Transparency in Public Relations: Evidence from Associations' Ethics Codes

Matilda Kolic Stanic ()
Additional contact information
Matilda Kolic Stanic: University of Zagreb - University Department of Croatian Studies, Zagreb, Croatia

Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, 2019, vol. 17, issue 2-B, 417-429

Abstract: The issue of transparency in public relations, or as it is more often referred, the conflict of interest, belongs to the group of the crucial ethical issues. Nevertheless, among scholars, there exist the question of how strict the imperative of transparency should be, not just concerning the cultural differences or the areas in the world where public relations professionals come from. Given the reputation of the public relations profession, which is still partially marked with negative labels, the issue of transparency in self-regulation of professionals in PR is of utmost importance. Aiming to explore the importance of transparency for PR professionals, and how this issue is regulated, the research was conducted through a method of qualitative content analysis based on 13 ethical codes, delivered by 18 major associations of public relations professionals at national and international levels, which belong to the Western Circle: United States, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Croatia. Although the value of transparency is articulated in all ethical codes, there exist some differences, especially if a distinction is made between conflicts of interest and financial interests. In this respect, few differences emerged with regard to the character of membership in associations (individual/corporative/mixed membership), or their type (national or international) and much less within the geographical milieu of the association. The core finding is actually "the struggle" between the principle level and the operational level of transparency in PR-field: is it possible to be "ethically correct" just if PR-professionals announce that they are in conflict of interests and the client has nothing against?

Keywords: transparency; conflict of interests; public relations; ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 M3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://indecs.eu/2019/indecs2019-pp417-429.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zna:indecs:v:17:y:2019:i:2-b:p:417-429

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal from Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Josip Stepanic ().