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Public relations and the corporate conscience

by Simon Longstaff

As with many who advise individuals and organisations, practitioners working in the field of public relations can find themselves being asked to operate as if they are skilled technicians - and nothing more. Typically a client, or someone in management, will decide on a course of action expecting that the advisor will be concerned only with the means and never the end.

Those members of the Public Relations Institute of Australia who work as consultants have always enjoyed the opportunity to resist this approach. The very best of practice has stressed the importance of values such as fair play and the public interest.

This in part has been a matter of prudence when considering the broader interests and objectives of the client. However, the good practitioner also knows that the greatest asset to be possessed is credibility. Some people spend a lifetime achieving that which can be squandered in an unguarded moment.

Credibility and a good reputation are secured by individuals who are true to a personal code of values that informs both their public and private life. Honesty, truthfulness, courage (especially moral courage), integrity, diligence, loyalty and a capacity for independent judgement should be values which act as the foundation on which a reputation for credibility is built.

All of this may seem all too easy to talk about. What of the reality of a world in which clients demand acquiescence lest they take their business elsewhere? And what of those practitioners who don't have the relative freedom enjoyed by consultants; that is, those who work in line and staff management positions within organisations, large and small?

It is suggested that there is a developing role to be played by public relations professionals, whether as consultants or within the structures of management. This role is to act as the informed 'conscience' of the corporation. For such managers, their role ought to be expanded to involve the exercise of critical judgement about goals as a matter of course, and not just tactical cunning in attaining them. A wise board should insist that someone in the field of management develop a special capacity for acting as a catalyst for transformational leadership within the corporation. This means going beyond a limited instrumental intelligence towards an understanding and advocacy of substantive moral positions.

Who better to fulfil this role than the person in public relations? Above all others it is this person who has, or ought to have, a sense of developing community values. But this is not enough. Like other advisers, the public relations practitioner must do more than merely reflect public opinion. He or she must also be able to interpret this opinion and exercise informed judgement.

Some professionals have always been required to do this - even when to do so might hurt the individual's career. They are people who would agree with Tommy Ross, a pioneer in public relations. He said:

Unless you are willing to resign an account or a job over a matter of principle, it is no use to call yourself a member of the world's newest profession - for you are already a member of the world's oldest.

Those are strong and challenging words. And it's possible that they may not have been spoken in the middle of a recession.

That is why it is suggested that the envisaged changes to the profession be made part of more general alterations in the way Australian corporations do business. If those who manage our companies and the great offices of state are serious about improving ethics and corporate conduct, then they will need to do more than pass laws and draft codes of ethics. They will have to go beyond the discussions which take place in board rooms, or as part of the expanded remit for internal auditors. All of these developments are important and should be encouraged. But it is suggested that one innovative approach would be to appoint someone in the management whose job would include the constructive asking of questions and posing of problems.

Rather than lose their job for such behaviour, the practitioner would be evaluated and rewarded in terms of effort made on behalf of interests frequently left unrepresented in the debates about what ought to be done in corporate Australia.

It is to be expected that this proposal will be considered far too radical for some. It would certainly require a move away from the short-term expectations of some shareholders, based as they are on an all too narrow construct of self-interest. Rather, the merit of this proposal is that it seeks to build on the best traditions developed in the practice of public relations and to give these traditions proper recognition within organisations as well as beyond, in the relatively autonomous world of the consultant.

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