CHAPTER ONE

1.0         INTRODUCTION

Public relations is an important subsystem of an organisation and the effective practice of public relations is integrally bound to the health of an organisation. As such, it provides the avenue for the organisation to effectively monitor, interact and react with other key groups within the organisational environment. (Tenchs and Yeoman, 2006). Public relations is thought of as the communication and action on the part of an organisation that supports development and maintenance of mutually beneficial relationships between the organisation and the groups with which it is interdependent. The above, therefore, shows that public relations, as a subsystem within an organisation, plays an important, if not integral, part in ensuring that organisations meet their overall aims and objectives. Many organisations do not show public relations as an independent role. This view may be because of the multiple functions of public relations from events organising to marketing or service management. (Davis, 2004). However, public relations can contribute to the success of every function of the business, whether it be staff relations, marketing or even finance. No activity conducted by any organisation can succeed if understanding is lacking, which is why public relations relates to the total communication of any organisation, inside and outside.(Naidoo, 2007)

Public relations has been described as synonymous to marketing. Traditionally, public relations and marketing functioned separately and maintained separate departments in most organisations. However, the functions of public relations are becoming more confusing as the initial scanning of the environment has revealed that certain organisations have merged public relations with marketing. Whilst some organisations may view public relations as a separate entity, as opposed to marketing, others see these two functions as falling under a common umbrella. It is, therefore, evident that the boundaries between public relations and marketing are very blurred. As a result, in some organisations, one will not find public relations or a marketing department but rather a communications department that is responsible for both public relations and marketing functions.

Cutlip, Center, and Broom, 2000) maintain that since so many factors influence how public relations begins in organisations, public relations’ departments, in some organisations, have large numbers of staff and generous budgets even though the original motivations for their functions have long been forgotten and their mission is not clearly defined. Conversely, many, if not most, organisations reorganise the public relations functions, reduce the number of staff and try to do more with fewer people.