Ethical Dilemmas in Decision-Making: The Case of Ghanaian Women Managers in Professional Public Relations

Abstract

The nature of public relations forces practitioners into the tangle of corporate decision-making, which means that public relations counselors are more likely than other managers to face ethical difficulties. In recent times women have been demanding inclusion at all levels in corporate management. The study se out was to assess the ethical dilemmas in decision-making. Using a qualitative method, the study adopted a descriptive survey design. A total of 8 women in Public Relation positions were purposively sampled for the study. Semi-structured interview guide was use to collect data from the study participants. The study revealed that some of the ethical dilemmas that women in PR are faced with include making decisions against cultural background, the lack of support from colleagues at work and the behaviour of the supervisor in an organisation. The study concludes that there are factors that influence ethical or unethical decisions and these include morals, and values of the PR woman, organisational policies, cultural orientation of the PR woman, and their educational and professional knowledge level. It was therefore recommended that management teams of organisations consider the fact that men and women approach ethical dilemmas in different ways. This might have implications for assigning tasks to PR managers, or for evaluating their effectiveness.