Grand Strategy, Strategy, and Tactics of Consultation in Public Relations - Term Paper Example

UBLIС RЕLАTIОNS WITH THЕОRY АND РRАСTIСЕ Name Number Course Tutor Date Grand strategy, strategy and tactics of consultation in Public Relations Background Tactics and strategy are deeply entrenched models in public relations practice. These are concepts that were developed during the time of military sciences. According to public relations, the analogue of grand level of strategy is industry level or organizational level policy. The analogue of the level strategy is the evaluation and planning function of PR managers. Grand strategy is a decision that is made in an organization concerning ethics, alignments, goals and the general relationship with the publics and other forces operating within the surrounding environment. Activists, corporations and the public have all have grand strategies that assist in dealing with environmental factors. Even though grand strategies happen at a relatively higher level than campaign strategies, the most important thing is that they limit or constraint strategies. Strategic PR decisions that are made to undertake the overall grand strategies of the organization must be in agreement within definite goals and abide within certain limits. For instance, the grand strategy of GM guides and limits the strategies which can be used in selling each brand, therefore this will restrain the tactics, or particular activities, that can be used at the time of campaigns. All the PR campaigns that are done on behalf of the brands of General Motors should be in line with entire brand strategy of a business (Stamatović, 2005). On the other hand, it is a decision made at the campaign level involves arranging and maneuvering arguments and resources so as to undertake the grand strategies of an organization. Strategy is mostly limited by grand strategy i.e. the strategic alternatives that public relation officers have while dealing with an issue is constrained by grand strategies of the business. Tactics on the other are definite outputs and activities which aids in implementation of strategies i.e. the technical or the doing aspects of PR. Grand strategies emanate from organizational culture and identify different dimensions of the world view of an organization that are significant to public relations. Since other dimensions like mergers and acquisitions and top-level strategy in marketing may have an effect on the PR practices on some organizations, the following six dimensions may affect some PR practices of several organizations. 1) Goals and attitudes of an organization towards (2) public, (3) change, (4) communication, (5) issues, and (6) public relations officers, define and limit public relation practices in an organization, together with ethical limitations and quality of life facing the PR practitioners. Stake Holder Consultation Consulting with different stakeholders is a vital principle in decision making and sound planning for every Public relation practitioner (Alok Goyal, 2010). Several researches have indicated that where different stakeholders have been consulted, all the participating parties will satisfied at any decision that is made therefore improving the performance of an organization. Consultation gives an opportunity to increase shared understanding between the organization and the entire stakeholders. Potential areas of disparity and major areas of agreement can be early identified and relevant solutions are provided before they become big problems within an organization. Effective consultations with different stakeholders assist in optimizing the value of money and provide proper support for sales and marketing activities. Consultation also aligns development activities of a company to market priorities, access local skills and knowledge and aids in management of change within an organization. How much should there be consultation Every project has it its own considerations. The number of consultations required between different stakeholders depends on several factors which include: diversity and range of stakeholders benefit of having local ideas and knowledge and sensitivity of matters among the stakeholders (Stamatović, 2005). Nevertheless, there comes a time when it is better not to consult with the stakeholders Achievement through consultations The following diagram shows different levels of participation by stakeholders The diagram involves levels through which public programs of participation can be planned Involve If the aim is to inform the stakeholders and offer them with objective and balanced information to make them understand about the project of the organization and the kind of decisions to be made, this requires you to work at the informal level, and selection of public participation like open houses, fact sheets or websites Consult In case the project to be undertaken will have direct benefit from the input of the stakeholders at analysis, decisions or alternatives, one may wish to consult level on the spectrum. You promise and commitment to stakeholders will be to acknowledge and to listen to their concerns and issues and provide a response on how your decisions have been affected by their input. Involve In case you need to get involved directly with various stakeholders and get to know more about their aspirations about the projects of the organizations, then you have to choose to work at the involvement level. At this level, you are making a commitment that the input of all the stakeholders will be reflected during decision making of the organization and the feedback will be provided to them on how things have been done. The mechanisms that encourage dialogue include open days, working groups, information forums and site visits. Collaborate If at all you believe that the project of your organization can benefit from the efforts of the stakeholders, then an organization may consider working with the stakeholders at collaborative level. The organization has to promise the stakeholders to sit around the table and involve them in decision making process. Tools required tools for this participation level is stakeholder education, stakeholder advisory groups, consensus building and participation during decision making process. Empower At the end of empower spectrum, the organization would be committed to putting the final decision-making in the hands of the stakeholders and endeavors to partner with them in any decision to be made. Tools required in this level include citizen juries. Models of grand strategies Every organization has its own distinctive strategy created over long period of time, such that the number of actual strategies is almost immeasurable. Basing on the major differences of attitudes and goals of an organization towards change, communication, public, issues and public relations officers, the following grand strategies shows the types of strategies available to different organizations Intractable Grand Strategy This is one of the rarely used strategies in an organization where the leaders have formal training. The strategy assumes that a group or an organization can be independent and seeks to enforce its decisions on its environment, even to overpower part of what is seen as a hostile environment (Sackmann, 2004). The intractable strategy gives a summary of on the attitude of an organization towards all the entire relationships and not only single issues. Attitude/ Goal towards environment The aim of intractable grand strategy is to subordinate some part of its environment to organizational will with aim of conquering its environment. The autonomy of an organization is the utmost good, and those who need change are taken to be the once causing interference in valid ownership/management prerogatives (Ans Kolka, 2004). Faithfulness to the current policies and leadership is the most imperative attribute and so partisan ideals. Business is mostly regarded as a rivalry between competing organizations to determine who is better at conquering markets, problems, and publics Attitude towards change Stubborn organizations believe that change in an organization is costly and a bad thing. Additionally, any need for change implies that somebody in leadership position has failed in a way; therefore those leaders may try to prevent any change they never initiated Attitudes towards the publics Rigid organizations take the public as if they only exist to meet the desires of the organization, or as outwits of activist groups, and also views the public as very dangerous. Moreover, they perceive the public as having no valid stake in the organization with the exception of those that are defined by the organization and their leaders. For instance, publics are seen as having only legitimate role as customers but not as stake holders (Malekzadeh, 2011). This perception may be justifiable on basis that publics do not have material facts or experience, and do not have knowledge about certain situation, like leaders of the organization. Since these organizations believe publics do not have both moral right and knowledge to obstruct, it is regarded as a right to restraint public role to the business relationship that the organization needs. Attitude towards PR practitioners According to rigid or stubborn organizations, practitioners are only technicians who are employed to use their skills to implement decisions that were made by somebody else. Their task is to explain decisions made by the management and win the support of other people. PR practitioners give in the authority to make decisions to the leadership of the organization. As technicians, Public relation officers are mostly constrained to middle and lower level positions since they implement other people’s judgment instead of having the responsibility for making the decisions Attitude towards communication From an integrative point of view, an organization is exactly a product of communication process of communication. An organization only exists when there is communication taking place so as to allow specialization, shared goals, specialization of labor, and proper coordination of work. As in the case of integrative organization, nobody sees communication as a sheer support or technical function (Solomon, 2009). Skilled communicators especially involved strategic communication has taken as central part of leadership of the organization. Whom to be consulted Before doing any project within the organization several stakeholders have to be consulted which include the following: Representatives from the local tax payers or Residents Associations, the providers of public utilities, environmental groups/associations and local residents, who can provide meaningful information to the organization. The information obtained from the stakeholders varies for instance whether there are current concerns or issues in the community that might affect the organization. Conclusion Grand strategies cover on how an organization relates with its publics, and forms part of the organizational culture. They are not under the control of PR department, of any campaign personnel, or any public relation practitioner. Grand strategies of an organization change together with the rest of the organizational culture, but such change happens gradually. It is important to consult with the local residents who have invested heavily in a certain area concerning any proposal to alter the master plan of the organization concerning certain project. For effective consultation, the process of consultation has to be transparent whereby the relevant stakeholders should clearly understand why they are involved during the consultation process (Sackmann, 2004). There should be effective communication process between the organization and the relevant stakeholders. Furthermore, all the stakeholders should be given appropriate opportunities to give a contribution in an informed manner Reference list Alok Goyal, M.G., 2010. Business Environment. FK Publications. Ans Kolka, R.V.T., 2004. Ethics in international business: multinational approaches. Journal of World Business, 39 , p.49–60. Boles, J.S., 2004. Employee behavior in a service environment. Journal of Marketing, 2(62), pp.77-91. Malekzadeh, A.R.a.N.A., 2011. Leadership and culture in transnational strategy alliances. Cultural Dimensions of International Mergers and Acquisitions, p.11–27. Sackmann, S.A., 2004. Cultural Complexity in Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Solomon, M.R., 2009. Consumer behavior: buying, having, and being. the University of Michigan: Pearson Prentice Hal. Stamatović, M..&.L.B., 2005. The reengineering of the firms, working paper. Beograd: CEBR,. Read More