ETHICS

"Because hundreds of thousands of business communicators worldwide engage in activities that affect the lives of millions of people, and because this power carries with it significant social responsibilities, the International Association of Business Communicators developed the Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators."

-Introduction to IABC's Code of Ethics.

Are you up for the challenge?

First in a series on ethics in business communications
Dean Williams, President, Williams Savvy & Associates

IABC's Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators defines ethics as "the criteria for determining what is right and wrong".

Can you tell right from wrong? Of course you can. From early childhood, our parents, teachers, religion and the media bombarded us with notions of right and wrong. So why does IABC require all its members to agree to The Code?

The Code covers some important issues concerning legal compliance and professional decorum, but these only partially explain IABC's concern with ethics.

Business communicators may strive to be ethical, but knowing right from wrong doesn't always mean that doing the right thing is either obvious or easy.

The Globe and Mail's ethics and religion columnist Michael Valpy observes that, in a less complicated bygone era, it may have been easier to know right from wrong. Back then, a wall of morals surrounded every society -- conventional morals held in common by all, enforced by religious institutions and society. Within those walls, people benefited from knowing that there were absolute values.

Valpy believes that multiculturalism and globalization helped to break down those walls. Our world became more complicated. Values were absolute no more.

"The challenge," says Valpy, "is to live an honourable life in a world that no longer has absolute values."

In the context of increasing globalization, corporations enjoyed tremendous freedom of opportunity provided by unregulated markets and retreating governments. Unfortunately, says Valpy, too many corporations became less honourable.

New York Times business columnist Gretchen Morgenson recently echoed Valpy's sentiments when she wrote: "Whatever happened to the idea of everybody pulling together, setting aside self-interest for the sake of a wounded country? Is grabbing for all you can now so imbued in corporate culture that executives don't remember what it is to act with honor?"

Valpy, recalling how Dr. Nancy Olivieri was one of the few speakers who received a standing ovation at last summer's pricey, celebrity-filled IdeaCity conference, feels that the public has a hunger for heroes who rise to the challenge of being honourable.

But business communicators aren't in the hero business. The primary job of a business communicator is to advance our employer's or client's communications objectives -- to get their message out. Right? Well, yes and no.

IABC's code of ethics reminds us that the activities of business communicators "affect the lives of millions of people", and that "this power carries with it significant social responsibilities." The first article of the code states that communicators must practice "honest, candid and timely communication and [foster] the free flow of essential information in accord with the public interest."

Does this mean you have to choose between duty to your employer/client and to the public?

"No," says Tom Niles, Corporate Practice Director at the public relations firm Langdon Starr Ketchum Inc. "Our duty to the client and the public are totally consistent."

"Communicators serve their clients best when they are the voice of the public," says Niles. "Good communicators, especially on the frontline, will be sensitive to the public interest and will reign in the client when the client's goals exceed the credibility point.

"We need to remind our clients that they're not in business for the short term. Excess might win you victories in the short term, but they'll come back to bite you in the medium and long term," adds Niles.

Honour, honesty, credibility…unfortunately these qualities aren't the ones that usually get associated with business communicators.

For an increasingly media savvy and cynical public, the stereotypical view of what we do for a living isn't very flattering. Words like PR and spin have increasingly come to stand for deceit, manipulation and lacking in integrity.

Robert Dilenschneider of the New York-based public relations firm Dilenschneider Group saw a need to defend his profession in the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal. He wrote: "In today's parlance, spin stands for fabrication: Spin doctors try to alter the facts through a deliberate and reckless disregard for the truth. Spin is to public relations what pornography is to art."

Ironically, for a profession dedicated to image building, reputation management and communication, we haven't done enough to help ourselves. Ethical behaviour is only one aspect of the challenge for our profession, but it is an important one.

Dean Williams is the president of Williams Savvy & Associates, strategic communications counsel. He can be reached at dean_williams@savvypr.com