Public Relations: Lecture Four Public Relations And Management

Public Relations In Strategy Making  The main role of the leader of organization and its senior managers is to provide vision and direction.  Effective organizations have a sense of purpose.

Cont.  They know where they are going and they know how to get there.  Whatever the type of organization, successful ones have a strategy that determine long-term direction and the scope of the operations

Cont.  To a layman, certainly, strategy may be seen as the means by which objectives are pursued and obtained overtime, or in its simplest terms, the way you get what you want.

Cont.  The concept of “strategy” is derived from a Greek word, stratos (army) and ago (leading). Stratogos referred to an Army General during the age of Athenian democracy.

Cont.  The contribution that public relations can make to the strategy-making process is twofold:  First, it helps to collect and interpret information from the social environment so that strategic decisions can be made.  Second, the communication of the strategic vision.

The Roles of Public Relations Practitioners  The communication technician: This often highly skilled individual who carries out communication programs and activities such as writing news releases, editing magazines and developing websites.

Cont.  The communication Manager: Communication managers play different roles like: The expert prescriber: the expert prescriber researches and defines public relations problems, develops programs and implements them.

Cont. The communication Facilitator: these individuals act as go- betweens; interpreting, mediating and keeping open two way communication between an organization and the public.

Cont. The problem-solving facilitator: Problem-solving facilitators are perceived to be skilled at helping others in analysis and solution finding and as such are invited into the decision making coalition.