PR practitioners serve as the bridge to communicate ideas and opinions from the public to the company. For example, knowledge that the people of Singapore, especially those from the lower income groups, are unhappy about the new increase in Government Service Tax from 5% to 7% in 2006, the government can come up with plans to especially help those from the lower income groups by providing them with tax rebates at the end of each year. Vice versa, PR practitioners also serve to transfer information from the organisation the public about their company, products and more through various forms of media channels. The most common form would be media releases where people can get some idea on the products, promotions, events and other details. A PR practitioner serves as the link between the company and the public, caught between the two, it can be difficult to resolve conflicting interests for both parties without offending one of them. For example, when knowledge of WalMart factories were emitting excessive carbon emissions and can pose a danger to the lives of people living in the area, the public can choose buy products from other similar brands that are manufactured in a safer manner. In this case, there is need for the PR practitioner to relate the situation at hand to the management to adjust their marketing strategy to retain their consumer base or risk having lower sales.
Operating in a closed system in current day is akin to a slow and painful death for the company, as it is isolated from other organizations and the public and are unwilling to improve to suit the needs of society. Thus, the company is unable to spot problems or improve situations that would be beneficial for the organisation. On the other hand, most organizations are operating as open systems, and there is constant exchange between the company and its environment (Cutlip, Center & Broom; Morgan, 1998). Open systems seeks to operate in a manner where the organizations complement each other and eliminate dysfunctional systems or systems that will affect their feasibility (Morgan, 1998; Witmer, 2006). It must be noted that of all the external pressures that the organisation faces, the PR practitioner has to prioritise and select the more pressing issues to deal with. Public relations serve to work together with the public to come to consensus and a solution, and not simply a reaction the pressures from the external environment.
The department of public relations operates alongside other departments in a company, including marketing, sponsorship, internal affairs and others. In theory, all the departments in a company are equal in a company. However, in reality, the public relations officer is less likely to be a member of the managerial team, but the financial officer would be. It must however be reminded that the role of public relations is important as it serves as a connection between the organisation and the public.
“Organizational or corporate culture is the system of shared actions, values and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003). With a strong corporate culture in the company, it can establish some control over employees, and control the quantity and quality of output, standardize operating procedures and maintain high performance levels. This is important as it would affect the overall performance level of the company. In a company with a communications culture, language is used to facilitate communication and to “motivate themselves and others” (Cameron, 2000). This enables employees to understand the requirements of the company and know what is expected of them and the chances of miscommunication are lowered. Employers also know the concerns of their employees and can adopt various methods and strategies to allay their fears and lower employee turnover rates.
Ample research is needed before coming up with strategies to achieve the objectives of the organisation. There is hence need to analyse the research collected to ensure that the plan created will be effective. Research will be analysed based on SWOT, namely Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats(James, 2009). Strategies refer to the methods to be used to achieve specific aims and goals. To achieve them, strategies have to be SMART, namely Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-orientated and Time frame(James, 2009). SWOT and SMART are important acronyms to remember in creating an effective PR plan. However, these pointers serve merely as a guide and is by no means an absolute must to be abided by. Tactics refer to the process undertaken to execute the strategy for the plan to be successful. Critical thinking is important in coming up with tactics for the organisation to stand out from the rest of its competitors and capture the attention of the audience.
Public Relations is an active profession, and PR practitioners can exercise critical thinking to analyze factors and work on them to ensure success for the organisation. Public Relations can be thought of as a plan which leads to actions taken and optimized results due to good planning. PR practitioners are key engineers in making change occur, be it communicating the change to other investors or the public. Although PR practitioners are people representing the company, they still need to be socially responsible, and to work towards achieving maximum benefits for the company as well as the public. The system theory indicates that organizations constantly need to adapt and adjust to the external environment to remain relevant in society and to work towards achieving organizational goals (Synnott, 2008).
There are 8 aspects to effective public relations, namely work practices and approach, skills, abilities and knowledge, experience and background, personal attributes, judgment and ethics, relationship with management, image and reputation and works for the profession (Synnott, 2001). PR practitioners need to be clear of what is required of them, be responsible for their actions and take pride in their work. They need to be adaptable and to provide and seek advice for constant improvement. In addition, experience in this field is valuable to building relationships and managing tacky situations. The 8 aspects are closely related to their actions which are guided by their values and attitudes towards certain issues and situations. Based on the environment that they were brought up in and external factors, their personality, character and attitudes are shaped. Being a PR practitioner is no easy feat as it involves handling interpersonal relationships and it can be difficult to have the best of both worlds for both the organisation and the public. A compromise has to be reached, and this will depend greatly on how the PR practitioner manages the issue. The 8 aspects are by no means the golden rules to being a successful PR practitioner. Depending on the situation at hand, PR practitioners have to exercise their own judgment and do the ‘right’ thing that reaps maximum benefits.
PR practitioners can reach out to the public using traditional forms of media, which include newspapers, radio, television, magazines and newsletters. As journalists, there is need to be objective, and to constantly look out for opportunities to publish newsworthy articles to raise awareness, address concerns, serve as links between the organisation and the public, and other roles (McLean & Phillipps, 2009).
Uncontrolled forms of communication through magazines and newspapers, generally have more credibility as the article or product would have received the approval of the editor before it can be published. On the other hand, controlled forms of communication like brochures and posters are created to serve the organisation’s purpose and can be seen as biased. Thus, these forms of advertising can be slighted by the public and not be able to achieve effect on the public as intended by the organisation.
Articles need to have news value before they are considered to be used. Some considerations include truth, timeliness, proximity, conflict, eminence and prominence, consequence and impact, human and animal interest, the unusual and the focus of media the various media forms and picking the right day and time to publish the article. It is important that PR practitioners are truthful in their reports about situations and not provide exaggerated and false information. People also wish to know about the latest information about events and situations and are not interested in something that has occurred 20 years ago. Also, people are generally more concerned with news that is closely related to them. For example, the NTU stabbings in 2009, where a student, David Wijarya, stabbed his professor before proceeding to commit suicide is of greater concerns to Singaporeans as compared to the Winnenden school shooting in Germany in 2009. As a form of publicity stunt, it is common to see companies hiring artistes to promote their products. In addition, people would be concerned about natural disasters that have great impact on people. For example, the Haiti earthquake in 2010, having a 7.0 magnitude, and killing and injuring more than 500,000 people, made the headlines of many newspapers, television news reports and the internet all over the world during the aftermath of the event. People are also interested in issues like poverty and animal cruelty, and would donate or help out at The Salvation Army, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals when these organizations need people and help in supporting their cause. As stated by McLean and Phillipps (2009), “The golden rule for all public relations work, not just media relations, is to under-promise and over-deliver. Over-promising and under-delivering is the best way to lose the confidence and trust of any reporter.” The importance of credibility and reliability can not be reiterated much more than it has already been emphasized in this profession. Trust can also be lost when the person who specifically said not to be quoted has been quoted in an article. This can lead to lawsuits because of defamation, if what is written has affected the reputation of the person in question.
Ethics is about standards of behavior, which involves morals and values (Tilley, 2008). Each individual holds different morals and values and would hence have different viewpoints and mindsets about ethics. For me, I feel that it is part human nature and part morality, where our values are inculcated from young, to lead us to behave in a certain manner. Based on our individual perceived rights and wrongs, our morals and values will lead us to perceive and deal with situations ethically. However, as our actions are subjected to scrutiny by others, we can be blinded by the truth and choose one course of action that is acceptable by the mass and yet is not one that is aligned to our faiths and beliefs.
Gudykunst (2005) illustrates in three parts, willingness, knowledge and skill, to hone effective communication capabilities. The person has to be willing to see that ethics are important, acknowledge that coping with ethics is challenging and constantly assess and improve one's own ethicality. This seems to indicate that an unethical person can become ethical so long as he is aware and wiling to accept understanding ethics as a challenge and to constantly review his behavior in an ethical sense.
There are various ethics schools of thought, but there are three significant schools of the ethics theory, namely virtue, deontology and consequentialism. Virtue ethics question the kind of person one ought to be. As illustrated by Tilley (2008), virtue ethics is about the importance of developing a strong sense of personal values, or good character, to guide ethical behavior. As each individual holds different viewpoints and mindsets towards ethical behavior, the supposed 'right' moral of one cannot be simply imposed onto someone else. With this being the case, how can one tell which course of action or viewpoint is truly moral? Perhaps, it is important to also consider the role of communication, where there is chance for people with differentiated viewpoints to come to general consensus. Next, deontology questions the duties of an individual. This theory indicates that people will act morally if their actions were based on laws, codes of conduct or ethics or agreed principles and regulations for activities, as stipulated by the authorities. These rules and regulations serve as benchmark for people to abide by. However, people can still choose to go against the law despite knowing the consequences. The last ethical theory to be mentioned is consequentialism. Consequentialism questions how the world should be. For this theory, it indicates that being ethical would be the course of action that derives the maximum amount of benefit for the most number of people. However, this poses the question of why should the minority be marginalised? Maybe, a better way to analyse this theory would be to weigh the consequences of one's actions instead of basing it on the utilitarian approach.
The heirarchy of effects model, also known as a learning hierarchy illustrates the steos that can be taken by PR practitioners to lead people to knowing and buying a product. Steps taken include formulating the message and disseminating it by the PR practitioner (McElreath, 1993). Next, the audience receives and comprehends the message in their various forms of interpretations, leading to changing and reinforcing their attitudes and behaviors (McElreath, 1993). For example, when Apple products first started, it was simply a company that few knew of. Yet, Apple products, Iphones and Itouchs in particular, are being carried by many today. Apple advertisments can hence be viewed as effective in sending their message across to consumers and are able to persuade them to purchase Apple products. Initially, people were skeptical of Apple products, however many rave about its numerous applications in the Iphone and Itouch, which makes it very convenient for users to do whatever they please with the touch of a finger. It is also generally agreed by the mass that Apple is reliable and credible, and could be part of the driving force in promoting the sales of Apple products.
Quantitative and Qualitative research are the two types of research methods commonly used by PR practitioners in data gathering. Quantitative research methods include phone, email and face-to-face close-ended surveys. This method serves to show the proportion of people who think in a certain way about the question, where their attitudes may be either positive, negative or neutral. Qualitative research methods include interviews, focus groups and open-ended surveys. This method serves to identify specific opinions from the targeted groups of people better. Both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Based on the situation, PR practitioners will use either one or both methods to derive their findings.
Initial research on the topic in question, before taking on any research methods, is important. This first stage ensures that the project is planned out towards the aim and reduces any wastage that can be avoided. To ensure that the plan is going according to what was initially designed, there is need to execute research to monitor the progress of the action plans. There is also need to continually reflect and adjust the plan to ensure that the action plan is going smoothly. Lastly, to evaluate whether the research has been a success, the outcome is assessed. Evaluating the outcome enables PR practitioners to reflect and learn from what has gone wrong in the planning and implementation stages, to ensure better success for future researches. These three steps are not a must to be followed, but they serve as a guide towards success in research.
PR practitioners serve as the bridge to communicate ideas and opinions from the public to the company. For example, knowledge that the people of Singapore, especially those from the lower income groups, are unhappy about the new increase in Government Service Tax from 5% to 7% in 2006, the government can come up with plans to especially help those from the lower income groups by providing them with tax rebates at the end of each year. Vice versa, PR practitioners also serve to transfer information from the organisation the public about their company, products and more through various forms of media channels. The most common form would be media releases where people can get some idea on the products, promotions, events and other details. A PR practitioner serves as the link between the company and the public, caught between the two, it can be difficult to resolve conflicting interests for both parties without offending one of them. For example, when knowledge of WalMart factories were emitting excessive carbon emissions and can pose a danger to the lives of people living in the area, the public can choose buy products from other similar brands that are manufactured in a safer manner. In this case, there is need for the PR practitioner to relate the situation at hand to the management to adjust their marketing strategy to retain their consumer base or risk having lower sales.
