I found this week’s readings to be extremely helpful in showcasing the more day-to-day role of a public relations practitioner.
I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings came from Chapter 11 of Public Relations Theory and Practice (Johnston and Zawawi). This chapter explained that an organisations success relies on genuine and honest relationships through both internal public relations and community relations. This showed that an organisation should hold employees as their most valuable asset, because, as it says on page 295, “employees are not machines but people who have families and enjoy a social life.” This got me thinking about how I, as an employee, would like to be treated. Some corporations may say they have excellent employee relations programs running, but due to time and monetary constraints these may not be implemented s well as they would like, and thus won’t be as effective. For example, I work for one of the corporations mentioned in the text. It is noted that this corporation regularly awards staff but through my experience this has not been the case. As an employee this makes me feel undervalued and, as mentioned above, like a “machine”. This made me think that I, as a PR practitioner must make sure that any internal relations strategy is being implemented in all areas that it should, because I would like to enjoy a positive, genuine culture in my workplace and when working as in PR I can see that I must ensure this for other employees like myself.
The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that I was able to see what a day practicing PR would be like thanks to the ‘Insider Info’ chapter in Melanie James’ Career FAQs; Public Relations. Up until now, I feel as though I have only been looking at an outline of what PR is and not what it’s day-to-day workings would be like. I found the cases in this chapter most easily relatable when it involved someone close to my age and working in a place that I would like to work, like, Jessica Forrest, account manager for Shearmans PR. Overall, this chapter gave me a clearer idea of where I would like to work and how to go about getting there.
This week I commented Kellie O'Sullivan.
References
1)Insider Info chapter (pp 37-93) in Public Relations by James, M. (2006). Sydney: CareerFaqs.
2)Chapter 11 pages 287-297 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.
2 comments:
Alex
I too agree employees are an organisation's most valuable asset. It is an employee's behaviour, both at work and when dealing with clients outside the office, which gives an organisation its reputation.
I also thought your comment about your workplace being perceived as an organisation who regularly reward staff, but you have not necessarily reaped the rewards of this. Perhaps you could think about whether this in itself is a PR stunt? Does the organisation want to appear to its publics to value its employees, but in fact does not 'practice what it preaches'?
Because you comment about being a valued employee, have you also thought about how you would in turn treat your own employees if you were, one day, the owner of a business?
You make a valid point about relating current PR Practitioners' roles with your own ideas of where you would like to fit into the world of PR.
I enjoyed your blog, you make some great comments!
Kell
Alex,
I agree with your point that an organisation's success depends on genuine and honest relationships. This is crucial to a successful organisation. I have found it to be very true in my own work experience.
I also found the Insider Info chapter to be very insightful. It is great to have such a practical reference to public relations. I also found it easily relatable.
You raise some great points! Well done,
Gabby
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