PRSA Ethics

In the PRSA Code of Ethics, they list their values as Advocacy, Honesty, Expertise, Independence, Loyalty, and Fairness. The 5 Principles we have been discussing in class are: Truth, Humaneness, Stewardship, Freedom, and Justice.

These ideas are very similar, if not synonimous.
Stewardship= Loyalty
Justice= Fairness
Advocacy and Honesty=Truth
Freedom=Idependence
and perhaps Humaneness would go with Expertise, because arguably being a good PR professional means treating people in a human manner.

We talked a bit in class about service versus substance, and short term goals versus long term goals. In doing the case study on Apple, I noticed, that service very much took a back seat to substance, and that long term goals played second fiddle to short term goals. This being said, I wondered how many other organizations are the same way. Apple has been fairly successful, in spite of their lack of respect for their consumers. It seems to be about the bottom line, about selling products. This brings up a reasonable hypothetical: what if the ethically correct thing to do goes against your boss? For example Stephanie Baycock or whatever the iPhone spokesperson's name is had a really bad attitude in regards to slighted customers. Instead of echoing the Steve Jobs mantra, she could have said, "Steve, I really think this is going to make people mad, and I think the arrogance is inappropriate, and you can take this job and shove it if this is what kind of company Apple wants to be." Instead, she drank the Jobs kool aid and decided to be a bully too. So this brings up another question: do you leave personal ethics at the door when you join an organization? I don't think so. It is not necessarily so that you have to decide between having a job or having scruples. There are lots of organizations that know that dignity and integrity matter, even if Apple isn't one of them.