ABSTRACT
A number of scholars (L’Etang, 2006; Heath, 2009; Holtzhausen, 2002) have argued for an alternative, critical, approach to public relations theory. A dominant, modernist, excellence theory privileges management discourse and takes organisational goals for granted (Holtzhausen and Voto, 2002: 60) whereas critical theory is focused more on the disruption of beliefs about organisations and publics (Toth, 2009: 53). Excellence theory in public relations has led to a focus on the strategic management of communication, often grounded in information transfer, for example, senior manager-employee communication. Critical theory is less interested in effective communication and more motivated by asking questions about whose interests are being served through communication. As Lee and Cheng (2011: 47) observe, although there is much discussion about the ethics of public relations, largely due to the association of public relations with manipulation, propaganda and spin, there is little systematic empirical or theoretical research on ethical leadership in public relations.
