Home Science: Class 12 (Book 2) — Chapter 14: Corporate Communication and Public Relations

• Understand the meaning, significance, and scope of Corporate Communication and Public Relations (PR).
• Comprehend the functions and skills required for corporate communication and public relations.
• Understand the areas and principles of PR activities.

Communication is as vital to modern organizations as basic needs are to individuals. Corporate Communication is defined as the set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external communications designed to create favorable starting points.

• Based on information dissemination by specialists and generalists.
• Concerned with people, organizational processes, activities, and media.

• Public Perception: A major variable for organizational success; defines respectability, position, and ultimate success.
• Primary Objective: Establish a positive perception in the eyes of all stakeholders ("controlling how the world sees you").
• Crisis Management: Public and employee reaction is defined by how a crisis is tackled and communicated, rather than just the event itself.
• Information Control: Ensuring stakeholders receive desired information through press releases, newsletters, and advertisements.

• Must be entrusted to effective, experienced executives.
• PR programs have diverse objectives: creating positive images, handling crises, motivating employees, creating product curiosity, and advertising.
• PR approaches include: press conferences, press releases, and promotional get-togethers.

• Corporate Communication: Creates efficient and effective avenues of communication with employees, consumers, investors, and other stakeholders locally and globally.
• Public Relations (PR): Both an art and a science; used across government, public, and private sectors.
• Arthur W. Page Quote: "The fundamental way of getting public approval is to deserve it."
• Code of Ethics: Crucial requirement to prevent PR professionals from being labeled as fixers or manipulators; prevents commercialization of insider knowledge.

• Builds a healthy organizational environment and ensures liaison with outside bodies.
• Projects and maintains the company's brand and reputation within and beyond the organization.
• Handles crisis control, global communications, and utilizes sophisticated communication tools.

1. Press Relations: Maintaining cordial relations with press at all levels; mutual interdependence between journalists (need news) and PR (needs publicity).
2. Advertising: Disseminating information and persuading consumers; PR decides budget and media selection.
3. Publications: Creating brochures, folders, pamphlets, circular letters, and in-house magazines with simplicity, clarity, and cost-effectiveness.
4. Other Media Coordination: Utilizing audio-visual media, films, exhibitions, hoardings, puppetry, folk-songs, and public speaking.
5. PR with Constituents: Liaison with local community, financial analysts, bankers, shareholders, potential investors, and internal employees.

• Tell the truth: Provide an accurate picture of the company's character, ideals, and practices.
• Prove it with action: Public perception is determined $90\%$ by what an organization does and $10\%$ by what it says.
• Listen to the customer: Understand public wants/needs; keep decision-makers informed of public reactions.
• Manage for tomorrow: Anticipate public reaction, eliminate difficulties, and generate goodwill.
• Conduct PR as if the whole company depends on it: Corporate relations is a management function; consider public impact of all strategies.
• Realise company's true character is expressed by its people: Every active or retired employee acts as an ambassador.
• Remain calm, patient, and good-humored: Consistent, reasoned attention to information; cool heads communicate best in a crisis.

• Internal Communication: Occurs between employer and employees; enhances morale, promotes transparency; flows vertically, horizontally, and diagonally; uses written (memos, house journals, posters) and oral media.
• External Communication: Occurs between organization and the outside world (government, customers, dealers, public); promotes goodwill and aids marketing; uses letters, annual reports, and in-house magazines.

• Listening Skills: Active process involving three parts: hearing (physical), understanding (cognitive processing), and responding (feedback/action).
• Interpersonal Skills: Ability to operate within business organizations through social communication; reduces conflicts and increases productivity.
• Negotiation Skills: Process to resolve unacceptable points between parties; requires preparation to achieve win-win outcomes.
• Presentation Skills: Communicating ideas to a group; requires content, structure (beginning, middle, end), packaging, and the human element.
• Rapport Establishment: Building trust and harmony; $93\%$ of communication is transmitted via body language/voice tone (analogue), while only $7\%$ is carried by words (digital).
• Effective Decision Making: Complex process involving human and material elements; prioritizing factors to balance efficiency, profit, and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Telephone Etiquette, Basic Writing, & Public Speaking: Essential for creating good impressions, writing emails/notes, and delivering speeches.
• Accent Neutralisation: Pronouncing words so that listeners from different cultural backgrounds can easily understand.
• Time Management: Principles and tools to increase efficiency, productivity, and reduce stress.
• Stress Management: Taking charge of thoughts, emotions, schedule, and environment to achieve a balanced life.

• ICT (Information and Communication Technologies): Umbrella term covering technical means for processing and communicating information, uniting IT and telecom.
• Scope of PR: Covers internal employer-employee communication, external stakeholder relations (NGOs, Government, media), and innovative media use.