Chapter Four

This chapters focus was on community relations and how public relations role can play in it. According to the book, "a community is a social organism made up of all the interactions among the residents and the organizations with which they identify." Such examples of what a community can take pride in could be its sports team, its scenery, and/or its reputation. Communities require positive interrelations among all members in order to function smoothly and efficiently such as an organization would.

The approach more taken by employers now is to apply what they have as an organization to the community where it operates. "Community relations (CR), as a public relations function, is an institution's planned, active, and continuing participation within a community to maintain and enhance its environment to the benefit of both the institution and the community." The needs of a community as a desirable place to live and work can be placed in categories such as desirable work, prospect of growth/new opportunities, and appropriate housing and public services.

Public relations is involved in 9 ways of a community's relationship to an organization:

1. Issuing news of interest to the community and providing top officials of the organization with information on the status of community relations
2. Representing the organization in all sorts of volunteer activities
3. Giving donations or raising funds
4. Allowing use of facilities and equipment to community groups
5. Function as the organization's intermediary with local governmental, civic, educational, and ad hoc groups concerned with reform, social problems, and celebrations
6. Planing and helping to implement special events
7. preparing ads or position papers aimed at residents or local government as needed
8. Preparing publications for resident groups
9. Planning/conducting open houses/tours

CR can be the core of public relations programming because it sets the tone of what an organization stands for through their actions (behavior). Organizations are driven by 2 factors:

1. Instant communication, encompassing rapid information networks that go far beyond news media data gathering. It has the capacity to capture and transmit home behavior far and wide.
2. Global competition and the "global village" have created interest in such information, at least by competitors, activist, government agencies, and others who have reason to broadcast it.

Organizations need three strategic levels to plan. They must be guarding against negative acts (defensive), be proactive by leading in positive acts that appeal to key publics, and find ways to retain relationships with publics not in their "key" publics but still be able to influence a company's reputation by forthright expression of their perceptions of it (maintenance).

There are two types of programing emerging.

• The first is standard. CR involves basic, arm's length, "good corporate citizen" activities that reach out such as talks to key groups on vital topics to the organization, invite in such as open houses and tours, create awareness such as having official reps to all important community groups, and let facilities be used such as programs around holidays.
• The second type of CR involves becoming part of the fabric of the community by placing people throughout its planning and decision-making networks by having an ambassador program, have regular opinion leader briefings/idea exchanging, setting up local CR advisory boards, employee volunteer programs, community research, projects that take the needs seen by the key publics, and have expertise availability.
• Another consideration is the involvement of spouse, family, and retiree participation. Organizations who involve them usually report expanded impact and widen networking. Feedback banks capture what is heard and observed from opinion leaders and community members in a formal way.

CR are planned, organized, and systematized through community programs. There should be 5 considerations in this.

1. Who is being targeted? (Groups, behaviors that need motivation, activities to achieve it, info that needs to be gathered)
2. Does your reputation follow well? (if improving is needed partner up with a "positive" projecting org to build yours up, or if established well then projects you can own offer more benefits and visibility without dilution)
3. Should a program be based within the organization or be outside? On-site or off-site?
4. How will the organization get credit? (Employees be able to do some volunteer work while on the clock?)
5. What design will reach opinion leaders?

Turning employees into ambassadors within the community is an effective way to be known, spread goodwill, and develop relationships. Employee ambassadors can be used to build solid CR programs in 4 ways:

1. Using speakers bureaus to get info out to local opinion leaders
2. Employee participation in volunteer or outreach programs
3. Direct opinion leader contacts, sharing news and gathering insight and feedback
4. Sponsored memberships (Employees are designated to belong to and attend a specific group's activities on behalf of the organization)

EXS:

1. This chapter reminds me of the movie Erin Brockovich where the company does not take responsibility of the health problems surrounding communities go under because of their undesirable actions. The company, or organization, developed programs to cover up the water incident and buy the housing surrounding the company. They were eventually caught and tried in the court. This is a case of bad community relations. They lied to their community when they trusted them.

2. Communities, especially small, usually identify themselves with sports. I know in my hometown they cherish our football. Walmart actually helps the community (and themselves) by selling the infamous "Mighty Tarpons" T-shirt. I see this as CR by implementing a key interest of the community into their store value.

3. The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. They are highly involved by the community through a diverse amount of professionals coming together through a common interest. Their programs are nation-wide and continue to grow. They work with local schools and have strong ties within the community to spread awareness and gain credibility. They have a successful relationship with their communities.

Chapter Three

Chapter three focuses mainly on employee relations. Such things for employers to keep in mind would be to encourage their employees to think about the company and their work in it and then make suggestions to improve their foundation. The book and I agree that sometimes employers forget about the delight a customer can have depends on the employee satisfaction.

The role public relations plays is done in 4 phases of an employee's work experience:

1. The start: such as info kits, recruitment programs, advertising, etc.

2. On-the-job working conditions: such as feedback systems, trainings, complaint sessions, surveying attitudes, etc.

3. Rewards and Recognition: such as award programs, employee parties, wage increases/bonuses, education events, etc.

4. Work stoppage or termination: such as layoff/boycott programs, a retiree publication, projects to help laid-off employees relocate, etc.

In order for employee relations to be effective, employees must be told information regarding their jobs first, tell the bad along with the good news, provide timelines to stick to and help employers become more reliable of a source. Employees must also be informed on subjects they feel is most important such as organizational plans for the future and job advancement opportunities. The employers should also use the media that employees trust. Such media could be immediate supervisors, small group meetings, top executives giving the info to them, and large group meetings. Employees have surveyed that hearing information regarding their job or the company in general is communicated through the grapevine. This type of communication is the most used yet told by employees is the least favored way to receive information. Employees want to hear from their immediate or frontline supervisor over a grapevine.

In all, Employees are preferred to communicate directly with the supervisors of their company. Employers are set in their positions to manage the company and push it forward toward the greater good of it. Employees are set there to help in the success of the company and play out the plan that was set by the employers. An employee/employer relationship needs to build on trust and communication. Productivity of employees are likely to increase rather than decrease when a effective relationship is constructed.

Chapter Two

In chapter 2, the emphasis is mainly on what public relations is, the types of reactions people can take such as proactive or reactive mode, the process of public relations, different models and behavior.

Public relations is something everyone has that fosters the improvement of public relationships through specific activities and policies. It is the cornerstone of a democratic society.

There are two main approaches: Proactive and Reactive

• In a reactive mode, which many companies operate through will wait for events such as public criticism, emergencies, or bad publicity to occur before they act.
• In a proactive mode, a company tries to prevent such events as above by their readiness to take advantage of opportunities in order to keep problems from arising.

The best preparation that will make a difference in responsiveness involves:

1. Understanding the business, operations, culture, and goals of the client/organization.
2. Learning the publics of that client/org in order to succeed.
3. Gathering the information together in a strategic plan with the ability to understand.

The 4-step PR process (called RACE):

Step 1: Research

It is the responsibility of the practitioner to gather all the information needed to create and build a plan that is reasonable and effective. They need to be able to determine how the stakeholders view the company's current situation and what their understanding/perceptions are in their position or behavior.

Step 2: Analysis and Planning