Catherine Paneral
Jour 4470
March 26, 2012
Blog Three—Ethics in Public Relations
Just be honest. Is
that so hard to do?
Practicing public
relations should be so easy; it’s implementing common sense for the greater
good. Dumb people make PR hard. If you cheat, lie, steal or do anything
negative you make the job of a PR professional a nightmare. Lucky for the
dummies out there, we are trained to know what we’re doing. Unfortunately,
sometimes the dummies land a spot in PR and make an even bigger mess.
Let’s look at a
somewhat recent issue in the news: Costa Concordia crashes and sinks. Carnival, the parent company, did a horrible
job of handling this situation. They did
not want to take responsibility for this crisis. I don’t think they even had a
plan for this situation. The decisions
they needed to make should have been made in the favor of the greater good.
Instead of pointing fingers, Carnival should have apologized for what happened
and vowed to do whatever they could to ensure the safety and well-being of the
passengers.
When you have ethical decisions to
make in PR or even in life in general, the Potter Box is a great tool to use.
The Potter Box consists of four simple steps: define the situation, identify
values, select principles and choose loyalties. The Potter Box forces the
practitioner to prioritize the values and publics that are most important to
the organization in a given situation. Let’s try one for Carnival’s situation with
Costa Concordia.
|
Define
the situation:
·
The boat has crashed.
·
Passengers evacuated but some are
still missing.
·
Captain evacuated before everyone
was off the ship.
·
Oil is leaking into the ocean.
|
Identify
Values:
·
Passenger safety.
·
Crew safety.
·
Stop the water pollution ASAP and
clean up what’s already spilled.
|
|
Set
Principles:
·
Apologize. Say that you will do
everything you can for those affected by the crash.
·
Offer refunds and free cruise.
·
Our company values our passenger’s
safety and cruising experience.
·
Offer counseling for those who are
traumatized by the situation. (Crew and Passengers)
|
Choose
Loyalties:
·
Passengers: current and future
·
Stakeholders
·
The ship’s crew.
·
Mother Nature (oil leak)
|
Carnival not only lost the trust of
their passengers when the boat sunk but they also lost respect when they were
only offered a discount on a future cruise in addition to a refund. When
something like this happens you offer a free cruise in hopes to keep them as a
customer. On a more positive note in
relation to the oil leak from the ship, “Costa announced most of the fuel from the ship had been successfully
removed. It noted in a statement "minimal amounts" of fuel that pose
no significant environmental risk remain in the ship's tanks.” At least they
are doing one thing ethical by trying to keep the water clean.
In an
article from The Los Angeles Time, it states, “Five more bodies were recovered
Monday from the Costa Concordia, more than two months after the cruise ship
struck a reef and became submerged off the Tuscan coast, the Italian Civil Protection agency reported. That
brings the official death toll of the Jan. 13 disaster to 30, with two people
still missing and presumed dead. Costa Cruises and
parent company Carnival Corp. refused to comment about the casualties or the
recovery operations.” Never, ever refuse
to comment. It makes people question you and your ethics.
The Potter Box is
useful tool when making ethical decisions in PR. If you want to put more
thought into decision-making process you can extend from the Potter Box to the
Navran Model.
The Navran Model is
similar to the Potter Box but gives you more latitude for decision-making.
It consists of the following steps: define the problem, identify available
alternatives, evaluate the alternatives, make the decision, implement the
decision, and evaluate the decision. After you follow those steps you can apply
a “PLUS” filter to steps. PLUS stands for the following:
·
P—Policies:
is it consistent with organization guidelines?
·
L—Legal:
is it within the scope of the law?
·
U—Universal:
does it conform to values of my organization?
·
S—Self:
does it satisfy my personal definition of what is right and fair?
The Potter Box and Navran Model may
seem intimidating, but they really aren’t that bad. The model above was put
together in a matter of minutes. It’s not hard to do. Carnival sure could have
used it in their time of need I’m sure. Hey, Carnival, maybe it’s not too late.
You can still try to use this and save your company.
Sources:
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