Theories Of Public Relations

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INTRO : Public relations is a term which is notouriously hard to define, PRINZ believes PR refers to ‘the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its target audiences’. Through deconstructing this definition and discussing related theories it becomes more clear how public relations functions in contemporary New Zealand. DELIBERATE & PLANNED: When the definition states ‘deliberate and planned’ it refers to the notion that public relations does not just happen, a lot of preparation and thought occurs before carrying out any form of PR. According to Gregory (2010) public relations requires extensive research and planning before the appropriate action can be identified …show more content…

Grunig & Hunt believe for a PR action to be successful at the planning phase it is vital to have considered the response of the external environment. There are two approaches to systems theory that Grunig (1992) states depends on “the ‘openness’ or ‘closeness’ of an organization” (p.210). A closed system is said to have solid boundaries so that information cannot be exchanged with its environment, while on the other hand an open system exchanges information and changes with the environment around it (du Plessis, 2000). According to Austin & Pinkleton (2000) organisations are most effective when they recognize that they affect and are affected by the environment they operate in. Austin & Pinkleton sum up systems theory saying “organisations do not exist in a vacuum they need to perform ongoing research to understand changing environmental constraints and …show more content…

An oragnsation public relationship is “the state which exists between an organisation and its key publics in which the actions of either can impact the economic, social, cultural or political well being of the other” (Lendingham, 2003, p.184). Hon & Grunig (1999) talk of various strategies to maintain realtionships such as openness, ogranisations being honest with eachother disclosing not only satisfactions but also criticisms, legitimacy; that each party attempts to show its commitment to the relationship and strategies of conflict resolution in order to solve problems together and aiming to protect the relationship. (as cited in Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier, 2002). It has been found according to Guth & Marsh (2012) that by nurturing the relationships between oragnisation and publics it reduces the likelihood of boycotts, litigation and loss of revenue, highlighting the need to maintain strong

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