Public Relations and Organizational Listening

Question: Discuss about the Public Relations and Organizational Listening. Answer: Introduction This essay will focus on two major elements prevailing in any business or in any organization i.e. public relations and organizational listening. From the aspect of renowned theorist Grunig, the essay will highlight the two way symmetric mode, role of social media and ethical public relations. Later on the essay will emphasize on the importance of organizational culture in present scenario. From the view point of famous theorist Macnamara, the essay will try to make understand notions like stakeholders voice, role of social media and significance of organizational listening. Public Relations A renowned theorist, James E. Grunig, developed 4 models of PR which includes two-way symmetrical, two-way asymmetrical, public information and press agentry. These models were introduced by Grunig for understanding and explaining the conduct of practitioners of public relations (Grunig and Hunt, 198). The people of public relations had researched and pay attention to publics for determining that in what best possible way to change their conduct so that the organization get maximum benefit out of it. It serves the function of the organization which efforts to balance the publics interests with the interest of the organization. These models, particularly the two-way symmetrical model comprises of debated elements of Excellence theory which includes tactics, ethical, symmetrical, strategic and managerial values in decision making (Grunig, 1992). According to Grunig, the two-way communication can be use by the professionals of public relations with influence of social media to inform publics and organizations as the focus of the two-way symmetrical model is on mutual understanding, reciprocity and community exchange (Grunig, 1983). The two-way symmetrical model tries to morally stable the interest of the institution and its publics. Two-way communication and research is used for managing the conflicts and as an outcome, the two-way symmetrical model produces associations for a much longer period in comparison with the other three models. For creating support and building associations there is an extensive need of transparency and trust. The ethical characteristics of public relations are significant in relation with the organizations credibility. The two-way symmetric model of Grunig highlights the importance of social media on the dialogue communication. Social media as well as ethical public relations exchanges information that supports the notion that maintaining ethical public relations guarantees the success of an organization. Grunig suggest that symmetric communication is a way to inspire the organizations to implement ethics and finest practice within the public relations. The ethical public relations practice encourages people to give their consent on the way organization think and just consider feedback in relation with the strategies of communication. The ethical practice will consequently result in improved reliability, social responsibility and building of community between the stakeholders (Grunig, 1993). Grunig has mentioned various benefits of two-way communication in the public relation practice or of the linkages with publics such as it helps in facilitating the decision making of the organization in a symmetric and balanced way. There is a notion of symmetry by Grunig that organizations are able to accomplish more number of their long term objectives and goals if they integrate some of their goals with the wants of publics, it means that the management involves in a continuous association of give and take with the public. It has been stated by Grunig that the two-way symmetrical model of communication is intrinsically ethical. He further explains that symmetric communication avoids the issues related to ethical relativism as it describes ethics as a course of public relation instead of a result (Grunig, 2001). In reference with GTA, there is a well recognized case of Star City, the PR Company and Astral, a dining restaurant. As a sound PR initiative, Star City launched a campaign to make Astral one of the finest and superior dining restaurant of Sydney. The outcomes of the PR campaign were augmented visitation, rave reviews and extensive publicity. At the AHA Awards for Excellence, the head Chef of Astral was facilitated with the title 2006 Chef of the Year. In the campaign the views of public were taken into consideration that what they want Astral should be, the restaurants critics were approached to have the best ideas. Existing customers were focused, media was involved to communicate in a wider group, a re-launch event was organized, dinners with key media persons to introduce them to the new look of Astral, organized a staff event and other various activities to attract customers. This is how Astral achieve huge success and recognition by adopting two-way communication by involving v iews and feedbacks of public, staff and social media. (GTA Astral, 2006). What about the notion of organisational listening (Macnamara, 2013; 2014) that questions ability and willingness of organisations to embed stakeholder views with organisational practices? Organisational listening questions the extent organisations use information/feedback gathered from their stakeholders, in this case, the social media. Organizational Listening Organizational listening can be understood as an arrangement or mixture of the listening skills of the workforce and the surrounding in which listening takes place, which is formed by an organization and later on it is considered as one of the feature of the image of an organization. Organizational listening includes various things which are incorporated by the organization such as practices, technologies, skills, resources, processes, structure, policies and the culture (Macnamara, 2014).These are implemented for giving response, consideration, understanding, interpretation, attention, acknowledgement and recognition to public and the stakeholders. It is of great significance in the modern and developed societies, mainly in the democratic societies where stake seekers, stakeholders, shareholders, members, employees, customers and citizens have to transact with private and public sector organization on a daily basis (Cooper and Husband, 1993). Organizational listening subjects the wi llingness and ability of the organizations to consider and implant the stakeholder opinions within the practices of organization as the disarticulation of the stakeholders and publics voice is a general issue which majorly arises at various segments. There are number of reasons which causes this disarticulation such as a culture where some individuals are not accepted or acknowledged as encompassing a voice which must be listened to, fear or threat of presenting negative viewpoints or criticism towards the higher authorities among the staff of the organization and dismissal and ignorance by the senior managers (Macnamara, 2014). Organizational listening must mold the organizational practices in such a manner that there develops a culture of organizational listening. There are few vital requirements which are necessary to get fulfilled such as there should be development of research methodologies for measuring the listening capacity of an organization and these metrics must be incorporated and applied both the time i.e. before pursuing the strategy and after pursuing the strategy and throughout any major act (Stein, 1994). Secondly there must be identification and activation of channels for facilitating organizational listening. The stakeholders groups which are affecting by the implementation of the organizational strategy must be identified both in present scenario and in upcoming future. The expectations and the requirements of the stakeholders groups must be recognized and must be in consideration while planning the organizational strategy and before incorporating any act. If in any case, the expectations of the stakeholders are not met, then the organization must provide the stakeholders with sound and reliable reasons for that. There must be provided a conformity or proof to the stakeholders that whatever actions taken by the organization are in lieu of the strategy to be implemented and there must be a time to time evaluation of the efficacy and success of organizational listening (Macnamara, 2013). In most of the functions which are held within organization and are communication oriented, at that place social media is viewed with and taken as great enthusiasm as it is appeared to be quickly closing in on consumer associations as the primary and key form of interaction between the public and the organization. It is also making it tough for the formal research as now it is considered as the primary means of having intelligence, insights and feedbacks. Indeed, in present time individuals regards social media as the free as well as real time research. The organizations does not emphasis much on the feedbacks provided by the social media and the stake holders, the notion of organizational listening questions this conduct of the organizations as in todays time, the feedbacks or information given by the social media is of much importance as they can alter the image of an organization by its high connectivity the public as well as with the stakeholders. Social media has given outcomes by changing the expectations associated with response time, which was producing high pressure over the systems and the resources in number of organizations (Macnamara, 2014). There are various benefits which are associated with efficient ethical listening such as the improved and augmented trust in the government, it leads to political stability, upsurge participation and involvement in civil society and politics and as a result it leads to increased impartial representation, effective making of policies as well as decrease number of crisis because of the identification of early warnings and insights. Effective listening can provide sustainability to the business in various ways such as winning strategy by implementing emergent strategy which is an outcome of having an interaction with the environment of the organization and the stakeholders instead of top down the strategy which is internally developed. It also assists in increasing employee loyalty, motivation and engagement and thus builds a social business or social organization. An improved and effective organizational listening also contributes in avoidance of crisis, reduced disputation, increased productivity, decreased staff turnover and customer retention (Macnamara, 2014). In reference with GTA, there is a well recognized case of Text100, the PR Company and Cisco. As a sound PR initiative, Text100 integrated a five-week time frame as per which there should be creation of a buzz, excitement and awareness in Australia regarding the product of Cisco. The main focus of the campaign was on youth who love entertainment, sport and music. Razor was chosen as the digital partner for Ciscos flip video. There were various elements of the campaign such as a press release programme was launched by which all the announcements related to PR were directly communicated to the stakeholder of Cisco through press release, a social media programme by which strong brand awareness mouth publicity was taken place and many other various programs took place in that five week time frame. As a result of such effective PR initiatives, Cisco was able to create a buzz for its product and was able to capture the market efficiently (GTA CISCO, 2010). Conclusion In present scenario, the need of effective and sound PR is as similar as the need for resources to start any business. The public relations practice is required to be ethical so that no issues can be developed regarding that. The involvement of social media in both organizational listening and public relations is high as they are one of the strongest channel for communicating the views and opinions. The involvement of public and to take care of the stakeholders interest is also necessary so that they can give their consent towards any organizational change or strategy. Founded in 1976, GTA have acknowledged brilliance in public relations for last 40 years. Golden Target Awards rejoice the accomplishments of the associates of PRIA i.e. Public Relations Institute of Australia and recognize exciting and innovative communications programs and public relations. Golden Target Awards facilitate the organizations who have put huge efforts in maintain considerable and better public relations with the public as the organization working on ethical grounds and maintain public relations are recognized by the GTA as well as awarded for their ethical approach towards public relations (PRIA, 2016). Golden Target Awards recognize and acknowledge the organization for their efforts to maintain a healthy relation with the investors and also community relations. In this essay two examples in reference with GTA which shows that how effectively GTA recognize the efforts of PR companies such as Star City and Text100 as how effectively they have managed the campaigns and achieved huge recognitions. References: Cooper, L.O. and Husband, R.L., 1993. Developing a model of organizational listening competency.International Listening Association. Journal,7(1), pp.6-34. Grunig, J.E. 2001, Two-way symmetrical public relations: past, present, and future in R.L. Heath (ed.), Handbook of Public Relations, Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, London New Delhi, pp. 11-30. Grunig, J.E. and Hunt, T., 1984.Managing public relations(Vol. 343). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Grunig, J.E., 1983. Organizations, Environments, and Models of Public Relations. Grunig, J.E., 1992.Excellence in public relations and communication management. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Grunig, J.E., 1993. Public relations and international affairs: Effects, ethics and responsibility.Journal of International Affairs, pp.137-162. GTA Astral, 2006. Austral is Reborn" - Relaunch of Austral Restaurant, Accessed on: 23rd August 2016, Accessed from: https://www.lib.uts.edu.au.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/gta/14064/austral-reborn-relaunch-austral-restaurant GTA CISCO, 2010. Building Buzz at High Speed, Accessed on: 23rd August 2016, Accessed from: https://www.lib.uts.edu.au.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/gta/14596/building-buzz-high-speed Macnamara, J. 2014, Organizational listening: A vital missing element in public communication and the public sphere, Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, vol.15, no.1. Macnamara, J., 2013. Beyond voice: audience-making and the work and architecture of listening as new media literacies.Continuum,27(1), pp.160-175. PRIA, 2016. Celebrating 40 Years of Recognising Excellence in Public Relations, Accessed on: 23rd August 2016, Accessed from: https://www.pria.com.au/eventsawards/golden-target-awards Stein, H.F., 1994.Listening deeply: An approach to understanding and consulting in organizational culture. Westview Press.