September/October
Issue 3
Mothers know best when it comes to ethics By Anna Dauksa On September 15, 2011, a networking dinner was held at the Tuscany Steak and Pasta House in Decatur, Ill. for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) members. There were students from Illinois State University and Eastern Illinois University in attendance. Before dinner we had the chance to walk around, interact and mingle with professionals from the local community. There was a mixture of professionals there including different PR fields such as insurance, politics and agriculture. Each dinner table had mix of students and professionals in order to interact with one another more easily and, of course, to network with. After a delicious dinner we had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Steve Iseman, a member of P.R.S.A. and professor and director of the public relations program at Ohio Northern University. He has been the faculty advisor for Ohio Northern’s award winning P.R.S.S.A. chapter since 1993. As a result of September’s Ethic’s Month, Dr. Iseman gave a short PowerPoint presentation focusing on ethics. He talked about what is right and what is wrong, the personal benefits, different standards among the variety of people and situations and he emphasized to always remember the importance of reputation. There should not be any gray areas to a black and white situation when concerning ethical choices, even though at the time we may think there is because of a conflict of interest. He provided a simple checklist that would
The attendees of the networking dinner with Dr. Steve Iseman.
make it easier to think of what is right or wrong. The simplest one to remember is, “What would your mother say?” because as we all know, mother knows best! We were then presented with an ethicallychallenging scenario where each table had to figure out what was the right way to deal with the situation. As we figured out what the ethical decisions were and why, the professionals and experienced PRSA members advised us to always be honest no matter what the situation is. They reinforced that in the long run, honesty goes farther. Dr. Iseman finished off his presentation by stating that good ethics is good business and to tell the truth and prove it with action. He elaborated on this by saying that a company’s true character is expressed by its people and that we should always keep that in mind when making tough decisions in our future careers.
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