PROBLEMS SOLVING STRATEGIES:Communicate results

<< PR AND RESEARCH:Unobtrusive Measures, Questionnaires For Survey

PERSUASION & COMMUNICATION THEORIES:Message Orientation >>

Fundamentals of Public Relations MCM 401

Lesson 34

PROBLEMS SOLVING STRATEGIES

Overview

As a public relations professional you must be able to comprehend as to what different phases can do to

solve various problems encountered by them. Moreover, students will also be apprised about the working of

management of public relations.

How Does The Management Of PR Work?

Basically there are two major and important ways to do this.

PR department's role as part of the management team to develop problem solving strategies for

entire organization.

Relates to PR department's own efforts to integrate & coordinate its work with that of the

organization.

PROBLEMS SOLVING STRATEGIES

BASIC FORMULA

OLDER FORMULA

R Research

A Action

O Objectives

C Communication

P Programming

E Evaluation

--John Marston

-- Jerry Hendrix

Problems Solving Strategies

In order to evolve problem solving strategies we have to determine a procedure to handle them but the

main question is Where do you start?

Assemble readily available facts.

Determine which publics are affected or involved.

Decide if additional research is needed to define problems & evaluate its scope.

Where do you go from here?

Formulate a hypothesis, assemble facts to test the hypothesis & revise if hypothesis is disproved.

Elements to consider in this planning:

Fundamentals of Public Relations MCM 401

What is objective of PR effort What specifically do you want to accomplish? (be

able to state this in concrete terms).

What image of company you want to project?

What publics are targets & why?

Who Are Other Audiences Whose Opinions Matter?

What message do you have for each public?

What media can you use to carry these messages?

What response do you want from each audience?

What budget can you use for this regular allocated budget or a special fund?

What is the best timing for action?

Review problems or obstacles that might arise & make contingency plans for these.

Build in monitoring devices to know; how are you doing?

Once It Is All Over--

It is important to find out how to know what happened!

Plan for evaluation.

Evaluate all aspects :

Impact : Informational, attitudinal & behavioral.

Output : Media efforts & results.

Communicate results.

In Brief!

Find the central core of difficulty.

Check your total list of publics involved in the problem.

Determine the problem's status in terms of potential harm to the organization.

List the related difficulties to be considered.

Explore the alternatives.

List the desired objectives.

See how the solution fits into the long range plans which are shaped to what you see as the

Mission.

What are the immediate plans & how do these fit with long range plans?

Short term solutions that do not fit with long range objectives & are not consonant with "mission

statement" are wrong. Don't do them - Start over

Fundamentals of Public Relations MCM 401

Procedure For Handling Problem Internally.

Detail the plan & submit to the policy executive for approval.

Get approval in writing.

Keep all people directly involved informed on continuing basis throughout the move toward

solving the public relations problem.

Intervening Situations. Some Barriers.

But all said and done despite all best intentions and efforts there can still be certain situations like the ones

mentioned below which could prove a hindrance

Information you don't know.

Effects of the way you look at the problem.

Limitations faced by you. (restrictions on the choices the situation offers)

Your personal limitations. (or management's)

Problems associated with upsetting the equilibrium of organization or of others.

Table of Contents: