Professional Documents
Culture Documents
actually produced various types of Cream Cracker Biscuits in market. Unfortunately, the
Cream that used by X Factory had certain ingredients that include the unhealthy
ingredient such as Melamine. After a period of time, the factory started receiving
customers who complaining that they feel uncomfortable and have side effect after ate the
The Managing Director of the Factory wanted George to tell their customers that
their Biscuits are safe to eat and the ingredients of the biscuits are healthy.
Director Instruction by cover up the truth of the story, or should he tell the truth to the
customers?
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Introduction
As a media profession, they will face an ethical issue in their working field. The
ability to explain and make ethical choices is important for them. Ethics has come to the
mean learning to make rational choices between what is good and bad, what are morally
justifiable action and what is the other way to settle it. Philosophers have tried to draft a
series of rules or guidelines governing how to make ethical choices. A decision making
model that allows professions to make ethical choices systematically and help them what
Literature Review
There have various points of views fro Scholar. According to May (1996, p.2), she
argued that the moral concepts need to be understood as embedded in social structures
and processes such as socialization, solidarity, and collective consciousness. She hopes to
show how social and organizational worlds enable or constrain professionals’ sense of
their social responsibility as a “fiduciary duty”. This means that “those who have
voluntarily placed themselves in positions of trust concerning the interests of others must
give careful consideration to those on interests” (May, 1996). Truth is more than a bonus;
it is tangible assets that must be created, sustained, and build upon. (Rest, J, 2004, p.7).
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Lavelle & Borrus (2004, p.22) has proposed a four component model of
2) Moral judgment--- the ability to use moral reasoning to determine what behaviors
4) Moral character—having the courage to do the right thing, despite the costs and
difficulties in doing so
The four components actually describe the details for the people must have the ethical
The Potter Box is created by Harvard philosopher, Ralph Potter. Potter Box is a
decision making model that allows professions to make ethical systematically. Generally,
it is always used by communication professional. The Potter Box can be used by anyone
According to Guth and Marsh (2003), he elaborated on the concept of the four
dimensions of the Potter Box and provides clear definition to the action steps. The
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authors’ clearly defined eight-step process, aided by the Potter Box model, is presented in
Philosophical
The first step on applying the potter box is to define the situation. In this case, the
situation was: A Public Relations who work in X Biscuits Factory. The cream has mixed
with Melamine and cause customers feel uncomfortable after eating it. The managing
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director asked PR practitioner to lie to public that the ingredients of the biscuits are
George has to consider few factors before make a final decision. As a PR, He has to be
honest and sincere to the public. He has a duty to tell the truth and reveal the information
to the FDA that the biscuits have been mixed with Melamine which will cause people
afflicted with kidney stone or nephropathy. Unfortunately, this action may cause financial
loss in billions and lost of trustworthy in public. On the other hand, by telling the truth to
FDA about the incident will likely to prevent future consumers from suffering the
The third step in the Potter Box model is to link the ethical principle with its
associated applicable value. There are 3 theories that linked to the ethical philosophies,
should be honest to reveal and report to public as well as FDA is categorical imperative
and also to prevent consumers from suffering the negative side effects of the taking
biscuits.
The 4th step is to identify the principle of loyalties. This is related to the parties
that PR practitioner ultimately loyal to. PR practitioners should be honest to the society.
The reason why Mr. George should tell the truth to public it is because melamine cannot
used in food industry which can cause kidney failure. Melamine will remains inside the
kidney and forms into stones blocking the tubes. And they might face the bladder
problems. The serious problem that may cause is kidney will not function properly and
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Finally, in step 5 of the Potter Box, the final ethical decision must be made by the
practitioners able to make a justified decision at this point PR practitioner can reach a
conclusion. Mr. George should suggest his Managing Director to recall all the Biscuit
products and make a public apologize to all the consumers. For those who get affected
after taken the product, the Company would give the compensation to them.
Utilitarianism
Base on the Ethical Dilemma Situation, Utilitarianism Theory stated that Mr.
George should tell the truth to the customers, because George action can bring the
happiness to majority people, who are the whole society. Utilitarian ethical theory is
founded on the ability to predict the consequences of an action (Ridley Aaron, 1998). To
a utilitarian, the choice that yields the greatest benefit to the most people is the choice
that is ethically correct. George action is considered as right thing because he brings
about the best outcome in the overall situation, or for the greatest number of people.
Furthermore, George prefers the highest good should refer to the quality, but not
the quantity. People should attempt to promote the greatest good for the greatest number
of people (Louis Elvin Day, 2006). This means that the George should realize that if he
tells the truth to public, the public will get concern to this current issue and do not eat this
biscuits. This will save the public to involve in the side effect after eating the biscuits. As
a result, the majority people do not get harm because of the disease after eating their
company biscuits.
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A utilitarian ethic based on the majoritarian principle will have to concede that there
will be cases where people are made happier by giving them less freedom rather than more
(Ryan, A.1974, p.131). The ultimate goal is the same as its predecessor but quality of
happiness is the same important. This means that the goal of the action of George is
important to the customers because the whole society actually involves in this case and the
truth of the story can reduce their harm, which is the disease.
Categorical Imperative
On the Kant perspective, George need to tell the truth to the customers because
due to human have duty to do the right thing. As a PR Practitioner, George has the duty to
be ethical and should not lie to public. If he follow his Managing Director instruction by
cover up the truth, this will be breaking his duty as a Professional Public Relations, who
for the value of Humanity and treating the interests of each as counting for one and one
only. people should always acting certain actions to produce the best overall outcome.
This means that the action that being done by individual should always have a good will
in order to bring a good outcome for us. The good will that mentioned here is important
for George to make a suitable decision so that the results of the action taken can bring a
satisfied outcome. In this case, George should built up a sincere good will, by tell the
customers the actual incident so that can save the customers life (Outcome).
To illustrate this point in a clear way, Kant justifies it through the Universability
Test by explaining how people can justify the good will. First of all, George should put in
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the maxim by thinking: As a PR Practitioner, if I lied to the public and cover up the truth
of the story to the public. Then, I assume that the whole world PR in every organization is
lying to the public and does it cause lots of problem. In this case, George can be able to
justify that if the whole world people lying to others, it will cause lots of serious
problems occurred, such as lots of customers will die and at last the Organization also
According to Aristotle, men look not at the greatness of the evil past, but the
greatness of the good to follow. This means that as a human being, we have the instinct to
do the good thing in stead of doing bad things. We been trained to be a good person since
young. Besides law, everyone of us do have our own principles to follow. In natural law,it
Mr George have the right to do what he felt is good to do,he cannot run away
from his conscience. Because in naturally he has the responssible to tell the truth to the
public. Certainly, he also have the principles to follow because he respect other people
Besides, Mr George need to put himself in other shoes. Mr George have to put
himself as one of the victim who suffer from disease after taking the biscuits. If he as a
Victim,definitely he also want an explanation from the company so that he can know
whats really happening. Of course, if something bad happen in his health, George will
need the compansation or maybe need the on behalf of the company to console him as
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well. This is actually to show that the company really appreciate the consumers and
According to IPRM, Public Relations Practitioner shall not create or make use of
any organisation purporting to serve some announced cause but actually promoting a
special or private interest of a member of his client or his employer which is not
apperant. George should not be bias to support his company and ignore the public.
Therefore, he should explore the truth to public. In order to create the awareness to
misleading information, and shall use proper care to avoid doing so. He has a positive
duty to maintain truth, accuracy and good taste. This means that as a professional Public
Relation, George has the duty to identify the misleading information and find out a good
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Conclusion
In the nutshell, Mr. George should suggest his Managing Director to recall all the
Biscuit products and make a public apologize to all the consumers. For those who get
affected after taken the product, the Company would give the compensation to them. This
is the win win situation that Mr. George can do to protect the reputation of the company
and to avoid more people get affected by the disease. This is the best solution to settle the
case to protect the image of the company. On the other hand, it also can protect other
With this rational action taken, it can create trustworthy within the consumers
towards the organization. This is a professional way to overcome this issue before it
turns in to a Crisis. If the company can consider about the ethical and rational decision
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References
Adler, P. S. (2002). Corporate scandals: It’s time for reflection in business schools.
Guth, D. W., & Marsh, C. (2000). Public relations: A values-driven approach. Boston:
Larry, M. (1996). The socially responsive self. Socially theory and professional ethics.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZVFpyuVhNEC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=May
+%281996%29+argue+that+our+moral+concepts+%E2%80%9Cneed+to+be+unde
rstood+as+embedded+in+social+structures+and+processes+such+as+socialization,
+solidarity,+and+collective+consciousness%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=IfSX8G
S696&sig=wKb9nR1E4WaVux5kE3NJG64eGDw&hl=en&ei=htlSvDVOJXs6AO
P6KRP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Lavelle, L., & Borrus, A. (2004, January 26). Ethics 101 for CEOs. Business Week, Issue
3867, 88.
Rest, J. (1994). Background: theory and research. In J. R. Rest & D. Narvaez (EDS.),
Associates, Inc.
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