Role of Public Relations

“Public Relations is defined as helping an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”

Public relations is a planned and sustained activity to help an institution create a social climate favorable for its growth.  It is based on the fundamental belief that the survival of any enterprise, public or private depends today on the sensitive response to changes in public opinion.

The International Public Relations Association defines public relations as “Public relations is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organisation leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both the organization’s and the public interest.”

Public relation is a two way process.  On the one hand it seeks to interpret an organization to society while on the other it keeps the organization informed about the expectation of the society.  Fundamentally public relation is a means by which an organization improves its operating environment.

ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relations people have the role of being always in the middle – pivoted between their clients/employers and their publics. They must be attuned to the thinking and needs of the organizations they serve or they cannot serve well. They must be attuned to the dynamics and needs of the publics so they can interpret publics to the clients, as well as interpret the clients to the publics.