The Role of Public Relations - Essay Example

Public Relations Public relations tangent is the association of the different publics with the corporate entity or organization that one can discusshere. This aspect receives a great amount of significance in the time and age of today because the public relations aim to build strong trust, creating equity and linking the same with the corporate social responsibility domains all the same. This is the reason why public relations has been given importance by people who are a part of these organizations and even those who work within organizations, be it big or small. In this paper, the focus is on understanding what public relations are all about and how ethics remains a central figure of this debate with the highlight on the corporate social responsibility realms to extract a solid basis and meaning for the discussion at hand. Corporate social responsibility will always be given the emphasis that it richly deserves because it makes or breaks an organization in the sheer sense of the word1. To start with, public relations aim to focus on the aspect of building credibility for the sake of the organization in the eyes of the publics so that they can think, act and feel positive about the organization, the individual or an entity for that matter. The public relations are usually given importance because the organizations know that they will be able to derive a great amount of mileage from the intended publics as they aim to touch upon new avenues and explore the novel pathways upon which these publics can be reached in essence. What is most important is the fact that ethical manifestations start making the rounds of the discussions which center on the premise of public relations and the related corporate social responsibility2. The relation of ethics becoming an important part of the public relations field is because ethical considerations speak highly of the need for remaining one step ahead of the competition when it comes to different organizations and how these shape up with the changing times is something that needs to be properly comprehended3. Ethical understandings are required because no organization would appreciate the basis of public relations being negative and taken in a wrong way as compared to the best practices which are applicable worldwide under the same realms. Since public relations are all about understanding how the organization should be viewed by the public in terms of its important dealings, it will never afford to have a negative word about its own self. The role of public relations within the corporate social responsibility ranks is all the more necessary to gain an insight from. This is because public relations have always been forthright about the organization’s corrective stance no matter how difficult it is to reveal to the varied publics. This gains importance with the changing times since people are now properly realizing how they must be treated at the hands of these organizations and what kind of attitudes rule the roost at the end of the day. Public relations will always assist in building up a corporate social responsibility understanding as it takes care of the problems which arise every now and then, and assures one of complete responsibility and commitment to an organizational cause. The role of the public relations at improving and enhancing the levels of corporate social responsibility should be such that there is empathy within the related ranks, and this shall mean success for the organizations in the long run. If corporate social responsibility understandings are properly managed, then this would immense success for the organization because these are run parallel with the public relations domains4. The management regimes of the organizations always look at addressing the grey areas so that these weaknesses could be plugged and turned into strengths in a very free flowing manner5. Since the corporate social responsibility measures take care of the ethical look of the organization and thus it creates harmony amongst the aegis of the organization, it would always be a benefit for the people who are its direct and indirect stakeholders. Ethical integrity within any organization works to its advantage and the people at the helm of affairs since they know for certain that their employees would give in their truthful best no matter how trying or tough the circumstances are. This means that they are assured of their commitment levels and the intensity of the hard work that they will put in, even under the most strenuous of routines6. Over work can sometimes reduce their ethical levels as well as add to the stress on the part of the employees’ physical and mental domains. What needs to be done is to gauge the exact amount of work that they can handle within a time period as well as give them adequate incentives so that they remain loyal to the cause of the organization. If there is no integrity within the employees, they would not feel motivated to do their tasks and activities in an effective and efficient manner and it is ultimately the relevant organization which will lose out on the productivity angle nonetheless. The cases of Enron and other reputable companies are something that goes down in a very negative fashion when one talks about the ethical considerations. Discussing fairly on the public relations tangent, it would be fairly easy to come up with the right verdict in terms of attaining ethical regimes in an organization if thought is put into proper action. There is only one flaw in respect to this hypothesis; it does not always work. Managing the people is the domain of the manager and if he does not fulfill the requirements as laid down in the book (governed by the company or the business itself), then this person has no right whatsoever to be remarked as the manager of the company’s individual units and entities7. In societies, ethics are developed by their religious beliefs, government, and through experience. Morality and the demonstration of ethics run deep in an organization’s ability to exhibit the best of skills and abilities with the people, no matter where they hail from or come in contact with the company itself8. An organization which can learn integrity to be incorporated within it understands what its responsibilities are with regards to the society, the environment, its stakeholders and customers, its functions and different processes which have to be looked down upon at with a sense of ethics and legal predicaments attached. This means that the organization emancipates its working methodologies in line with its already set values and moral principles9. Moreover, it knows what its obligations and compulsions are towards all the stakeholders at different levels. The organization is always willing and eager to learn from its mistakes, ready to bring in fresh changes within the processes and always encouraging its stakeholders and employees to invest more in terms of money and time, respectively. In the end, it would be safe to state that any organization would dearly require that its public relations are built on the premise of bringing about a positive reinforcement and that there are ethical considerations which are guaranteed at all levels. This will keep the sentiments of the public under a due check and would make things look reasonable at the end of the day. All said and done, it is always a given that public relations will remain important for the sake of an organization which is willing to grow in a positive fashion and hence proceed ahead with the growth and developmental phases. Bibliography Barnett, C. (March 2005). The Political Ethics of Consumerism. Consumer Policy Review, 15 Chen, Ni. (1996). International Public Relations: A Comparative Analysis. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Dozier, David M. (1992). Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Gilbert Jr., D. (1996). Ethics through Corporate Strategy. Oxford University Press Johnson, Melissa A. (1997). Public Relations and Technology: Practitioner Perspectives. Journal of Public Relations Research, 9 Kline, J. (2005). Ethics for International Business: Decision Making in a Global Political Economy. Routledge Mazze, E. (2001). Specialty Retailers: Marketing Triumphs and Blunders. Quorum Books Peterson, R. (2007). Small Retailer Employment of Older Workers: An Assessment. Journal of Business Strategies, 24 Smith, Ronald D. (2005). Strategic Planning for Public Relations. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Read More