I think the key points to remember from this week's readings were the importance of goodwill, trust and support from the community. Also, the establishment of a relationship between the organization and its employees is fundamental in creating a high-performing working environment.
The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that I never thought about the practice of internal PR within companies. I always assumed that it was a given for employees to know their roles in an organization. However, this week’s readings has illuminated the fact that every employee of the company is in fact an ambassador, and an employees’ positive sentiments towards the company would equate generating positive impressions of the company among the people who interact with that employee outside of the office.
The PR practitioners within a company play an important role in order for this to work as they represent the voice of the employees, voicing concerns and suggestions for improvements of the organization. When employees are part of the decision-making process, they are likely to feel valued and hence, remain loyal to their jobs. This means that companies will need to spend less money hiring and training new employees.
The PR function hence contributes to the application of Grunig’s two-way symmetric communication model, which fosters a strong and distinct culture within the company, thus gaining much from the company’s most valuable resource—the employees.
(235 words)
2 comments:
Hmmm... most companies due to a constant and fast turnover rate (as compared to 20 years ago), might neglect to do internal PR. This applies especially to contract staff. An example would be in a certain telco company in singapore, where the contract staff, being faced with numerous faults of singnet/singtel everyday, would be disillusioned with the product, and hence, get negative.
As they are only contract staff, the telco did not do internal PR, but rather relied on the fact that the contracted employees needed the job for the money to uphold the professionalism. Unfortunately, without company loyalty and understanding, it can lead to undermining the confidence especially when the contract staff starts to spread negative comments among friends and family.
Please provide correct attribution when referring to Grunig’s work.
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