Professional values of public relations practitioners in Malaysia

Abstract

This study aims to explore the factors influencing professional values of public relations practitioners in Malaysia such as education, length of service, professionalism, and code of ethics. Data were collected by convenience sampling. A total of 427 questionnaires were distributed to public relations practitioners in Malaysia, and 322 questionnaires were returned. The study included 61%female respondents, and 39% male respondents. The analyses of data were done via Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The study was carried out to analyze professional values, and to identify the influence of professionalism and code of ethics on professional values of public relations practitioners. Additionally, the study was conducted to examine whether education and experience influence professional values through professionalism, and code of ethics. The study includes six hypotheses; which were tested to answer the research questions. The results from this study fully support the hypotheses. It has indicated that professionalism and code of ethics have an influence on professional values of public relations practitioners. The results also show that education influences both professionalism and code of ethics, and experience influences both professionalism and code of ethics.