Strategic Management in PR Practice (part 2)
by:
Charles Lamson
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The Organization's Reason for Being
Mission statements are the origin for what an organization wants to accomplish. Expressing what the organization sees as its reason and its role and place in society. Any organization's public relations efforts exist to support the overall mission of the organization For that reason any public relations department's development of an annual plan, either for the organization or for the PR department, has to start with the organization's mission statement or organizational purpose. The way the plan develops from there often depends on the nature of the organization, but the elements of the public relations plan remain the same ("This is PR: The Realities of Public Relations, 9th ed." by Doug Newsom, Judy VanSlyke Turk and Dean Kruckeberg; pg. 216).
One role of the public relations department is to assist with the evaluation of an organization's mission. This may include revising and rewriting, or perhaps conceptualizing and writing a mission statement. It must be done as part of PR's policy-making role as counsel to management (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 216)
Most organizations develop their mission statement early in their existence, but at least once every 3 to 5 years, the statement deserves a careful and systematic review by internal and special external publics. While calling for a mission statement review is the prerogative of top management, the PR department is responsible for organizing and planning the review. One outcome of a mission statement review is likely to be a rewritten or modified statement. Even if the mission statement is kept intact, internal publics and critical external publics must agree on this outcome of the review. The mission statement review is generally followed by a review of the long-range objectives by which the organization intends to implement the mission (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 216-217).
Mission statements set the tone for the organization, establish its character and define the parameters of its activities. They may be long philosophical commentaries on the nature of the enterprise or they may consist of one or two simple paragraphs (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 217).
In addition to the mission statement, organizations write vision statements - descriptions about themselves indicating their self-image. These vision statements are the way the organization wants its various publics to see them. Additionally some organizations have core value statements that suggest its ethics. Another statement you will find is an identifying statement that is objective in substance and just tells what the organization is and does. If you are watching public television you are likely to hear this identifying statement; "This is a public broadcast station, funded in part by viewers like you." You will find publicly held companies identity statements in their annual and quarterly reports, and in reports from analysts and brokers, when you inquire about the company's stock. Many organizations use these identifying statements as the last paragraph in news releases, knowing the copy editor will often delete the last sentence, but that sometimes it will appear. The idea is for repetition of this identification to help reinforce knowledge of the organization's role. Look for this in the last paragraph of stories about nonprofit organizations in your local newspaper (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 217).
All these public statements guide what the organization presents as what it wants to accomplish. The terms, goals and objectives are defined as synonyms in the dictionary but are not used interchangeably by organizations. The origins of using goals as long term and objectives as short term and measurable came from advertising, the widely used Colley DAGMAR process. You find this in advertisement managing texts (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 217).
Organizational management books are a little less clear on whether its goals or objectives that should be measured. The aspirations of individuals and different units of the organization are the collective from which organizational goals are agreed upon, set and achieved. The success of individuals and units is compared to how much each contributes to the organization's achievement of the tasks it has set for itself (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 217).
The objectives element came from revising a 1950s concept of "management by objectives" that mixed up the two terms. The 1980s revision includes the notion of setting goals that are worked toward as part of the process of arriving at some final assessment of accomplishment. While admitting that the terms are often used differently by different organizations, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has concluded that goals should come first with objectives following as a simplification for use of the terms in its accreditation examination. In either case, the subset is what must be measurable. Generally, long term efforts are the strategic ones while short term represents the tactics (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 217-218).
With the integration of advertising and public relations efforts on the rise, to keep out of the conflict, think about what you want to have happen in the long term and about the short-term efforts that will get you there. The long-term measurement is obvious. You either get there or you do not. However, how much you fall short has some qualities of measurement to it. Computer models often help organizations determine what the major contributing factors might be. Models are also useful in helping to determine what factors need to be considered in taking the steps to get there, because they can weigh different variables in different ways (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 218).
PR in Practice
When Johnson & Johnson turned up at the top of the heap in a 1999 article in The Wall Street Journal titled, "The Best Corporate Reputations in America," the company credited its mission statement "Our Credo," created in 1943 by chairman Robert Wood Johnson (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 218).
If you have read about the Tylenol crisis, then you know "Our Credo" was also cited as being what governed the company's response in picking up all of the product in a massive and costly recall. It is posted on the website and hangs in all corporate offices in 52 countries. At the corporate headquarters it is etched in an 8-foot high limestone carving. The Credo says: "We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services. In meeting their needs, everything we do must be of the highest quality" (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 216).
As The Wall Street Journal stated: in 1943, putting customers first and employees second was innovative. In an accompanying piece The Journal also cites "trust" and "reliability" as the major ingredients in building and keeping a good reputation (Newsom, Turk, Kruckeberg; pg. 216).
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