You are a speechwriter employed by a public relations agency. One of your agency
ID: 396593 • Letter: Y
Question
You are a speechwriter employed by a public relations agency.
One of your agency’s largest clients is a leading international airline. The client has asked you to write a speech for the Chairman of the Board to deliver at an International Air Transport Association gathering in Geneva, Switzerland. Your client hopes to use the speech as a springboard to open discussion about the subsidies many airlines receive from governments in the countries where these carriers are based.
Your client’s position is that the subsidies create unfair competition and lowers the subsidized airlines’ standards of service, safety and security. Your deadline is immediate and you have the worst writer’s block you’ve ever had in your life.
Through some random Internet searches, you find the perfect speech on YouTube. A member of Panama’s National Assembly delivered it in opposition to the government’s generous subsidiaries of the country’s state-owned airline. It was given in Spanish but posted with subtitles. You are ready to copy it down in English and present it to your client because it is exactly what you have been directed to write. But you’re uncomfortable because you know the speech will not be your own work. The deadline is immediate. What do you do?
Write a 500-1,000-word response.
Your response must include:
1. What ethical issue or conflict is present
2. What factors influence your decision
3. Which key value(s) apply?
4. Who will be affected by this decision and what are your responsibilities to each as a PR pro?
5. Which ethical principle is guiding your decision?
6. A decision of how to act and why
Explanation / Answer
1. Here as per the given scenario the writer is supposed to provide a speech to the client which highlights the client disinterest in the provision of government subsidies. Due to lack of time and some other challenges the writer is facing issues in the completion of work. He finds the exact video in internet and decides to copy it.
The ethical issue or the conflict present in the current situation is the copying of some others work. Since the client is an international organization and the proposed speech is very important a copied work would produce an odd outcome. Copying the subtitles of the video present in the internet can make the speech worthless and can also impact the efficiency of the agency. Hence it is not ethical to copy a work.
2. Here the writer’s decision to copy the subtitles of the speech is influenced by many factors which include the following.
3. The values in the current scenario include the ethical values. The clients expect the original and the situation oriented work from the agency through conducting a deep situation analysis. If the work is just copied from the video it can miss out some point in relation to the organization’s requirement. Hence ethical value is the most highlighted one.
The value towards the customers or clients is also important here. Through performing this action the agency or the writer is just breaking the trust of the client. Whether the issue is identified or not this practice lacks the value towards the customers.
4. Through performing such actions the most affected will be the organization. The organization could produce the speech in the meeting and hence can generate an odd situation as the speech is a copied work of the video popular in the internet. The agency and the writer itself can be impacted by this decision as it can ruin the credibility of the agency.
As a public relations professional, the writer has the responsibility towards the agency and the clients. He holds the responsibility to generate his own work and meet the requirements of the client. He is responsible to maintain the credibility of the agency.
5. Morality and credibility can be ethical principle which is guiding the decision. In the scenario the writer feels uncomfortable while copying the work from internet. This highlights that these ethical values are guiding him.
6. From evaluating the above scenario and implementing the ethical principles it can be decided that the writer should not copy the work from the internet. Rather he can produce his own work through putting more hard work and effort.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.