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A practitioner claims that research should be
in ‘defining good corporate responsibility with
reference to good communication, e.g. internal
and community relations’.
Human resources, internal relations
and personnel communication
This topic refers to research into how PR
agencies recruit and keep staff, an area which
in current management jargon is known as
the ‘emotional capital’ of an organization.
Research in the area of ‘talent management’
has been conducted by recruitment consultants
Odgers Ray and Berndtson.
This topic also refers to research into communication
programmes with all personnel
working for an organization, whether technical,
e.g. the monthly staff newsletter, or
strategic, e.g. specialized schemes to boost
staff morale in the face of a possible crisis.
Thus, there are other areas for research for
this topic, e.g. issues management (especially
in relationships with trade unions) and
employee relations.
A practitioner noted: ‘I think human resources,
internal relations and personnel communications
is a clumsy description. We are
simply addressing internal audiences and relationships
(and indeed the internal organisation
aspects of reputation management and
corporate identity issues). Yes we know that
for historical reasons HR/personnel often
inherited internal communication, and external
relationships might be allocated to a
marketing function. This bifurcation is unwise,
and reflects naively about organisational
structure and mechanics.’
Client expectations, service quality and
public relations
Understandably, practitioners expressed concern
for this topic. Interest centred around
researching client/agency relationships, from a
client’s perspective. Research would concentrate
on strategic relationships between users
of public relations and PR service providers, in
the effort to understand the requirements and
wants of clients. A practitioner said, ‘It’s good
to know how we should change and develop
to meet the needs and wants of our clients,
but it would also be useful if, as an industry,
we could advise clients how they should
change and develop to get the most out of PR
. . . it would be fair to get both sides of the
argument – e.g. clients would say they want
more strategic advice from their PR team. The
flip side of that might be the PR team saying
that they’d love nothing more than to give
more strategic advice but rarely have the
opportunity to do so.’
This topic can be examined as an extension
of the subject ‘the measurement and evaluation
of public relations’. A practitioner who
is also an academic noted, ‘I see both
clients and students being more concerned
with financial results and our capabilities to
demonstrate them. And to be honest, as long
as we are not capable of demonstrating the
financial outcomes of our inputs (which
clearly are costs) we have limited growth
capacity.’ Another practitioner academic
commented, ‘PR needs to demonstrate its
“deliverables” to the organisation . . . (and)
evaluation will only be successfully addressed
in a pervasive research culture.’
By studying the levels of client satisfaction
in qualitative and quantitative terms,
researchers will be able to analyse service
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors