PUBLIC RELATIONS AS A MANAGERIAL TOOL IN BUSINESS ORGANIZATION

1.1 Introduction

Public relation deals with the relationship between an organization and its various publics. Public relation thus emphasizes the needs to ensure excellent relationship between an organization and all with whom it has deal and this include both internal and external public. Similarly, according to Harlow, public relations is a distinctive management function which helps to establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance and co-operation between an organization and keep informed on and responsive to public opinion defines and emphasis the responsibility of management to serve the public interest and uses research and sound and ethical communication techniques as its principals tools (Idris et al., 2018).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Business organizations do not exist in a vacuum, whether dealing on good or specialized in rendering service. Organizations (both private and public) exist at the expense of people in two factors have added impetus to the concept of people in today’s organizations. They include firstly, the upsurge in the number and complexity of organizations and secondly are the ever-increasing sophistication in the demand of consumers. Today, the need for improvement in the use of “public Relations” as a means of achieving greater organizational results is increasingly being realized. Today, organization that really wants to have the leading edge must be plugged or placed into trotline relationship with the customers and other publics. Today it is being realized, more than ever before, that any organization, which chooses to work at cross – purposes (misunderstanding) with its various publics especially the customers will not survive for a long time. The notion of secrecy that characterized the activities of most business organizations is now far past.

Heidi cohen (2011) public relations specialists ensure the establishment and maintenances of good relationships with the institutions publics, media, and opinion leaders. PR responsibility include the writing of speeches, acting as the institutions spokesperson, designing communications campaigns, preparing clients for press conferences, writing news, working with the press, arranging media interviews and speeches, managing the website and social media, managing crisis to build institutions reputations, handling internal communications, and marketing activities, event management and brand protection.

Public relations unlike advertisement and other Marking Mix, Place all it efforts in building good image, name and public confidence in the mind of the various publics dealing with the organization public relations did not only see to good image for the products and services of the organization it serve but also ensure good image of the workers and management of the organization. For the above reasons, to define public relations become subject of individual perception of what public relations is and what it does, however many scholars have contributed to the success of defining what public relations is some scholars believed and wrote on it as an act (deed) representing a group or organization.

Public relations are a deliberate planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its public British Institute of Public Relations (BPR). According to Roger Hayward as quoted by Adegoke (2000:1) public relations is the propagation of the personality of the organization. This states the importance of communication between the organization and its public Roger Hayward’s definition has something to do with the definition because both state the duty of public relations officers in promoting projecting and representing the organization and at some time relating with the public of the organization both the internal and external public. Public relations also project the management personality of which the public relations department represents, through their activities with the use of their perspective tools (i.e print, electronic media and new media/social media.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to appraise the Public Relations as a Managerial Tool in Business Organization.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that so many organizations, management neither recognizes nor appreciate public relations efforts in Nigeria. The management does not realize the potential of public relations activities in building and enhancing a good image for the success of the organization. It has been observed that the management’s attitude is lukewarm and non-challant toward public relations department and their activities.

The 21st century has greatly affected the nature and role of PR. This is because the Internet has facilitated the easy dissemination and rejection of messages. The clutter of PR messages can mislead readers and viewers, and at the same time can go viral enough to make the possibilities intriguing. Institutions will have to address salient issues to enhance the effectiveness of PR in today’s internet driven society.

Besides, they don’t want to spend money on its activities such as organizing seminars, workshops, symposiums e.t.c because of the erroneous and selfish belief that public relations efforts bring little benefits to the organization. Therefore, this study will look at the Public Relations as a Managerial Tool in Business Organization using Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti as a case study.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Public Relations as a Managerial Tool in Business Organization using Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To determine whether business organization seeks students' input in the formulation of policies and strategies of operations;
2. To find out whether public relations recognized as a management function of Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti;
3. To determine the extent Public Relations is regarded as a management tool in the area under study; and
4. To examine the contribution of Public Relations to the achievement of business organization’s objectives in the area under study.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Does business organization seek students’ input in the formulation of policies and strategies of operations?
• To what extent is Public Relations regarded as a management tool in the area under study?
• To what extent is Public Relations recognized as a management function of Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti?
• What is the contribution of Public Relations to the achievement of business organization's objectives in the area under study?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant contribution of Public Relations to the achievement of business organization’s objectives in the area under study
• H1: There is significant contribution of Public Relations to the achievement of business organization’s objectives in the area under study

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1.7 Significance of Study

This research will benefit a lot of people. Few among the beneficiaries include but are not limited to undergraduates and graduates of mass communication and public relations. It will as well benefit the public relations practitioners on what is expected of them in higher institutions. It will serve as an eyes opener to the management of the higher institutions of learning on the need to have a functioning public relations department or unit on their campus.

In addition, researchers will know how public relations promote mutual understanding between the organization and publics; Students in various institutions will benefit from this project work by knowing the roles of public relations in society.

Moreover, policy formulators will benefit from this research work because they will be able to identify the usefulness of public relations to them on policy formulations and corporate management.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Public Relations as a Managerial Tool in Business Organization using Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Operational Definition of the Terms

Public Relations: Public relations are a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics.