Public Relations and Strategic Management

Ever since Bernany’s work, public relations have continued to become a vital part to businesses success, as the field continues to grow. While this progression has occurred, different public relations functions also have developed. Specifically,

Many organizations have experienced some form of public relations problem or crisis. The severity of these public relations problems can vary from very minor to very serious. A public relations problem can arise from a number of areas including leaked information about the practices of a company that could be damaging to their business or sales. In addition a public relation crisis could be dealing with a human resource problem or exposure of poor treatment of employees

Public relations, also referred to a PR, represent an essential component of business, in which the business interacts through various modes such as promotions, initiatives, and so forth with its customer base, as well as, the potential new customers. Subsequently, according to Davis (2009), this interaction permits the business, as well as, the public to intermingle in such a way to disseminate information to the public, which possesses a newsworthy nature via media sources such as a trade magazine or journal, the traditional radio or television networks, the newspaper, or the internet. Hence, an effectual public relations program has the potential to not only maximize, as well as increase sales, but also, enhance profitability by establishing a competitive advantage with relation to business contenders. Therefore, an effective PR campaign accomplishes this goal by creating greater visibility for the business, its products, and augmenting the credibility of the business, while, attempting to neutralize potential crises, as they arise. Thus, public relation programs represent an invaluable tool utilized by businesses such as the Olive Garden Restaurant.

This paper was prepared during the Spring Semester of 2016 for COMM 226-003 - Introduction to Public Relations.

Public Relations in New Zealand is widely useful, practised and builds up an organisation’s relationships with its publics. PR in short, is essentially about communication and relationship building. PRINZ [Public Relations Institute of New Zealand] (2009) defines PR as “The deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.” This essay will deconstruct and critically examine this definition of public relations in relation to PR theories. These theories being Systems Theory, Relationship Management and Excellence Theory will be examined and applied to campaign examples. This will give a comprehensive understanding of the theory’s meanings as well as relationships with aspects of the PRINZ definition of PR. To understand PR theories however, the term publics must first be addressed.

The most recent definition of public relations, according to the Public Relations Society of America (2012), states that “Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” Through the rapid advancement of modern media and technology, there have never been more outlets and opportunities available for accomplishing the goals of public relations. Believing the development of social media has not created serious changes in the way public relations practitioners go about their duties would be foolish and a fast track to falling behind in this rapid world of communication. The main goals of public relations are “to

Public relations has changed drastically since the early 20th century. In its earliest forms it was more focussed on the idea of publicity and advertisement. However, more recently it has been seen as a way to engage and build relationships between an organization and it’s publics. Public relations deals with promotional activities that foster a positive public image of a company or organization.

"Public relations is the management of communication between an organization and its publics." (Grunig & Hunt's, 1984)

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics’ (PRSA, 2012). Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders’ (AMA website, 2004).

Press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetric public relations, and two-way symmetric public relations are four models of public relations theory devised by Grunig and Hunt (1983). In this essay, the author goes on to identify an example each from current public relations business practices that goes on to show the four public relation models in action. Further stress is provided to ensure that the examples have all been taken place within last twelve months in the Australian media and justification of selection is to be done by comparing it with real world examples that are chosen.

Governmental public relations have been inspired by Grunig’s models of PR and, particularly, by the concept of symmetrical communication between organizations and publics (Gregory, 2006; Fisher & Horsley, 2007), a concept which, with its relationships with the notion of excellence (Grunig & Hunt, 1984; J.E. Grunig & L. Grunig, 1992; Grunig, 2001), has constituted the major framework that has guided public relations scholarship for the past 30 years (Botan & Hazleton, 2006). Mutual benefit, mutual understanding, win-win mixed motivated communication, are concepts used to denominate purposes of organizational public relations.

The theory explains that the value of public relations in organization and society lies in socially responsible managerial decisions and quality organization to public relations. Organisations must behave in ways that solve the problems and satisfy the goals of the stakeholders as well as the management in order to be effective. Good relationship with organisation’s strategic publics is helpful in developing and achieving goals desired by both the organization and its publics, reducing costs of negative publicity, and increasing revenue by providing products and services needed by stakeholders. Practitioners identify publics who are affected by or affect organizational decisions and communicate symmetrically with them to build high quality long term relations.

Because they have a large degree of understanding of the public relations is an image of the establishment of business or put more persuasion efforts for business. The reporter general agree PR is in a public image, propaganda, persuasion activities, as well as marketing efforts, and promote the organization 's position. As the role of public relations become more diverse and important, public relations progress toward becoming the subject of strategy management, it is essential for public relations to the strategy. And to a wide range of business functions integration marketing communication (IMC) concept of the functions of public relations as a commitment to development a of an organization and its product, the image and the impact of the public or the consumer in the campaign of behavior(Ha, JH, & Ferguson, MA 2015）.

The public relations tactics in relation to the corporate context will now be examined. Customer relations can be associated with the monitoring of attitudes of key publics and stakeholders especially in regards to any negative incidents that have the potential to effect the organisation’s reputation and consumer trust (Wilcox, 2013, p.312). For Malaysian Airlines, this is evident given the potential for consumer boycotts with the missing aircraft’s (Crossman Communications, 2015, p2). Having over 12, 000 employees, employee relations are important for the organisation. Employee relations consist of monitoring employees’ attitudes and beliefs towards the organisation (Wilcox, 2013, p316) as there is potential for negative word of mouth by employees essentially damaging the company’s reputation. This is evident as according to Malaysian Airlines, they offer a “dynamic exciting environment that nurtures a diverse talented team that work to make great things happen” (2017). Finally, media relations are vital in a corporate context as “negative coverage can cause a corporation’s reputation to plummet” (Wilcox, 2013, p. 310). Having said that, it is important as public relations professionals to establish positive relationships with those who operate in the media industry. Kimberly Blessing argues the two fields (public relations and journalism) have an important working interrelationship with “60% of PR

As the name of the discipline implies, public relations is how an organization builds beneficial relationships with its key stakeholders. With effective communication as the practices’ primary tool, modern day organizations have taken advantage of proficient practitioners to boost exposure of their company and its message across to international audiences.