Unfortunately I couldn’t get access to the reading by Tymson, Lazar and Lazar for this week, so I will blog on about chapter 11 from the Johnston and Zawawi text.
Chapter 11 concentrated on the importance of internal PR and community relations. The text went into great deal about how organizations can manage and measure how effective the internal relations are and why in this day and age it is so important the organizations instigate internal relations. The text cites examples of organisations doing this well such as BHP whereas Patrick Stevedores could have handled their internal relations a little better when faced with the decision to sack 2000 workers. It is an interesting concept to think about as firms look to further increase shareholder value through downsizing and retrenching staff.
I tend to agree that ‘trust, honest and community’ are three essential aspects that organizations must manage well in order to be successful as companies compete their way to homogeneity, often it is only the image of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that sets them apart from their competitors. However as the text indicates, it must be genuine CSR in order to be effective. Johnston and Zawawi recognize that an organizations public image begins with their internal culture. Johnston and Zawawi talk about the need for an open information culture, where all information is disseminated throughout the organisation which seeks to dispel the rumours created by ‘talk around the water cooler’. In keeping information open, organizations have a better chance of minimizing the chances of rumours being created and having a negative impact on the organisation. More and more organizations are extolling the importance of company values on staff as a means to ensure a happy workforce. Johnston and Zawawi also outline that using participative decision making can assist in helping employees better connect with the organisation and therefore be more inclined to be positive in their promotion of the organisation.
The text went onto explain the means available to organisations in disseminating the information such as newsletters, memo’s, awards, events etc. I am somewhat critical of the award mentality as if it is not instigated effectively it can put employees competing against another for recognition which may do more harm than good (especially in a small organisation). The text, touches on the emergence of technology such as online noticeboards and email which in many cases has enabled larger organisations to better manage internal relations through such applications as Lotus Notes.
The second part of the chapter focuses on community relations – meaning organisations recognizing the importance and their impact on external stakeholders and the various approaches to community relations, such as environmental scanning and consultation.
Both parts of chapter 11 discuss the trend towards more two way symmetrical information. An aspect that I found interesting as it is a move towards a marketing environment, where organisations are concerned with finding out what their market wants and then developing the product or service instead of first making the product and service and then trying to market it to society.
I have been somewhat critical in the first few weeks of this course as I have the mindset that PR should not be a single business function but rather intertwined with existing business functions. This chapter has reinforced my viewpoint. The first part – internal relations – seems to be more the role of the HR department while the second part – community relations – should again be part of the marketing department. I will concede that ‘consumer insights’ may well be a new division of the existing marketing department but not a single business function. I do agree with the text that organisations need to manage internal and community relations even more so in today’s business world, I just tend to believe that this can be done within existing business units.
this week i commented on Taegan's blog http://taeganreidcmns1290.blogspot.com/
1 comment:
I thought your point about the internal public relations functions being undertaken by other area's of an organisation such as the HR and Marketing departments was interesting in that it wasn't something that I had considered.
I'm not entirely sure I agree with you on these points although I do respect the fact that you have almost completed your Marketing degree and have strong idea's based on that.
I feel that our other reading, the insider info chapter, highlighted the fact that PR professionals undertake many different roles within an organisation that often overlap with other roles. Not many of the individuals interviewed had job title's of simply 'public relations'.
However, I thought the way you approached the reading was extremely helpful to other students as your experience with marketing gave another perspective on the topic that I certainly didn't think of.
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