Discuss the Advisory and Counselling role of Public Relations.

Advisory and Counselling role of Public Relations (PR).

In an organization, the PR personnel are the eyes and ears of the policy-makers. They play an important role in shaping the management policy. They guide and counsel public policy formation. Administrators take the assistance and wise counsel of the skilled PR specialists in reshaping organization’s functioning and policies, to promote goodwill, and boost productivity.

Dr. Rex Harlow, a social scientist and well known PR practitioner, says “PR is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding acceptance and cooperation between an organization and its public informs the management of problems or issues helps management to keep informed on and responsive to public opinion, defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interests helps management to keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to anticipate trends and uses research and sound and ethical communication techniques as its principle tool”.

The PR personnel advises not only the top management but also the other departments and divisions in the organization. The PR does not make policies or basic operating decisions, but it bears a direct responsibility to identify and suggest the management right decisions and policies to assure the maintenance of a balanced PR perspective.

Having direct contacts with the line management executives, the top PR executive performs this role by sitting as a member bf the management’s top hierarchy. Without having such a position in the organization, he still has the responsibility to make recommendations through whatever oral or written channels available in the organization.

The PR counseling may be as simple as giving an advice about the best of making a public declaration of the organization’s action, for example, raise in bus fares of the public transport. It can be as complex as to recommending a change in the basic policy of the organization, like an automobile manufacturer setting up a factory. The success of the PR person’s performance of this function determines the success of the organization.