- The title of your paper is as follows: A perspective on the contribution of modern PR to the social performance of contemporary organisations. You are required to discuss the history and evolution of PR and reflect on its role in 21st century organisations,in the context of the emergence of the corporate social bottom line.
You will probably want to:
Trace the history and development of public relations practice (Weeks 1 and 2, Chapters 1-3 of the prescribed text and associated academic papers), including a discussion on the Grunig and Hunt (1984) four models of public relations practice.
Define public relations and its role in organisations.
Discuss the evolution of concepts of CSR, CSR2, CSP (Week 3, Chapter 20
of the text and associated academic papers) and on the relationship between PR
and these concepts.
Link the two together and explore the role of PR in the context of
contemporary organisations responding to our current expectations of business with regard to its role in society.
There is no ‘right’ argument. As long as you substantiate your opinion with evidence from the literature and practice, feel free to express your opinion.
For example, you may argue that public relations is a management function primarily concerned with the interface between organisations and society - responding to the expectations of those who can influence or are affected by an organisation’s operations (the stakeholders); harmonising the interests of an organisation with those on whom its growth depends; and serving as an intermediary between an organisation its publics (Newsome et al., 2007). It serves inter alia to analyse trends and predict their consequences, counsel organisational leaders and serve both the organisational and the public interest (First World Assembly, 1978), building mutually beneficial relationships between the two (Sebastian, 2012). It is logical on this basis, to assume a significant role for public relations in the management of CSP.
It has been suggested that CSR may be “perceived as a mechanism for balancing the interests of organisations and their stakeholders” (Bonyton, cited in Benn et al., 2010, p406). In parallel with the evolution of the corporate social agenda, there has been an evolution in public relations theory, with the emergence of dialogic, symmetrical (Grunig and Hunt, 1984) public relations practice approaches which are inherently ethical and support organisational responsiveness – together with the call for a more significant role for public relations in organisational strategy-making (Grunig, 2006; Heath, 2006; Berger and Reber, 2006; Steyn, 2007; Grunig and Repper, 1992).
Public relations scholars with a postmodern perspective perceive public relations as the corporate conscience of the organisation (Holtzhausen, 2000; Pieczka, 2000; Treadwell and Treadwell, 2005) and a number of scholars have suggested that the role of public relations is to facilitate organisational legitimacy (Metzler, 2001; Boyd, 2000; Giaradelli, 2004; Jenson 1997; Grunig et al., 1992; Cheney and Ashcraft, 2007). Indeed, both CSR and public relations can be considered legitimising strategies for organisations.
You night argue, on the other hand, that businesses “lose the opportunity to benefit from CSR, if they address CSR in public relations and media campaigns only” (Pollach et al., 2012, p205) – meaning if
CSR is cosmetic rather than strategically integrated (Morsing and Schultz, 2006; Porter and Kramer, 2006; Vilanova et al., 2009). CSR seen merely as a ‘PR’ exercise, could be considered counter- productive in terms of development of positive corporate reputations.
There is a wealth of relevant published material available in scholarly journals, professional publications and the general news media. You should draw on all these sources in researching your paper.
In particular, please make good use of the library’s electronic databases. See http://gecko.curtin.edu.au/V. The articles recommended for your weekly readings would make an excellent starting point. This is an INDIVIDUAL assignment.
The paper should be approximately 2,000 – 2,500 words in length and use the Chicago (author/date) referencing style.
