Public Relations Professional Flaws and Solutions: Confidentiality Breaches in Organizational Practice
Overview
This paper examines the critical flaw of confidentiality breaches in public relations practice, analyzing how PR practitioners compromise client information through various channels including media and social networks. The paper identifies multiple causes of such breaches—ranging from deliberate revenge-motivated leaks to unconscious information sharing—and proposes solutions involving root cause investigation and collaborative conflict resolution between employers and PR practitioners.
What this essay covers
- Introduction establishing PR principles and the importance of confidentiality in professional practice
- The Flaw section detailing manifestations of confidentiality breaches and their underlying causes
- Solution section presenting investigative and collaborative approaches to remedying information leaks
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Public Relation Flaw and Solution
Public relation is a fascinating profession. Like any other field, it has its principles that practitioners should follow for a guaranteed professional service. The PR field can be more challenging because it involves confidential information about the client that PR practitioners should keep confidential at all times (Johnston & Mark; Bernays). Therefore, flaws may sometimes happen when a practitioner compromises the principle of confidence for some reason, but the issue can be solved.
The Flaw
PR practitioners are mandated to act on behalf of the employer to create and maintain their employer's good public image. This includes responding to organizational crises that may taint the good public image (Johnston & Mark; Motion, Robert, Shirley, 164). To do this perfectly, he should always know most secrets about his employer because it helps him respond to a crisis effectively. He must then always keep confidential the information he knows about his employer because rivals could use it against the company in unfair competition.
However, flaws happen sometimes, and PR practitioners compromise the principle of confidentiality in their profession. They end up leaking confidential information to the public through mass and social media or through conversations with friends who work with competing organizations (Motion, Robert, Shirley, 176). This flaw manifests itself in several ways: bloggers begin sharing confidential information or publishing leading stories about a company's information. The mainstream media may also begin sharing information about the company through the business news segment and discussions.