Management of Public Relations I

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Management of Public Relations I

• Introduction to Public Relations
• School of Communication Studies
• James Madison University
• Dr. Michael Smilowitz

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What to expect?

• A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages
  of managing public relations in-house.
• A description of Seitels model for the
  management of public relations activities.
• A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages
  of managing public relations through the use of
  an external agency.
• An explanation of typical fee structures used by
  external agencies.
• An identification of the types of objectives and
  their role in the pr management process.

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Organizations provide for their public relation
activities by

• Hiring an external agency.
• Maintaining an internal department
• Sometimes called public relations departments,
  but nearly twice as often departments of
  communications, or departments of integrated
  communication.
• Some combination of external agency work and
  internal department work.

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Advantages of internal departments

• Part of the management team.
• First hand knowledge of the organization.
• More economical when public relation activities
  are extensive.
• Continuous availability of staff practitioners.

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Disadvantages of internal departments

• Limits on level of influence
• Dependent on top managements biases.
• Can vary from simple journalistic function to
  problem solving activities.
• Turf battles and frictions
• Legal department concerned about current or
  potential litigation.
• Human resources often wants to control flow of
  information to employees.
• Advertising and marketing in competition for
  communication budget.

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Disadvantages of internal departments

• Ready availability leads to confused roles
• Stand-ins for top managements speaking
  commitments.
• Catch all for tasks no one else wants.
• Loss of objectivity.

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Public Relations is typically a staff function

• Based on classical organizational theory, the
  line vs. staff distinction has important
  implications for internal pr practitioners.
• Line structures are the authority channels of the
  organization that are responsible for
  accomplishing the organizations primary
  purposes.
• Staff structures provide support to the line
  structure to assist the line in performing its
  functions.

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Public Relations is typically a staff function.

• Staff managers/executives cannot order line
  managers/executives to follow any particular
  course of action. Staffs recommendations may be
  implemented only on the authority of a line
  officer.

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Planning for Public Relations

• Seitels model

Environment
Business Objectives
Public Relations Objectives
Public Relations Programs
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Planning for Public Relations

• Seitels model

An opportunity or problem is noted in the
constantly changing environment of the
organization. For example, the pr department of
a manufacturer of geriatric vitamins finds that
the number of retirees purchasing home computers
has significantly increased.
Environment
Business Objectives
Public Relations Objectives
Public Relations Programs
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Planning for Public Relations

• Seitels model

Environment
Business Objectives
Public Relations Objectives
The change in the environment is considered for
its relationship to the companys goals and
objectives. For example, the manufacturer of the
vitamins is committed to increasing its market
share of retirees by 20.
Public Relations Programs
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Planning for Public Relations
The public relations department considers its
current goals and objectives. For example, the
pr department has determined to begin a web
presence for the company, and to increase the
markets perception of the manufacturer as a good
source of information for geriatric care.

• Seitels model

Environment
Business Objectives
Public Relations Objectives
Public Relations Programs
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Planning for Public Relations
The pr department initiates a plan to create a
web site at which retirees can assess their
vitamin needs. To ensure that the web site is
accessed, the pr department prepares press
releases describing its web site for distribution
to computer magazines and magazines targeted at
retirees requests advertising to include the web
site address in all its advertisements plans a
nutritional awareness contest for the web site.

• Seitels model

Environment
Business Objectives
Public Relations Objectives
Public Relations Programs