PR Ethics and CSR: Determining Organizational Responsibility Impact

This essay critically examines the role of Public Relations (PR) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in modern businesses, highlighting their impact on stakeholders and the environment. The first part presents a debate, supporting the idea that PR and CSR enhance an organization's moral obligation to satisfy societal needs, promote sustainability, and improve its reputation, while also acknowledging counterarguments that suggest these activities may hinder profitability and organizational goals. It also discusses that organizations may be ethical by fulfilling legal requirements, even without explicitly engaging in PR and CSR. The second part provides a personal reflection on the learning experience gained from preparing the debate, utilizing Gibbs Reflective Cycle to evaluate skills developed, such as research, writing, and critical thinking. It concludes with an action plan to further enhance research, presentation, and public speaking skills. The essay emphasizes the importance of integrating PR and CSR strategies for long-term growth and stakeholder satisfaction, while acknowledging the ongoing debate about their impact on financial performance. Desklib provides access to this document and many other resources to help students succeed.

PR Ethics and CSR:
Referral Assignment 2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1: NARRATED PRESENTATION......................................................................................1
PART 2: REFLECTION..................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Public Relations (PR) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are an emerging ideology
in the commercial businesses that includes the concerns of society and environment in their
business strategies. Due to Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility, businesses can
be held responsible for the influence of their operations on the society stakeholders including
suppliers, employees, customers, etc. and the environment (Sarvaiya, Arrowsmith and Eweje,
2021). The following report consists of two parts. First part will demonstrate a critical debate
around the concept along with the argument to support the idea of PR and CSR as well as not to
support it. The second part will provide a critical reflection on my personal learning and
experience obtained by learning from the preparation of the first part.
PART 1: NARRATED PRESENTATION
(COVERED IN PPT)
For the Topic
PR and CSR are important for an organisation because it helps to determine and create
responsibility for the impacts of the activities of an organisation on its business stakeholders and
environment. By this the organisations deliberately take part in improving and enhancing the
experience of its stakeholders and environmental conditions. The efforts of the organisation does
not limit to only following the obligations and legal laws but it takes responsibilities of their
customers, employees, community, environment, and many others. There are many reasons due
to which an organisation should comply with PR and CSR, such as sustainability, business
ethics, moral obligations etc. PR and CSR enhance the moral obligation of the organisation to
satisfy the requirement of society stakeholders by providing improvement in lifestyle and
societal growth. Sustainability can also be achieved by this, because PR and CSR obligate an
organisation to develop sustainable practices that are environment friendly and financially
sustainable (Urbancová and Vrabcová, 2020). It also helps to develop the reputation of the
organisation and improves the image of the organisation in front of its stakeholders, creates
goodwill, encourages other businesses and raises the value of its stock in the market.
Against the Topic
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It can be argued that PR and CSR may not be the only options to be an ethical business. It is
argued by Milton Friedman that PR and CSR may lower down the abilities of organisations to
achieve organisational goals in comparison to social goals (Friedman, 1970). It is viewed that
organisations have a single responsibility to perform that is using the resources to increase profits
and stay competitive. In this aspect, it can be said that CSR and PR activities hinder the growth
of an organisation and creates confusion in the real objectives and aims of the organisation. For
instance Wal-Mart is a renowned organisation that does not follow cost cutting and Costco that
offers better benefits to its employees is not as profitable as Wal-Mart. Robert Reich, has
recently brought a focus on the fact, in his book "Supercapitalism" that the organisations that do
not follow PR and CSR are not ruthlessly greedy, nor brutally insensitive (Reich, 2017). It can be
argued in this context that even if the organisations do not follow PR and CSR they may be
ethical because most of them fulfil the requirements of society, organisation and environment by
being in the limitations of the law. One of the major problems that can be identified in PR and
CSR is that it does not include the analysis of impacts of PR and CSR on the financial health of
the organisation.
PART 2: REFLECTION
It can be understood from the above debate that the absence of instant increase in profits of
organisations must not be justification to retain themselves from PR and CSR. From the above
description I have learnt that with the help of critical thinking, brainstorming and comprehensive
strategy formation, an organisation can easily develop PR and CSR strategies to enhance their
opportunities for growth, obtain opportunities, improve market coverage and overall profits.
From the above activity of developing a critical debate and narrated presentation by comparing
and analysing the data I have gained various skills and abilities that can help me to enhance
growth opportunities in the future. From the above tasks of writing the essay, analysing,
interpreting and evaluating the data, and presenting information I have gained various skills and
abilities. Gibbs Reflective Cycle can be used to reflect on personal learning by evaluating and
assessing the experiences obtained throughout these activities (McDonald and Boud, 2021).
Gibbs Reflective Cycle is a framework that uses 6 stages including description, feelings,
evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan to explore the experience of an individual.
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 Description: I have obtained various skills and abilities from the activities performed in
the first assignment. It included the activity of writing essays and critical debate for the
given topic from which I learnt various skills. It has been discussed that there are various
concepts, theories and models that can be helpful to enhance growth of opportunities in
the industry. Research skills can be explained as the ability of an individual to seek for
questions and find credible answer sources through effective search from various sources.
Writing skill was also developed by me for writing the essay, reading comprehension was
also performed by me to understand the information that I read from the research.
 Feelings: I was very nervous to undertake these activities but they help to nourish critical
thinking for preparing debatable aspects and so on. I was excited to develop computer
skills for preparing presentations and time management to complete the project before
deadlines. Sometimes, I felt incapability and lack of skills to understand certain things,
but thanks to my instructors and professors who guided me through the process to make
my experience fruitful.
 Evaluation: It can be evaluated from the activities performed in the assignment and the
narrated presentation of the assignment that various skills are necessary such as self-
discipline, critical thinking, and presentation and public speaking skills and so on. These
skills are helpful for effective learning activities and completing the assignment on time.
 Analysis: I have obtained that goal planning is very important for achieving desired aims
and objectives on time. With the help of proper planning and evaluation the critical
understanding of the work and the path to achieve the desired outcomes can be drawn. I
may not have developed these skills and abilities without the guidance of instructors and
professors, and support of my colleagues who encouraged me to keep learning and
growing throughout the process.
 Conclusion: it has been concluded that a person requires many skills and must certainly
need multiple abilities to complete assignments for their coursework. In my opinion,
there are various tasks and responsibilities that an individual needs to perform for
achieving their desired goals. With the help of this module I have obtained many skills,
knowledge and abilities that can help in my futuristic growth.
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 Action plan: It can be identified from the above reflection that I need to develop my
research, presentation and public speaking skills for which action plan is elaborated
below.
Specific Skill Actions Needed Future Implications
Research skills I use various sources like libraries,
digital platforms, government data,
etc. to enhance my research skills. I
will also focus on studying various
books, magazines, journals etc.
related to the study material for
improving research data.
Improve the knowledge,
understanding and learning
regarding the given topics and
concepts. This will help to achieve
more authentic data and information
for learning and enhancing
performance.
Presentation and
public speaking
skills
I will improve my presentation and
public speaking skills by taking a
public speaking course for 3
months. I will also practice
communication in front of my
friends and family on a regular
basis and ask for feedback for
improvements.
Presentation skills will help me to
improve my ability to present
information to others and influence
their thoughts. Moreover, it will
improve my professional behaviour
to communicate with others.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that there are various views on using PR and
CSR within an organisation due to the existence of debatable aspects from the sides of many
diplomats. It has been demonstrated in the report that the rival activities in the business may or
may not be due to the PR or CSR strategies that makes its an option for an organisation to choose
or not to choose. Moreover, a reflection on the understanding of the learning experience has been
demonstrated with the help of Gibbs Reflective Cycle. Finally, an action plan has been given to
develop certain scales such as research skills, presentation and public speaking skills.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Friedman, M., 1970. The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New
York Times Magazine [Electronic Version]. Retrieved on, 2018. [Online] Available
through, http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-
business.html
McDonald, B. and Boud, D., 2021. The impact of self-assessment on achievement: The effects of
self-assessment training on performance in external examinations. Assessment in
education: principles, policy & practice, 10(2), pp.209-220.
Reich, R., 2017. Supercapitalism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Sarvaiya, H., Arrowsmith, J. and Eweje, G., 2021. Exploring HRM involvement in CSR:
variation of Ulrich’s HR roles by organisational context. The International Journal of
Human Resource Management, 32(21), pp.4429-4462.
Urbancová, H. and Vrabcová, P., 2020. Factors influencing the setting of educational processes
in the context of age management and CSR. Economics & Sociology, 13(3), pp.218-229.
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