Public Relations: Concept and Practice
Author(s): J. M. Kaul
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 3, No. 35 (Aug. 31, 1968), pp. M61+M63
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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Public
Relations:
Concept
and
Practice
J M Kaul
The function of puablicrelations is to bring about an adjustment or understanding between the organisation concerned and those segm?ints of society or 'publics' with which maladjustments, arising from the
pluralistic nature of modern society, have occurred or are likely to occur.
Unlike propaganda or publicity, it not only tries to interpret an organisation to its 'publics' but also
the public mind to the organisation concerned.
Public relations activity is not limited to mass communication. There are many other ways of gaining
the goodwill of the community. Public relations is doing ninety per cent good and ten per cent talking
about it.
PUBLIC Relations is probably the
youngest of the world's professions.
How new it is can be imagined from
the fact that when the first full-length
book on public relations app.ared in
the USA in the early twenties, it was
greeted with the acid remark that there
was "no such profession unless it be a
self-instituted one". The first All-India
Public Relations Confeicence was held
as recently as April this ycar; the
profession in India is still trying to
find its identity.
A movement can take shape only
when the objective forces that can give
birth to it have matured in society.
The public relations movement is the
product of two factors, both of recent
origin. One is the emergence of public
opinion as a factor to be reckoned with,
a force that can make or mar an
organisation by making its weight felt
through the press, the legislature and
in many other ways. The other is the
collapse of the laissez-faire theory and
the realisation that private interest
must coincide or appear to coincide
with pub!ic good.
The function of public relations is to
bring about an adjustment or understanding between the organi-ation concerned and those segments of society or
"publics" with which maladjustments
arising from the pluralistic nature of
modern society have occurred or are
likely to occur. Unlike propaganda,
public relations is a two-way street: it
not only tries to internret an organisation to its publics but also the public
mind to the organisation concerned. In
case of maladjustment or misunderstanding, the task of public re'ations is
to analvse objectively the causes that
have given rise to it. The recults of the
analysis mav show that the misunderstanding is due to lack of adequate
information among the public in
which case the oublic relations man will
proceed to communicate the truth and
thus change the attitude of the public.
But he may also find that it is due to
certain mistaken nolicies or acts of the
organisation which he represents. In
the latter case he will endeavour to
change the policy or practice of the
organisation.
This is the point of departure from
propaganda or pub!icity. In a similar
situation the propaganda man can only
intensify his propaganda or at best try
a new technique. But he must go on
repeating the same message even if it
has been found to bz incorrect or inadequate. This difference elevates public relations to a dzpartment of the
social sciences and makes it necessary
that the public relations man should
not merely be versed in the art and
techniques of mass communication but
be something of a social scientist.
Attempts have been made to trace
the origins of public relations to the
earliest civilisations. The pyramid3,
obelisks, friezes and statues of ancient
Egypt, Babylonia and Persia are said to
be examples of public relations insofar as they were intended to project an
image of the rulers as gods. Reference
has been made to the oft-quoted Roman
saying vox populi vox dei to prove that
the Romans, too, believed in the importance of public relations. While
there is little room for doubt that,
from the beginning of recorded history
and perhaps even prior to it, human
beings, particularly their leaders or
chiefs, must have realised the importance of commun'cating with their
fellow-beings, their followers and other
groups within the th.zn existing society,
this form of pub!ic relations had as
much resemblance to the modern concept as witchcraft has to modem
medicine.
Public relations in the sen^e in which
we understand it is a product of the
twentieth century. Even as late as the
last quarter of the nineteenth century,
the attitude of the great industrial
barons of the United States, the country that gave birth to modern public
relations, was characterised by the remark believed to have been made by
the railroad king, William Vanderbilt"the public be damned". With the turn
of the century, the development of
mass communication, the growing
awareness amongst the people of their
rights, the rise of mass-circulated ncwspapers, brought abc'ut a change in the
situation. Writers like David Graham
Phillips, Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair
and Lincoln Steffens exposed through
their books and columns in popular
journals the unscrupulous methods
adopted by bu,ine-s tycoons. Men
started examining the institutions they
had built and suddenly realised that
they fell somewhat short of the assumed perfection. Public interest in the
doings of business and government was
roused and was not limited to these
spheres alone. Everything from po'itics
to journalism was exposed to continuous scrutiny and criticism. Leaders
of government and captains of industry alike realised that the public was a
force to be reckoncd with.
Th.: next great spurt of tho public relations movement came dur:ng
World War I when the importancc of
public opinion to the success of a
modern war effort was brought home
more effectively. The war of words was
no less a factor than the war of shells
in determining the final outcome and,
for the first time, a d2libcrate and systematic attempt to mould public
opinion on a massive scale was made.
The final push to the launching of
public relations as a full-fledged profession was given bv the Great Depression of 1929-33. The wrath of the
public turned against busine:smen who
were held responsible for the mess.
Business, too, began to realise that it
was not enough to sell its products; it
had to sell itself to the nublic to ensure
its survival and continued operations in
the face of increasingly critical and
vocal public oninon. The era of the
social responsibilities of business had
begun. The public insisted that private
business must be regarded as a public
trust. Indu3try also began to realise that
publicity intended to whitewash its sins
wou!d not be acceptable. The masces
were now alert and would not swallow
anything that was served out to them.
A chaiv-e in the attitude of the public
toward business could only be brought
about if business reformed itself. In a
M.61
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ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY
speech before the Association of
National Advertisers, the President of a
large US company enunciated the
philosophy that underlines modem
public relations:
"Too many manufacturers neglect
their corporate health and then
scream for the public relations herb
doctor . . . Any public relations wor-
tny of the name must start with the
business itself. Unless the business is
so organised and so administered
that it can meet at every point the
tes.t of oood citizenshin and of usefulness to the community, no amount
of public relations will avail."
A long road had to be travelled before the "public be damned" attitudz
gave place in the industrially-advanccd
Western countries to the attitude of
taking public response into consideration in the shaping of business policy.
No rccords of the exact origin of the
public relations movement in this
country are available but it appears that
it was a post-World War II development and was imported by us, as was
most modern technology. International
companies operating in India started
using these techniques and progressive
Indian companies soon realised its importance. It appears, too, that in India
it was first systematically practiscd in
the cast where many foreign firms had
their headquarters and which was also
the centre of heavy industry. The main
customers of heavy industry were
government undertakings like the railways and public sector projects or private firms. The public relations rather
than the advertising approach was obviously appropriate for an industry of
this tyne. Advertising, on the other
hand, developed most in the wzst
which was the centre of the consumer
goods industry.
Public
relations
institutes
and
socicties have now sprung up in most
of the advanced countries to regulate
and develop the practice of public relations. The need for this arose because
the sudden demand for PR men and
the dearth of a sufficient number of
experienced and responsible practitioners induced the appearance of a
number of unscrupulous people who
used auestionable methods to achieve
their ends. In some countries, the
question of licensing PR practitioners is
being considered and in one or two,
it seems, this has already br-gun.
In India, too, there are unfortunately pzople masquerading as PR men
who are in reality nothing more than
"lobbyists" or "fixers" who will for a
certain fee undertake to sccure licernces
or permits for business firms or expedite: the movement of their files
through government departments. It
-uas, therefore, natural that the main
stress in the recent Public Relations
Conference in Delhi, was on the adoption of a Code of Ethics.
The organisational set-up for the
practice of public relations in the proper sense of the term follows either of
two patterns. In some cases, the
organisation concerned sets un its own
departmental apparatus; in others, the
services of an outside PR counsel or
firm are requisitioned. There are of
ccurse some organisations which use
both thcse forms, i e, while maintaining
their own apparatus for day-to-day
work they also use outside PR counsel. In India while both are in existence, the main organisational pattern
is to have the work done departmentally. Thcre are, of course, a fcw PR
firms or counsellors but, unlike advertising agencies, they have yet to
acquire all-India stature.
The function of the nublIc relations
department or firm cr counsel is to
arouse and maintaln goodwill and public intere,t in the activities of the
organisation on whose behalf it or he
is functioning in order to facilitate the
successful operation and expansion of
tho3e activities.
The activities of the nublic relations
set-un are generally divided in various
subdepartments to look after relations
with the press, governtment and parliarment, employees and the public in
general. In Wes7terncountries, a branch
of public relations activity has developed which deals with shareholder re'ations and is aimed at securing the goodwill of the shareholders or getting their
accep-ance for specific pronlo-als that
the board of directors may have in
mind. Some public relations departments also make rescarches aimed at
evaluating the results of public relations activities.
Among the most important methods
of achieving the PR objectives of an
organisation is the planned and systematic use of media of mass communicaticon. Daily newsnapers, the financial
press, trade journals and other periodica1s are fed with news or articles of an
informative nature. House iournals or
internal newsletters are published for
internal communication.
Advertising is also one of the
means of communication adopted,
though it is only institutional advertising or advertising meant to popularise
or secure the acceptance of a concept
which falls under the categorv of public relations. Others forms of advertising meant to promote sale of products
Review of Management August 1968
is not really public relations, even
though in many firms it is the public
relations managcr who may handle both.
Public relations activity, however, is
not limited to mass communication.
There are other ways of gaining the
goodwill of the community. Many
organisations go in for community relations in a big way and, thus, earn the
respect of the public around. There are
others who make substantial contributions to scientific and industrial research
or to other social welfare projects.
Another method used is to publish or
sponsor the publication of books that
are of use to society. Many other
techniques have been or could be devised. The aim of all is the same: to
show the interest that an organisation
takes in the public good.
The principles underlying the practice of public relations on behalf of a
government or an association are very
much the s:mz. Th. objcct is to create
understandinggbetween the organisation
and the publics that have some4.hingto
do with it. Tho forms naturally vary,
depending, on the nature of the organisation on behalf of which the activity
is being conducted.
The difficulties that the profes:ion
exDeriences arise mainly from two factors. One is that even in organisations
which have accepted the need for public relations activitv, it is often not
apprecated that the public relations
department or counsel can only be an
aid to the top men of the organ.sation
in achieving their nublic relations objectives. Unless, therefore, the top
management itself takes an interest in
public re'ations activity, the derartment
may be reduced to the position of a
status symbol for the organisation and
nothing more. Second, the basic concept of public relations as a two-way
street is often forgotten or ignored in
practice. The nublic relations department or counsel should be provided
with opportunities to advise those concerned with the making of policy on
the stens need?d to imrrove the company image. If certain practic.s interferz with the task of securing integration between the organisation ano
the public, they must be revised.
It is in this last respect that considerable work has still to be done, especially in our country. The domain of
policy-making rcmains a jealously
guarded prcs-rve of a few who, even if
they formally accept it, are liable to
ianore the well-worn maxim that public relations is ninety per cent doing
good and ten per cent talking about it.
M-63
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