Due to the competitive nature of lobbying, the desire to use every means to win their case may be irresistible. Some individuals might be tempted to use unethical means to advance their lobbying. As other disciplines, lobbying field is guided by ethical principles. Despite enjoying constitutional right, the law requires lobbyists to maintain and observe some ethical considerations in their lobbying activities (Fry, 2022). Even as they strive to communicate their perspective to influence government actions in their favors, lobbyists are under obligation to be guided by the ethical principles. Some of the ethical considerations include;
Maintaining Trust
Lobbying is one of the activities which depend on strong relationship built around advance agreements. In most cases, lobbyists promise their proponents some things in a bid to convince to influence government action to their favors (Barron & Skountridaki, 2022). Lobbyists are therefore ethically required to honor the commitments made by legislators and exhibit mutual respect to their proponents. Even after lobbying successfully, the lobbyists should consider to honor the commitments made during the lobbying process.
Conduct Business with Integrity
Integrity is a virtue that drives any activity and process. As other processes, integrity is an important tool in lobbying to ensure sanity. It is important for individuals doing lobbying to come out openly and identify themselves, and avoiding using proxies to carry out their business. Since lobbying is a constitutional right, it is appropriate for lobbyists to public identify (Fry, 2022). This would help to reduce cases of bribery and sanitize the lobbying process off corruption.
Tell the Truth
Honesty is an essential factor in lobbying practice that must be taken into consideration. By influencing government actions, lobbyists play a critical role in determining government policies which affect are essential for public performance and how the government is run. It is thus important for people involved in lobbying to tell the truth especially to legislators about the position they support and sincerely disclose the core details to help in judgment.
Ethical Challenges Lobbying Raise
Bribery
The act of bribery is a common practice by corrupt lobbyists who are determined to advance influence government action in their favor. The lobbyists entice the legislators by financial and promising government tenders in return (Fry, 2022). This may comprise the judgment of the leaders and motivate them to take a position without considering the public interest or the side effects of the proposed policy.
Dishonesty and Misleading Information
In order to win the hearts of some legislators to adopt and support their lobbied policy and government action, most of the lobbyists mislead the legislators by telling half-baked truths to entice them. They do this to blindfold the legislators and prevent them from seeing the possible repercussion of the proposed position. The approach allows then to have an added advantage towards achieving their mission.
References
Barron, A., & Skountridaki, L. (2022). Toward a professions-based understanding of ethical and responsible lobbying. Business & Society, 61(2), 340-371. Web.
Fry, N. (2022). Lopsided lobbying? regulatory opportunism and the office of the commissioner of lobbying. Canadian Public Administration, 65(1), 73-98. Web.