Relationship of Public Relations and CSR
Currently, Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved to become one of the crucial aspects that are being adopted by organizations and the government. The Corporate Social Responsibility is related to a company’s decisions which contributes to the outward growth of the firm along with enhancing the development of the community. The primary reason as to why Corporate Social Responsibility has become very essential for organizations is to effectively counteract the growing public skepticism that results from corporate wrongdoings. Corporate Social Responsibility can be defined as an approach of corporate governance whereby the individuals who are responsible for the smoothing running of an organization such as entrepreneurs, managers, and directors possess responsibilities of fulfilling their fiduciary duties towards the business owners and fulfilling analogous fiduciary duties that satisfy all the other involved stakeholders.
Public relations, on the other hand, is defined as a company’s notion to change the manner which it operates based on the concerns and interests of its stakeholders. Public relations is defined as the most desirable form of a two-way symmetrical communication. Among the public relations’ crucial roles is that it incorporates mechanisms that facilitate companies to determine and understand their stakeholders’ opportunities, issues, as well as interests. Public relations is termed as the vehicle that is effective in enlightening and sharing with the world some of the progress that is made by organizations that have successfully embraced both integrated and strategic nature of Corporate Social Responsibility. Thus, it is evident that these two areas are capable of working together for the profitability of the organization. This research paper seeks to conduct a deep analysis of the role of public relations in Corporate Social Responsibility.
The reason as to why Corporate Social Responsibility exists is to make sure that a company puts into practice the best measures in becoming responsible and contribute to the societies within which they operate in. In most companies, the public relations is tasked with the mandate of monitoring the relationships that exist between the firm and the external and the internal environments (Aksak, Ferguson and Duman, 2016, pp.79). When the correct Corporate Social Responsibility measures are practiced, the firm’s reputation and the image is boosted. This may range from changing the light bulbs with the aim of being environmentally friendly to the extent of supporting a local charity, and it may be considered to be a good start for a company to build on its image. The public relations’ responsibility is managing the two-way flow of communication between the society and an organization. When a company reaches out to the society, it is important that they address the community regarding their initiatives (Duman and Aksak, 2014, pp.863). This is where the public relations professional comes in since they are considered to be better in communicating the Corporate Social Responsibility plans. Public relations thus helps in informing the public how a firm is assisting the community, how it is working to ensure that it improves the employees’ lives, and how it is enhancing its eco-friendliness.
How PR Communicates CSR
An organization benefits when the public relations communicates the organization’s endeavors to the community. For instance, when often dealing with rivals in the industry, having an effective Corporate Social Responsibility plan can give a firm a better competitive advantage over its rivals (Davidson, 2016, pp.153). This is because the public is more willing to engage and respect a company that is concerned about the community’s well-being. Besides benefiting the consumers, Corporate Social Responsibility also benefits the organization itself. This is because it enhances employee morale, reduces employee turnover, and enhances the recruitment rates.
Originally, Corporate Social Responsibility was conceived as a way for organizations to impact positively on their stakeholders, staffs, the society, and the world. Some companies are still taking such intentions at heart while others have applies this to build on their reputation than to make a change. However, times have changed making it necessary for communications strategies such as the public relations to respond through authenticity (Du, et al., 2013, pp.159). In the current era, the customers and the staff are speaking through their values and their wallets. This shows that they are still concerned about cool features, including a great customer service. However, they are also concerned about what matters.
In every organization, trust is at stake, with companies faking news to go with their alternative facts. There can be intense pressure to have clear communications from spokespeople who can be trusted resulting in the discourse on environmental, social, as well as political issues. Engaging in the public relations strategy is effective in separating the engaging organizations and those that do not. Brands that practice successful public relations are transparent in their activities and they are clear in their words (Frandsen and Johansen, 2013, pp.211). When something is not working, they speak up. When benchmarks are established for change and the organizations fail to meet them, public relations facilitates communication to address why it was not achieved. Public relations thus enhances CSR communication by engaging the stakeholders, staffs, and the customers.
Publicity is regarded to be a crucial part of using Corporate Social Responsibility to win contracts. It is also true that customers want to purchase from businesses that they respect. Particularly, CSR is effective in targeting non-profit organizations, ethical firms, and the public sector. Public relations is important in publicizing a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility. Public relations ensure that the suppliers, the community, and the community are aware of what the company is doing (Fredriksson, Pallas and Wehmeier, 2013, pp.197). CSR is a good source of positive public relations and it lends itself to good news stories. For instance, an organization should aim at entering into business awards that are recognizant and help in promoting companies that excel with CSR projects such as Global Good Awards, International CSR Excellence Awards, and Guardian Sustainable Business Awards among others.
Addressing the challenge to minimize stakeholder skepticism involves putting into place measures to redefine public relations’ role in offering insights into devising and deploying Corporate Social Responsibility programs that would clearly resonate with the stakeholders. On that note, public relations contributes to Corporate Social Responsibility’s success by lightly handling initiatives until they gain momentum (Glavas and Godwin, 2013, pp.24). The public relation professionals ensure that the message they pass to the stakeholders is low-key as well as less promotional, basing their arguments on facts and transparency without any intentional omissions. The public professionals ensure that the Corporate Social Responsibility is successful by employing more controlled and interpersonal media that comprise of corporate websites and face-to-face promotional events to leverage the CSR activities, making them appear more relevant to the external stakeholders.
Importance of PR in CSR
Business leaders, as well as the consumers, demand that organizations should contribute more to the society. Public relations is crucial in playing a leading role to advocate and promote the contributions of an organization to the society. Some of the ways that public relations can lead the Corporate Social Responsibility efforts include: first is promoting volunteerism. Most of the organizations do not have a lot of capital to donate (Gregory and Halff, 2013, pp.421). However, through public relations, these companies can embed CSR into their foundation and convince the staffs to volunteer to assist the society or the non-profits organizations. Thus, the staffs end up developing a sense of pride by collaborating with the company to accomplish charitable work together. Second is by completing research and planning (Saeidi, et al., 2015, pp.346). Public relations’ first step is conducting social media habits’ audit as well as the audit of needed communications materials that comprise of facts sheets, articles, news releases, and biographies. This helps in creating a calendar of communications activities, which is essential in building CSR.
Public relations also ensures the success of CSR by employing media monitoring and measurement tools. This is helpful in monitoring sentiments towards certain topics. Through the public relations, monitoring reveals myths and the misperceptions associated with the CSR program as well as the primary messages that resonate with the stakeholders. The public relations also translates to CSR’s success since it aggressively publicizes an organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility activities (Hiller, 2013, pp.294). It mainly emphasizes on the charity, the cause, as well as the measurable impacts to eliminate the perception of being self-promotional. Nonetheless, organizations are being urged to demonstrate how they impact on the community. Public relations play this role by ensuring that there is effective, well-publicized Corporate Social Responsibility programs which are crucial in building the company’s goodwill, improve stakeholders’ value, and attract loyal clients (Sommerfeldt, 2013, pp.283) With increased attention and concern for Corporate Social Responsibility, the Public Relations department can be very effective in planning, leading, and publicizing an organization’s charitable efforts.
Public relations can be helpful in raising a company’s profile and improving its profile. If public relations is practiced well, it can be a cost-effective means of delivering a company’s message to a broader audience. Nonetheless, it is difficult guaranteeing success. Some of public relations advantages include: first, public relations is influential. There is an increased likelihood that audiences trust messages that come from a source which is objective rather than paid-for advertising messages (Johnston, 2014, pp.382). Public relations is among the most credible methods of promotions and t can be persuasive. Also, public relations is advantageous because it has a broad reach. This because a good news is likely to be picked by many other news outlets thus exposing an organization’s message to a wider audience (Tschopp and Nastanski, 2014, pp.153). Additionally, public relations is cost-effective. Compared to the paid for advertising media placement, public relations is an economical way of reaching out to a large audience, especially if it is done in-house.
How PR Contributes to CSR Success
Some of the disadvantages associated with public relations comprise of: first, there is no direct control. Unlike advertising, it is difficult to control how an organization is portrayed by the media, when the company’s message will appear, and where it will be placed. Additionally, there is no guarantee for results (Kent and Saffer, 2014, pp.573). A company may spend a lot of time speaking with journalists, taking suitable photographs, or writing press releases, but there is no guarantee that the company’s story is going to be published. This may translate to poor return on investment. Also, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of public relations activities. It is a bit easier to count media mentions as well as well as published stories, but it appears difficult to determine the effect this has on the company’s audience.
Basically, there are three primary roles that the public relations play in the context of CSR. Some people view PR to similar to CSR, others believe that public relations exist to assist in communicating the Corporate Social Responsibility outcome, while others consider public relations to be a middle ground whereby it operates as CSR’s strategic partner. However, it is likely that Corporate Social Responsibility grew out of public relations. With the absence of public relations, Corporate Social Responsibility would currently be struggling for a strategic and theoretical foundation (Khan, Muttakin and Siddiqui, 2013, pp.215). The only reason that Corporate Social Responsibility has a stand-alone business practice is due to the connotations which are linked to the term ‘public relation’. Such connotations are mostly pejorative and they do not involve the evolution of an organization and changing on the basis of the stakeholders’ preferences. Corporate Social Responsibility is aimed at ensuring that a company operates in a manner which is more in line with the needs and wants of the stakeholders (Kolk, 2016, pp.29). The Corporate Social Responsibility communication axis involves considering the stakeholders’ expressions and basing the business decisions on these expressions. Public relation is a combination of creativity and science that determines and informs the best stakeholder communication approach, thus enhancing CSR.
Public relations is an organization’s notion to change the manner which it operates based on the concerns and the interests of the stakeholders. This is also called a two-way symmetrical communication (Valentini, 2015, pp.174). Some of the public relations implications in Corporate Social Responsibility include: recognizing the organization-stakeholder communication symbiotic nature, effectively providing stakeholders with organizational information, counselling companies on the best way to adapt their operations to make sure that there is a positive stakeholder relationship, make sure best reputable decisions are made, and ensure there are reputational outcomes (Marquis and Qian, 2013, pp.133). Nonetheless, public relations ensures that there is interactive and learning-centered communication. This involves activities such as active listening to the stakeholders, recognizing the stakeholders’ issues, and enhancing the company’s knowledge of the needs and wants of the stakeholders as a result of such involvement.
Corporate CEO, as well as the governing boards, grapple with CSR’s accurate communication initiatives, along with increasing roles of the public relations professionals in Corporate Social Responsibility communication. The public relations professionals are adept at handling CSR programs’ complex communication (Yang and Taylor, 2014, pp.103). Some of the roles of the public relations professionals in the algorithm of Corporate Social Responsibility communications include the following: first is the public relations professional as a strategic communicator. These professionals have matured beyond the facets of publicity and press agents, rising to accepted positions such as strategic communication (Papasolomou, et al., 2014, pp.16). With the access to the Corporate Social Responsibility decision-making table, the public relations professionals offer effective insights into devising and actualizing a CSR program that is to resonate credibly with all the stakeholders. Second is the keen understanding of both the internal and the external stakeholders. As a public relations professional, they reside in a unique position that is characterized by rich knowledge of the involved stakeholders’ variable needs in CSR. Through sound research practices and principles, a public relations professional acts as a pivotal source of information regarding the how and what is to be communicated to the employees, investors, the marketplace, as well as the other primary stakeholders in a CSR program. Also, the public relations professional role is to act in transparency and corporate social reporting (Rao and Tilt, 2016, pp.334). If there is truth in the embedment of CSR into corporate communications strategy, it is the duty of the public relations professionals to avail a responsive platform to frequently asked questions regarding the corporate mission by maintaining consistency in communications.
How PR in CSR can either Make it or Break it
Conclusion
Corporate Social Responsibility has become an essential aspect of many organizations. Most of the international companies operate in countries that are faced with the challenge of corruption and poverty. It is the duty of organizations to actualize the Corporate Social Responsibility concept to make the lives of the society better than they found them. The main reasons why CSR is very essential is because it assists firms to understand the roles they play in the society, it creates awareness among individuals intending to start businesses or corporate bodies. However, for an organization to be successful in its CSR goals, it should adopt the public relations concept. Public relations is an important part of the society since it enhances communication between the organization and the community in a democratic society. Public relations plays a crucial role in an organization since it facilitates the free flow of information between the company and its stakeholders. Additionally, it communities the company’s initiatives to the society, and how the firm is working to ensure that the lives of its employees are improved.
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