Corporate communication and Public relations

26/01/2022 1 By indiafreenotes

Corporate communication and public relations is a way for the organization to heighten and strengthen its position. It is a professional task. It normally involves communicating with the media or professionals to introduce the organization in the most impressive way possible. It also involves coordinated efforts between independent society and the organization to create kindness within the society and propagate the image of the organization.

The significance of corporate communication and public relations lies regarding ‘controlling how the world sees the organization’. For example, in a crisis, regardless of what actually happened, it is the understanding of the public and the stakeholders of the crisis and how it has been tackled defines their reaction to the organization. If the organization does not present itself as quiet, dignified, and peaceful, and projects aggressive behaviour then it is going to be questioned by the stakeholders. The significance of the corporate communication and public relations is to understand how the public and the stakeholders are going to react to such behaviour. The corporate communication and public relations is to ensure through press releases, newsletters, advertisements and other modes of communication that the public and stakeholders gets only that information which the organisation wants them to have.

Corporate communication includes communication with employees, investors and the executive team. PR relates to communication with the public and the media. The two jobs require a similar skill set.

PR and Corporate Communication

Corporations talk with lots of people, including politicians, regulators, customers, reporters and employees. The Muck Rack explains that the difference between corporate communication and public relations depends on who the company is talking with. PR professionals deal with the public and the media. They send out press releases, field questions from reporters and, if there’s a crisis, they’re the ones who explain what’s happening.

Corporate communications jobs focus more on internal communications. The messages you send out may be directed at employees, investors, stockholders or the executive team. You may use the company wiki or the company newsletter to share information between different departments. You don’t have to deal with the media, but corporate communications jobs involve a lot of interdepartmental meetings.

Not everyone agrees with this breakdown. PR and corporate communication as one big thing, with public relations as a subdivision of corporate communications jobs. The public relations professionals still specialize in dealing with the media and the public, but they’re ultimately answerable to the top dog in the corporate communications department.

However, they’re defined, PR and corporate communications require similar abilities. You need excellent writing and public speaking skills and a knack for getting your message across clearly. It’s also important to communicate with data, taking accumulated facts and crafting them into a compelling story.

Corporate Communications Examples

5W Public Relations says both internal and external communications must pay attention to the company’s image. Employees and customers want to see companies they deal with as inclusive, diverse and good places to work. If people have complaints or questions, they want them answered.

For example, suppose the news breaks that the company vice president has been sexually harassing a secretary. Employees want to see whether the company sides with the executive or the lower-ranked employee. Reporters want to know how the company handles the issue and how long the company took to deal with it. Investors may wonder how the scandal affects their investment.

PR and corporate communication have to be on the same page, crafting a common message. They have to do it fast before comments on Facebook or Twitter define the company’s image for them. Depending on the circumstance, the message may be that the company dismissed the executive, offered the secretary a cash settlement, or sided with the vice president.

Corporate communication and public relations is described as the set of activities involved in ‘managing and orchestrating all internal and external communications’ which are designed to create favourable starting points. It is based on giving out of information by a variety of specialists and generalists in an organization. It is concerned with people, organisational processes, activities, and media. There are two views regarding corporate communication and public relations.

The first view states that it is the management of communication to mix the activities of the advertisement and promotional fields in the best possible way. It is the view which considers corporate communication and public relations as ‘a tool of marketing’. This is the view which no one wants to express explicitly, when asked for.

The second view is diametrically opposite to the first view. As per this view, corporate communication and public relations refers to managing communication by direct or indirect relationships, in order to gain the trust of public groups and to monitor their trust and the consequences it has for the organization. At the same time, corporate communication and public relations is the management of information about what is going on inside and outside the organization, with the goal of anticipating future situations or to solve already established problems in a proper and less harmful way to the organization. This can only be done by establishing communication, i. e. relationships. Thus corporate communication and public relations is concerning communicating about the organization within society. It also refers to ‘managing relationships’.

Corporate communication and public relations is an inevitable activity which determines how effectively it creates trust and credibility and communicates the same effectively to its stakeholders who are the building blocks of the organization. It derives its significance from the fundamental need of the organization to achieve profitability, coherence, and managing cordial relationships with the stakeholders and transmitting a strong sense of ethics, reliability to public at large and also to gain a strategic competitive advantage over its rivals. It is also instrumental in not only organizing and managing internal and external activities of the organization but also in motivating the employees towards higher productivity.

Corporate communication and public relations is an important function or activity of the organization. Hence, it is to be entrusted to effective and experienced executives. Each corporate communication and public relations activity can have different objectives, strategy, and plan, such as, to create a positive image of the organization, to handle an organizational crisis, to motivate the employees, to create curiosity about a product, to advertise a product, or to inform about an event in advance. Corporate communication and public relations plans to achieve each of the above mentioned objectives with different approaches. Some of these approaches are press conferences, press releases, parties and get-togethers before any special event etc.  Corporate communication and public relations and advertising and media are inter-related and can have common characteristics and activities.

Corporate communication and public relations creates an efficient and effective avenue of communication with employees, consumers, investors and many others, locally and globally. A great deal of management’s current concern for employee productivity and the need to empower people has revolved around the use of teams. But more frequently what is needed is the simple requirement of effective communication.

Corporate communication and public relations is both an art and a science. It has the beauty and emotionality of art and the system of science. It can mean different things to different people. Its techniques, strategies, and practices vary from organization to organization. However, the fundamental way of getting public approval is to deserve it.

Code of ethics is a very crucial requirement in any profession. Corporate communication and public relations professionals are no exception to this requirement. They have access to information or knowledge about events to come and hence any pressure or temptation to commercialize this information is to be avoided at all costs. While serving the interests of the organization and the employees, the corporate communication and public relations professionals are to ensure that they adhere to a code of ethics and a code of conduct so that they are not labelled as fixers or manipulators.

Functions of corporate communication and public relations

The important functions of corporate communication and public relations include (i) dealing with crisis control, (ii) enabling sophisticated approaches to global communications, and (iii) comprehension and utilization of complicated communication tools and technologies. The functions also include the following.

Corporate communication and public relations policy: The corporate communication and public relations policy is to be developed, approved, and shared with all the departments of the organization.

Statements and press releases: The responsibilities of corporate communication and public relations include preparation of corporate statements. Sometimes speeches for executives and press releases are to be prepared by the personnel of the corporate communication and public relations department. In the process, they are in a position to articulate and project positive image of the organization, or product, or policies.

Handling of publicity: The responsibilities of corporate communication and public relations include issuing announcements of the activities and the products of the organization to media and community. Planning promotional campaign using media is also a vital function. Handling inquiries from press and people at large is a part of the function.

Maintenance of relations: The corporate communication and public relations personnel are expected to maintain liaisons with the external agencies. They are expected to uphold good relations with the community as ‘good neighbours’. This includes communication between organization and external agencies which is an important part of maintaining relations.

Publications: The responsibilities of corporate communication and public relations include preparation of corporate and promotional videos, as well as preparation and publishing of in-house magazines, publicity pamphlets, and corporate brochures etc.

Relationship between Corporate communication and Public relations

Functions of corporate communication and public relations are comparatively the same, though the objectives and tactics of both are different and even conflicting. While corporate communication adheres to the complicated by-laws of compliance in both internal and external communication, promoting the integrity of the organization with very little room for creativity, public relations, on the other hand, creatively promotes the favourable image of the organization to the public. Further, while they are very different, both types of communication play pivotal role in the success of the organization.

Corporate communication is important primarily since it creates (i) positive and favourable public perception about the organization, (ii) is effective and efficient path of communication, (iii) reflects strong corporate culture, corporate identity, and corporate philosophy, and (iv) creates genuine sense of corporate citizenship.

Corporate communication builds a healthy organizational environment. In the organization information is to be disseminated by the specialists and generalists to a variety of people besides sharing information with the employees, stakeholders, media and customers. Corporate communication creates and maintains the brand and looks after the organizational reputation. It projects the organizational brand within and beyond the organization. It ensures a liaison between an organization and external world. These days, it is used as a tool (i) to project a positive corporate image, (ii) to build strong relationships with stakeholders, and (iii) to inform the public about new products and achievements.