2012 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

The ethical dilemmas described by Millennials are offered below in order of prominence,
beginning with the dilemmas most commonly discussed. The most significant pressure
participants faced involved breaches of responsibility to clients in attempt to look better,
maximize profits, or both. Breaches of responsibility included helping competitors, committing
malfeasance, overpromising, using the bait and switch, padding media coverage, covering up
mistakes and bad news, and wrongfully billing.
Helping competitors. Numerous participants discussed situations in which there was a
temptation to share private client information:
A coworker of mine was asked by a former boss who was now at a competing agency for
some confidential client documents to help with a pitch for a competitor. All I can figure
out is she wanted to impress this former boss or in some way felt an obligation because
she shared the documents. In the end, she got fired.
Several participants identified the possibility of helping competitors and addressed the dilemma
by not sharing insider information:
Knowing that I had insider knowledge on the competition, I know that it would be wrong
to share that. … In the end, I did participate in the new business pitch. I still feel like this
was, in part, not ethical. But I also was careful not to share any of the ―insider
information‖ I had on my client and on the new business prospect.
Participants had various views about whether insider information could be shared. For example,
one participant wrote
We have, on two different occasions, retained on an account team an individual who had
worked for a competitor to that account less than a year earlier. This type of information
sharing does not sit well with me, but as a relative junior there is little I can do. I
understand that this is commonplace in the industry and is actually looked upon as a
selling point in certain new business situations, but it does seem unethical to me.
Another participant responded, ―If your co-worker didn‘t have to sign a non-disclosure
agreement before leaving the competitor then technically there‘s nothing wrong with this.‖
Another participant discussed working ―under a different company name in order to do work for
a competing client.‖ In this case, the conflict was that the parent companies competed; however,
the product categories were different. In addition, a participant discussed a co-worker who did
freelance work for a client‘s competitor, which was ―not only unethical but a poor decision as it
was not worth the risk of losing the client.‖
Committing malfeasance. Many participants discussed their discomfort with malfeasance:
My agency‘s worst offense in my opinion is knowingly selling services and products that
a client does not need. I understand the pressure of profitability in a rough economy, but
ultimately the services a client does not need will only work to hurt the agency/client
relationship and hinder our results. … My agency needs to stop this practice.
Some people, such as the participant featured above, positioned their discomfort in terms of
long-term effectiveness, and others positioned the issue in term of ethics: ―Pitching them things
or services they don‘t need just to get money for our agency is unethical in my opinion.‖
In addition to stories in which agencies committed malfeasance, other stories showed
agencies that at least initially resisted it or fired employees for it. For example, one participant
discussed her agency‘s unsuccessful attempts to dissuade a client from public relations services
that would result in a ―very low return on investment.‖ The agency ultimately complied with the
requests to avoid losing the account. The Millennial involved reflected, ―I thought this situation
was both damaging to us and to our clients. It is our job as public relations professionals to
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