Lecture Seven, Week Seven - Thursday September 5

Issues Management and Issues Management and Strategic Planning Strategic Planning

PRL2001 PRL2001

Strategic PlanningStrategic Planning

Course Examiner - Elizabeth Dougall

Lecture 7, Week 7

Semester 2, 2002

2

ObjectivesObjectives

On completing the lectures, tutorials and readings for this week you should be able to:

Discuss strategy and strategic planning in relation to issues management;

Describe the relationship between public opinion and public policy and issues management;

Describe some of the theories relevant to issues management.

3

Strategy and Strategic Strategy and Strategic ThinkingThinking

“To be strategic, public relations must pass one basic test...Everything done must be aligned with the corporate vision or mission - the company’s reason for being - and must substantially contribute to achieving the organisation's objectives. Ideally, public relations should be part of the team helping to “create” the corporate mission and set the objectives.”

Philip J. Webster (1990, p. 18)

4


It makes little sense to...Conduct research, identify and segment

publics, develop and communicate messages, listen to feedback, stage events, send media releases and use other communication tools etc ... …if there is no strategic purpose upon which

these activities are founded.

5


Strategic management involves discovering the long-term goals of the

organisation making a series of decisions and allocating resources

...so that the organisation is steered toward those long-term goals.

6

StrategyStrategy and Strategic and Strategic ThinkingThinking

Operational management is doing things right (on a day-to-day basis).

Strategic management is doing the right things (over the longer term).

7

Strategy and Public RelationsStrategy and Public Relations

Strategy typically refers to the overall concept, approach, or general plan for the program designed to achieve a goal.

Tools or Tactics refer to the operational level: the actual events, media and methods used to implement the strategy.

8


Market and Public Policy Forces in Decision Making

For most organisations there are two processes by which decisions are made in the socio-political arena:1. the market system, and 2. the public policy system.

9


Market driven decisions primarily aim to adapt to changing market conditions and competitor initiatives.

Examples include: introducing a product/service; abandoning a product/service; targeting new markets for product/service; increasing quality of product service; downscaling quality of product/service diversifying operations;

10


Policy Driven Decisions - adapt to changing public policy conditions

that can affect market conditions and competitor activities.

Examples include: taking a public communications stance on key public issues; changing operations to adapt to public policy issues; changing missions to adapt to public policy issues; changing operating standards to adapt to public policy issues;

and changing product/service lines or mix to adapt to public policy

issues.

11


Issues management can help an organisation in several ways, by:

making it sensitive to socio political trends; avoiding being driven only by marketing and

operating philosophies; and integrating public policy concerns into the

organisation operating system

12

Strategic OpportunitiesStrategic Opportunities

Technological and Economic forecasting attempts to determine what innovations are likely to challenge the direction of the market.

Social monitoring looks for changes in values, lifestyles, and demographics that might affect its operating environment or marketing plan.

Public policy forecasting focuses on the legislation, regulatory agencies and special interest groups that may affect the operating environment.

13

Public OpinionPublic Opinion

A public is defined as :A group of people who:face a similar indeterminate situation;recognise what is indeterminate and

problematic within that situation; and organise to do something about the

problem.(Seitel 1989, p. 15)

14


What is “Public Interest”? …the aggregation, the weighing and balancing of a

number of special interests that allows the organisation to prioritise its actions to meet audience needs.

…a common or universal interest and concepts of value that are generally accepted in society.

…the organisation should attempt to meet the basic needs and wants of those who make up communities (corporate social responsibility).

15


Public Interest…involves the acceptance of the interests of

the majority to resolve differences.

If all people have had the chance to participate in the decision making than any outcome will be in the public interest.

16


Public issues are those that find their way into the public policy process because the extent of the problem forces some course of action to be taken to lessen the impact of the issue

17

Public OpinionPublic Opinion“The common interest in life largely eludes public

opinion entirely and can be managed only by a specialised class. I set no great store on what can be done by public opinion or the action of the masses. (Lippmann in Glasser and Salmon, p. 389)

“…public opinion no longer refers to opinions being expressed in the public and then recorded in the press. Public opinion is formed by the press and modelled by the public opinion industry and the apparatus of policy,” (Lippmann in Glasser and Salmon, p. 392)

18


Where an organisation does not seem to respond to the demand of public opinion it is left to government to fill the void and legislate policy that is in the best interests of the people.

In some cases it is public opinion and the

resulting policy that controls the viability of an organisation.

19


What is the relationship between public opinion and public policy?

“There are three major active forces in issue evolution: political elites, the general public, and the mass media,” (McLeod et al, 19 , p68).

“..efforts of a single individual are virtually meaningless to the macro electoral process because one person’s vote almost never determines an election outcome,” (McLeod et al, 19 , p55)

20

Theories to Explore in Issues Theories to Explore in Issues ManagementManagement

Social Judgement Theory People filter, distort, and ignore information that does

not confirm their attitudes, including those toward businesses. In other words, people who question the performance of private sector organisations willingly accept facts that confirm their predispositions.

Institutional Theory Firms are rewarded for developing internal structures

“isomorphic” (identical or similar to) with external institutional pressures i.e.. Organisations facing the same institutional environment will have similar structures.

21


Resource Dependence Theory

Two broad tenets:1.Organisations are constrained by, and depend on

other organisations that control critical resources for them and

2.Organisations attempt to manage uncertainty and their dependencies on external groups in order to acquire more autonomy and freedom

22


Greening and Gray (SR 6.1)- Proposed five (5) hypotheses in relation to issues management structural development:

High levels of firm-specific media exposure about issues will be positively related to issues management structural development;

High levels of interest group pressure will be positively related to issues management structural development;

The extent to which firms have experienced severe crises will be positively related to issues management structural development;

Size will be positively related to issues management structural development;

Top management commitment will be positively related to issues management structural development;

23

TodayToday

No Tutorials today.Very important lecture and tutorials next

week.

Lecture Seven, Week Seven - Thursday September 5

Business

Transcript of Lecture Seven, Week Seven - Thursday September 5