Public Relations Management in Organizations

Although PR practice is done in reality and according to the situation, PR campaigns may change from one to anther, PR people should use theories to guide decisions and choices in every event because theory provides a model for the practice of public relations.

Understanding systems theory
Systems theory provides a framework through which to view organizations and their relationships with the environment. It is used to explain how public relations helps understand and manage the relationships an organization has with its stake holders and publics who make up its environment.

Types of systems
1. production , eg. production line
2. supportive subsystems, eg. finance pr procurement departments
3. maintenance subsystems, eg. public relations
4. managerial subsystems that coordinate and control the other subsystems

Open and closed systems
Closed systems and public relations
A closed system is isolated from the environment and other systems. The public relations function has low regard for the environment because they are unlikely to interact with other publics. They may adopt one-way communication. The disadvantage for the systems is that they are not able to take advantage of opportunities or move quickly to address potential problems.

Open systems and public relations
Open systems continuously exchange inputs and outputs with the environment through permeable boundaries. Organizations actively seek information from their environment, which is received as input into the organization system. In open systems, public relations takes on a functional approach that is concerned with two-way communication between the organization and the environment.

I think opening system is a wise choice for organizations.

Role and responsibilities
The role and responsibilities of public relations are influenced by two forces: the professionalisation of public relations and the nature of the organizational environment.
The responsibilities of a public relations manager is defined as:
1. monitoring and evaluation
2. issues management
3. policy and strategy advice
4. trouble shooting and problem solving

Public relations, the dominant coalition and links to other departments
Public relations departments operate alongside others, including marketing, human resources, legal, research and development, and operations.

Public relations and the marketing department
There is common ground between marketing and public relations functions in organizations and in some organizations the two functions are combined. PR and marketing have some tasks in common such as image assessment, customer satisfaction, corporate reputation, media strategy, corporate advertising and employee attitudes.

Public relations and the legal department
The relationship between the public relations department and legal counsel in organizations is mirrored by the tension between the courts of the public opinion and the law.

Public relations and the human resources department
Unified by a joint interest in employees, the relationship between public relations and human resources departments is important in organizational systems. At the operational level, research into employee benefit rpograms that are used to recruit and retain employees shows that there are opportunities for collaboration to determine appropriate methods and channels of communication.

The practice of public relations in organizations

Public and audiences
Public relations programming often starts with the development of a publics or audience map for the organization, that is, a list of people who are aligned to or have a stake in the organization. The map contains broad categories of people or groups that affect or are affected by an organization.

Internal relations
Internal communication is the public relations specialty dedicated to the building and maintenance of relationships with and among themselves. When practicing internal communication, PR practitioners should notice the impact of organizational culture, understand employees and their information needs and build and maintain good communication channels.

External relations: contemporary challenges
PR practitioners have to deal with events, community relations, and media relations as external relations.