The Role of Strategic Communication in Relation to Professionalism in Public Relations - Report Example

The Role of Strategic Communication in Relation to Professionalism in Public Relations Introduction Strategic communication has become very popular over the recent years. This leads to infusion of communications based on a given master plan and agenda. The master plan gives the people in an organization the role of promoting its brand. It also assigns specific roles to certain people and advocating for specific legislation. It is worth noting that the field of communications is very broad because it encompasses creation, pushing and delivery of news, which is done by journalists. On the other hand, strategic communication brings together delivering and pushing of news. Strategic communication thus entails sending the right message through the right channels, which has to achieve measured organizational goals. This brings in the difference of performing and delivering the right communication stuff. This implies that when using strategic communication, news is delivered in real time and the right actions are taken at any given time1. Professionalization of strategic communication is important because it will ensure that the qualified people will be responsible for promoting an organization. Very many unqualified personnel are venturing in the sector although they are unable to deliver the organizations’ expectations. Posting of information on social media websites alone is not enough for the promotion of an organization. This is because an organization ought to come up with a plan that will see it send the right information to the right people and at the right time. This is not achievable if professionals are not involved in the sector. Moreover, institutions of learning should develop syllabuses that will offer expertise to students willing to pursue strategic communication career. An organization’s reputation is very important and should be protected at all the times. This is because once the public develops negative feelings about a certain organization; it becomes very hard for it to become loyal2. The Role of Strategic Communication in Relation to Professionalism in Public Relations Professionalism in the strategic communication is important for it ensures that people in an organization are in a position to understand the best ways of disseminating information. This means that the time taken to send information from the source to the recipient is minimal and as a result, the right people receive the intended message through the best means. The number of professional public relations officers has been on the rise over the last years. Moreover, the number of women in the profession surpassed that of men in the US in the 1980s. This can be attributed to the fact that the number of women entering the workforce has been on the rise as compared to the past decade in which many women were housewives. The status of the job was lowered when women became the majority of workers, which resulted in low salaries, and the exclusion of the professionals from important decision-making organs of an organization. This resulted in many scholars referring to the job as a women’s work. The number of women in the workforce started to increase during the Second World War because most of men in the society were engaged in war. When the men started to trickle back in the communities, women had no choice but to go back to their more feminine jobs of motherhood and housekeeping3. The role that social media is playing in terms of advertisements of an organization’s products is immense. This implies that all organizations aspiring to remain in the ever-increasing competitive world of business has to have people with abilities to tap the social media’s potential. This cannot be achieved if organization does not hire the right people and define their roles clearly. Definition of duties means that the public relations professionals understand exactly what to do and when. The main role of public relations is enhancing the image of an organization. The media portrays the public relations department negatively and as a result, the public is unable to receive the right information that is associated with the department. Studies have shown that the media is constantly criticizing the role of the public relations4. Studies have established that the functions of the public relations department are diverse. The functions range from coordination of the functions of administration, relationship building, to promotion of products and services. This means that the public relations department focuses on creating a lasting impression among all stakeholders in an organization. The stakeholders include employees, investors, customers, officials from the government, and the public. This is not achievable if the stakeholders do not receive the right information from the organization at the right time. Dissemination of information requires resources, which means that an organization ought to allocate the right amount of resources in terms of money and personnel for the well-being of the organization. Failure to allocate enough resources to the public relations department leads in failure of the goals of the organization5. Strategic communication focuses on improving an organization’s performance, increase the products sold, improve motivation of donors, and relationship building. When communications is done through the right channels then an organization’s performance improves because all the stakeholders are able to understand what the organization expects of them. This cannot be achieved if communication is not done in a professional way6. Strategic communication can be divided into six sectors according to the personnel involved. Management communication involves every personnel in the organization. Its focus is to ensure that every member of staff knows the vision, mission, and goals of an organization. This plays a significant role in the facilitation of orderly operations of an organization. On the other hand, marketing communication focuses on creating awareness of an organization’s products. This type of communication is between the marketing and advertising staff7. Public relation is communication between human resources, government relations, and finance staff. This helps in the establishment of beneficial relationships between the above-mentioned staff members. Technical, political, and social marketing or information communication play a fundamental role in ensuring that an organization has a competitive edge in the market. The European and the American market incorporated integrated marketing communication (IMC) in a bid to ensure that all stakeholders in an organization have access to the right information at the right time. IMC focuses on the needs, interests, and concerns of the audience and delivers only the needed information. The main difference between IMC and strategic communication is that the latter intends to solve communication between various departments of an organization8. Professionalization of public relations is made up of a conscious occupational strategy. Public relations ought to be considered as a profession in the management discipline. This will lead to increased salaries for all the people working in the sector. The fact that many women than men in the United States practice the profession means that the status of the profession is lowered. This is despite the significant contributions that the professional bring into an organization. Studies have shown that many organizations do not value the work of professionals in the sector9. Organizations attract interest groups and media’s attention not because they are involved in controversial deals but the subsequent and size of the impact on the society is very important. This implies that organizations with more vibrant brands are exposed to criticism more that the silent ones. Criticism should be taken as a sign that the public is aware of what an organization has to offer. Leading brands not only increase visibility but also they are sign of power. Legitimacy of the public relations sector is thus needed because it ensures that an organization is visible to the public10. Professionalization of the public relations sector leads to increased marketability of a certain service or product. This means that customers are the focus of the legitimization efforts. Acquiring customers’ social acceptance cannot lead to the acceptance of public relations as a profession. This is because professionals depend on a wide range of societal acceptance11. Technological advances which have led to most people using the internet for sending information across has resulted in the de-professionalization of the public relations sector. This can be attributed to the fact that amateurs are entering into the field. These amateurs do not understand the best channels of passing on information. In the 1990s, kids and tech departments who were not communication professional developed most websites. In addition, there are low barriers into entering these websites12. De-professionalizing strategic communication leads to waste of resources and embarrassment of an organization. Embarrassment can result from sending the wrong information among the stakeholders. This is the reason why creation of awareness needs to be done by professionals. It has to be noted that sending the wrong information can have devastating effects on an organization’s reputation. Although information posted in the social media can have impressive following, it has to be understood that organizations should focus on results that are more comprehensive. This implies that an organization should come up with a plan of sending information to the right people that will create awareness of the organization and its products and services13. Conclusion The world of business is becoming very competitive thanks to globalization. This means that all organizations willing to remain in the market should employ the right channels for the delivery of information to their stakeholders. This has to be done by the help of professionals in the strategic communication department. Strategic communication personnel have to be trained in order to be in a position to develop plans for dissemination of information. Moreover, each organization should ensure that it has well-defined roles for the personnel in the department. This goes a long way in guaranteeing the achievement of the set goals. Professionalization of the strategic communication department will lead to increased salaries for the people working in the department. Increased salaries ensure that the people are motivated and as a result are able to perform their duties diligently. This will result in increased performance for the entire organization. Bibliography Bronstein, C., and Fitzpatrick, K. Ethics in Public Relations: Responsible Advocacy. New York: SAGE, 2006 Devereux, M. M., and Peirson-Smith, A. Public Relations in Asia Pacific: Communicating Effectively Across Cultures. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Diggs-Brown, B. Strategic Public Relations: Audience Focused Pra. New York: Cengage Learning, 2011. Fitch, K., and Third, A. Working girls: Revisiting the gendering of public relations. Prism 7(4): 1-13.2010. Hallahan, K., Holtzhausen, D., Ruler, B., Verčič, D., and Sriramesh, K. Defining Strategic Communication. 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