate with the authorities and decide whether a questionable member should remain in the society. The organization itself cannot punish a member further than expulsion from the society; it does, however, advocate the legal punishment of its member, and any public relations representative, that behaves unethically and unprofessionally. Another less perceptible aspect of the code of ethics is the desire to further the field of public relations and improve the reputation of the public relations representatives individually and the reputation of the PRSA as a whole. The code of ethics implies that each representative and member is accountable for their own actions and they are responsible for knowing the consequences of unethical behavior.

The Public Relations Society of America’s code of ethics is designed to integrate the values and morals of the society into its members’ lives. The ideology of PRSA is the stance of ethical behavior through certain provisions. The PRSA believes in its members being advocates to the community while being honest and demonstrating expertise while continuing to develop new skills and acquire novel knowledge. A member of PRSA must be loyal to the organization and also to the company that he/she is representing; since representing a company or organization is the individual’s choice and an independent decision it should not be a difficult decision for the representative to remain loyal. PRSA expects its members to maintain fairness with the organization they are representing and also with the society. The PRSA believes that each member should uphold the strict, moral behavior as qualified in the code of ethics that has been developed.