| Abstract [eng] |
The Public Relations (PR) more are often recognized as a strategy to convince community with something which is useful to the client. Society may find itself being manipulated by such activity. The attitude of society (and client, as a result), towards PR in length of time can influence effectiveness of PR service itself. Ethics is conceived as every individual’s subjective judgement, although ethics can give some additional objective value to PR activity. The object of this master thesis is the manifestation of ethics. The aim of this work is to analyse the manifestation of PR ethics as an additional value of the quality of activity. By this work we have sought to check the hypothesis whether ethics can be a competitive advantage in modern PR service. The main tasks of this work are the following: to discuss requirements to modern PR market; to analyse advantages which ethics can give to a client and PR professional; to discuss existing different specialists’ understanding of ethical conduct as well as to determine the most appropriate one; to analyse principles of ethical conduct as regulated by various codes of ethics; to discuss the importance of codes of ethics and other means ensuring ethical conduct; and finally, to identify the attitude of PR specialists towards ethical conduct in Lithuanian PR market. The use of the selected methods (comparative, analytical, systemical, logical, deductive, the method of synthesys, mathematical - statystical, quantitative survey methods) led to the conclusion that PR ethics provides additional value to high-quality PR and may therefore constitute a competitive advantage. Ethical behaviour can be a competitive advantage due to specific features characteristic to competitive advantage, namely: existence of need for ethical behaviour, longterm relationship with target groups created by ethical behaviour, longterm objectives can be reached with the help of ethical activity, and finally, ethical behaviour may distinguish a PR specialist from other professionals of the same field. We state hereby that PR specialists should be loyal in their activity not only to the client but also to the society and to the professional requirements; they should also adhere to personal ethical principles. When the interest of a client and that of the society differ, a PR specialist must convince a client to behave in an ethical way and in accordance to the interest of the society. Specialists should adhere to ethical principles regulated by codes of ethics and to apply them in relations with media, society, representatives of other professions, employers, customers and colleagues professionals. Codes of ethics are recommended to be conceived as a contract between professionals themselves and also as a contract between specialists and society. It is recommended to interpret them as a minimum standard and guidelines of conduct. We suggest that ethical control should be exercised, to go into the issue of ethics collectively and personally. We maintain that codes of ethics, audit of ethics, corresponding committees and educational curricula applied jointly, may help behave in an ethical way and seek a competitive advantage. It is recommended for all institutions and enterprises in Lithuania to define ethical standards and to exercise control of ethics in the filed of PR. The specialists are encouraged to use ethical means in their activity. |
