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    Functions of Public Relations

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    carolynknowles24
    Public relations plays both organizational and societal functions. Organizational functions include employee relations, communications management and media relations which benefit the organization. Societal functions aim to benefit society, such as social responsibility and informing people about products. Both functions help improve an organization's image with stakeholders. For example, Walmart's environmental practices fall under both functions - protecting the environment benefits society but also benefits the organization financially and reputationally. Effective public relations can highlight an organization's societal and environmental efforts to foster positive perceptions.

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    Functions of Public Relations

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    carolynknowles24
    130 views6 pages
    Public relations plays both organizational and societal functions. Organizational functions include employee relations, communications management and media relations which benefit the organization. Societal functions aim to benefit society, such as social responsibility and informing people about products. Both functions help improve an organization's image with stakeholders. For example, Walmart's environmental practices fall under both functions - protecting the environment benefits society but also benefits the organization financially and reputationally. Effective public relations can highlight an organization's societal and environmental efforts to foster positive perceptions.

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    Public relations plays both organizational and societal functions. Organizational functions include employee relations, communications management and media relations which benefit the organization. Societal functions aim to benefit society, such as social responsibility and informing people about products. Both functions help improve an organization's image with stakeholders. For example, Walmart's environmental practices fall under both functions - protecting the environment benefits society but also benefits the organization financially and reputationally. Effective public relations can highlight an organization's societal and environmental efforts to foster positive perceptions.

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    130 views6 pages

    Functions of Public Relations

    Uploaded by

    carolynknowles24
    Public relations plays both organizational and societal functions. Organizational functions include employee relations, communications management and media relations which benefit the organization. Societal functions aim to benefit society, such as social responsibility and informing people about products. Both functions help improve an organization's image with stakeholders. For example, Walmart's environmental practices fall under both functions - protecting the environment benefits society but also benefits the organization financially and reputationally. Effective public relations can highlight an organization's societal and environmental efforts to foster positive perceptions.

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    of 6

    Functions of Public Relations

    Devon Knowles
    MKT/438
    December 5, 2014
    Pamela Adams

    Running head: PUBLIC RELATIONS

    Introduction
    The concerned people in an organization should monitor public relations on a regular
    basis. Public relations to an organization are just like the air in the tires of a car. The car driver
    hardly notices it until the tire blows up or the pressure is low. It is the responsibility of the car
    driver to keep the air pressure monitored. The public relation activities of an organization
    directly benefit the marketing activities and the strategic planning of an organization. A good PR
    campaign provides various benefits to an organization such as building brand, creating awareness
    among public about the organization and collecting feedback from the publics of the
    organization.

    Public Relations
    The role of public relations has been changing continuously. It is no more considered a
    job with a lot of glamour that anyone can do. Many years ago all a person needed to join the PR
    department of an organization was secretarial training. Public relations are no more just about
    that. Public relations are no more the same. Public relations have become a challenging job.
    Today, only those people enter the profession who has confidence in their abilities and skills as
    public relations are a sophisticated and skill oriented industry today. Today, public relations
    personnel have a range of professional qualifications and skills to help them perform their duties.
    Public relations experts are responsible for handling various functions of an organization
    such as relations with the government, media, political campaigns, industry, interest group
    representation, consumer, employee relations, investor relations and conflict resolution (Freitag,
    2009). The responsibility of public relations personnel is not just limited to communicating with
    organizational publics and conveying the organizational message. They need to understand the

    Running head: PUBLIC RELATIONS

    concerns of the stakeholders of the organization such as the investors, employees, public interest
    groups, consumers and the community. They need to form long-term relationships with these
    groups as well as journalists from print, digital and broadcast media.
    Societal functions of a PR campaign relate to advising the publics of the organization
    about the benefits and harms of a product, good and harmful products, product comparisons. The
    aim is to provide benefit to the society by keeping it informed. Public relations help the society
    to reach informed decisions and function in a better way by helping achieve cooperation between
    institutions. In a way, public relations help harmonize public and private policies. The similarity
    between the societal and organizational function of PR is that the objective of both of them is to
    improve the image of the organization in the eyes of the stakeholders, society, government,
    consumers, and interest groups media. The idea is to increase the recognition f the organization.
    Societal and organizational function of PR, both, helps the organization achieve long-term
    growth, using different means though.
    The main difference between organizational and societal function of PR is that
    organizational function of PR is concerned with providing benefits to the company and its
    products whereas the societal function aims to inform the society and create awareness among
    the different stakeholders of the organization. Therefore, the aim of the organizational function of
    PR is to help the organization with the marketing and strategy function and the aim of the
    societal function of PR is to raise awareness in the society by providing them with information
    about different products.
    Organizational functions of PR include employee relations, communications management
    and media relations. Communications management, media relations and employee relations are
    functions that provide benefit to the organization. For example having good relations with the

    Running head: PUBLIC RELATIONS

    employees will result in motivated and loyal workforce. This in turn will improve the
    productivity and creativity of the workforce and will benefit the organization. In the same way,
    communications management helps the organization communicate with other organizations in a
    smooth manner.
    Societal functions include functions such as social responsibility and marketing
    communications. Even though social responsibility helps in the enhancing the image of the
    organization, its not the main of this function. The aim is to benefit the society by being
    responsible. This is why social responsibility comes under societal function of PR. Social
    responsibility relating to informing people about beneficial and harmful products and informing
    them about advantages and disadvantages of using a certain product and the risks associated with
    it aim to create more awareness in the society. The function of marketing communications aims
    to communicate with stakeholders such as investors to provide them information. Another
    example of societal function is public affairs where an organization works with policy makers
    such as government departments for the benefit of the society.
    The operations of Wal-Mart have an impact on the environment it operates in. Wal-Mart
    purchases products from all over the world and makes them available to consumers at its retail
    outlets across the globe. During this process, a lot happens that can cause environmental
    pollution. Wal-Mart is responsible for taking steps to minimize the harm done to the environment
    by its activities and become an organization that is environmental friendly. This responsibility
    falls under both, the organizational function and societal function. The reason that it falls under
    organizational function is that damaging the environment can cause negative reputation for the
    company which can reduce its revenue since customers may protest. This can also drive down
    the stock price of the company. It falls under societal function because pollution can damage the

    Running head: PUBLIC RELATIONS

    health of people.

    Conclusion
    Public relations can play an important part in making people realize the efforts the
    organization is making in conserving the environment. Public relations will help the company
    surface as an eco friendly company. For example the PR function can remind people how careful
    Wal-Mart is sourcing products; that it only buys those products that are friendly to the
    environment. The PR function can also highlight other societal activities that Wal-Mart
    participates in, for instance making donations to charitable institutions. Effective PR campaigns
    can therefore help reduce the negative feelings among people regarding the organization and
    foster a positive image of the company in the eyes of the stakeholders, the society, environmental
    groups and the government. Wal-Mart should manage such fragile issues and crisis situations on
    a regular basis. Good PR campaigns can help the company reduce the negative impact of crises
    (Botha, n.d.). Apart from that, PR plays an important role in keeping the public informed about
    the daily affairs of the organization.

    Running head: PUBLIC RELATIONS


    References:
    Botha, Dawid; Chaka, D. Botha (n.d.), Public relations: Fresh perspectives. Retrieved from
    Google books.
    Freitag, Alan; Quesinberry, Ashli (2009), Global public relations. Retrieved from online
    database.

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