How Public Relations Fits into Corporate Strategy

CEOs Assess the Importance of PR Today and In the Future CEOs in the media-savvy Clinton era often view public relations as a necessary strategic management tool, according to a sampling of top executives across the country. Public relations gaining credibility as awareness of practitioners' value in fostering communication between an organization and its publics grows. Lately, survey after survey about the role of public relations in organizational strategy produces these findings: CEOs are increasingly supportive of, and regularly identify, public relations as a vital factor in the success of their various enterprises. For the purpose of definition, public relations in this article means an organization's internal and external communications. As a result of informal research performed for PRJ, it can be hypothesized that the successful use of public relations to maintain and build a positive reputation for an organization directly proportional to the standing public relations has with the CEO and other top managers in the organization. Recent academic studies also tend to support this hypothesis. Anticipating issues important to an organization and setting up communications that prevent crises and foster good relations with many different publics are key strategies for successful CEOs in the '90s. Public relations professionals are experts in these areas. While we observed that public relations increasingly being used as a strategic management tool, we also learned that the profession has not yet made its way into a majority of boardrooms on a par with specialties such as accounting, law or finance. We also learned that public relations professionals, like the proverbial shoemaker's children, often ignore the persuasive power of academic research to make a case for including public relations in the decision-making process at the top. Robert H. Hood, president of the Douglas Aircraft Co. of McDonnell Douglas Corp., a good example of a modern CEO who recognizes the importance of proper integration of public relations into corporate strategy. importance of a company's image in the 1990s cannot be overestimated, the executive, in Long Beach, CA, told PRJ. Too often, companies take public relations, or image-building, for granted right up until the time of a crisis, such as a drug tampering, an oil spill, or a tragic loss of life. Then the 'investment' a company has made in its image bank can be critically important! Hood a firm believer that the best time to handle a crisis before it occurs. way public relations can have the most value, Hood said, is to make it an integral component of the management team--that means being in the room when key decisions are made and strategies developed. Hood's position both inspirational and rare. Getting a seat at the strategic decision table remains an elusive quest for many public relations practitioners. For PRJ, we recently took an in-depth look at the reputation of public relations from the CEO's perspective. We asked top executives at a variety of organizations, both large and small, how they viewed public relations. We also asked what values and expectations they have for the public relations function in the future. In addition, we examined some recent studies of CEOs as communicators and users of communications strategies. We further checked the academic literature on CEOs and their use of public relations as a strategic management tool. An enlightened attitude toward public relations described by James E. Grunig, Ph.D., Fellow, PRSA, and Larissa A. Grunig, Ph.D., as two-way public relations. The Grunigs, both professors of journalism at the University of Maryland, define symmetrical public relations as communications based on research and dialogue intended to manage conflict, improve understanding and build relationships. With the symmetrical model, both the organization and publics can be persuaded; both also may change their behavior. …