Strategy and PR….an interesting concept and one I am yet to make a decision on where is fits in the organizational structure. Last weeks tutorial/workshop provided insight into where a ‘PR’ function might fit into the organizational structure and it really helped me in realizing that separating the Marketing and PR function might be necessary for a company, however this weeks chapter from Zawawi and Johnson, just brought me back to thinking that PR and Marketing are too much alike to be separate functions.
I agree with Zawawi and Johnson that strategy is important because it provides the underlying rationale that guides an organisation (as one of my lecturers might say “strategy is the blueprint, the mission, vision and objectives are the recipe”). I also understand that in order for the strategy to be successful it needs top-down commitment and involvement from employees on all levels of the organisation.
The Zawawi & Johnson reading was all about strategy from how important strategy is, to outlining a strategic plan for an organisation. The begin with a rough outline of the history of strategy – eluding to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Zawawi and Johnson go onto to say that strategy evolved into a managerial skill, again something that I am not totally agreeing to. Sun Tzu’s book, written over 2,500 years ago, was a military textbook, but today is used mainly as a management textbook. Planning is vital to the success of strategy but to say that strategy is a managerial ‘skill’ is a fallacy.
Zawawi and Johnson replicate Porters ‘ten-step strategic communication plan’ however it is lacking detail in the definition of the steps. It is also outdated; we live in a world of rapid, volatile, discontinuous change and Porters doesn’t emphasise the importance of the situational analysis. Sahlman (1997) believed that plans today don’t have enough emphasis on the main issues – the people, the opportunity, the context and risk and reward. I believe that Sahlman’s framework can be applied to not only a business plan but also a Marketing plan and more importantly (at least in this context) a PR plan.
But where does a PR plan fit into the organizational structure? The text book gives a great outline as to what a strategic plan must entail and will no doubt prove useful in the formulation of our final project. But it is my view that it lacks some of the direction as to how it fits into the overall structure, sure it provides a case study of how PR can be used in the completion of a strategy (in the case study example of EKL) but it misses the point the PR isn’t involved in the completion of every strategic plan.
Sahlman, W.A. 1997, How to write a great business plan. The Harvard Business Review 75(4), pp98-119.
Johnston, J. and Zawawi, C. 2004, Public relations: theory and practice. 2nd edition. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin
I have just posted a comment on http://cmns1290kellieosullivan.blogspot.com/2007/08/tymson-lazar-reading-and-chapter-7-on.html
2 comments:
Hi David
I think you raise valid points within your blog. I agree with you that PR and Marketing are closely related areas, although every time I tell myself this, I quickly remind myself Marketing deals with profit making. But ultimately I do think PR and Marketing are difficult to separate.
You also make a valid point regarding strategy being attributed to a managerial 'skill'. In my opinion, it is the planning which is most important, not necessarily the strategy. As we have been told in class, crisis management plans are drafted to combat any unforeseen circumstances in a campaign, but again, isn't that a 'planning' tool rather than a strategic tool? I do think strategy is important, it gives the overall direction, and as you say 'underlying rationale', but I still feel planning is vital.
I enjoyed reading this blog, I thought it was great that you questioned the text and included your own opinion. You made extremely valid points which showed understanding of the text and of the PR industry itself!
Kell
David
I think the point to take from the tutorial/workshop is that the positioning of the public relations function within an organisation is dependent on the organisation itself and what it is trying to achieve. It's not a one size fits all solution. In my own experience, public relations in one context was very much a part of fundraising.
I also agree with you in regard to the importance of situational analysis. You'll note that in a number of the Golden Target Awards, situational analysis has more prominence.
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