Functions of Public Relations

During the 20th century, public relations steadily evolved into a structured professional practice based on the development and refinement of specializations. Today, we think of these specialties as functions. A function is a unique service, program, department, or job title; conceptualized through the logic of social science, a function is an independent variable that can produce specific outcomes (dependent variable) in contexts. As such, one such function, lobbying, is applied in the context of government relations, which itself is a specialty function, either of organizations or agencies.

Each function has its unique set of objectives; broadly, these are used to build, maintain, and repair relationships with specific markets, audiences, or publics. Typical functions include media relations, corporate communication, investor relations, issues management, community relations, employee relations, donor relations, strategic philanthropy, and government relations. How these are named, used, and organized depends on the management of each organization.

An organization may place public relations functions under the marketing function, such as publicity, promotion, integrated communication, integrated marketing communication, and marketing communication. Each function has the sense of being a specialty under the broad umbrella of departments with titles such as public relations or public affairs, or the functions may be positioned to support some other department such as marketing.

As a specialty activity, each function is developed because of the dynamics and challenges unique to each organization and its mission, vision, and culture. In contrast to organizations that have their own public relations functions, each agency is likely to position itself as specializing in key functions, or it may present itself as a full-service agency. By implication, a full-service agency can provide and support all functions. Agencies often find it makes sound business sense to specialize in one or a narrow cluster of functions that give it the opportunity to maximize its client service. The challenge of the professional personnel who work in support of each function is to provide their own unique strategic and tactical service—whether to their employer or as an agency bringing their resources to bear on clients’ needs.

As organized into a company (or other organization) or agency, each function may have specialty personnel and a dedicated budget. For instance, a large corporation may decide to have a strategic philanthropy function that is dedicated to issuing invitations for proposals for funding out of the corporate philanthropy pot of money—the money senior management dedicates to building community goodwill by funding nonprofit organizations. This function is likely to review the applicants to determine which are worthy and to also search for and investigate worthy groups that should be given funding as part of the company's strategic philanthropy.

The specific functions an organization employs or the specialties that are offered by each agency are positioned in response to unique dynamics of the environment where they operate. Some functions are a direct result of external requirements. Perhaps the most obvious of these is investor relations. Publicly traded companies are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to communicate with current or potential shareholders in a timely, public fashion so that investors can obtain the information they might want to make decisions to buy, sell, or hold shares of the company's stock. This function is generically called “investor relations.” Some agencies specialize in investor relations, because it requires unique knowledge of SEC regulations and must meet highly regulated challenges. This function requires careful coordination with legal and financial expertise relevant to the securities marketplace. Some [Page 372]agencies make no pretense of offering investor relations services because of the special requirements of that function.

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