The Relationship Between Culture And Public Relations

Public Relations (PR) can sometimes be grouped in with the advertising and marketing industry, but the industry has continued to expand with the increasing digital media platforms and the need to relay information to targeted audiences. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) defines public relations as “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics” (“About Public Relations”). The annual revenue of the global relations industry generated more than $14 billion with the U.S. accounting for $12 billion with experts believing it will keep expanding (“Public Relation Services” 2).

Due to the world's rapid change through advanced technology public relation became more and more a global activity. Nowadays it is one of the fastest-growing

National culture has been a key construct in the study of organizations. Culture plays a crucial role in determining the suitability of a management practice. Geert Hofstede categorizes national culture among six dimensions

What is public relations (PR)? It might be one of the most difficult question to answer and define, for the definition of PR is individual difference. It is commonly thought that PR has inseparable connection with media, communication, news, advertising, marketing and even other fields, meaning that with the evolution and development of the society, science, technology and media, the definition of PR is changing as well. Nowadays, the prevalence of information age and the rise of the new media age may become key factors of defining what is PR and how PR is applied. Shirley Harrison who is a famous person in the history of PR, she claims that “Public relations is a persuasive activity, undertaken to change people’s views or to get them to do something (2000, p.4).” According to Harrison’s definition, the purpose of public relations is used as a tool to manipulate and persuade the public. This essay attempts to analyse the relationship between Harrison’s perception and other theories of PR. And it shows current PR examples to evaluate different theories.

For many decades both PR academics and practitioners have struggled to construct a single definition of what public relations actually are. In 1976, Rex Harlow made a bold attempt to summarize just what public relations are. Harlow started by identifying and analyzing as many definitions of "public relations" as he could. He ended up examining 472 definitions that had been put forth by other academics, practitioners and scholars since the early days of the twentieth century and interviewing nearly 100 current professionals. Out of that impressive research Harlow combined their common elements to produce the first global definition of public relations, quoted below:

Public relations-related activities exist in every society and in countless sub-sectors of those societies. For practitioners, real and important changes occur when a set of theoretical approaches and techniques and a coherent underlying logic gather these activities into a comprehensive professional field. Public relations in China, is at this stage today. In the process of creating itself, the

PRINZ - the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand - defines Public Relations (PR) as “The deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its target audiences.” In this essay I will critically assess PRINZ’s definition of PR through deconstructing the definitions into sections in relation to relevant PR theory such as the excellence theory, relationship management and the systems theory. The major part of the PRINZ quote that all these theories address is the function that public relations teams should have in the building and maintenance of relationships between organisations and their publics, stakeholders and target audiences. As well as this I will further explore the effectiveness of PRINZ’s definition and these theories through case studies of public relations tactics within New Zealand companies such as Fonterra, Westpac and BNZ.

The Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ) defines public relations (PR) as the mutual understanding between organisations and their target audiences. (PRINZ, 2014). The definition will be broken down and explained by using systems, relationships and management, and the excellence theories. These theories will be accompanied by an example of PR in a New Zealand organisation, to explain the relevant models involved with PR in the real world.

The profession of public relations as we know it today has been the result of years of scholarly research surrounding human communication (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). There is a vast range of activity that is considered public relations, thus concepts, theories, and models have been developed to allow for better understanding of the practice. This essay will break down the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand’s (PRINZ) definition of public relations in to three sections. The first will use systems theory to discuss “deliberate, planned and sustained effort”. The second section of this essay will use relationship management theory to address the part of the PRINZ definition that states, “to establish and maintain mutual understanding”. The final section of this essay will focus on the part of the PRINZ definition that states “between an organisation and its target audience” using excellence theory. The critical analysis of these theories, supported by contemporary examples, will help us to further understand how public relations is practiced in New Zealand.

In order to wholly understand the reasoning of this elaborate definition it is best refined into three sections. This essay hereby endeavours to critically examine the PRiNZ definition of Public Relations against various models of both Public Relations communication and the ethics employed when exhibiting them. Examples from contemporary New Zealand will clarify critical assessment.

This essay will examine the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand’s (PRINZ) definition of public relations (PR) by using excellence theory, systems theory and relationship management theory. The definition will be split up into three parts relating to each theory. It is important to note that there will be overlaps as a lot of these concepts and theories are interrelated.

This essay will deconstruct and critically assess the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand’s (PRINZ) definition of public relations. PRINZ defines public relations as: “The deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its target audiences” To deconstruct the definition of public relations this essay must define and explain the key concepts, referring to theory and scholarly material. This essay will refer to the excellence theory, systems theory and relationship management theory. This essay will use real-life, contemporary New Zealand examples when applicable to explain relevant concepts, models and theories.

Thus we see that the basic principle of public relations is to act in the right way, seeking the integration of business objectives with the objectives of the public, including correcting distortions that arise in the pursuit of that rapport. This principle, as we show below, involves all aspects of business strategy, is completed by adding to it the communication techniques, helping to show the public the right actions undertaken by the company.

Public relations are the most important part of a company. It has the relationship between advertising and international public. The primary purpose of public relation is to target audience in different ways and gain the business in public status. Companies would like to use media for creating communicate with people, and promote their business into the world. Organisations would use four of the basic models in public relation to describes and communicate to the international public. The four basic models are press agentry/publicity model, public-information model, two-way asymmetric model and two-way symmetric model. Within these models, it can tell the company behaviour and how the organisation using models communicate with others.

The wide-ranging attempts by scholars to define PR have speculated as many things, Sele, M (2006) suggests these were unable to include all both theory and practice. The Public Relations Institute of New Zealand’s (PRINZ), offer the following definition when they define PR as " the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its target audiences"( PRINZ Conference 2015 'Mind the Gap '). This academic essay sets out to critically assess whether this definition is a well-constructed Aoteroa/NewZealand perspective of communication management and public relations in reference to excellence theory, systems theory and relationship management theory.