Don’t Overlook Your Office Neighbors: Why You Need to Focus on Building Internal Relationships
It is not given that public relations professionals will embrace the role of ethical conscience. Some believe it is too big a job for one person (St. John III and Pearson 2016). We agree. It is too big a job for one person; many of those interviewed concurred. That is why many of the personal accounts that public relations professionals tell about raising ethical concerns involve recruiting allies or forming coalitions, as there is power in numbers. It is simply a matter of building and maintaining relationships, an accepted and expected role for public relations professionals.
Coalitions are “any subset of a group that pools its resources or unites as a single voice to determine a decision for the entire group” (Murnighan and Brass 1991, p. 285), but the difficulty in studying coalitions is the secrecy which can surround their activities. Berger and Reber (2006) suggested that coalitions meet both formally—scheduled meetings at designated sites with an agenda—and informally, impromptu meetings in airplanes, golf courses, hallways, parking lots, or via video conferences. Similarly, Neill (2014) found informal meetings often occurred in coffee shops, fitness centers, electronically through text messages, and impromptu stops by a colleague’s office.
In their research, Eisenhardt and Bourgeois (1988) found that coalitions did not necessarily form based on agreement on specific issues, but around factors such as age, proximity of offices, similar job titles, and prior work experiences together. Scott (1981) noted that “coalition members seek out other groups whose interests are similar as allies, and they negotiate with groups whose interests are divergent but whose participation is necessary” (p. 264). The invitations to participate in these informal coalitions are often based on interpersonal relationships. So, before recruiting allies and forming coalitions, public relations professionals need to form trusting relationships with their colleagues in other departments throughout the company or organization. As a Page Society member explained:
I had a relationship with them previously…it really came down to know you, like you, trust you. You’ve worked with them, you’ve seen them in different situations, you knew how the other responded, you’d seen them in action, so you knew what their character was or you knew that they cared about this type of issue or that they had a strong sense of right or wrong.
A PRSA Fellow emphasized how critical relationships are to effective public relations and also described the investment that it requires:
You can’t always go it alone. You can’t do that…so you need to recruit allies by appealing to their sense of decency and honesty, and…[if] management hears more than one voice with a convincible argument, you know with any luck they’re going to acquiesce and listen. It is our stock in trade…It’s relationship building and it’s not a momentary event. It’s one that’s done over time by building allies, helping them understand the value you bring to the table, to being open and honest with them. And always helping out whenever somebody needs help and over time that builds tremendous trust, so once you have built that trust you know it doesn’t easily fall apart unless you’ve done something unethical or dishonest or hurtful. And so my philosophy in my career has always been to build allies before you need them.
This PRSA Fellow provided several recommendations regarding how to build relationships with your coworkers:
You have to reach out to people and have the genuine interest of who they are, what their background is, what their expertise is. I think asking for help in learning about what they do can be a great way to open doors. I think finding things that you have in common are also very positive ways to build a relationship. I think being open to having different kinds of conversations and really making yourself accessible.
A Page Society member took another approach to relationship building, asking colleagues for their advice:
I found over time that the best way I had to build trust was to consult with my peers when I had a decision to make and ask for their help. When you ask for someone’s help, it’s the easiest way to make a friend, because they feel like you need them and that you are intensely interested in their point of view. And so that was a hard lesson for me to learn, but when I did finally learn it, and get really good at it, I found it was highly effective.
Another PRSA Fellow took a proactive and personal approach to building relationships:
I started the day I went to work or the day they went to work, whichever came first or last, so…they knew I was interested in them, I visited with them, I heard what they had to say, so I would be on a relationship. Like to see all the pictures of their kids, I went to see their kids when they were born, I took them a little potluck…I just worked the relationship, which is what we’re all about.
At the same time, as this senior executive for a Fortune 500 company and member of the Arthur W. Page Society stressed, it is important to look for specific characteristics among allies:
I found like-minded individuals who are interested in ensuring that the culture and the way we behave at [name of employer] continued to be something that’s special and unique and something that we would never ever allow to be sacrificed. And we have a very loose, informal, yet very well-identified coalition of people who bonded and said, regardless of what role we serve inside of the company, and regardless of who we work for, we will always ensure that we speak up and challenge and counsel to ensure that [name of employer] continues to always do the right thing for our members and our employees.
While this may sound time consuming and even disruptive to a normal routine, in reality many of these relationships are built while working together on cross-departmental projects for the company or organization. As a PRSA Fellow explained, building these alliances should be part of the routine:
It’s part of our job anyway to understand this business and learning about their challenges they face, the issues they face, the triumphs that they experience. I think public relations has a great opportunity to do that because we can be champions for people. We can shine a bright light on the good work the different parts of an organization do, so we’re natural allies and so when we act as allies in that way, we actually build trust. And so having that kind of curious mind—explain that to me, help me understand it. I want to be able to explain that to other people is generally trust building. We have to take the time to do that, and then when people feel like you understand their business…then the relationship just gets stronger.
Some of the relationship building occurs through formal and officially sanctioned business activity. While the traditional focus in public relations has been gaining access to the C-Suite, Berger (2005) discussed the importance of a new paradigm that focuses on multiple coalitions such as crisis and safety committees and public affairs management teams. Similarly, in an in-depth study of four companies, Neill (2014) found public relations executives were highly involved in formal leadership teams at the division level, as well as executive-level committees—such as a strategic spending team and a brand and reputation committee. She also discovered that public relations executives often chose to collaborate with those working in similar communication functions such as investor relations, marketing, and government affairs (Neill 2014). They also tended to communicate with those whose offices were next door and those with shared experiences, such as attending the same university. One corporate communications officer maintained that there is common ground to be found, if you look for it:
We office right next to each other. And because IR [investor relations] and PR are linked, and so there’s this constant back and forth between us on how to position an issue and how to explain it, what to include in a news release versus what to include in a conference call, etc. So there’s lots of—it’s partnering and teaming. (Neill 2014, p. 601)
Some of these relationships, as one senior vice president of investor relations explained, are built through informal activities, whether a casual stop by a colleague’s office, a morning chat at the coffee shop, or going for a walk or run with a colleague:
An example of that is when [SVP of corporate communications] and I would sit down over Starbucks at 7 in the morning and just say, “Hey what’s going on in your world today? What are you expecting?” And so then issues would come up and we would bounce ideas off of each other, and I always found that that was a really good way to start the day. (Neill 2014, p. 603)
At one Fortune 500 energy company, managers deliberately focused on having their public affairs employees learn the business and meet their colleagues in other departments, which this division president believed paid big dividends:
If you come to work with us in public affairs, we take the first year with you and we just put you through the ringer. You’ve got work boots; you’re going to have steel toe boots; you’re going to have a hard hat. You’re going to be in the field…so that when you’re standing in front of a camera, and someone sticks a mic in front of you…you don’t do this—“uh, uh.” (Neill 2012, pp. 84–85)
Similarly, a Page Society member decided to work behind the counter of their restaurants to better understand the concerns of employees and customers. She said, “I think it’s really incumbent upon us to get out there and get out from behind our desks and spend as much time with colleagues and customers and stakeholders as possible.”
One PRSA Fellow made it a priority to develop strong relationships with senior finance and legal officers:
The person I frequently go to is whoever the top financial reporting person is whether it is the chief operating officer [COO], or CFO…I frequently like to get the money analytical budget person on board because they come at things from a very different perspective and frequently things do involve money issues so it has informed me about things I don’t know. And I don’t want to get broadsided at a big meeting. I tend to try to develop very good relationships with people in those areas, because it is so as far afield from what I do…I’ve worked in politics a lot. You want to count up the votes before you get in there…Often I learn about red flags I did not know about and shift my own thinking.
A member of the Page Society said this approach is consistent with the Japanese consensus-building principle known as nemawashi. Public relations executives need to privately meet with other senior executives to hear their concerns and craft a solution that would be mutually beneficial, just as they would with external stakeholders. Legal counselors are a good example. While some public relations professionals considered legal an adversary, others see them as key collaborators. As a former Page Society member said, “It used to be that PR and legal were always at odds. Most senior executives know that legal is your best friend.” A PRSA Fellow also said she actively seeks out legal as an ally:
I always gravitated to working with legal counsel. Their interests are extremely important and in a lot of ways I think they’re as close to public relations practitioners as I am going to get inside an organization and I just plain like lawyers. I always wanted to work with them and make sure they were an ally and not an adversary. Frequently our interests clashed. And if we could work it out among ourselves first, it often made it so much easier to go after these issues on a bigger scale when the boss has to make the decision.
While it is always important for public relations professionals to understand the business and interests of other departments, they also need to make it a priority to educate their colleagues on the value of public relations. As a public affairs director at an energy company said:
You can’t force people to think of you first. So you have to proactively go in and be willing to assist them and just be there for them and show them how helpful you can be to them. I see a lot of public relations people that are sort of snobbish that…act like oh, “I’m the big TV guy…and I don’t have time for you people.” We try to be the opposite, and we try to go in and show them our interest by going to them…“How can I be of help to you? What can we do? What are your issues? What are your problems? How can I help you with them?” (Neill 2014, p. 603)
Organizational Factors Impacting Collaboration
Relationship building can produce true collaboration that leads to the exchange of information, sharing of ideas and resources, and responsiveness to others’ needs, as well as consensus building (Lee, Jares, and Heath 1999), but in reality, too many organizations still operate in functional silos. In those situations, departments do not communicate with each other. They often operate without awareness of what is happening in other parts of the organization. When this happens, it can lead to miscommunication, distrust, duplication of services, turf battles, and a focus on protecting a department’s domain and budget (Kitchen, Spickett-Jones, and Grimes 2007; Neill 2015b; Ots and Nyilasy 2015). Collaboration and functional silos can both be considered outcomes of an organization’s climate, culture, policies, and procedures, and also can impact ethical decision-making (Bowen 2004; McDonald and Nijhof 1999; Neill and Schauster 2015).
An ethical climate refers to an organization’s behavioral norms, role models, and historical anecdotes about times when the company chose to do the right thing (Cohen 1993). An organization’s culture includes its stated and practiced core values, which are “deeply ingrained principles that guide all of a company’s actions” and serve as “cultural cornerstones” (Lencioni 2002, p. 6). As an illustration of these principles in practice, a chief marketing officer for a nonprofit organization described how they shifted their culture from silos to a more collaborative environment.
The way we were structured before—and this went all the way down to how employees were annually reviewed—if you ran a specific development program…and your revenue goal was $30 million, that’s what you focused on. And so you acted like that, which caused you to work in a silo versus now we value collaboration and working without silos and being innovative. And so you see a lot of cross functional teams. A lot less about who’s owning it. (Neill 2016b, p. 12)
A PRSA Fellow held face-to-face meetings to overcome functional silos:
I took the time to sit down with each department, with each department head and work through their, first of all what are they all about, what they are trying to accomplish, what’s their business plan look like in support of the greater organization, and how can I and my team help that…the departments get very siloed, and in this case the silos were pretty high and pretty thick in terms of the walls and…busting silos is very important to making things work internally sometimes, if not oftentimes. And so it was necessary to make sure that everyone could start to see the connections between what they were doing and what others were doing in the organization and how important it was for them to all have a consistent direction with one another.
Some communication executives also discussed how structural changes may be necessary to combat functional silos that exist even within the communication function:
We have a new chief communications officer and that’s a new role that we didn’t have until about the last year. And that person is over external, internal, our shows and events team, as well as our executive communications team. So before that, we…all operated in our siloed organizations. So the fact that we have one SVP who is driving the strategy and the operations for all of those functions, is pretty telling that we’re really leaning into more integrated communications approach. (Neill and Jiang 2017, p. 7)
These personal accounts provide evidence that collaboration is necessary for ethical decision-making in a company or organization. Understanding a company or organization’s management style is also important for public relations executives when trying to build relationships and foster collaboration. Companies and organizations that illustrate McGregor’s (1960) Theory Y (participatory) management style use decentralized management, allow for autonomy in decision-making, and use cross-departmental teams to solve problems (Bowen 2004; Redmond and Trager 1998). These factors empower public relations executives to assume an all-important role, that of a strategic adviser. By contrast, Theory X (authoritarian) management has been described as the “command and control approach,” based on the notion that employees need to be “coerced, controlled, directed, threatened with punishment” in order to achieve company objectives (McGregor 1960, as cited in Redmond and Trager 1998, p. 43). The authoritarian leadership style uses top-down decision-making and leads to a greater power-distance relationship between the leadership and employees (Bowen 2004; Redmond and Trager 1998). In addition, formal authority and position in the organizational chart are prioritized over expertise when determining committee assignments or composition of leadership teams (Bunderson 2003); so, if public relations executives are positioned lower in the hierarchy, they have less opportunity to provide strategic counsel.
As evidence of a participative culture, a division president for an energy company said, “I tend to value the people far above what title or department they come from; you know, what’s their ability to contribute?” As further support for a de-emphasis on formal titles and roles, he described how an engineer was leading a philanthropy effort in the company: “Look everybody has an opinion…We have a public affairs effort right now that’s going to be around this year’s election. But it’s… helping the…food bank. And the guy that’s leading it is an engineer. Perfect example of it.” (Neill 2012, p. 58)
A participative culture allows public relations executives to serve as internal boundary spanners by linking people and coordinating activities, as well as filtering and transferring information across departments and up and down the hierarchy (Jemison 1984; Miles 1976; Neill 2014). As evidence of this role, Neill (2014) found public relations executives who would share updates during their departmental meetings with colleagues who were serving in leadership roles across the corporation, allowing issues to be examined from a companywide perspective. It was through this wider lens that public relations executives detected proposed actions that were problematic and needed to be addressed. More importantly, this intelligence enabled them to provide valuable strategic counsel.
Summary
The strategy of building relationships across an organization is critical to effective and strategic public relations generally and a prerequisite to serve as an ethical conscience. Strong relationships can lead to collaboration and create an environment that encourages ethical deliberation and decision-making. However, an organization’s culture and climate can serve as barriers to collaboration and ethics counseling. More specifically, functional silos may make it difficult to gather information and build trust among colleagues in other departments. Face-to-face meetings with department heads are one way to overcome this barrier.
Questions to Ponder
1. Why is it important for public relations professionals to build relationships with colleagues in other departments?
2. Based on the specific accounts in this chapter, what are some of the best approaches for building relationships with colleagues in other disciplines?
3. What are some of the organizational barriers that can prevent internal departments from collaborating with each other?