The Institute for Public Relations has initiated a major new research program to explore credibility, trust and ethics in the context of public relations practice. The new research thrust will be guided by an advisory panel led by Dr. Paul Argenti, Professor of Corporate Communication at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
“There are plenty of indications that credibility and trust are falling, but precious little solid research telling us what to do about it,” said Louis C. Williams, chairman of L.C. Williams & Associates, who chairs the Institute’s Research Committee.
Credibility, trust and ethics emerged as the most important topics to senior public relations leaders who participated in a recent Institute study aimed at identifying new research priorities. The study began with a scan of major public relations publications and conferences from 2001 to 2005 to identify the topics commanding the most attention. Almost 1,400 coded entries provided the basis for a survey of the Boards of the Arthur W. Page Society and the Institute for Public Relations.
Despite the importance of ethics to the senior level respondents, the survey showed no agreement on whether the public relations function should be responsible for ensuring adherence to ethical principles within the corporation. “The link between public relations and ethical decision-making is clear in the comments we received in the survey, but ethics also must be integrated into organizational structure and processes,” said Williams, whose firm conducted the research.
Other items that rated highly in the study included skills-based areas of face-to-face communications, writing, organizational reputation, employee communications, planning/strategy, building audience relationships and utilizing the Internet.
Frank Ovaitt, president and CEO of the Institute, said that the organization would also continue its strong research focus in such areas as measurement and evaluation, international public relations, diversity and corporate/organizational communications.
The Institute for Public Relations is an independent foundation dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations. It exists to build and document research-based knowledge in the field of public relations, and to mainstream this knowledge by making it available and useful to practitioners, educators, researchers and the clients they serve. More information at instituteforpr.org.
