Question

1. What are the role and functions of public relations within an organization?

2. Search the net for a good example of how a company handled a potentially bad situation regarding a product or service they provided. Next search for an example of how a company botched an event from a public relations standpoint. Please type short summaries of each example.

Answer 1

Answer 1

Public relations functions are designed to help build trust and credibility with groups that are important to your organization. They help raise awareness about your organization as well as give it a chance to define, control and distribute its message to those both inside and outside your company. Effective public relations functions can also promote your organization, help communicate during a crisis or defend its reputation from attacks people make on it in the media.

Public relations professionals shape an organization's image. They build the brand, spread the organization's message and minimize the effect of negative publicity. At a small company, the PR person may have to handle all the roles – cheerleader, media contact person, the deflector of criticism – themselves. At larger companies or big PR firms, staffers can have more specialized roles to handle different organizational needs.

Another way to segment public relations is looking at what different roles accomplish for the organization:

Crisis management deals with emergencies affecting the organization. They help establish policies for dealing with emergencies, such as who gets to communicate with the media, and how management shares information with employees.
Relationship management establishes strategies for building and maintaining relationships with important segments of the public such as customers and reporters.
Image management professionals work to present the company as socially responsible, compassionate and involved in the community.
Resource management looks at the budget and resources for the organization's PR and figures out how to make the best use of it.
An organization usually needs its PR team to fill more than one role. Managing relationships and shaping the company's image can generate a lot of goodwill. When a crisis or negative news breaks out, the PR role has to be the minimization of any damage or blowback from the events.