WHAT IS PUBLIC RELATIONS ?

"Public Relations is the management process whose goal is to attain and maintain accord and positive behaviours among social groupings on which an organisation depends in order to achieve its mission. Its fundamental responsibility is to build and maintain a hospitable environment for an organisation." As defined during a colloquim held in 1989 whose panel included distinguished leaders in the field of public relations and marketing. William Ehling, professor and chairman of Syracuse University's department of public relations. Patrick Jackson, APR, senior counsel, Jackson, Jackson and Wagner, Exeter, New Hampshire. Larry Jones, senior vice president, Foote, Cone & Belding, Los Angeles. Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Evanston, Illinois.

WHO IS A PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONER ? "A public relations practitioner is an applied social scientist who advises the client or employer on the social attitudes and appropriate actions to take to win the support of the publics upon whom the viability of the client or employer depends." Edward. L. Bernays, Fellow, Public Relations Society of America. Listed in the Fall 1990 edition of Life Magazine as among the 100 most important and influential people of the 20th century and the only public relations figure mentioned. Bernays also counselled three U.S. Presidents: Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Dwight. D. Eisenhower. PUBLIC RELATIONS - A PROFESSION ? To qualify as a profession, a field of endeavour must be endemic to the human condition. Lawyers are professionals because the need for government by law rather than by the mob affects every person. Doctors are professionals because everyone needs mental and physical health.

Teachers are professionals because education is an essential part of all of our lives. Public Relations fits this criteria of professionalism. It is devoted to the essential function of building and improving human relationships.

Public Relations is also, like other professions, an art applied to a science. It employs replicable data from psychology, sociology and the other social sciences in its efforts to influence public relationships. Public Relations qualifies as a profession because it is an endeavour in which the public interest must be served and protected. Practitioners and organisations simply cannot succeed in building good, long standing relationships unless their actions are in concert with the public interest. WHY PUBLIC RELATIONS ? For a corporation to succeed and prosper over the long term, it must create a favourable climate, and win the assistance and alignment of those individuals and constituencies it relies on for support. For an organisation to truly achieve competitive advantage, it must garner the support of the publics or stakeholders (including employees, shareholders, financial community, suppliers, plant communities, government, media, special interest groups and the public at large), understand the current and emerging external and internal environment in which the corporation operates and competes, and learn to manage change within that environment, rather than be controlled by it. Such stakeholder and environmental alignment results from research, strategic planning and the implementation of carefully developed strategic communications and advocacy programs, designed to achieve a desired result and to create specific perceptions, actions or reactions from each public with whom the company relates. Even after public alignment or a company's credibility has been gained or restored, public relations is required to see that it is maintained.

Edited & Extracted from the Public Relations Journal in 1992