Chapter4

This is PR 11th Edition Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

Chapter 4

Stakeholders and Interactions


Objectives• To appreciate the similarities and distinctions among the public

relations terms; stakeholder, public and audience• To recognize and be able to identify and prioritize organizational

relationships• To understand how priority publics can be described nominatively,

demographically and psychographically• To develop sensitivity toward minority publics based on gender, age,

nationality, ethnicity, beliefs – value or faith-based• To be able to identify potential issues for the organization within and

among different individuals, groups or other types of communities that may create problems

• To understand the complexity of opinion formation and the fragility of public opinion


Stakeholders

• Another term for “publics”• Like stockholders, they have a vested

interest in an organization• But they may or may not own stock• Employees, suppliers, customers,

government, investors, local community, special interest groups

• Have expectations of organization and the organization is accountable to them


Publics

• More commonly used term than “stakeholder”

• Any group that has involvement with an organization: neighbors, customers, employees, competitors, government

• Publics and organizations have consequences on each other


Audience

• Not synonymous with “public”• Passive recipients of something: message,

performance, etc.


Public as an Active Audience

• Each person is a member of many definable, describable publics

• Members of a public share a common interest and have shared consequences on an organization

• External vs. internal publics


Target or Priority Publics/Stakeholders

• Any public singled out as the focal point for a public relations effort

• A definable audience for whom information and advertising are specifically prepared

• “General public” notion is a myth


Identifying Priority Publics/Stakeholders

• Public Vulnerability Impact Index• Key to proper prioritizing is research: Who

are they? What do they think?• Priority publics may also be primary publics,

depending on issue; a primary public can become a priority public


Describing Priority Publics/Stakeholders

• Nominatively: giving them a name– Stockholders– Neighborhood residents– Employees


Describing Priority Publics/Stakeholders (cont.)

• Demographically: statistical characteristics– Age– Gender– Education


Describing Priority Publics/Stakeholders (cont.)

• Psychographically: defining emotional and behavioral characteristics– Interests– Attitudes– Beliefs– Behavior


Prioritizing Publics/Stakeholders

• Demographics may be easy, but not very reliable

• Psychographics look at core personality traits, values, attitudes, lifestyles, so capture essence of people


VALS 2 Psychographic Casting

• Actualizers• Fulfillers• Believers• Achievers• Strivers• Experiencers• Makers• Strugglers


Roper Starch Worldwide

• Determined top 10 global values• Used these values to create six

psychographic categories


Cross-Referencing Data

• Best understanding of publics comes from cross-referencing data

• Demographics plus psychographics plus media characteristics plus media use


Employees as a Public

• Are important as organization’s “front line”• Have great credibility with outsiders• Are expected to have information only an

insider would have• Will respond with loyalty when made to feel

valued


Women as a Public

• Are majority of the world’s population, but a minority in terms of economic, social and political power

• An organization stands to lose a great deal if it is seen as abusing, ignoring women

• An organization has a great deal to gain if it treats this public fairly


Minorities as a Public

• Can be ethnic or religious groups• Can be physically present or represented

by a constituency abroad• While linked by religion or ethnicity, there is

a lack of homogeneity among religious and ethnic groups


Issues: identification

• Identifying issues is the first step in the process of monitoring an organization's socio-economic and political climate for developments that could have impact

• Helps foresee when opinion is likely to build around an incident

• Emergence of issue creates opportunity to avoid a crisis and engage in beneficial communication


Issues: management

• Sensing the problem: research• Defining the problem: setting priorities• Deriving solutions: selecting strategies• Implementing solutions• Evaluating outcomes


Mahon’s Issues Strategies

• Choose appropriate strategy depending on life cycle of issue

• Contain an emerging issue• Shape an issue that has media attention

and is on the public agenda• Cope with issues that face legislative,

regulatory or interest group action


Convincing Management to Address an Issue

• State the issue or problem specifically and describe specific effects

• Identify adversaries and friends• Develop a strategy that includes deciding

whether to take the initiative• Determine whether to involve coalitions or

go it alone


Issues and the Role of the PR Practitioner

• PR plays biggest role beyond role played by CEO

• Expected to know what is going on• Expected to bring facts and objectivity to

decision making• Not just a communicator but an intervener

and relationship builder


Image and Perception• A public’s perception of an organization is the

organization’s image in that public’s eyes• This perception/image is based on what the

organization says and does• This perception/image is often not the same for one

public as it is for another• Collective perceptions about an organization by its

various publics, based on what it says and does, constitute its image

• When external and internal publics share perceptions of what an institution is and should be, the institution’s image is likely to be cohesive because it is consistent


Probing an Image

• If the institution has an image, does it live up to it, or does it say one thing and do another?

• If the organization has an image, can employees “deliver” on it?

• When an image change is necessary, have employees been involved through participative management?

• If the company has no recognizable image, does this result in confusion, limited identification and disparate values?


Image and Corporate Culture• Culture comes from the top down, but every employee

contributes• Culture is set by the organization’s traditional communication

environment and new leaders are chosen who fit that mold• Culture determines or strongly influences an organization's

willingness to embrace change, promote innovation, tolerate dissent, encourage criticism, etc.

• Organizations with strong cultures may have a more cohesive image, but they tend to be less flexible or able to change

• Corporate culture is also shaped by its environment, its business and the primary societal culture of its employees


Priority Publics and Planning

• Require careful, specific identification of each priority public and its characteristics

• Require translation of this information into a sensitive understanding of needs

• Require studying such a public for its other relationships


Public Opinion

• Public opinion is what most people in a particular public think (collective opinion)

• It is the preferences expressed by a significant number of people on an issue of general importance


Hennessey’s Five Basic Elements of Public Opinion

• Public opinion must be focused on an issue• The public must consist of a recognizable group of

persons concerned with the issue• The opinions and nuances of opinion of every

member of the public are aggregated to form public opinion

• The opinion may be expressed in a variety of ways: printed or spoken words, symbols, etc.

• A group of persons is involved, large or small. The key is that their opinion must have a measurable effect.


Public Opinion

• Expresses beliefs not necessarily based on facts but on perceptions or evaluations

• Can be based on inaccurate, or a lack of accurate, information

• Is notably unstable, usually a “body temperature” at a particular moment in time


Measuring Public Opinion• It changes so often it can be influenced easily,

making measurement of it big business– Public opinion surveys: Roper Center for Public

Opinion Research• Some studies available free or at minimal cost from

academic or research institutions• Pollsters such as Harris, Gallup, etc. often release

their data through the news media• It is hard to capture: influenced by way questions

are asked, the very act of asking, the sensitivity of the subject, etc.


Public Opinion Research and PR

• Public opinion researchers: function is to know, measure, analyze, and weigh public opinion

• Public relations practitioners: function is to help people and organizations deal constructively with the force of public opinion

• PR practitioners must know the difference between information and opinion

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Chapter4