2012 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

2011). The lack of control some Millennials perceive with ethical dilemmas can also hurt the
relationship they have with their employers (Curtin et al., 2011), which is not surprising given
the importance of control mutuality to many organization-public relationships. Thus, it is
important for employers to encourage employees to voice their ethical concerns.
Social media dissent. Given that Millennials tend to identify social media leadership as a
defining characteristic of their generation of practitioners and are eager to leverage this
experience into opportunities to make a difference (Gallicano, in press), it is also not surprising
to discover that most respondents hold their ground on social media dilemmas, despite research
suggesting that many tend to avoid confronting employers about other ethical dilemmas (e.g.,
planting questions at a public meeting, attending activist meetings undercover, and not revealing
the real sponsor for an unbranded campaign, Curtin et al., 2011). As one participant explained,
the industry is slowly beginning to figure out where to draw the line on social media issues and is
primarily doing so as public relations practitioners observe others getting negative publicity for
particular tactics.
Forms of rational argument. This study builds upon Berger and Reber‘s (2006)
framework for dissent in the workplace by fleshing out the area of rational argument in a way
that is easy to recall. This is an important contribution because it can help employees consider a
range of arguments available to them when expressing dissent through rational argument, and it
is useful for teaching public relations leadership. Three forms of rational argument are presented
below, and they can be used in isolation, or they can be combined.
As found in this study, one form of rational argument is to show an employer how he or
she can get the same results or better by using an ethical solution. A shorthand name for this line
of rational argument is the better path argument. The path is inherently better because it is
ethical, it does not jeopardize the organization‘s reputation, and it can deliver at least the same
quality of results. One example is the Millennial who argued successfully against ghost blogging
by explaining that no one could tell the spokesperson‘s story in a genuine way other than the
spokesperson. To prepare students, public relations instructors can introduce ethical dilemmas
and ask students to come up with creative solutions for the better path argument.
Another line of argumentation for rational appeals can be referred to as the safe path
argument. This argument is a fear appeal that involves explaining the damage that can occur to
the organization‘s immediate success, long-term success, or both when people find out what
happened. This line of argument can be especially useful for persuading people who are
unmoved by direct appeals to moral or ethical concerns. Although many participants in this study
abstractly referred to long-term success in accounts of their safe path arguments, ideally, this
argument should be accompanied by concrete examples of similar situations in which an
organization was caught and suffered from the results. It is not surprising, then, that several
participants suggested that ethics trainings focus on real-world examples of the damaging
outcomes that result from various unethical decisions. In public relations classes, instructors can
present ethical dilemmas and ask students to construct a safe path argument, which would
include finding examples of similar cases.
An additional line of argumentation for rational appeals can be referred to as the moral
path argument. The moral path argument involves making appeals based on moral principles,
ethics, or both. This line of argumentation can be especially effective with people who have
publicly expressed their commitment to ethics through their words, actions, or both. Merely
objecting to a decision because it was unethical worked well for some of our participants;
however, in a couple cases, the questionable decision was still implemented because a supervisor
43