Public relations is a management pursuit. It is an identifier and a manager of problems, a facilitator of conflict resolution, a values manager and an ethical advisor, and a manager of communication, both inside and outside an organization. Public relations conducts research, defines problems, and creates meaning by communicating among many groups, stakeholders, publics, audiences, and organizations, for understanding and social betterment.
Public relations is a strategic conversation. As a wide-ranging field, it is often misperceived as media relations, but it is far, far more, such as public affairs or labor relations. The public relations function is prevalent and growing, and jobs in the field are booming. The dispersion and growth of multiple message sources means that public relations is on the ascent, while traditional forms of mass communication (such as newspapers, magazines, and nightly newscasts) are on the decline.
You can find public relations in virtually every industry, government, and nonprofit organization. The broad scope of the industry makes it impossible to understand without considering the taxonomy of this diverse, dynamic profession. Learning the lexicon of public relations will help master the discipline and facilitate further reading on the subject.
Corporate and agency public relations differ from each other and are discussed in greater detail in a later chapter, along with nonprofit public relations and government relations or public affairs. For the purpose of this overview, we can define corporate public relations as an in-house public relations department within a for-profit organization of any size or type. On the other hand, public relations agencies are hired consultants that normally work on an hourly basis for specific campaigns or goals of the organization that hires them. It is not uncommon for a large corporation to have both an in-house corporate public relations department and an external public relations agency that consults on specific initiatives. Nonprofit public relations refers to not-for-profit organizations, foundations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs, sometimes also called 501c3s) that advocate policy, and other issue- or cause-related activist groups. Government relations or public affairs, lobbying, or public information specializes in managing relationships with governmental officials, bureaus, and regulatory agencies along with their constituents.
Defining Public Relations
Among the many competing definitions of public relations, J. Grunig and Hunt’s is the most widely cited: Public relations is “the management of communication between an organization and its publics.”1 One reason why this definition is so successful is its parsimony, or, the use of few words to convey much information. It also places the foundation of the profession squarely within management, as opposed to the competing approaches of journalism or the promotion-based approach of marketing or advertising that focuses primarily on consumers. The components of Grunig and Hunt’s definition are:
- Management: The body of knowledge on how best to coordinate the activities of an enterprise.
- Communication: The conduit through which we manage not only sending a message to a receiver (one-way) but also understanding the messages of others through listening, research, and dialogue (two-way).
- Organization: Any group organized with a common purpose; in most cases, it is a business, a corporation, a governmental agency, or a nonprofit group.
- Publics: A group(s) of people held together by a common interest. They differ from audiences in that they often self-organize and determine which messages are relevant to their interests. Stakeholders are tied to an organization by proximity, investment, employment, supply chain, regulation, or some such connection. Publics differ from stakeholders in that they do not necessarily have a financial or other stake tying them to the consequences of the organization, but they do have some common interest.
As “the management of communication between an organization and its publics,” public relations has radically departed from its historical roots in publicity and journalism to become a management discipline—that is, one based on research and strategy.
The Function of Public Relations
The public relations function evolved from one based on tactical communication output into a management discipline based in research and strategy. From about 1950, the public relations function moved into a strategic counseling role, offering management analyses and alternative ways of anticipating and handling issues, instead of only responding to topics via communication channels.2 As such, the public relations field has grown to encompass the building of important relationships between an organization and its key publics through its actions and its communication. These relationships must be based on trust,3 as explored in detail in the following chapters. This perspective defines the field of public relations as a management function using communication to build trust and relationships.
Industry groups offer insight into the roles and responsibilities of public relations professionals. The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), as sponsor of the excellence study, subscribes to and builds upon the Grunig definition:
The purpose of public relations is to help organizations build relationships with the publics found within several categories of stakeholders. Public relations professionals help to build relationships by facilitating communication between subsystems of the organization and publics in and around the organization.
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) adopted the following definition: “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other . . . to build mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”5 In reality, we know that the relationships an organization has with all of its publics cannot always be harmonious or mutually beneficial. Further, that definition obligates us to act in the best interests of both the organization and its publics, which could be logically impossible if those interests are diametrically opposed. Examples of that contention could be class action litigation, boycotts, opposition research, political campaigns, and lobbying; despite the competitive nature of those relationships, they still require public relations management.
The management function of public relations is critical to the success of any organization that engages people in its operation, whether they are shareholders, employees, or customers. Because of its visibility, many people think of publicity as the sole purpose of public relations; this book will help the reader see the publicity subfunction as one among many, and to grasp the width and breadth of the overall pursuit of public relations.
Naming the Public Relations Function
A plethora of terms has come to be associated with modern public relations practice: everything from search engine optimization (SEO) to marketing to journalism turns up in an internet search, so clarification is warranted. This variety of terms can create a great deal of confusion about the responsibilities of public relations versus overlapping or competing organizational functions. The term “corporate communication” is the most common synonym for public relations in practice,6 followed by “marketing communication” and “public affairs.” We view the term corporate communication as a synonym for public relations, although some scholars argue that corporate communication applies only to for-profit organizations. However, we view corporate communication as a goal-oriented communication process that can be applied not only in the world of business but also in the world of nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations, educational foundations, activist groups, faith-based organizations, and so on. The term “public relations” often leads to confusion between the media relations function, public affairs, corporate communication, and marketing promotions, and therefore many organizations prefer the term “corporate communication” or “strategic communication.” According to scholars, “Strategic communication examines how organizations use communication purposefully to fulfill their mission.”7
We believe that the key component of effective public relations or corporate communication is an element of strategy. Many scholars prefer to use the phrase strategic public relations to differentiate it from the often misunderstood term “PR,” which can be associated with manipulation or “spin.” Strategic communication management, strategic public relations, and corporate communication are synonyms for the concept discussed in the preceding definitions. To scholars, public relations is seen as an umbrella term, comprising many smaller subfunctions, such as issues management, member relations, community affairs, internal communication, or investor relations. Academics tend to use the terms “public relations” or “communication management,” whereas 68 percent of professionals tend to use either “corporate communication” or “strategic communication.”8 This book adopts a strategic management perspective in its discussion of corporate public relations in most instances; other books in the series focus on agency public relations or public relations subfunctions, such as internal communication.9 Do not be distracted by the name debate and the myriad of synonyms: A strong body of academic research and theory underpin the practice of public relations as a management function.
Chapter Summary
At the outset, this chapter set out the purpose of public relations. Although the public relations function goes by many different names, it is essential to understand that it is a unique management function that contributes to an organization’s success through its focus on strategy, research, and the development and maintenance of relationships with key publics. Those publics are generally employees, financial stakeholders or shareholders, communities, media, and government. Do not confuse the overall strategic purpose of public relations—as a management function using communication to build trust and relationships—with its subfunctions, such as media relations. These subfunctions will be defined and discussed in more detail shortly.