Arthur W. Page Society - Public Relations Coalition Publishes White Paper On Restoring Trust In Corporate America

Public Relations Coalition Publishes White Paper On Restoring Trust In Corporate America

Sept 17, 2003

Paper Addresses the U.S.'s Crisis of Trust

The Public Relations Coalition, a partnership of 19 major U.S.-based organizations representing corporate public relations, investor relations, public affairs and related communications disciplines, released its first white paper today, "Restoring Trust in Business: Models for Action."

In the document the Coalition challenges corporate America to do three things: adopt ethical principles, pursue transparency and disclosure in everything they do, and make trust a fundamental precept of corporate governance. Corporate leaders who agree with and support the Public Relation Coalition's effort to restore trust in American business and create an atmosphere of accountability can see where they stand in the process by reviewing a checklist of actionable steps included in the white paper.*

The process of developing a consensus on the issue of trust began when leadership of the PR Coalition held a one-day summit meeting in January where they developed three high-level concepts for restoring trust in corporations:

Articulate a set of ethical principles that are closely connected to their core business processes and supported with deep management commitment and enterprise-wide discipline. These principles should balance the interests of all stakeholders, ensure investors receive full and timely information about the company, and compensate all employees in accord with their contributions to the company's success.

Create a process for transparency and disclosure that is appropriate for their company and industry in both current and future operations. It should include a senior oversight committee, "culture" audits and consistent messaging.*See "Scorecard for Restoring Trust" below.

Make trust and ethics a Board-level corporate governance issue and establish a formal system of measuring trust that touches all parts of their organizations.

"These concepts underscore the need for corporate leaders - CEOs in particular - to create or reinforce an 'environment of accountability' in their organizations," stated James E. Murphy, Global Managing Director of Marketing and Communications for Accenture and chairman of the Coalition and the summit meeting. "Without a visible, concrete and measurable commitment, society will continue to mistrust corporate leadership. This thinking is coming from the most senior professionals in our country and those from around the globe who are working at the core of these issues. I am confident these recommendations have the power to have significant impact."

The summit meeting took place on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University and drew 55 senior professionals who are officers from each participating organization. They collectively represented more than 50,000 practitioners in the fields of public relations, corporate and organizational communications, investor relations and public affairs. Several participating organizations brought their global perspectives to bear on these discussions which focused on the current U.S. corporate environment.

"It is important to take the initiatives found in this paper and disseminate them to corporate leaders throughout America within our respective U.S. members, to our clients and ultimately, to the American public at large," said Murphy.

The Coalition is an informal group composed of leaders of public relations and related organizations who meet periodically to discuss common interests. It has been active since early 1999. January's meeting was the first with extensive representation and a single focus.

Coalition member organizations participating in the summit included:
Arthur W. Page Society
Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College
Corporate Communication Institute at Fairleigh Dickinson University
Council of Communication Management
Council of Public Relations Firms
Global Public Affairs Institute
Institute for Public Relations
IPR's Commission on Measurement & Evaluation
International Association of Business Communicators
IABC Research Foundation
International Public Relations Association
National Investor Relations Institute
National School Public Relations Association
Public Affairs Council
Public Relations Society of America
PRSA Counselors Academy
PRSA Foundation
Women Executives in Public Relations
Foundation of WEPR

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CREATING A SCORECARD FOR RESTORING TRUST
Below is a sampling (there are a total of 16 questions) of the checklist that can be found on the back cover page of the white paper:

ADOPTING ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Has the Board of Directors accepted responsibility for monitoring a corporation's performance in serving all of its key stakeholders - customers, employees, the community and investors?

Have the CEO and senior management made their corporate values explicit to all employees, making it clear that they are willing to be held accountable for adhering to those values.

PURSUING TRANSPARENCY

Have we created a process for transparency and disclosure that is appropriate for the company in both current and future operations?

Have we set our own social and environmental performance targets, defined what transparency means to them and built a case for our approach?

MEASURING TRUST

Do we have a program to measure trust that is tailored to the constituencies, objectives and cultures of the company?

Contact: Jim Murphy 917-452-4598