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þ Free market theory founded on liberal business
ethos, presumably from Adam Smith:
^ In the free marketplace, the essential (and ethical) aim
for business leaders is to relentlessly pursue capital for
their shareholders. The sole responsibility of business
becomes simple: to facilitate the efficient allocation of
economic resources and maximize shareholder wealth
(i.e., become and remain as profitable as possible).
þ Thus wealth creation transformed from selfish
pursuit to ³moral act.´
u 
 

þ Drganized corporate responsibility programs not
core function of business but seen ancillary to
essential goal of profit-making
þ This includes not only activities such a
philanthropy, civic volunteerisms, and the like,
but also ³people centered´ strategic public
relations, such as
^ Identifying and building mutually beneficial
relationships with publics, or
^ Establishing and maintaining a favorable public
reputation
‰



þ orporate social responsibility more than
philanthropy, not just extraneous activity but
should be core moral part of spectrum of
obligations businesses address as part of
society:
^ ³"I am talking specifically about those decisions which
managers face in the daily course of carrying out the
firm's normal business activities, but which carry
inherent ethical connotations. Examples of these types
of decisions would include those decisions regarding
layoffs, plant closings, workplace safety, product safety,
worker compensation, executive salaries, information
disclosure, or the level of pollution emissions"





þ Yecause every business decision
ultimately affects someone, the decision
should be made responsibly. Public
relations should play a vital role in
decision making by pointing out the
potential implications and consequences
of all of the firm's behaviors not only for
the various stakeholders of the business
but, in the long run, for the organization
itself.
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ü Society is based on atomistic individual

freedom,
ü Individuals are exclusively self-interested;
ü All relationships in economic society are by
nature instrumental;
ü Free markets are inherently stable and self-
regulating;
ü There is a natural division of labor between
business and government; and
ü The sole "ethical" responsibility of business is
to maximize shareholder wealth (profits).
  " 
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þ Adam Smith credited with articulating
basis for liberal business ethos in the
O

 
:
^ ³Every individual . . . neither intends to
promote the public interest, nor knows how
much he is promoting it . . . . Yy directing [his]
industry in such a manner as its produce may
be of greatest value, he intends only his own
gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases,
led by an invisible hand to promote an end
which was not part of his intention. Nor is it
always the worse for society more effectually
than when he really intends to promote it .´

 
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þ ³The problem is not with profitability as a
value or a necessary condition for free
enterprise. The problem lies with
profitability as an exclusive criterion, a
sufficient condition . . . . What could be
harming America and the West is not the
care taken to assure that companies are
profitable, but the belief that if they are
profitable, then everything else must be all
right."
D# 

þ "The numerative, rationalist approach to
management decisions [i.e., the liberal
business ethos] teaches us that well-
trained professional managers can
manage anything. . . . It is right enough to
be dangerously wrong, and it has arguably
led us seriously astray. It doesn't tell us
what the excellent companies have
apparently learned . . . "good managers
make meanings for people, as well as
money."
# 
$%&
þ Mnderlying critiques of liberal business
ethos is that corporations part of society
and as such share same obligations of
other society members towards each
other.
þ Turns out that Adam Smith was
misinterpreted. Even he emphasized one¶s
connection to society as a moral
constraint on individual behavior.
  
"All for ourselves and nothing for other people seems, in
every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the
masters of mankind. . . . It is thus that man, who can subsist
only in society, was fitted by nature to that situation for
which he was made. All the members of human society
stand in need of each others assistance . . .Where the
necessary assistance is reciprocally afforded from love,
from gratitude, from friendship, and esteem, the society
flourishes and is happy. All the different members of it are
bound together by the agreeable bands of love and
affection, and are, as it were, drawn to one common centre
of mutual good offices.
  
³How selfish soever man may be supposed, there
are evidently some principles in his nature which
interest him in the fortune of others, and render
their happiness necessary to him, though he
derives nothing from it except the pleasure of
seeing it. Df this kind is pity or compassion, the
emotion which we feel for the misery of others . . .
. The greatest ruffian, the most hardened violator
of the laws of society, is not altogether without
it.´
 '(
þ Articulate an alternative corporate ethical
framework that places public relations into
the core goals of socially responsible
corporations.
þ Public relations often perceived as
attempt by cynical corporations to
manipulate public opinion.
þ Sadly true in some cases, but PR much
more than this.
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þ Asymmetrical public relations:
^ Supports view that corporations exist to
make money for shareholders.
^ All activities are planned to benefit the
organization, if even at expense of
society.
^ Founded on internal orientation,
efficiency, tradition, and elitism (the firm
knows best what its publics need)
 




þ Symmetrical public relations:
^ Process of compromise and negotiation.
^ Mses research to identify and build relationships not
just with shareholders and customers, but with any
stakeholder group who can be affected by the entity or
affect it through lawsuits, boycotts, negative publicity,
or other means.
^ Even if the public is seen as unimportant, and no matter
how the group pressures the firm, the result is the
same: lost revenues for the firm.
^ Yut the motivations of potential opponents can be
diminished when the organization consistently
communicates with them, knows their needs, and seeks
to establish mutually beneficial interests.



$%&
þ ˜ost PR are asymmetrical,
consistent with popularity of liberal
business ethos.
þ Nonetheless increasing emphasis on
symmetrical, particularly given
inequities that exist, particularly in
developing and transitional societys.




þ orporations can be positive forces in building
infrastructures that lift societies out of poverty and spark
economic growth.
þ They can encourage the protection of basic human rights in
all parts of the world.
þ They can harness local resources in ways that assist, not
harm, the local environment .
þ A public relations role in these activities would be to work
with the local influentials to determine the needs, then
marshall the proper resources to help meet those needs.
Yut such a role would require a symmetrical approach to
global public relations, and that approach seems rare in
today's business world.

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D

þ As a result of asymmetrical behaviors, many corporations
face skepticism or even hostility in host countries.
þ ritics in developing nations see capitalism as a way for
wealthy nations to maintain power over other societies.
þ Dthers view multinationals as outsiders who do not fit with
their own cultures.
þ As a result, corporations become thwarted in their ³liberal´
goal to make profits.
þ Even if profits are not lost from direct fines or other
penalties, they must be funneled into fighting the
opposition.
! 
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þ Research that indicates a direct correlation
between corporate reputation and long-term
stock fluctuations: the better the reputation, the
higher the prices; the lower the reputation, the
less overall increase.
þ If businesses take care of societal needs first,
their reputations should flourish.
þ If reputations remains solid, businesses will not
suffer needless losses to opposition, and stock
prices should increase.
  

þ If corporate morality is to change into something
less selfish and more humane, it should be
guided by someone who values human
relationships.
þ orporations must acknowledge that they are
part of broader society and that publics in the
society can have an impact on their
achievements.
þ Public relations based on publics, and publics are
cultural constructs. Public relations, therefore,
must take into account culture.
  
$%&
þ Asymmetric PR leads to ³reactive´ PR.
³Proactive´ PR preferable to reactive PR.
Proactive PR attempts to find publics long before
publics begin to pressure the organization, and to
persuade them to understand the organizational
perspective.
þ ³Interactive´ PR preferable to proactive PR.
Interactive PR based on respects, trust, and
cooperation. It sees mutual relationships as
desirable; as one that lifts business and society
at sane time.´



þ If interactive PR could become truly
valued and supported by all management
ranks, it could become the foundation for
a revised ethos between businesses and
their societies all over the world.
þ Such a revision should turn the invisible
hand of business profitability into a visible
and active hand of social prosperity. And
businesses would be the better for it.