Bulletin No. 24 | November – December 2004

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Keys to success in public relations

To be a successful public relations practitioner demands a wide range of quality and skills. The man or woman who aspires to reach the top rank needs to have sound judgment, personal integrity, a specialist knowledge of methods of communication, organizing ability of a high standard, and above all a strong personality and a capacity for leadership.

There is not room at the top for everybody, and many people prefer to specialize in particular branch of the work, such as in media, films, or exhibitions. Having experiences in all branches of public relations before deciding to specialize is a great benefit. This is because no part of public relations is in a completely watertight compartment, and even in large departments where the work is sectionalized it is almost useful to be able to double up in case of sicknesses or emergency.

The following list gives the necessary qualities:

1. Abundant common sense
2. First-class organizing ability
3. Good judgment, objectivity, and keen critical faculty
4. Imagination, and the ability to be tolerant to others’
5. An infinite capacity for taking pains
6. A lively inquisitive mind
7. Willingness to work long and inconvenient hours when necessary
8. Resilience, have a great sense of humour
9. Flexibility and the ability to deal with many different problems at the same time.
10. Ability to write, capable of correcting and sub-editing other people’s writing.

Five Deadly Sins

1. Never speak of public relations in highfalutin mumbo-jumbo
2. Do not seek personal publicity
3. Never apologize for the views of the chairman or other CEOs
4. Never patronize or talk down to the press
5. Never think of, or speak of, press relations as being synonymous with public relations (Read: because it is not!)

(Source : Practical Public Relations, S. Black)

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Key Characteristics

There is a wide agreement that organizational culture refers to a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes an organization from the other organizations. On a closer analysis, this is a set of characteristics  that the organization values.

1. Individual initiative: responsibility, freedom and independence that individuals have
2. Risk tolerance: the degree to which employees are encouraged to take initiative, and risk taking
3. Direction: to what extent the organization creates clear objectives and performance expectations
4. Integration: the degree to which units within the organization are encouraged to operate in a coordinated manner
5. Management support: whether managers provide clear communication, assistance and support to their subordinates
6. Control: the number of rules and regulations, the amount of direct supervision that is used to oversee and control employee behavior
7. Identity: the degree to which members identify with the organization as a whole rather than with their particular work group or field of professional expertise
8. Reward system: to what extent the reward allocations (salary increases, promotions, experience) are based on employee performance criteria in contrast to seniority, favoritism, like and dislike and so on
9. Conflict tolerance: the degree to which employees are encouraged to air conflicts and criticism openly
10. Communication patterns: the degree to which organizational communications are restricted to the formal hierarchy of authority.

How employees learn culture?
Culture is transmitted to employees in a number of values, beliefs and behavior, for example:

• Leadership
  Following the leader, patterns of life
• Length of time
  Attitudes and behavior patterns are more deeply rooted in long serving employee
• Interaction with colleagues
• Culture keys Discipline, Trust, Support, Stretch stimulate employees to strive for challenges and raise their expectation

(Source: Essentials of Organizational Behavior, S.P. Robbins)