PR AS A MANAGEMENT FUNCTION

PR IS A MANAGEMENT FUNCTION

PR is most effective if it represented in the boardroom, at the highest management level where corporate decisions are made. PR involves advising or counseling top management or corporate leaders so that the policies and programs of the organization would be compatible with the needs and views of the public. PR is not just releasing information after important corporate decisions have been made; it is part and parcel of the management decision-making process. The participation of public relations practitioners in policy formulation has grown tremendously in the recent years. According to Nolte and Wilcox (1979: 19) at one time only the most to prestigious practitioners dared to make suggestions regarding organization policies. As time went on, it became customary for the practitioners to advice management and to make recommendations.

It seems reasonable to state that no organization could make a policy decision affecting any of its publics without the concurrence of public relations professionals.

The increase responsibility of the public relations practitioners have been due to opportunities opened up for advanced knowledge acquisition from higher institutions of learning, which were previously not available.

Since knowledge makes way for man, it will prepare the practitioner in its role of assisting management to identify itself with the public interest, to project the corporate character and personality of the organization.

According to Nolte and Wilcox (1979:8): public relations is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance and corporation between an organization and its publics. As a management function, it involves the management of problems or issues; helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to anticipate trends and uses research and sound and ethical communication techniques as its principal tools.

The above definition is a demonstration of the fact that the responsibilities of a public relations practitioner are as wide as a deep blue sea.

It forms a bridge between the organization and its publics and upon whom the organization depends on for its success. This shows that public relations cannot function without management support. The public relations department ought to echo the voice of the Chief Executive Officer of the organization. The public relations officer is the eye and ear and mouth of the organization.

Cutlip and Centre (1982:7) in its own contribution to the role of public relations in management identified three management functions of public relations:

(a)    Facilitating and ensuring an in-flow of respective opinion for organizations publics so that policies and operations may be in tune with the needs and views of the public’s.

(b)   Counseling management executives on ways and means of maintaining or reshaping operations of communication policies and to gain maximum public acceptance.

(c)    Discussing and carrying out programs that will gain public acceptance and favorable interpretations of the organizations policies and programs.

Public relations is an essential part of management responsibility, not an optional extra or a bolt on publicity goody. Nor should public relations policies be developed by instinct, there shouldn’t be any room for optimism in the sensitive and critical areas of human relations. In essence no organization no organization should rely on luck to succeed.