In the last couple of months, all we’ve heard on TV and read in newspapers have been job cuts here and there. The latest I read was this story from Zimbio about Citigroup cutting jobs by 300,000. This story from Reuters presents a more dismal situation in the United States. More job cuts than the country has ever experienced since the depression.

Does the bad economy really have anything to do with job cuts?
In my Social Role of the Mass Media class this week, Max Grubb the professor talked about CEO compensation. The class discussed how the bad economy has led to many corporations laying off their employees. In fact we were concentrating on how it’s affecting newsrooms and newspapers. Max said the people who usually benefit most from corporate job cuts are the CEOs. What happens is that, as employee numbers are reduced, profit increases and CEOs get huge bonuses. That is probably why most CEOs have done it already or are considering doing it in the name of the bad economy.
Let’s take a look at this post from the Long Run blog.

It bears mentioning that many of the compensation amounts you see in headlines are not necessarily disclosed in context. For example, you may hear “XYZ CEO received total compensation of $120 million in 2007″. What you typically do not hear that their salary was a few million and the rest was “bonus”. Not feeling better yet? “Bonus” in the world of CEO pay is not the same as your $1,000 Christmas bonus. This figurative term refers to incentive pay that may have been accumulating for a decade and just now “vested” or became available to the CEO. Typically these incentive packages are in the form of company stock and subject to meeting certain company objectives like sales and profit targets. In other words, that pay may be the end result from many years on the job and having that bonus ride on the company stock. Not only is that pay at risk, but it aligns the CEO’s interests with the shareholders- making the company successful and resulting in a rising stock.

Is it right for CEOs to have all these compensations?
The packages for CEOs are huge. The get more benefits than you can ever imagine. Check out this post. The point is huge money is paid to CEOs for doing almost nothing. I found this blog about the CEO of Dollar General, Cal Turner very disturbing. He was axed out of the company for obvious reasons; not doing his job well. But the store continued to pay him huge sums of money as compensation. How do these people go to bed knowing they are getting paid for no job done?

What made me actually write the post was when I thought about the greed of the CEOs. Why should ordinary people whose one year pay will not amount to their monthly pay suffer at the advantage of the CEOs? I have suddenly realized the importance of SOX. CEOs must be made to account for every dollar they earn. What do you think? There may be people out there who will say that they spend huge amounts of money to earn their degrees so they deserve a good salary. But they don’t need to steal or cheat ordinary people to get back what they spent in Harvard or somewhere else.

My break from blogging
When I first learnt that I’ll be blogging as part of my PR online Tactics class, I was scared. What will I be writing about? When I finally got into the class, and we started talking about planning, I became excited. I love to chat and since blogging is all about conversation I figured it will be all right. I remember when I first pushed the publish button for my first post, I was so nervous.
I enjoyed reading Bill, Rob, Chris, Shel, and all the other blogs. They gave me inspiration and a sense of joy every time I read their posts. I will continue to read them. PR ethics certainly has many issues that I couldn’t address in these few weeks.

I f you ask me what I enjoyed blogging about most; it was getting into ethics and looking at it from my own perspective. What I thought PR professionals could try out.
I may consider blogging about international affairs later.
It’s been great these past eight weeks blogging about PR ethics. This is not a good bye to blogging but that I will come right back to it when I’m less busy with my academics.

 

Photos courtesy of Wilson Peterson Ass. and Youth Rights.com.

What did Clayton do wrong?
A couple of months ago, the Clayton District School in Atlanta, Georgia was the third in the country to loose accreditation. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools found unethical conduct among board members. Some of the board members were ultimately fired. For incompetence? Not quite. They intimidated staff to hire their friends and relatives. Details of the findings are found here.

There are countless implications with loosing accreditation. Already the school has lost over 2000 students. Of course parents are afraid of their children not getting the Hope Scholarship if they remain in the county.

I brought up the Clayton District School issue for two reasons; the unethical behavior of the board members and to show that Americans care about the education of their children. What then went wrong with most of the ballot issues on education this year? Most of them were not passed. It makes me wonder what is going to happen to many of the schools which were hoping for taxes to be increased so they can have a better education.

Where lies the future of American education?
During the summer, I worked with Envisionemi as faculty adviser and had the privilege of meeting many kids from almost all the states. The stories about their schools were similar; lack of educational materials, leaking roofs, unhygienic bathrooms, bad lunches and many more. If the parents in this country only worry about how much money they are paying and not what they will get in return—quality education for their kids. I don’t know what the future of this country will be like. I believe the future of any nation is in the education of its youth.

Having gone to school in an absolutely different country and continent, I thought the American system was perfect. The story is similar across the world. I attended and saw schools in pathetic conditions, but I thought they were due to lack of funding from our government or merely corruption. The American system is not any different. Those of you who have kids should be worried about everything except if you can afford private schools.

I can keep writing about this because education is my biggest passion. I wonder what Rob Jewel who used to teach here at Kent would think. His wife and son or is it a daughter are teachers too. I come from a family of teachers too so I decided to devote this post to education. It makes it easy for me to relate to the falling standards of education across the world and the laissez-faire attitude of people who should be concerned.

Is there anything like international ethics?
Back to the conduct of the Clayton school board. Some board members were found guilty others were not. But ethics or morality someone may say is common across the world. I beg to disagree. What appears to be unethical that is forcing staff to hire their relatives or friends may not be seen as a big deal in my country.  Not that people think is right for people to use their positions for their friends and family benefits, but people just think that you’ve got to know someone to get hired.
This article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution will not have made it to any newspaper in many parts of the world unless it was talking about a government official. Most people think it’s unethical for government officials to use their positions to influence hiring or firing. That is what my friend Foluke who used to be a journalist in Nigeria thinks.
Is ethics then the same across the world? Let me know what you think.

What are GMs?
Since 2006, the US government has been talking about exporting genetically modified food to the African continent. The government even suggested exporting the know how to African scientists so they can go back to their countries and help out. Check out Chris’s post. But what are genetically modified foods (GM)? This is what ProQuest defines them to be.

Is it ethical to produce or consume them?
There are many ethical issues with GM research and consumption. Some of them include violation of natural organisms’ intrinsic values, tampering with nature by mixing genes among species, mixing animal and plant genes, stress for animals. Others are that it is not mandatory for people to label GM foods. GM products are mixed with non GM products in stores without labeling.
Watch and listen to this video from Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception.

What roles are the FDA and FTC playing in this?
There appear to be a lot of issues here that PETA could pick up. I wonder if they’ve done so or they are just going along with the FDA.
But, can we trust the FDA? The FDA’s recent press release suggested that very soon there will be genetically modified meat and fish on our kitchen tables. The FDA says it’s ok to eat GM food. The Bush administration has been backing efforts by farmers and scientists to make this happen. The FDA could be manipulating the system. There is no doubt about the fact that natural or organic food are better than any other food that went through any processes.

Kevin Trudeau, writer of the Natural Cures They Don’t Want You To Know About has a personal crusade against the FDA. Here is what he says about the FDA and regulating bodies in general.

From the retail outlets of supermarkets of huge publicly traded corporations comes processed, manipulated, engineered food products—produced by other wings of the same corporations. These artificially toxic treats are then sold with the blessing of the FTC and FDA—government institutions charged with safeguarding the public good laying the foundations for future diseases and chronic ill health for the consumer, and a guaranteed source of revenue for the medical and pharmaceutical sectors.

Is there any good in GMs?
There are many advantages though with GM crops, animals and even the environment. Some benefits with crops are:
• Enhanced taste and quality
• Reduced maturation time
• Increased nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance
• Improved resistance to disease, pests, and herbicides
• New products and growing techniques
But do you prefer these advantages to the ethical and health issues that are raised above?

Are organic foods the way to go?
I grew up on natural foods grown either from my mother’s backyard or from farms not too far off. I prefer organic food but it’s difficult to live solely on an organic diet in the United States.
Like I mentioned in my COOL post, Americans are more concerned with what they can afford especially in these difficult economic times. One of the advantages with GM is that it will make food products cheaper. Most of us will be torn between our tight family budgets, health and ethics. The choice is yours.

I called my mother in Ghana over the weekend. I was pondering over my previous post. If you remember, my number one question for your ethical barometer is to ask if your mother will be happy with your decision.
I am grateful to my mother for the great values she has instilled in me.

Can laid down rules or guidelines make your organization ethical?

Some people will agree with me with regards to putting your organization at the bottom of your principles but others will not. As I was browsing as I usually do for fun, I came upon an article by Sacramento Business Journal which I thought was very interesting. One particular point the writer made was that having principles done on paper is not sufficient to guarantee that ethical decisions-making is part of a company’s corporate culture.
How true is that?

Edelman Public relations firm was caught with its pants down with the Wal-mart flog. From what I read, there’ve been two other flogs that have been revealed that the firm is involved in. But the firm has A Code of Conduct which is the same as an Ethics Guidelines. So what went wrong? That such a huge PR firm will get into such a mess. People in the blogosphere could not hide their resentment. Shel Holtz, one of my favorite bloggers questioned Edelman for not giving their side of the story. Check out the entire post here.

Back to your roots

The point of my referring to Edelman is this; ethics is not something you can teach a person or learn when you’re already a matured person. It takes years.

You may be wondering if I think Ethics Guidelines are unnecessary. Not quite. I just believe that ethics like charity begins at home. If upcoming graduates are anticipating working in ethical organizations, the type that Christina my classmate will like to work at, let’s start with our children.

There is no doubt about the Biblical quotation that says: teach a child the way he should go and when he grows up, he’ll not depart from it.

Who is to blame?

The huge scandals American has experienced in the past ten years are red flags. The greed with Enron and several other corporations are examples that easily come to mind. These are as a result of a society which is ignoring an important value system as the family.

Laura Jimenez’s a student blogger in London said PR professionals are helping build a company’s reputation but not necessarily following any code of ethics. Do you agree with her?

I think that the companies who have good ethical practices are simply lead by people who were properly brought up. What I mean by properly brought up is a person who will answer yes to all five questions I posed in my previous post.

 

Photos courtesy of: Modern Image Arts and Daves Travel Corner

The other day, Christina Dziak one of my course mates said she wanted to work for an ethical organization. But which fresh PR professional won’t want to? I asked. But I know that in the real world people end up compromising.

Every organization has its own corporate culture and when someone is employed, the person gets indoctrinated into it. Where does the value system of the individual professional come in then? From what I’ve heard from professionals, the best way to deal with it is to get out if you can’t deal with it. Most of us know how far we can stretch ourselves. If you think that you can’t work with company A because you’re aware they utilize sweatshops for maximum profit, get out!

Ethics as we all know has to do with struggling to make a decision between two rights. For most people, ethics and morality are synonymous. The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics has a little caption on its website which reads ‘morality requires regular reflection on the day-to-day decisions that confront us.’ When we find ourselves in ethical dilemmas, we usually have no one but ourselves to figure out what to do. Can we strike a balance between the two sides? This reminds me of a song in one of Ama Ata Aidoo’s plays; The Dilemma of a Ghost. Here’s how best I remember the song…

I find myself at a crossroad
Between two towns
Shall I go to Cape Coast or to Elmina?
I don’t know
I can’t tell

Obviously we all find ourselves in similar situations in our everyday lives. What do you do? Call your friends, family or professor to ask what to do? Most of the time, we handle them ourselves. The decisions we make are as a result of our value system. How we were brought up, what we deem moral or immoral. These often unconsciously affect the ethical decisions that we make. How do we apply the everyday ethics that we’ve acquired over the years to PR?

As PR professionals, we’re bound to face ethical dilemmas; our ability to make sound decisions will make us better counselors. Corporate executives will find us valuable enough to include us in valuable decisions making.

When you find yourself in a dilemma, ask yourself the following questions.

• Will my mother be proud of my decision?

• Will I sip a glass of wine to celebrate my success when I think of my decision in my quiet moments?

• Who will my decision affect?

• Will it make me happy if they were family?

• Is my conscience clear?

• Does it affect the bottom line of the organization or agency I work for?

As you can see, at the bottom of the list is your organization. I believe that by the time you work your way down the ladder to your organization, you will have made an ethical decision. Try out these tips and let me know how they worked for you.

When the weather man on NBC said on Thursday the weekend will be dry, I was excited.

October 11 was Homecoming at Kent State University. There was talk during the entire week about the activities especially the football game. I am not a football fun though but I always want the Golden Flashes to do well. But to the disappointment of most students, they always loose. And they lost.

Troopergate Probe closes on Friday.

It wasn’t just the Homecoming that I was excited about, but also the Troopergate Probe will come to an end on Friday. I was interested in the outcome. Did Sarah Palin violate any ethical codes or guidelines?

Much to my disappointment she did. The Branchflower report indicated that she violated Alaska’s statute 39.52.110(a). Was she wrong in firing Walt Monegan? This is what the statute states:

The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.

Palin did her job but…

I will agree with Allahpundit that Palin did her job by firing Monegan but she abused her power as governor. It makes me wonder what she will do when she is VP. The violation of trust in the Troopergate issue is an Alaskan issue but the American people have the right now to mistrust her.

This is clearly a bad week for the McCain campaign. In such crisis situation how is the strategist handling it? Both the Democratic and Republican campaigns have intensified their negative campaigns after the conventions. Check out Austin’s post on negative campaign.

What can be done?

I have 3 major suggestions on how the strategist can possibly handle this situation.

• Give Sarah Palin more media training: she appears distracted often by the media.

• Anticipate tough questions from the media: The media always asks the most dreadful questions so it will pay to know them.
• Find answers to the tough questions and shelf them: You’ll need them for a rainy day.

If these make sense to you, pass them to Steve Schmidt. I’ll be sure it will be used in the campaign strategy.

Meanwhile, let’s all watch out for the polls this week. I suspect a continuous nose dive. Let’s also watch out for Obama. Will he make a case out of Palin’s unethical behavior?

I love grilled fish.

When I say grilled fish I mean fish with the bones still intact not the boneless types usually found in American restaurants.

Aurelia, my boyfriend’s cousin also loves grilled fish. Last year December we spent the holidays together in her sister’s house in South Carolina. Her sister grilled some fish. Oh we all went for it immediately. Just as Aurelia bit into the fish someone asked, do you know where the fish originated from? Aurelia said I hope it’s not from China. Another person said Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

I just shrug my shoulders and kept eating my fish. I believe in the ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ phrase. As long as I don’t know where food is coming from, I will eat without any problems. But when I know, it affects my appetite.

Why am I yapping on about my love for grilled fish? I recently read an article Lisa Abraham of the Akron Beacon Journal wrote about the new law called Country-of-origin-law popularly called COOL. It went into effect on September 30. The law mandates all retail stores to put the country of origin of all meat and fresh vegetables and nuts in their stores. That means people will be able to tell where meat and fresh foods come from. It will be up to them to decide whether they want to buy or not. Isn’t that cool!

Slash food indicated that congress took the law serious after the recent outbreak of food related diseases from China. Congress finally passed it after six long years. In spite of the big bucks giant stores like Walmart put in to stop it from happening. Tell you what, USDA is very serious about the law and will go after the ass of any company which doesn’t comply.

The stores have up to six months to put up the labels. Since I saw Lisa’s article, I have been looking in the stores to see if they’re complying. Most of the stores in the Kent area have labels. Giant Eagle and Save-A-Lot which I visited at the weekend have their labels up.

But, can we trust our local retail stores to do the right thing? In spite of the complex coding related to importing food, it is up to the retail stores to do the right thing. They can decide to put whatever labels they think will appeal to consumers.

Patriotism over cost

Ideally, most Americans talk about consuming only food and products from the United States. That sure is a great idea. It will keep the local farmers in business and put out competitors like China and Mexico.

But with what is happening in Wall Street, all of us on Main Street are beginning to sound like my mother when the family was going through a difficult financial period. She will say, think cheap and affordable prizes always. Doesn’t that sound like the slogan of a monster store? ‘Low Prizes Always.’ Ha ha! So Americans will be torn between been patriotic and saving money.

There is a $1000 fine for any store which violates the law. Will it be the basis for stores to be ethical?

In the retail business, one of the key components is building a relationship of trust with your customers. Will the stores choose the bottom line over trust? That will spell doom for any retail business.

Cool is a fine example of law clashing with ethics. Most socially irresponsible companies make decisions based on the fear of the law not because it’s the right thing to do. Those retail stores who decide behind the doors to do whatever they want should reexamine their consciences. Your customers deserve the truth.

Do the right thing!

Photo courtesy: USDA and Hanayuki Japaneses restaurant

Should Professionals be advocates?
The public relations member code of ethics states, Public relations professionals serve the public interest by serving as responsible advocates for those we represent.

In the fall of 2007, when I started my PR masters program I needed a job on campus. The easiest one I got was at the Kent State Dining Services. I’ve come to believe strongly that though my job at the dining services is a temporary one, I’ll be a responsible advocate as much as I can. It hasn’t been an easy journey. Why? An organization with a good reputation doesn’t need to do much to advertise itself.

But Kent State University like most educational institutions has its own problems. People ask me, so how is the food at the hub? Is it good? It’s always a difficult question for me personally. I am usually torn between being a good advocate for dining services and what I actually think of some of the food.

Have you ever asked yourself, am I a good advocate for the organization I work for? It’s a dilemma when you work with an organization which doesn’t represent your personal values but you just do so for the money.
You will even find yourself in a much deeper ethical dilemma if you’re a PR professional. Hopefully the PRSA code of ethics will serve as guidelines for all practitioners so that we don’t fail the organizations we work for.

Am I an advocate?
Absolutely, as PR professionals, we must always strive to be the conscience of our organizations. May be when you do an almost insignificant job like serving ice-cream at the Ambrosia, it may not seem like PR. But you do have a role to play in the reputation of Kent State.

I had the honor of being in Davis Young’s class in the fall of 2007. He’s the former president of Edward Howard public relations firm. Young emphasized in his book, Building Your Company’s Good Name, that a company’s future and the future of its employees are the responsibility of the employees themselves. So if Kent State’s reputation depends on employees like me, what is it doing to make me an advocate? As student employees at Kent State University, we have ethical responsibilities at our various units.