PUBLIC RELATIONS
How Public Relations Can Shore-Up Organizations In Adversity
By Irene Mbonge
The new operational reality occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic presents unique reputational and communication challenges for companies as they adjust to a new operating , business and public policy environment .
In a rapidly changing world , information and communications technology and driven by the knowledge economy , organizations face two issues : keeping pace with rapid social change while adapting to it or facing extinction and a slow death . In the face of these great challenges , PR practitioners find themselves in need of skills that are not limited to various communication arts ; the urgent need for administrative skills , research skills , and a very large social sense to experience the development and change around them .
Public Relations today represent a central management dimension for any successful organization . The practitioner of Public Relations is not only a technical hand and producer of media material and press releases ’ but also an integral part of the administrative process within the organization . They must be considered as an integral part for decision-making .
Previously , a Public Relations practitioner has had to understand , study , and analyze public opinion , produce effective media materials , plan Public Relations programs , and evaluate the effectiveness of Public Relations . Today , they need to understand all communication processes and guide various management approaches in order to help their organizations successfully navigate the stormy waters . A deep understanding of the environment of the organization , its philosophy , and its policies are among the most important requirements and conditions for effective and successful communication in the prevailing economic times , occasioned by the Covid-19 .
The growing importance of public opinion in society , the spread of democracy , the maturity of civil society , and the spread of communication and information technology are all factors that reinforce the necessity for well-coordinated communication efforts for organizations of all sizes and nature .
The pandemic has thrown one of the biggest challenges at Business continuity planners and crisis managers for organizations . According to the
There are gaps in the PR practitioner ’ s emergency response playbook . To address the situation most PR teams will have to use experience and gut feel to strategize , plan and execute action .
International Labor Organization ( ILO ), the Covid-19 crisis is expected to wipe out 6.7 % of working hours globally in the second quarter of 2021 - equivalent to 195 million full-time workers . Every business and service has been affected , along with its customers .
This is the perfect storm into which PR can step in and bring about calm using some crisis and risk communication best practices mixed with some intuitive solutions . The special Edelman report called Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic found that 78 % of respondents felt businesses had a responsibility to ensure their employees are protected from the virus in the workplace and to not spread the virus into the community .
PR can play a pivotal role in a crisis of this magnitude . One study of 300 communications executives and senior leaders in early March 2020 saw 62 % respondents saying that the communication function has been a “ very important ” factor and 19 % saying it was “ important ” in their organization ’ s response to Covid-19 . While this is predictable , the survey also found 44 % of respondents saying their crisis communication plan did not cover an infectious disease outbreak . Again , this is predictable as no one could have foreseen a health threat on a global scale that forced a complete shutdown of entire countries , stopped all cross-border travel and brought the wheels of global commerce to a grinding halt .
What the survey findings show is that there are gaps in the PR practitioner ’ s
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