2012 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

do good communications work against their will to profit.‖ They also expressed interest in
understanding ―how managers make ethical decisions.‖
In addition, there was a focus on the need to understand the ethical course of action for
social media dilemmas: ―With the rise of social media as a dominant outlet for our industry.
…we need to be well versed in the emerging media and the hypothetical dilemmas that may
arise.‖ Similarly, a participant explained, ―I think lines are blurrier than ever with new media. …
There needs to be a loud discussion, a media campaign maybe, to make modern PR ethics a key
industry topic, more than just pointing out the bad examples.‖ Another practitioner disagreed,
explaining that companies and agencies will learn the ethics of social media as they get punished
for transgressions, such as ―the fake Wal-Mart blog created by another agency a few years ago.‖
Discussion
Ethical Issues in Agencies
The results of the first research question point to the persistence of a variety of ethical
issues, especially those involving client management and social media. Other areas include gift
giving, ghostwriting, voting for clients in contests, and performing work that conflicts with
personal beliefs. One possible reason why client management was the most significant source of
ethical problems for participants is that people think they can get away with it, which reinforces
the importance of the recommendation to hold individuals accountable for their decisions (Lee &
Cheng, 2011). Some agencies hold their employees accountable for poor client management
practices, which was evidenced by participants‘ descriptions of people getting fired. The
potential concealment of unethical client management practices suggests that clients might
consider asking more questions of their agencies based on the problems described in the results,
such as confirming who is doing which work on an account team.
Requests for Support
In response to the second research question, many Millennials focused on the importance
of ethical training by educators, employers, and public relations associations, although some
participants did not think further training would help. Some Millennials explained that the
content of ethics classes and codes must be consistent with what an agency actually does, which
is the same thing that many senior public relations executives expressed in a recent study
(see Lee & Cheng, 2011). One reason why ethics codes and classes can be useful to Millennials
is that they can use the content to persuade their supervisors to do the right thing. Previous
research suggests that Millennials want to be mentored and groomed for senior positions
(Gallicano, 2012), so approaches that tie ethical training into mentorship and professional
development are advised.
Dissent
Although Millennials sometimes observed ethical infractions, in many cases (even
outside of social media), they stood their ground, which provides good news in light of research
that suggests that practitioners under the age of 30 are less likely than other generations to
express dissent (Berger & Reber, 2006). This study provides preliminary evidence that many
young practitioners stand their ground at times, even if young practitioners speak out less often
than seasoned professionals. The contextual details of this study explain why young practitioners
speak out less often, beyond the initial explanation offered by Berger and Reber (2006) about not
wanting to rock the boat. In addition to this explanation, young practitioners also speak out less
often when they perceive a decision to be out of their hands, which could help explain why
Millennial respondents to a survey tended to duck ethical dilemmas when possible (Curtin et al.,
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