Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to Best Practice (PR in Practice)

Components of the ethics audit

The components of an ethics audit are not a universally accepted standard. However, there are aspects of your organization that will be examined closely. The following are the core components of the ethics audit:

• Your organizational mission, values and philosophy and an assessment of the extent to which these are a part of the everyday decision-making process at all levels and in all functions.

• Your policies governing any ethically related issues from on-the-job dating to whistleblowing (and any other issues discussed in the foregoing chapters) and the extent to which these are applied fairly and equitably.

• The absence of policies on the above issues.

• Your record of behavior, both public and private, as assessed by both internal and external sources.

• How ethical the leadership in your organization is viewed by both internal and external publics.

• Ethics training and development within the organization: presence, absence, value.

• Input from discussions with management and non-management employees in assessing both ethical behaviour and perceptions of ethical behaviour.