Functions of Public Relations Paper

What are public relations? Several definitions have been adopted by businesses and organizations. Denny Griswold, who founded Public Relations News, claimed that public relations is a management function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies policy and procedures of an individual or organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance (Seitel, 2004). Within that definition of public relations are functions of public relations. Functions of public relations are grouped into two categories. The first category of public relations is organizational functions.

Organizational functions of public relations involve the activities that interact with the organization. The organizational function is mainly internal to the organization and focuses on the product and communication according to the policy of the organization. Communication management is a function of organizational management that the Boeing Company practices daily. For instance, at the Boeing Information Systems plant in Anaheim, Boeing has over 3000 employees working on many different parts of one product.

Boeing, Type 307, Stratoliner

DSC_8034 Second Dreamliner built for ANA

2nd Boeing 787 First Flight

One team may be working on the software development of the project, one team may be working on the hardware part of the product, and one team may be tracking cost and timeline schedules. In order to do this effectively, Boeing has systematic processes in place that must be followed to the letter. Each team manager will have its daily or weekly staff meeting to ensure compliance with product and policy. Management will have its weekly meeting to ensure each team is in sync with the performance processes. On a monthly basis, upper management will bring all the teams together as a whole to recognize what the teams are doing well and what the teams can do better to stay on course of meeting project deadlines, and sell-off dates.

Government affairs are another form of organizational communication.