Image VS. Reputation? (Lesson 8)

CHAPTER 8: REPUTATION MANAGEMENT: A DRIVING FORCE FOR ACTION


Reputation is a commonly held opinion of an entity. Corporate reputation can be affect based on six aspects:

1. Social responsibility
2. environmental responsibility
3. leadership
4. quality of products or services
5. financial performance
6. treatment of staff

We will look at examples that accurately represent some of the above.

Treatment of staff & quality of service

The reality show Tabatha's Salon Takeover helps the salon Brownes & Co. and discovers that the problem lies with its owner Nikki Mallon, who is a tyrant when treating her staff. She has a negative attitude and is an imperious diva who supervises her employees with remote camera. This results in low morale from staff as they are frustrated with the constant demeaning attitude of Nikki and hence they treat customers in an unfriendly manner which drives away customers eventually. 

"If Nikki doesn't respect or support her staff, she may as well close her doors right now," Tabatha says.

The first part of the episode shows a preview of how the staff are treated. After this episode of Tabatha's Salon Takeover, many viewers posted negative comments on Brownes & Co. facebook and Yelps page. As described, reputation of the company was adversely affected as the result of a bad image by Nikki Mallon. 

Social Responsibility

Starbucks understands the importance of being socially responsible and ethical in its operations hence a compromise is made with Ethiopia's farmers, their coffee beans supplier, for mutual benefits even at the expense of profits. Starbucks releases a corporate responsibility report each year which outlines and discusses the company's behavior in relation to its corporate responsibility objectives. The company also has a message board which addresses any current rumors about Starbucks and confronts any rumors firsthand. Its commitment to improvement and resolution of responsibility issues demonstrates an 

element of social responsibility found in few companies.

Environmental Responsibility

Platte Chemical formulates insecticides, herbicides and fungicides for agriculture use. In 2001, a leak from a caustic tank at Platte caused a fish kill. Two months after that, a defect in a chemical reaction resulted in an evacuation of all residents near the area. 

The company's inability to fulfill society's expectations for environment responsibility caused the company's reputation to suffer. Many lawsuits against Platte was filed. 


These case studies show the importance of reputation management to a company. However, reputation management do not imply only the up-keeping of corporate image, more than that, it is an unwritten code of ethics that should be adhered to. Public relations practitioners should advise clients and companies to show the highest standards of responsibility in the above mentioned aspects by highlighting the benefits of doing so. 

Public Relations concerns, for sustrainability (Lesson 7)

CHAPTER 7: PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGEMENT IN ORGANISATIONS


This chapter allows me to better understand the various concerns public relations practitioners need to keep in mind when on the job. It is important to consider the publics; internal relations as well as external relations which directly or indirectly plays a part in deciding an organisation's actions. This is drawn upon based on the understanding of the systems theory. The systems theory in the context of an organisation, in short, means that an organization exists in an environment where many things involved affect on another and form a larger pattern which is different from their individual forms. In light of this, organizations have to then adjust and adapt to changed in the environment, and seek to maintain good relations with its environment in exchange for support, growth and ultimately sustainability. Examples of the entities that make up the environment are governments, competitors, neighbours, customers, employees, the media, and investors. Each part plays a certain role for organizations to be holistic in their operations and objectives.


This week's focus: REAL practice of public relations in organisations
PR practitioners have a role to in ensuring apt and sufficient communication between top management and internal/external publics. This is when boundary spanning shows its significance; it is concerned with detecting information in the environment the organisation operates. It includes representation, scanning and monitoring, protecting, information processing, gate-keeping, linking and coordinating, and transacting. 

• Publics and audiences
  All PR managers have to deal with a myriad of publics and audiences, internally and externally as they interact with or are affected by the organization in some way or another. Hence ongoing PR and communication has to be put in place to create better understanding and clearer clarity for the publics. Most of the time, these communication programs are long termed.
  
• Internal relations
  PR is responsible for communicating the organisation culture to members (employees), hence avoiding potential conflicts that may arise due to misalignment to expectations. This point made me realize the relevance of studying organizational behavior in the previous trimester. It is only when we as PR 'wannabes' understand the importance of sound communication in an organizations, then we can facilitate communication proactively and effectively. There is also a requirement to understand employees and their information needs. A point to note is that employees generalized, but treated as individuals who have different expectations. Operating an open system is important so that employees will feel respected with more opportunities for fulfilling Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Lastly, the right channel of communication (reliable and accurate) has to be adopted when conveying information to employees so as to maintain trust.
  
• External relations
  Corporate social responsibility (CSR): the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society at large. The term PUBLIC relations in itself already suggests that PR consults’ first loyalties should be to the public, and hence the importance of CSR. Furthermore, an organisation's sustainability is tied down to CSR as an increasing number of people are concerned about the environment and human rights. 
  Conflict has to be prevented as it will disrupt operational processes (publics and activists groups).
  
  COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT (favorite topic of the chapter!)
  Community engagement, as it is termed, means that the community's perspective is considered before any decisions are made. It incorporates research, information sharing, consultation, and participation from the community involved.
  

A very detailed example of community engagement in a PR project is as follows.

http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/gta/?page=show&id=603

Public Relations as my future (Lesson 6)

CHAPTER 6: THEORY AND PRACTICE ON THE JOB

This chapter on theory and practice made me ponder on the type of PR I will like to do in the future, given the many types of organizations as options to work for.

Our actions as a PR practitioner are also guided by the nature of the organization; thus the importance of finding out the goals and values of the organization lest these clashes with our own personal goals and values. Public Relations practice also differ based on the culture of the country involved. Although there are indeed some values and ethical issues that are fixed on common grounds, it is undeniable that culture do play a significant part. From the text, it is noted that Public Relations in Asia, foe example, is more often influenced by Eastern theology and hierarchical principles, whereas the personal influence model appears to be relevant in India, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Greece. It may not be visible most of the time, but national culture do hold certain fundamental values that cannot be ignored consciously by organizations.

Picture by Yang Liu (east vs west: cultural differences)

A summary of the different types of organizations (that I can possibly work for in the future):

1. The not-for-profit sector

A PR practitioner working for NFP sector would mean that there will be less funds to work with, hence pushing creativity boundaries of the PR person. It requires strong personal convictions for ethics, to facilitate good governance and accountability to the public and such organizations exist for the public. Therefore, a good public image is also important in order to garner support. for whatever charitable objectives.

2. The corporate sector

The corporate sector main objective is to provide returns to their shareholders, and thus actions are entirely focused on improving and building the building the business to ensure future viability and ongoing profitability. The role of a PR practitioner is more defined in this case as compared to NFP sector. 

Here is what interests me the most. 

"... the corporate sector is looking for formal qualification in public relations, good written and verbal interpersonal communication skills, graphic design, and computer literacy, including the ability to produce PowerPoint presentations."

This is a list of tasks that are under the job scope of a PR practitioner in the corporate sector.

• Media relations
• Government relations
• Shareholder relations
• Public relations
• Publications management
• Liaison with head office
• Diplomatic officer
• Industry organizations
• Communication skills
• Reputation management

3. The public sector

Role of PR person in the public sector is to deliver government messages about programs, services, and initiatives. Practitioners have to align their goals to that of the government's.

The likely communication streams, or in simpler terms, my tasks and the channels in which to achieve goals if ever I were to work in the public sector are as follows:

• Internal communications
• Media relations
• Proactive media relations
• Events management
• Issues management
• Internet
• Marketing support
• Other communication functions (new media platforms e.g.YouTube)

4. The consultancy

Consultancies (agencies) are stand-alone businesses which provide public relations services to clients and satisfying those clients' needs. This form of public relations brings about the most challenging as clients' expectations are high and one has to be highly competent and flexible as projects tend to be wide-ranging. 

A dream; far, yet not entirely unattainable. In order to be able to work in a consultancy, a fresh graduate has to first and foremost stock up a few years of experience.

Starbucks tribute: A simple yet meaning Ad.

There's always a meaning behind every Ad, every campaign, every event. And this is what the PR practitioner have to find, apply, and impart this hidden meaning or knowledge.