Community and Public Relation - Report Example

Community and Public Relation Student’s Name Date Community and Public Relation Introduction It is evident that public relation practitioners have not yet understood why public relations have evolved over time (Kruckeberg et al 1998, pg 82). Publics have high expectations from the on how and why they should involve in decision making process in a community. It is evident that corporations have been concerned about their objectives and operation ion total disregard of the community members and the roes they play in ensuring an organization meets its goals. It is also true that public relations professionals have come to be aware of impacts that their operations have in the society. This has attracted a new dimension of public-organization relationship. Levels of Community Relations The term community has been understood in various ways by different social scholars. To this end, a distinction between community and society has to be made. There have been agreements that communities are characterized by social bonds that bring people together, which are reinforced by ethical obligations as well as social relationships (Kruckeberg et al 1998, pg 68). The alienation of community has been associated with rural settings as opposed to urban and modern lifestyles associated with the word society. Community participation in any activities involving a given corporation depends on how the word ‘community’ is defined by the same corporation. This is because there are several ways that community can be involved in decisions making by different corporations (Parsons et al 2008, pg 132). One of the ways that community relations can be enhanced is through geographical coverage. In this connection, companies or development agencies based on the area covered by the community of the company itself can involve community members. The impact of its operations can be discussed or stop the project altogether. This way, the community members feel part and parcel of the project or initiative. Further, the other level of community relations is through social responsibility (Kruckeberg et al 1998, pg 101). Corporate social responsibility involves efforts put in place by corporations to give back to the community. It can be as broad as covering the entire nation or region. These services are given free of charge but the main aim is to enhance corporate reputation and image to the publics. A good example could be sponsoring some initiatives such as educating less privileged in the community, provision of health facilities among other initiatives. Finally, community can also be engaged directly in decision making process. The involved of community at this level has grown tremendously. This kind of participation has been the preserve of government agencies but in recent years, private companies have seen the sense of involving the public in organization matters (Johnston 2014, p.124) .This shift of public relations started to take shape in early 1990. In this connection, public relation teams have been more concerned about building relationships between organizations as opposed to about managing communication aspect of these two parties. Characteristics of Community Community is a natural fit to public relations and it contributes to its success (Parsons et al 2008, pg 154).In most cases community members feel committed in making the relationship that exist sustainable .There is every effort to ensure that proper measure is put in place to have quality relationship that will bring positive result tote entire community. This type of commitment and willingness plays an important role in ensuring that community members come together in ensuring they collaborate in service delivery .This can be witnessed in different parts of the world where community members have opposed projects which go against the willingness of the majority. There is also a sense of cohesion and interconnectedness in community. In this aspect, community members any feel connected to each other based on various factors. This could be through tribal affiliations, political lineage, economic activities, race, language, religion among other. To some extent social classes or economic situations also plays part in creating cohesive bond in communities .The community is made to believe they have a common interest, for instance poverty eradication, infrastructural problems, diseases, and so on (Hayes et al 2013, pg 142). It means that an organization, as part of given community has both legal and moral responsibility to ensure it assists the community members in solving their basic problems. Therefore community relations in such matters cannot be ignored. Communities have common beliefs and values. The common beliefs or values of communities are reinforced by other factors such as religion, political affiliations, tribes and many more. They help in ensuring that a community speaks in one voice in almost all matters affecting them. The above list of some basic characteristics of communities are important in ensuring that there is a common agenda in decision making that determines how an organization will operate in a given locality. Community Consultation Process As noted earlier, an organization can understand issues or problems afflicting a given community without consulting or making members participates in some activities. The role of community relations should be to inform and influence behavior and attitudes of members of the community (Hayes et al 2013, pg 165).One of the responsibilities of public relations officers is to ensure that they maintain good relationship and solve problems that affect both parties (Johnston 2014, pg 8).There are various ways that an organization can consult community members. This could involve organizing for forum or organizing for media briefing among other ways. This concern, many organizations take representation as a way of reaching out to a community. Representation is where one or more groups are formed, consisting of community members to represent the entire community in various matters. This method may not be effective where an organization want to understand an issue in more detailed manner especially from the first hand point of view. However, it is effective where a general community’s perspective is needed. Therefore there are different forms that consultation can take place in order to ensure effective community participation. These forms have been discussed below. Focus Group Discussions Focus groups are formed by few people who come together to discuses a certain topic of concern the members may or may not represent the community but the issue at hand concerns ht e same locality . The discussion is led by a facilitator who ensures that the topic is fully covered by the participants. Organizations can use these types of groups to understand issues in a community (Hayes et al 2013, pg 197). Government agencies are also known to organization such issues to conduct an assessment of development issues ion communities. Advisory Committees These committees are not necessarily representative of the community but rather of various organizations or other interested groups. The communities are formed to inform an organization on matters of interest to organization’s operations (Society for Human Resource Management 2006, pg 134). Therefore, organizations can also engage the public through these committees where community members can air their views to be taken to the managements of these corporations. Conferences Conferences can also be organized to discuss critical issues of a given community. This could be political, economic or social issues (Parsons et al 2008, pg 195). In most cases, the key participants of such conferences are individuals with special skills or knowledge ion different fields. The main aim is to come up with a strategy of dealing or tackling an existing or a looming problem in a community. Recommendations are agreed upon including timelines on when to implement them. Citizen’s Jury The citizen’s jury consists of a small group of few people who are carefully selected top assess and analyses a given issue. The team members are mostly specialists in different areas depending on the issue at hand. These members are required to the fields and carry out their investigation including talking to community member top understand an issue in amore detailed manner (Hayes et al 2013, pg 148).An organization then looks at the recommendations provided to know the steps to take. This is one way of understanding community’s problems and taking constructive measures in solving such issues. Open Days These are days set aside by an organization to allow the public to visit its premises and ask questions or familiarize with the company’s operations. In this way, community members are allowed to bring their opinions of how an organization can improve its services. Social Media Social media has played a great role in enhancing information sharing between a given community and organizations. This has been attributed to technological advancement which has taken place over a few decades ago. Organizations are able build their name and share what they are doing for the pubic on different sites such as twitter, Facebook and so on. Therefore, the public is able to follow up and also complain in case something wrong is happening .Other methods include carrying public surveys through questionnaires. An organization can use this method to find out community’s opinion on certain issues. Further, an organization can request for public submission or participating in matters of concerns (Johnston 2014, pg 145). This way, Organizations can engage the public in decision making. Benefits of Community Consultation in Decision Making Community relations should involve giving charity work and volunteerism to the community members (Society for Human Resource Management 2006, pg 231). Community participation in decision making is vital for both the organization as well as the community members. Community members feel to be part and parcel of those decisions agreed upon. This means that decisions made are widely accepted by the community as a whole. The involvement of various groups ensures that quality decisions are made in solving community problems. This is because parties involved are able to come up with concrete ways of talking community problems. In addition, trust is also built when community is involved. Corporations or institutions are trusted in their operations since the members of a community are involved in all processes (Johnston 2014, pg 89). Further, conflict is reduced considerably since members of a community are aware of a company’s operations. Finally, a grounded public-organization relationship is built and sustained. Conclusion In conclusion, community relations are essential for an organizational growth as well as the entire community. Involvement of communities in decision making does not mean or is not intended to take over management of operations but rather ensuring that community values are respected and conceded in all activities. Organizations are also free to determine the level at which they wish to engage the public in making decisions. However, public participation in such cases should be limited to those issues that affect a given community but not al matters regarding company’s operations. Bibliography Hayes, Darrell C., Jerry A. Hendrix, and Pallavi D. Kumar. 2013. Public relations cases. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Johnston, Jane, and Mark Sheehan. 2014. Public relations: theory and practice. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Kruckeberg, Dean, and Kenneth Starck. 1998. Public relations and community: a reconstructed theory. New York: Praeger Parsons, Patricia. 2008. Ethics in public relations a guide to best practice. London: Kogan Page. Society for Human Resource Management (U.S.). 2006. The essentials of corporate communications and public relations. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press. Read More