Loss of trust in institutions and business as well as their leaders is a fact of the new reality. That’s why, in an attempt to meet the challenge of the ethical revolution, companies are anxious to review their management and communication strategies towards improved attitudes and behaviours

1. In the moments like the current crisis, demand for
ethical responsibility of organizations and their
leaders grows, since it is considered to be the way
of recovering trust that had been lost. Demand for
greater responsibility comes from a failure to meet
ethical expectations, which may threaten the very
survival of a business.
Certainly, this task implies work towards restoring
the burnt bridges of trust and strengthening the
ties that have loosened or were destroyed as a
consequence of short-sighted and irresponsible
behaviour. Antonio López, Honourable Chairman
and one of the founding members of the Dircom
Association of Communications Directors,
and a member of the Board of Corporate
Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership
believes that this task is the responsibility of
the Communications Director. This propels the
role of Communications Director to the top of
the organizational hierarchy, since this person is
in charge of building the bridges of dialogue and
relations between the company, the media and
other stakeholders, or, in other words, between
the company and the society in general.
Restoring Credibility in Order
to Achieve Legitimacy
The first element of the crisis of trust that companies
have to face is the credibility of their actions and
communications. In order to restore credibility, it
is important to realize that companies are not only
economic, but also social agents. They are citizens
who have certain responsibility which does not
limit itself to compliance with the market laws.
It goes further than that and implies meeting the
Loss of trust in institutions and business as well as their leaders is a fact of the new
reality. That’s why, in an attempt to meet the challenge of the ethical revolution,
companies are anxious to review their management and communication
strategies towards improved attitudes and behaviours
I45/2014
The New Ethics of
Corporate Communication:
Honesty, Transparency and
Cooperation are Key
Public Affairs
Insights&Trends
This document was prepared by Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership and among other sources, contains
references to the statements by Antonio López, Honourable Chairman and one of the founding members of the Dircom Association of
Communications Directors, and a member of the Board of Corporate Excellence – Centre for Reputation Leadership, made during the
workshop titled A Critical View of Business Communication, held by Dircom Castilla y León in Valladolid on January 17, 2013.

2. Insights&Trends 2
The New Ethics
of Corporate
Communication:
Honesty,
Transparency and
Cooperation are Key
“Communications
Director is
responsible for
building the
bridges of dialogue
between the
company and the
society”
demands of the society, a phenomenon known
today as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The second important step towards recovering trust is
legitimacy. By restoring credibility, companies achieve
sufficient trust that gives them a sort of a “driving
license” – a social and emotional permission to act on
the market freely and at the same time responsibly.
The third step is transparency. According to López,
this was probably one of the first challenges faced by
the pioneers of communication management in the
1970s in their relations with the media, when demand
shiftedfrompurelyeconomicandbusinessinformation
to in-depth understanding of business mechanisms.
Contrary to the traditional approach of business
leaders and managers, when they tried to control
information and viewed the media as a tool that may
be managed, today social networks and the digital
world make this impossible, thus highlighting the
need to accept the new reality and stake on ethical
and transparent communication.
In line with this reasoning, a communications
director needs to develop positive communication
managementbasedoncommonsense,abilitytolisten,
respect for the stakeholders as well as the courage to
abstain from deceit and admit one’s mistakes. All
this leads to transparency, encouraging dialogue with
the public and increasing the company’s positive
influence on the public opinion.
Honesty and Cooperation
to Create a Reputation
Further to this idea, Dircom’s Honourable Chairman
suggests other key factors, whose objective is creation
and maintenance of a good reputation: honesty and
cooperation. Honesty acts as a probe of internal
integrity based on values, while cooperation shows
awareness of the fact that companies, like people, are
not isolated and need competition and cooperation
with others in order to achieve their objectives.
Historically, reputation is a concept associated with
a good name and prestige. Nowadays, after being
recovered and revaluated in the context of the crisis,
it turned into a transversal concept at the heart of
the entire company, its corporate culture, its business
project with different stakeholders who have their
specific expectations, needs and demands.
In order to enjoy prestige and recognition by the
society in general, and in its market and sector in
particular, a company should integrate these five
elements: credibility, legitimacy, transparency,
honesty and cooperation. They should be placed
in the centre of the organization’s identity that will
drive the company’s day-to-day operations.
The Rise of CSR and
Corporate Governance
In the wake of reputation crises experienced by
some of the largest U.S. corporations in the 1980s
and, especially, after the Enron case in 2002,
Graph 1: How companies create value
Source: ‘Meaningful Brand Analysis’ de Havas Media del grupo Euro RSCG
85%
of consumers
worldwide expect
companies to become
actively involved in
solving social and
environmental issues
53%
would pay more for
products produced in a
socially responsible way
57%
feel that they can make
a company behave more
responsible. We feel
more empowered.
72%
trust companies
more if they produce
responsible goods
64%
think most companies are trying to be responsible
only to improve their image
Only 28%
of consumers worldwide think that companies
today are working hard to solve the big social and
environmental challenges people care about
Only 20%
trust companies when they communicate about
their social/environmental commitments and
initiatives
Meaningful Brands, Havas Media’s global index and analysis, shows us how brands can enhance and re
define their relationships with consumers to become more meaningful. The project uses our proprietary
research to explore the links between brands, societies and individuals and is the first of its kind to be able
to link brands to consumers’ sense of wellbeing. Its foundations rest on a piece of research that spans 14
countries, 300 brands and takes into account the views of 50,000 people.
Improving wellbeing is an opportunity
and an imperative for brands
But cynism is rising

3. Insights&Trends 3
The New Ethics
of Corporate
Communication:
Honesty,
Transparency and
Cooperation are Key
“Communications
Director should
aim to achieve
transparency
in the relations
between the
company and the
society”
According to López, the key objective of
communication as an essential business function
is alignment of the company’s intangible assets and
resources(identity,culture,brand,talent,innovation,
reputation, etc.) with the overall strategy, at the
same time strengthening the importance of ethics
in the decision-making process.
Communications Director should aim to achieve
transparency in the relations between the company
and the society, establish dialogue between them,
and understand the ethical component of their
profession. The objective is to convince the CEO
that the company should not just communicate, but
communicate ethically. Communications Director
should be the true keeper of reputation, culture and
intangible assets of the company. A survey held by
the Dircom association points to the fact that this
trend will strengthen in the next few years.
That’s why the first and fundamental step towards
achieving this result is integration of the elements
related to communication in one way or another:
credibility, legitimacy, transparency, honesty and
cooperation. In order to recover the society’s
trust in business the company has to integrate
communication itself into the business strategy.
And this inevitably means acting in accordance
with the old saying coined by Baltasar Gracián,
Spanish writer of the Golden Age, who said entre el
dicho y el hecho no hay un gran trecho or “walk it
like you talk it”. It is also important to understand
that the aim does not always justify the means.
special attention is paid now to such aspects of
corporate governance as transparency and corporate
responsibility.
Corporate governance has turned into a special
area in the study of intangibles, which emphasizes
ongoing control of corporate behaviour as well as
the top management and the Board. This led to
introduction of the role of independent director,
who acts as a counterbalance and contributes to
transparency and deeper deliberation of decisions at
the top level.
At the same time, Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR), which includes sustainability, social action
and corporate citizenship, has also become an
important factor for companies, resulting in their
attempts to carry out and make public their social,
labour and environmental activities.
Both corporate governance and corporate social
responsibility originate from an ethical demand for
meeting the expectations of stakeholders in full.
Conclusion: Towards
Communication Integration
The communication profession is a history of
“infotactics” (a term suggested by Antonio López),
such as secrecy, filtering information, providing
information via a fake source, dosing information,
providing misleading information based on true
information or control of the mass media via
investments. Today, this should be revamped to
introduce a new open, self-critical and efficient
concept of communication.
Graph 2: Comunicación empresarial
Source: Red DirCom Iberoamericana, 2013.
For 9 of 10 Directors of Communication, CSR and Internal Communications increase its importance
• In 90% communication strategy aligned with the overall business
• The first Communications Director are involved in the definition and development
• One in two has a communication plan, and 37% have Crisis Plan
Evolution corporate communications in future years
Communication Strategy
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
70,5 76
82
69,5 60 59,5 50,5 41
53,25 61
Corporate
Communication
Corporate Social
Responsibility
Internal
Communication
Media Relations Intangibles
Management
In the last five years In the coming years

4. ©2014, Corporate Excellence - Centre for Reputation Leadership
A foundation established by major companies aiming to excel in the management of intangible assets and facilitate promotion of strong brands
with a good reputation and a capacity to compete on the global markets. Our objective is to become the driving force, which would lead and
consolidate professional reputation management as a strategic asset, fundamental for building value of companies around the world.
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