The Nature, Scope, and Dimensions of Public Relations

Friends, Thank you very much for taking out time from your very busy schedule to read my blogs at www.sureshgaurprguru.blogspot.com and www.medium.com/@sureshgaur56 also. Sharing knowledge of PR with you has become my passion now.  

Today I’m happy to present my 87^th blog on the topic: “The Nature, Scope, and Dimensions of Public Relations.”

Friends, the nature of Public Relations indicates that it is essentially a task promoting rapport and goodwill between a person, firm or institution and the community at large through dissemination of information. It seeks to earn support, mobilize or solicit favour for an IDEA, a CAUSE or a PROBLEM. It uses a two-way communication in dealing with public opinion. 

How? First, it assesses the attitudes of the public towards the organisation. Next, it executes communication programmes to gain public understanding and acceptance of the management’s point of view. So nature of PR is to bring about harmonious and mutually advantageous adjustment between an organisation and the community through dissemination of ideas and also by providing feedback from the public to the management.

Friends, PR also evaluates public attitudes, identifies policies that interest’s public and executes the programme of communication. Public Relation must begin at the heart of the organisation it serves i.e. the Management. It must find answers to these four questions…..

a. What is the message that the management wants to impart?

b. To whom?

c. How?

d. Purpose?

Without knowing WHAT, WHOM, HOW and WHY any PR programmes can serve no purpose. A purposeful PR programme should…….

a. Understand the organisation’s nature and purpose thoroughly.

b. Communicate this understanding to others.

c. Observe and evaluate the effect of communication.

By doing so the management can gain the opportunity to make such internal changes in the organisation, product, services, or methods to survive and prosper in a public climate of goodwill.

 Scope of Public Relations

Friends, Public Relations consist of a number of little things and a few big things. It is the daily application of common sense, common courtesy and common decency.

PR is doing a lot of favours to others, so that they will be inclined to do favours to you. PR can be just entertaining a visitor to your organisation or it can be as important as providing counsel and advice that leads the management to solve a crucial strike situation.

PR can be organizing a health check up camp for the family of the employees or it could be the formulation of a communication campaign to face the society at large. PR could be just writing a letter to a parent whose child was reprimanded for neglecting studies or providing information to potential investors of your company. PR is a multitude of things.

Friends, Scope of PR is also like a “window out of the corporation through which management can monitor external change, and simultaneously, a window through which society can affect corporate policy. In today’s changing world most social conflicts are caused by changing values and higher superior expectations. There are constant conflicts between citizen government, employee-employer, consumer-manufacturer, management-stake holders so on. These conflicts are mainly owing to mis-conceptions and misunderstandings. The PR practitioners can play a crucial role. They must get to know the public mind and acquire skills in solving and avoiding such conflicts.

Prof. Sam Black had visualized the scope of PR in a management team. He saw it as that of an innovator, catalyst, conscience and the inward and the outward eye of an organisation. So, in business, scope of PR is also as a tool of management like marketing, production or finance. It is investing and creating assets for an organisation which is finally reflected in improved performance, profitability and growth.

Dimensions of Public Relations

Whatever the nature and purpose of the organisation, the dimensions of PR activities are widespread and all pervasive. The PR performs at least a four-fold role to enable the organisation to appreciate its multidimensional existence…..

a. To establish and maintain a correct image of the organisation, its personnel, products or services.

b. To monitor public opinion and convey this intelligence to the management.

c. To advise management on communication problems and techniques.

d. To inform publics about policies, activities, personalities, products or services.

The success of these four-fold roles implies a proper appreciation of the value of PR by the management, and of the need for PR minded management. No PR can continue to function or survive without the active support of the management.

To conclude,

PR, as often said, humanizes an organisation and helps to give the faceless entity a touch of warmth and a soul of its own. Although not a watch-dog in the usual sense, PR sees that an organisation functions to serve the primary needs of people dependent upon it for employment, wages, income, goods and services for social and sometimes even spiritual satisfaction.

Thank You for reading the blog.

 

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