The State of Ethics Competencies, Training and Moral Efficacy in Public Relations

ABSTRACT The Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) found that early-career professionals are not meeting their supervisors’ expectations in ethics knowledge. The purpose of this study was to identify what ethics competencies public relations practitioners perceive are essential and how they evaluate themselves and their colleagues regarding mastery of these competencies. The study surveyed 314 U.S. public relations and communication practitioners and revealed they perceive the most important ethics competencies to be integrity, leadership and critical thinking. Other valued competencies included a personal code of ethics or values system and ability to identify ethical issues. Early-career professionals were overconfident regarding their mastery of these skills and abilities, while mid-career and senior professionals were modest in their self-assessments. Practitioners who have obtained accreditation/certifications had more confidence in their preparedness to provide ethics counsel and engaged in ethics counseling more frequently. Recommendations for enhancing personal ethics competencies are provided.