A recent survey from Just Capital has some very timely findings given the state of society in this turbulent year. It also reflects some lessons and reminders for public relations professionals at the top of their organizations, and the top of their game.
Among the findings from the survey are that most Americans think companies should promote an economy that serves everyone, but only half believe companies actually do this. Another key outcome is that the public increasingly thinks companies should balance the interests of shareholders with customers and employees. Most interesting to me is the ranking of most important issues for 2020 that show a high ranking for things like fair wages and benefits, ethics, environment, diversity and job creation.
This public sentiment about corporate performance is further evidence of my constant emphasis that public relations is a management function. Public relations is about maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with ALL publics. This sometimes means balancing competing interests between two publics, such as shareholders and employees, or customers and community. But the work of PR is to counsel management on policy to actually achieve this balance and not just proclamations to pay lip service to these notions. The publics are watching closely.
We are a century beyond the days of “press agentry” and the notion that PR is a mere tactical exercise to “raise awareness” or “get the word out” or put an organization in a “positive light.” Consider the emergence here in 2020 of terms and concepts that have been at the heart of enlightened public relations practice for years:
- Stakeholder theory and stakeholder capitalism–the idea as I described above that public relations is concerned with far more than the news media, and more even than customers, to include shareholders, employees, community members and more;
- ESG–environmental, social, and corporate governance are the integrated concern of companies, and in particular CCOs (chief communications officers) and those who lead the public relations for organizations;
- Conscious capitalism–the philosophy that economic interests are bound in social interests and ethical practice;
- Sustainability–many public relations professionals produce sustainability annual reports or include the “triple bottom line” of people, place and profits in their metrics;
- Purpose—Corporate purpose goes beyond mission to stress not only a company’s interest but its positive impact on the world (what old economists call “positive externalities”).
Once again, what the public says it wants of companies and all the associated trendy management buzz words are what good public relations has done and is poised to do now. Listen to publics. Learn what they want. Creatively and ethically devise ways to balance organizational interests with those of all publics. It sounds trite, but work together for common good.
The intersection of normative theory and actual practice in public relations is upon us. I just hope that future surveys will show that people and executives will realize that this movement is something long called “public relations.”
