Functions of Public Relations

During the 20th century, public relations steadily evolved into a structured profession based on the development of specializations. The structures of clients and agencies featured functions that resulted from the development of specialties. Today, we think of these specialties as functions. A function is a unique service, program, department, or job title.

Each function has its unique set of objectives and is designed to build, maintain, and repair relationships with specific markets, audiences, or publics. Some of the most typical functions are media relations, corporate communication, investor relations, issues management, community relations, employee relations, donor relations, strategic philanthropy, and government relations. Sometimes these functions stand alone as departments. They may fall under public relations or public affairs departments, and even the entire corporate communication effort today may be headed by a chief communication officer (CCO). The functions of public relations may be subordinate to other departments. An organization may place various public relations functions under the marketing department, such as publicity, promotion, integrated communication, integrated marketing communication, and marketing communication, which some agencies and companies call “MarCom.” 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, each function is developed because of the dynamics and challenges unique to each organization and its culture, which influence how it responds to internal and external stakeholders. 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 support all functions. The challenge of the professional personnel who work in support of each function is to provide a unique 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 could be strategically based on positioning in response to the 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 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.” Agencies may provide an investor relations service as one of their specialties. Some agencies only 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 agencies make no pretense of offering investor relations services because of the special requirements of that function.

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