PRCA AND ECI collaborate on nation-specific ethics insight

The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) and Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI) have rolled-out their collaboration on nation-specific ethics and compliance data, featuring commentary and insight from PR industry experts.

The data, pulled from the ECI Global Business Ethics Survey (GBES), will form country-specific fact sheets to be published over the following months. Each will highlight five key metrics: ethical culture strength; pressure to compromise ethical standards; observations of misconduct; reporting misconduct; and retaliation perceived by employees after they report misconduct.

The countries to be profiled are Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. With the mix of data and insight, the PRCA and ECI hope to start conversations on, and the adoption of, ethical management and strong standards across the global PR and comms industry.

ECI CEO Dr. Patricia Harned, who also serves on the PRCA Ethics Council, said:

‘Findings from the GBES provide indications of the strength of efforts by organisations to reduce wrongdoing and to promote integrity. To that end, we are pleased to partner with PRCA to distribute these profiles, and we hope that they will inspire authentic conversations in workplaces around the world.’
PRCA Director General Francis Ingham also commented:

‘The PRCA is committed to a truly global remit of elevating standards in the PR industry and beyond, inclusive of diverse nations and cultures, and with an understanding that PR ethics dialogues should not transpire solely through a Western construct. We share ECI’s commitment toward a data-centric approach, and the PRCA is most pleased to partner with the ECI team on this particular project, in service to the PR industry worldwide.’

The publishing of country-based GBES data with PR insights will begin this month and continue through the first quarter of 2022. The PRCA and ECI are also set to field GBES among PR/Communications professionals in 2022, with the results expected to be shared by April 2022.

With future GBES research projects, ECI aims to expand the quantity and diversity of data sets, with global inclusion. Find out more about the research here.