دانلود رایگان مقاله خودباوری در روابط عمومی یک رویکرد روانشناختی و جامعه شناختی برای چالش انتظارات متضاد

abstract

The paper enquires into the role of self-deception in public relations struggling with discrepancies between heterogeneous stakeholder expectations and organizational interests and particularly between normative expectations of truthfulness and practical temptations of deception. Drawing on theoretical foundations of evolutionary psychology and sociology, we propose a framework for the origins, drivers, and functions of self-deception in public relations. The analysis reveals that under specific conditions self-deception can be an essential mechanism in public relations because it relieves practitioners from tensions driven by conflicting perceptions of truth and legitimacy. Self-deception is most likely to occur in situations of cognitive dissonance for practitioners to balance internal information processing and in situations of normative pressure when practitioners seek to comply with external expectations.

4. Discussion: limits of self-deception in public relations

Practitioners of public relations are certainly no homogenous mass who all adhere to the same ethical standards, let alone share a common understanding of their practice. And naturally, they have different views than public relations scholars, who themselves follow widely differing understandings of best practices. However, considering established codes of ethics, e.g. of the PRSA or the Global Alliance, we can state a convergence of principles, which practitioners are expected to share as a common agreement of the profession. So the conflict between adherence to ethical principles of truthfulness and client loyalty can be assumed as a common condition in situations of conflicting interests. Nevertheless, self-deception certainly does not apply to every PR practitioner in the field as its occurrence depends on various individual and situational variables. While some practitioners are very aware of deceptive practices in public relations and communicate them openly (Holiday, 2013),those practitioners whose individualmoral standards oppose deceptionmightinstead turnto self-deception. Depending on situational conditions self-deception can pose severe psychological challenges to individuals if the gaps between conflicting perceptions of truth or legitimacy become too broad. Hence, in general it does not serve as a long-term solution to conflicts of interest.