Public Relations Management In Organisations

Being in the seat of PR in an organisation is no easy task. Mehta & Xaavier (2009) states that PR will need to support the forward-looking organisations to establish complicated databases of information on issues and stakeholders to help them identify issue-specific and sector-wide trends. Hence, effectively becoming the eyes and ears of the organisation. This step becomes even more complicated as PR involves both internal and external operations of the organisation. For example, internally, if nurses are about to go on strike in hospitals, the PR of the governing body will help both hospitals and the government to prevent or prepare for the consequences of a strike. Externally, for example the mine wants to upgrade its facilities and operation, it has to involve and inform the locals around the area about the potential problems and activities.

The chapter gave a rather comprehensive potential action on how to do so:

- both the organisation and PR will form up a discussion and agree on how to present the information

- the PR practitioner will prepare the communication material which include background information, a Power Point presentation and Q&A.

- the mine manager might have to take responsibility to meet up with the locals as the organisation is directly responsible

- the PR practitioner might help to conduct Q&A, observe reactions and responses; taking note of key issues raised by the community

- both will be involved in the debrief

PR becomes highly complicated with the divide between members and non-members of the organisation being blurred. As Aldrich & Herker (1977), said with more and more organisational partnerships changing the traditional nature of organisation-environment relations it continues to be challenged today. PR also has a changing role due to this complication:

- public-private partnerships see clients and suppliers partner together and are rewarded together

- activists are sitting on organisational advisory boards helping organisations to negotiate difficult issues, whereas earlier they would have tried to use their organisational power to push through their position

- community engagement invites communities who are affected by organisational decisions to discuss how decisions will impact them and to offer ideas or jointly plan how to minimise potential impacts

PR practitioners must be extremely familiar with the environment they are working in and out of. The parties involved becomes even more complicated which requires practitioners to pay close attention to the blurring lines of members and non-members. In addition, practitioners are highly involved in partnering with the main branch of the organisation to achieve certain results. As such, it is of importance to develop teamwork and respect out of these other departments to ensure that the job can be performed successfully. The partnership must not be out of comfort and necessity but of a natural fit and cooperation.

Strategies to Proactively Manage Activity

This chapter reinforces on the second lesson about strategy and tactic. It is a more in-depth approach on the subject.

Strategy is central to the role and function of public relations (James 2009, p. 251). The strategic contribution of public relations practitioners develops 'problem-solving strategies for the entire organisation' (Newsom, Turk & Kruckeberg 2007, p. 215) by working with other departments and coordinating problem-solving activities.

As mentioned before, a well-planned and conducted research can place a PR practitioner into a good situation. When the results are analysed, a SWOT analysis (James, 2009) must be conducted. The acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. One important note is that in this analysis, Strengths and Weaknesses are considered internal factors and Opportunities and Threats are external factors.

Drucker (1954) puts forth a method for setting objectives - SMART which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-orientated and include a time frame. This allows a good standard objectives to be met and goals achieved.

An example given by Ms. Tanya is to raise awareness of HP cameras by affiliating them with holiday hotels. The hotel visitors were given cameras to take photos. The strategy was to raise awareness of their quality cameras and the tactic is the actual act of loaning these cameras out to tourists/guests while they are having a holiday.

A good strategic fit must be attached between strategy and tactic. When this 'fit' is achieved, the PR plan will be half successful.

Engaging with the Media

In order to bridge and connect with the world of mainstream media, communication theories are useful to explore and gain better knowledge and understanding of who and what PR practitioners are dealing with. In this chapter of the book, it introduces several useful theories such as:

1) agenda-setting theorists believe that journalists and news editors have a set of purpose for what people think about and not what they think. The media decides which issues to gain popularity and prominence in the public and which to be minimised in publicity. It proposes that media is the primary medium that people decide what issues are important to them and what should be talked about.

2) uses and gratification theory states that people have different usage of the media. They have many different ways and reasons for doing so that they actively make their own choices and decisions to suit their requirements without being influenced to any significant extent. Blumler & Katz (1974) identified four areas of gratification: as form of escapism, personal relations for companionship, establishing a sense of personal identity and surveillance to gain greater awareness and understanding of the world around them.

3) spiral of silence theory (Noelle-Neumann 1984) states that people often do not voice out their true intentions and opinions when in a grouped session. They would try to maintain the natural peace of the group, to avoid embarrassment and conflict. This is also similar to 'groupthink' where people reach a same consensus without differing opinions on an issue.

4) two-step flow theory (Katz & Lazarsfeld 1955) says that to reach the intended audiences, public relations practitioners should first convince the opinion makers, the audience listen to and respect via the media they watch, read and listen to.

5) framing theory (Tversky & Khaneman 1981) explains that the way something is presented influences how the audience perceives the topic. This is a manipulative method by used by the media to purposefully disseminate a message behind a certain topic or issue but may not be entirely true.

6) sociological theory and social reality explores the framing theory and explore what is real and what is constructed.

The fact that journalists and the media world relies heavily on PR to fill up pages of their news, it is important to maintain a good relationship and to make use of this position to generate publicity. Some key of success to have a good relation with the media is:

1) have a good relationship with journalists and editors

2) get to know the journalists

3) have updated databases (contacts, networks)

4) know how the news room is organised and how it works

5) develop a media strategy (tweak the news to suit each media and region)

6) identify what is a good piece of news and what is not

7) always meet deadlines

A good media release can help catch the attention of the news world to use your story as theirs. A good example would be the OCD media releases which uses catchy phrases like saving time with a good system and Singapore's first and only. However, it must be subtle in a way not to generate too much hype and must be truthful to be used as a credible story.

McLean and Phillips (2009) identified some aspects to attract the media’s attraction - celebrating anniversaries, writing good media releases, illustrating your stories with great photographs, pitching your release, news conferences, online newsrooms and video news releases.

However, capturing attention could also have negative setbacks and repercussions. PR practitioners are advised by McLean and Phillips (2009) that legal implications such as copyright, defamation, ethical and privacy must be considered and cautiously treaded upon.

Having good relations with the news media will definitely benefit a PR practitioner. Hence, it is always good to deal with the media with careful thought and a warm smile (metaphorically speaking).

Public Relations Research & Practice

Part 1 : Public Relations Research

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In order to have a task aimed for success and accuracy, planning and strategising is needed. Across all academic works, nothing is short of a good round of research. Likewise, a successful PR requires extensive research to minimise mistakes and to ensure maximum credibility and accuracy reached out for publicity. Hence, it would be a fatal mistake to overlook or intentionally jump straight into the targeted audience. However, research is not an easy task to carry out. It often exhaust resources such as time and money. That is why even before carrying out a research, one must weigh and plan research itself carefully.

There are primarily two types of research types: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative involves numerical outcomes and related findings. Such examples include surveys and forms. Quantitative refers to focus group questioning and open ended discussions.

Research is related at all stages of the PR planning and implementation. It could be used before, in the preparation stage to set objectives right, identify the issue, context and audiences. If it was used during, it could monitor the process and check what is being said and done and to accurately ascertain whether the plan is successful or require any tweaks to redirect the program for intended results. If it is used after, it is used to as a form of evaluation and as a checklist for objectives that were met and not.

Sufficient research allows credibility and accuracy to pin-point and to minimise mistakes. That is why, in any sort of planning, research is integral and is a-must for success to set in.

One major limitation of research is the tremendous amount of time and resource used to obtain the results. There is also tendency to arrange for research programmes and not have any findings or research results through these arrangements. Research in itself requires additional planning such as the questions to ask and the discussion to direct the respondents. Another notable problem with research is the samples and sampling size. The correct approximate sample must be selected. Only a 5 percent margin for error is considered acceptable.

Part 2: Public Relations Practice

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In this chapter, I find that Synnott's (2001, pp. 430-431) table of PR effectiveness is easy to understand and reference to understand what a good PR is all about:

1. Work practices and approach (Responsibility, Valued-added service & Building relationships)

2. Skills, abilities and knowledge (Understanding of the job, Capability in Strategy & Execution, High level of technical ability)

3. Experience and background (solid experience, track record, sound journalism experience)

4. Personal attributes (Professionalism, people oriented, creative)

5. Judgement and ethnics (honest, ethical, integrity)

6. Relationship with management (contribution to management goals, accepted by management, equals to management)

7. Image and Reputation (highly regarded, good reputation in the industry, high credibility)

8. Works for the profession (builds profession, gives time to develop the profession, passion)

Public Relations is only about the sheer academic knowledge or experience within the industry or related industries. It is also all about the personal touch to the work of PR. There must be a form of personalisation of the work. Hence, it requires a tremendous amount of dedication and passion to become better than the good and among the cream of the crop (quality PR).

A good PR practitioner also pays attention to the society and the people concerned. A good network of people should be established to allow a smooth work flow as well as cooperation between organisation and the public. One also must be humble to earn respect and reputation of both internal and external factors.

On a personal note, my knowledge of PR practitioners are not only in within the eight categories. Also, I see PR practitioners as powerful problem solvers. It is their capability and aptness to access a good amount of ideas and creativity to overcome difficulties to success. As such, I am impressed by what I have learnt and will continue to do so.

Public Relations Ethics

PR ethics is the standards of behaviour; the focus on good behaviour and to maintain such standards as an individual or an organisation and potential actions that may affect well being of others or the society. Ethics revolve around morals or sometimes known as conscience (what we know is right from wrong) and positive values to uphold and maintain.

PR ethics remain to be difficult to practice. If not, there would not be many debates and discussions made about it over the years. Quite the contrary, PR ethics is considered to be an oxymoron because businesses and organisations manipulate PR to their advantage to eliminate negative impressions or create false ones to the public.

One case is the WalMarting across America which is actually setup by Edelman, a private PR company set to spin stories of visiting different WalMarts in the U.S. Although the actual visitations were done, they were not genuine and were actually written for a PR stunt/gimmick.

Tilley (2008) suggests a few ways to progress and practice ethics in PR.

Firstly, one must create opportunities of willingness to participate and practice ethics. Here are some simple ways:

1) Have the Code of Ethics noticeable in the workplace or memorising the codes to practice.

2) Appoint an ethics officer to create awareness within the organisation about the importance of ethics.

3) Start a discussion or ethics column and allow staff members to contribute to it.

4) Provide a library of ethics related materials.

5) Schedule informal ethics discussions to feedback about challenges and practices.

6) Reflect the values for a scheduled 5 minutes and think about which values can be followed the next time round and how difficult or easy it was to maintain.

Secondly, one must read about PR ethics materials to provide further thinking and discussions on how to practice it.

Thirdly, is to be skillful when dealing with situations that can practice ethics.

Additionally, one can think about these three questions posed by Virtue theorists, Deontologists and Consquentialists respectively:

"What kind of person ought I to be?"

"What are my duties?"

"How ought the world to be?"

By integrating all the three forms of theories, one can obtain a good balance of practicing ethics. Constantly reminding these questions will stimulate willingness to practice ethics. The first one is the conscience, values and character of oneself. The second question fixates a code of conduct, a proper set of job and rules to practices. The third is to feel how others will want to treat you as well.

An organisation and its individuals must create a habit to practice ethics. It is a long and hard process. Sometimes, the nature of the occupation could potentially hinder the ethics progression. However, we can also be ethical not only in the good side, but constantly remind ourselves to stray away from the negative and the bad.