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If someone in our industry behaves unethically, does the action reflect on?
CERTIFICATION MADE POSSIBLE THE ENTIRE PROFESSION THE PERSON ALONE 14%
60%
26%
THE PERSON AND THE PERSON’S EMPLOYER
like I did it intentionally. I simply brought it up to the [client] and said, ‘Oh, and by the way, these points are going to my company’s account’—and everybody was fine with that. But at the time I thought, ‘Hmm, I wonder if that puts me in a position of owing them something.’” Some planners believe that it might—and decline to accept
such bonuses. “Rewards points need to be designed to benefit the hosting organizations, not the planners who are signing the contracts,” one survey respondent wrote. “Although I receive points and miles for my organization’s meetings, I strictly redeem [them] for something that benefits the organization,” such as site visits, a master-account reduction, or conference registration fees. Gifts. Our survey also asked respondents whether their
“Sales departments are designed to get people to use their services (just like in any other industry), so I don’t think it is unethical for them to offer benefits to planners. However, it is up to the planner to make the final decision, keeping in mind that bad ones will affect their reputation. Some offers of thanks andappreciation are warranted, but the planner needs to use common sense as to what is appropriate andwhat is not.”
organization places a limit on the dollar amount allowed for “gifts and entertaining.” Thirteen percent said they have a $25 limit per item per vendor, 13 percent a $50 limit, and 11 percent a $100 limit—with the majority (63 percent) having no limit at all. This, Hilliard said, is where a written ethics policy comes in handy. That way, when planners receive, say, a solid gold pen from a supplier, they can look it up in the manual and easily determine whether it falls within the allowable dollar amount. But, still, meeting professionals must understand that no
matter the cost, a gift is never just a nice gesture. “There is a wishful thinking in meeting planning that is exactly the same in many other industries,” said Christopher Bauer, Ph.D., an ethics expert who spoke at PCMA’s 2008 annual meeting, “that marketing materials and marketing opportunities… somehow won’t affect my purchasing decisions.” With that in mind, Bauer recommends that planners do
two things. First, “forget this wishful-thinking nonsense that somehow marketing opportunities don’t change behavior; they change behavior routinely and effectively,” he said. Sec- ond, “remember that any time there is a monetary limit placed on a gift…it really is arbitrary. The reality is, who is going to coherently describe the difference between a $75 gift and a $125 gift?” In other words, you can’t just rely on policy: You have to
use your own judgment in concert with the guidelines your organization has in place. “I do keep it in the front of my mind,” O’Neill said, “that I’m making my decisions based on business facts and profit. I really can’t be bought for a free hotel night or a free lunch.”
Cracking the Code But if ethics guidelines aren’t available in the first place, you have nothing to go on but your own judgment, which often can be a recipe for disaster. And, unfortunately, a universally recognized, industry-wide code of ethics doesn’t exist at pres- ent. (To read PCMA’s Principles of Professional and Ethical Conduct, visitwww.pcma.org/documents/code_of_ethics .pdf.) “Some people would argue that we are a profession, and all professions have codes of ethics; so therefore we should
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