CORPORATE PUBLIC RELATIONS,DEFINING THE PARAMETERS,Defining corporate public relations It is difficult to find a universally accepted definition of corporate public relations which defines the parameters of the function. corporate public relations is perhaps best understood as the umbrella function embracing the range of communications functions concerned with managing an organisations relationships with all strategically important stakeholder groups- those groups that might limit the autonomy of the organisation or who are affected by the organisations actions.,Such stakeholder groups may be quite diverse in nature but broadly include the following major groups: Customers Employees Investors/Financial community Relevant communities Suppliers Trade intermediaries/ Retailers Government /Regulators Here communication functions may be organised around each of these major groups.,Each of these stakeholder groups may hold differing expectations of a company/organisation and hence, judge an organisation according to differing criteria. Example Investors expect sound management and financial performance, whereas customers want reliable products and services and employees expect good work environments and to be treated fairly and honestly. Balancing these different demands can prove difficult, particularly in the short term. Example Investor demands may be incompatible with those of employees in terms of cost reduction vs. job security.,Equally organisations may have to prioritise which of these groups it needs to communicate with at different times or at least which it will devote the most attention to This may involve assessing which groups hold the greatest power and/or have the greatest interest in particular issues and who therefore require the greatest effort and conversely which can be given less attention or ignored.,Key Players,Keep Informed,Hardest to reach at a minimum Keep Satisfied,Interest Matrix,Level of Interest,High,Low,High,Low,Minimal Effort,Power,Confusion over Functional Titles Nowadays it is common to find a range of titles used to designate the corporate PR function; corporate affairs, public affairs, external affairs and increasingly- corporate communications. Indeed it is increasingly rare to find the term “corporate public relations” used as the functional title. This is largely due to the negative connotations often associated with the term “PR” which tends to be associated with the manipulation of the media, spin and tactical publicity work.,However, at least conceptually, public relations is the appropriate term to describe the range of communication activities concerned with managing relationships with an organisations publics. Authors such as Argenti (1998) see public relations as a largely tactical activity out of which more sophisticated corporate communications departments have grown since the 1970s in response to the more challenging environments in which organisations operate nowadays. Here Argenti associates PR primarily with media relations activity whereas he see corporate comms. as a strategic communication function.,Blauw (1994) defines corporate communications as; “ the integrated approach to all communication produced by an organisation, directed at all relevant groups” Jackson (1987) suggests; “Corporate communication is the total communication activity generated by a company to achieve its planned objectives” Corporate communication is an instrument of management by which all consciously used forms of internal and external communication are harmonised effectively to create a favourable basis for relationships with key target groups,van Riel (1992) suggest that corporate communication integrates three main forms of communication in organisations: Management communication: senior management communication with internal & external target groups Marketing communication: communication with target markets/customer groups Organisational communication: comprising public relations, investor relations, corporate advertising etc,Here the term “organisational communication” is used to refer to all forms of communications other than marketing communications - what public relations scholars would normally see as the domain of public relations and public affairs. Thus van Riel views public relations as a narrower sub-set of organisational communication van Riels argument is that the failure to integrate these communication function leads to a fragmentation of the messages communicated by the organisation and he argues that the total communication effort needs to be managed collectively to achieve a coherent communications policy.,Here van Riel emphasises the need to orchestrate all communication towards a coherent whole which he sees as directing a companys communications policies from within a corporate strategy- corporate identity corporate image triangle. He suggests that the communications specialisms jointly develop common starting points CSP from the chosen communi