An Assessment of Ethical Standards Between Organizations and Public Relations Practitioners

Abstract

This study was an assessment of the ethical standards of Public relations. The objectives of the study are to identify the influences that bound public relations practice in Ghana. It also examines who sets the ethical rules and what the rules seek to achieve in the practice of public relations in Ghana. It further assesses whether or not successful public relations practice equates to good ethical practice and what public relations aims to achieve and why/when ethical public relations matter. The research problem among others includes an interesting question about whether every practitioner irrespective of their location behaves ethically in the same way per standard as compared to their counterparts elsewhere. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, a literature review was used as a basis for data analysis. The findings show that ethical standards are influenced by public interest. It is set for practitioners to give value to stakeholders and build trust. The findings further suggest that professional associations mostly set ethical standards. However, the organizations that practitioners may be working for also set ethical standards. The study also found out good ethical practice is linked to successful practice and ethics mostly matter when organizations face challenges and tends to build a good image. Based on the finding from the study, the recommendation was that to have much compliance with ethics and hold Public relations as a respectable profession in Ghana, there must be a legal backing to enforce practitioners to join the professional body. It also recommended that organizations must also encourage practitioners to be ethically bound in all their decisions and actions. On recommendation for further research, it was suggested that this study needs primary data to support the already existing literature. This will provide further and better particulars of the research objectives.