2009 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

that public relations was an exceptional—more ethical and socially oriented than other
occupations—profession.
The sense of pride about the profession is one of the components of
professionalism, along with a practitioner’s willingness to promote the image of the
profession and pursue qualities and ideals within the profession (VanZandt, 1990). The
students’ pride about public relations was noticeable in many reports. As an example, a
participant, explaining what “leadership in PR” means to her, wrote: “To me it means
being successful and hard-working, caring and self-motivated person. It means being
good as your job” (italic is added).
In general, participants’ reports appeared to be in accordance with Bowen’s
(2007) statement, “In the public relations discipline, ethics includes values such as
honesty, openness, loyalty, fair-mindedness, respect, integrity, and forthright
communication” (p. 3). The fact that students indicated only three categories of terminal
values (Wisdom, A comfortable life, and Social recognition) as important values for PR
leaders might be explained by the fact that the number of instrumental values a person
possess is several times more than the number of terminal values (Rokeach, 1973).
However, as the author noted, “One mode of behavior may be instrumental to the
attainment of several terminal values; several modes may be instrumental to the
attainment of one terminal value” (p. 12). Overall, participants perceived PR leaders as
noble individuals who are ethical, responsible, motivated, caring, empathetic, respected,
and charismatic.
Conclusion
The findings of this study contribute to an understanding of the image of the
public relations profession and leadership held by public relations majors. Student
respondents appear to perceive public relations as an occupation that is somewhat
superior to other professions. Although their views were skewed toward the “glamorous”
(Bowen, 2003) aspect of PR practitioners’ careers, an important finding is that students
regard public relations as an inherently ethical and society-oriented practice. In addition,
their interpretations of the professional leadership suggest that participants thought about
leaders as transformational leaders, who motivate and inspire “by providing meaning and
challenge to their followers’ work” (Bass, 1998, p. 5).
The intertwining of the two kinds of perceptions—public relations is more
prestigious and more ethical than other professions—might indicate that these students
possess an idealized understanding of the profession. This finding contradicts previous
research: Bowen (2003) found that new or potential PR majors had negative perceptions
of the field. Besides the fact that Bowen’s (2003) and present studies were concerned
with different research questions, another explanation for the discrepancy between the
two findings is that 57 percent of participants of the present study were juniors and
seniors, who had had a few specialized courses in public relations before they
participated in the survey.
If this explanation is correct, it might be suggested that public relations education
can have an impact on students with respect to overcoming their negative perceptions of
the profession. However, the participants of the study were not surveyed in their first year
at the university, and the authors are careful about drawing any conclusions about the
effectiveness of public relations education.
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