The value of public relations especially at a time of recession and public sector cuts has never been more important.

1.
The Stockholm Accords, ratified in June 2010, set out to identify where and how the
public relations and communication management profession adds value to the
organisation. The value of public relations especially at a time of recession and public
sector cuts has never been more important.
Introduction
Good communication is a vital ingredient for maintaining a healthy organisational
reputation during a time of recession. Naturally the UK’s economic woes has had a
dramatic impact on UK businesses, as demonstrated by the scale of cuts and the
number of established high‐street companies descending into administration
(Kollewe, 2009). In this time of widespread uncertainty the Stockholm Accords have
sought to affirm the importance of strategic PR by reinforcing its value as an
important management tool to effectively govern stakeholder relationships. A recent
study of CEOs from leading UK companies, which investigated the value of public
relations to their organisation, Stephen Carter of Ofcom commented: “We should
not look for a return on investment (ROI) for public relations…it is simply a necessary
cost, the cost of doing business – you really just need to do it” (Carter cited in
Murray and White, 2005, p. 349). This view, although accepting the need for
strategic communications, marginalises the PR function as being non‐strategic.
However, during times of change and uncertainty it is suggested that public relations
practitioners are better equipped to manage the movement of messages out of the
organisation to its publics, explaining policy modifications or actions (Grunig and
Hunt, 1984). The Stockholm Accord endorses this view by asserting the PR
practitioners role as: “bringing the organisation’s voice and interests into
stakeholder deliberations” (Stockholm Accord, 2010, p.10). Due to the downturn in
the economy and ensuing realignment of organisations’ priorities, it is increasing
important for PR practitioners to be more aware of their role in organisational
leadership, as well as their impact to the triple bottom line and business
sustainability. The quality and effectiveness of communications are increasingly
determined by the ability of PR to interpret stakeholder expectations and

2. communicate change effectively. This is achieved by creating a listening culture that
allows the organisation to adapt and respond to the external environment. It is only
when the top communicator possesses strategic change management knowledge
and engages in communication with all stakeholders that public relations can be
considered to be value‐generating especially during challenging economic times. This
essay argues that to work effectively, particularly at a time of recession and public
sector cuts, an organisation needs good PR. Furthermore, a senior PR manager
should be part of the dominant coalition and must fully understand all aspects of the
organisation. The section headings are inspired by key themes outlined in the
Stockholm Accords.

3. Stakeholder Governance Through Relationship Management
It is widely accepted by PR practitioners that relationships are one of the most
precious assets an organisation possesses. As a key management practice primarily
concerned with understanding and directing stakeholder relationships, public
relations is concerned with the communication of perceptions and strategic
relationships between an organisation and its internal and external stakeholders, for
mutual benefit and a greater social order. Grunig and Huang’s (2000) expands on this
view of PR as a relationship practice: “Public relations makes organisations more
effective by building relationships with strategic publics” (Cited in Phillips, 2006, p.
212). The quality of an organisation’s relationship and exchanges with it publics will
impact on the brand reputation in a competitive marketplace. Mutually beneficial
relationships will affect brand equity, loyalty to products and services, assist in
stimulating empathy during crisis, while with internal publics it will affirm loyalty and
staff moral (Heath, 2005). Ledingham (2003) provides a pragmatic approach to
managing relationships between an organisation and its publics by suggesting a
process of scanning through environmental surveillance; setting goals and
objectives; developing and pre‐testing initiatives; rolling‐out and putting
programmes in place; evaluating the success of the initiatives; and monitoring and
maintaining relationship quality (cited in Heath, 2005, p.741).
A stakeholder is any group or individual who can affect or is affected by
organisational behaviour. It is important that stakeholders are identified and
assessed in terms of their engagement level with the organisation. The key to
stakeholder relationship management is to ensure that PR practitioners recognize
and link‐in with all stakeholders. Sincere engagement is the first step towards
enhancing two‐way communication excellence. Strategic relationship building with
stakeholders is key to the successful management of announcements around cuts or
other changes to an organisation. Grunig and Hunt (1984) defined stakeholders as:
“a group whose collective behaviour can directly affect the organisation’s future, but
which is not under the organisation’s control” (p.297). Stakeholder pressure is
undoubtedly one of the most challenging issues facing organisations as they try to
adapt to the current austere climate. The role of the public relations practitioner is

4. to ensure that the leadership of the organisation communicates effectively with all
of the stakeholders, both by coaching management into a better communications
performance and also by helping to articulate only the messages that matter
(Murray and White, 2005). Both internal and external stakeholders need to be part
of a two‐way communication model, forming part of a larger strategic management
process during times of change. This is vital to negate the possibility of dissonance
while ensuring a licence to operate.

5. Engagement with Publics
A public forms from a group of people who stand to be affected by an organisation’s
behaviour: “They can instigate change in the wider public mood and bring their
concerns to the attention of the organisation, at worst forcing unplanned and
expensive changes” (Campbell, 2003, ch9). At a time of recession or during public
sector cuts, many previously latent publics can form a new public, which in turn has
consequences for the organisation. It is important to recognise that the term
‘publics’ does not refer solely to people outside of an organisation. Organisational
publics can also be made up of people within it. An individual can also belong to
more than one public at a time: “There is an increasing diversity in
society...individuals have many roles and may belong to more than one public”
(Varey, 1997, p97). An example of this is a group facing redundancy, those who feel
their jobs are undervalued, users objecting to cutbacks, or strong media opposition
to policy. A public sector employee can also be a union representative, member of a
local community, customer of other public services and a member of an activist
group, all at the same time. “Public relations practice is the management of
communications between an organisation and its publics” (Grunig and Hunt 1984,
cited in Tench and Yeomans p5). Through his situational theory, Grunig developed a
classification tool to allow the PR practitioner to identify publics, establish their
character and formulate a clear communication strategy in response. Grunig
theorised that consequences create the conditions necessary for a public to develop.
That is, when an organisations behaviour has a consequence for people, it creates an
issue around which a public forms. Grunig noted that not everyone affected by
organisational consequences detect them. Of those that do, not all proceed to
discuss the problem or galvanise to respond. He theorised that the factors that
differentiate these groups were the extent to which they recognise the problem, the
degree to which they feel they can do something about it, and the level to which
they feel affected by organisational behaviour (Grunig and Hunt 1984, Varey 1997).
Deep recession, subsequent public sector cuts and the social effects on communities
due are wide and varied. In this arena a diverse group of publics are created around

6. a myriad of issues who must all be identified, communications objectives established
and strategy initiated. The PR practitioner can bring the organisation’s voice to its
varied publics to engage in deliberations. A public forms from a group of people who
stand to be affected by an organisation’s behaviour. Recently we have witnessed
widespread chaotic scenes of student protests over the announcement of increased
tuition fees and cuts to education spending now exacerbated by the trade unions
pledge to join in with coordinated industrial action to build a ‘wider anti‐cuts
campaign’ and in their own words: ‘declare war’. This domino effect of creating
publics forming around a central theme and all requiring different communication is
an arena where strategic PR practice becomes a vital function (Taylor, 2010). For
example, following the Coalition Government’s determination that public services
are to be drastically cut, local authorities have been preparing themselves to address
their share of reduced spending. Across the country, councils are investing heavily in
public consultation, which encourages its respective residents to make their
suggestions as to where the cuts should fall. This has the effect of making it clear
that spending must be reduced but includes various publics in the decision‐making
process.

7. Coordinating Internal and External Communication
Managed communication should be a critical component of any organisational
change and the PR practitioner is pivotal to the managerial function of crafting and
delivering effective communication strategy. Well‐known management academic,
John Kotter (1996) has observed that 50 percent of companies fail during the early
stages of change, which he suggests is attributed to ineffective communication
(Tourish and Hargie, 2004). Dawson (2004) echoes this view, suggesting they usually
fail because communication around any change is often limited. It may be restricted
to just a few memos followed by the head of the organisation making speeches,
while everyone else remains silent. Also, the behaviour of some highly visible
individuals may conflict with the message being communicated. Change
management requires strategic verbal communication, which is consistent with the
actions of an organisation ensuring consistency and an accurate presentation of the
issues. Communication with internal stakeholders will be most effective when
employees are kept informed and where feedback and consultation is encouraged
consequently positively affecting staff moral. Resistance to change is largely
associated with natural anxiety, ignorance and misunderstanding and opposition can
be reduced if PR practitioners ensure a thorough understanding of the key issues
(pp.61 ‐ 62). For change communication to be effective the message tone and pitch
must be set to an appropriate level for the intended audience or adjusted where
necessary, the communication has to be a two‐way process and an appropriate
medium of communication must be utilised (Paton and McCalman, 2000 cited in
Dawson, 2004).

8. Boundary Spanning
The concept of boundary spanner provides the context into which the PR
practitioner can approach their role in modern PR: “They function at the edge of the
organisation, serving as a liaison between the organisation and the external groups
and individuals” (Grunig and Hunt, 1984, p.9). This theoretical concept is succinctly
explained by Tench and Yeomans: “Taking a systems perspective, it can be seen that
PR professionals have a boundary spanning role…working with all the internal
subsystems by helping them communicate. They also help…with their external
communications by both providing expert advice on what and how to communicate
and by helping them with implementation” (Tench and Yeomans, 2006, p.27). In
discussing the relationship between PR and the strategic role it plays in
organisational effectiveness, it is vital to establish what role the senior public
relations practitioner plays within the organisation itself. Research by Broom and
Smith (1979) categorized the function of PR into two roles, communication
technician and manager. These roles and the subsequent practise of the role of the
communication manager working as a ‘problem solving facilitator’ has become the
basis for organisations to see the PR function as a valued part of the strategic
process. In this role, the senior PR practitioner acts as the boundary spanner –
gathering information, defining and solving problems, helping the dominant coalition
formulate the right strategy whilst bringing excellence to communication of the
mission. Many academics argue that this role can only truly be seen as effective if
the senior public relations manager is a member of the dominant coalition: “Public
relations is most likely to contribute to organisational effectiveness when the senior
public relations manager is a member of the dominant coalition where he or she is
able to shape the organisational goals” (Grunig, et. al. 2002. Cited in L’Etang, 2008,
p.162) Sung (2007) expands on this view: “PR benefits the organisation because the
members of the dominant coalition often do not see the organisation’s environment
with an objective viewpoint…PR can contribute to strategic management by helping
the organisation enact the environment of which they may not be aware” (Sung
cited in L’Etang, 2008, p.163). In the 2001 UK census 48,000 respondents identified
themselves as being employed in public relations. However even with

9. unprecedented growth in the number of practitioners, in the last decade the
occupation of PR has found that professional status remains elusive. Despite its
popularity, practitioners remain largely communication technicians, focusing on
tactical matters. A viewpoint endorsed by Grunig (1990) suggesting that: “they tend
to remain ‘outside the door’ when those top‐level decisions are being made…rarely
ascending to the managerial level that would make them part of the decisional
process.” This brings about unique challenges when communicating with
stakeholders during uncertain times, as the communication is one‐way, since the PR
practitioner is not present when significant issues are being debated and conclusions
are being reached. This limits their input to simply explaining and justifying others’
decisions. Taking a systems perspective, this should affect and influence
organisational decision making and communication strategy: “When functioning
well, it acts as the anvil against which managements moral problems can be
hammered” (Finn, 1959. Cited in Newsom and Scott, 1981, p.421).

10. The Networked Environment
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations defines PR as: “the determined, planned
and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an
organisation and its publics” (CIPR, 2010). This definition endorses the systems
theory view that an organisation co‐exists in a symbiotic relationship with its publics
and is inevitably influenced by it. In order to achieve their objectives, it must be able
to listen and adapt to changes in its operational environment, thus ensuring its
survival. As L’Etang and Pieczka (2006) argued: “The role for public relations
practitioners is effectively to limit this external influence and control that the
environment is able to exert and place the various relationships into a state of
harmony, which allows the organisation to pursue its goals with minimum
interference or obstruction.” Cutlip, et. al. endorses this view: “…The public relations
staff is charged with keeping the organisation sensitive to environmental changes,
anticipating as well as reacting to change pressures” (Cutlip, Center and Broom,
2000, p. 232). The concept of systems theory outlines that an organisation (and the
actions it undertakes) does not exist or operate in isolation. They are affected and
must adapt to changes in the political, economic, social and technological
environment in which they operate. At a time of the most crippling recession in
living memory, the Royal Bank of Scotland incited public revolt with their
announcement that £1.3 billion in bonuses would be made to 22 of their investment
bankers. This was despite reporting losses of £5 billion and receiving a £54 billion
payout from the taxpayer. In contrast, when hundreds of aircraft were grounded at
UK airports due to inclement weather, last Christmas, the CEO of BAA, Colin
Matthews tried to appease critics who said snow should not have forced airports to
close. He announced he would not accept his bonuses for the year as a means of
showing empathy for the disrupted travelling public. This was a good example of
excellent PR practice as the organisation demonstrated sensitivity to its environment
by listening and adapting (Swinford, 2010).

11. Conclusion
Wilson (2001) states that when public relations is managed strategically, it itself
becomes a valued part of the strategic management process: “helping practitioners
to join the ranks of those whose efforts make strategic contributions to the
organisation.” This type of PR practice can only serve to elevate the PR function to
one that truly contributes to the realisation of organisational goals. A view echoed
by Grunig (1990): “The public relations practitioner with the potential to contribute
to the organisational goals would be more effective as a member of the dominant
coalition than as an independent actor in the organisational system.” This essay has
examined the various functions of the role of public relations. Whilst all of these
topics and themes exist in the day‐to‐day business arena, at a time of recession or
during public sector cuts, it is even more vital to bring excellence to internal and
external communications. Recession, cuts, ensuing uncertainty and increasing
dissonance are all factors that require any organisation to not only communicate
well, but to be able to listen and adapt to the task environment. It is often said that
the test of any organisation is during times of crisis, which is when a well‐run, well‐
funded PR department often comes into its own. Whilst ROI may not be specifically
measurable in terms of hard data, PR as a so‐called ‘soft’ impact during recession
may prove invaluable to an organizations very survival.
Word Count: 2750

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