When I ask students in my PR Cases and Management class what it means that public relations is a “management function,” I usually get some form of the answer that public relations needs to be managed to be effective.
Lesson one in that class is that PR is a management function because it is a vital part of managing the entire organization, not just the communication function. Organizations that have healthy and mutual relationships with all stakeholders are more successful in every respect. The fundamental role of public relations is building and maintaining those relationships that are what scholars call “two-way symmetrical.”
I also stress this in my graduate class in communications management. Managing communication is about making an entire enterprise successful, and the top communications person should have a “seat at the table” making decisions, not merely communicating them.
My research is centered on this concept as well, with my presentations, papers and book chapters related in various ways to the various influences on the quality of public relations content. My most recent work is “Testing a Model of Drivers and Outcomes for Corporate Communications Team Performance” published this month in Public Relations Journal. The project was done in conjunction with my co-author Mark Bain, a veteran PR professional with experience in global PR in corporate and agency settings who now runs his own consultancy called upper90. We worked together with the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) to survey chief communications officers (CCOs) and their teams. You can read a blog post summary on the IPR website, and you can access the full paper in PR Journal.
The origin of the research is a conversation Mark Bain and I had about what makes communication teams effective, or what makes them perform well? This resulted in a previous paper about what professionals see as performance, what communication performance is in particular and what are the factors that cause high performance. From that we developed a model which we tested in our recently published article.
In a quick summary, we found consistency in four factors that drive performance in corporate communications teams, and then four outcomes from communication teams that perform at high level.
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The performance drivers are:
- Full commitment – Fully committed teams have a clear vision, a shared set of team values, and team members who care about the team’s success.
- Focus on results – Focused teams have a strategy that maps directly to business objectives, the right systems, tools and processes, and discipline around continuous learning and improvement.
- Constructive conflict – Creative and innovative teams embrace constructive conflict. They welcome different ideas and opinions, promote open and honest communication, and provide timely and healthy feedback.
- Shared accountability – Teams that share accountability have clear and relevant measures, empower and support their members, and recognize and reward performance.
When teams optimize these drivers, they’re more likely to enjoy these positive outcomes:
- Attract and retain the right talent for current and future needs
- Have a sufficient budget for current needs and future investment
- Receive visible support from the CEO and C-suite executives
- Earn the respect and trust of internal and external stakeholders
I share this research in the classes mentioned above because it validates the theoretical concepts I teach with affirmation from top communications professionals in our survey. It also is a good example of integrating theory and practice when an academic like myself partners in research from a professional like Mark Bain. The research is better, the students benefit more, and I would hope the profession at large gains from the insights as well.
