ROLES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONALS/ PRACTITIONERS

Four major public relations roles describe much of the practice:

• Communication Technician
• Expert Prescriber
• Communication Facilitator
• Problem-solving Process Facilitator

These roles accurately explain the responsibilities of public relations practitioners within organisations

Communication Technician

Most practitioners enter the field as communication technicians. These entry-level practitioners are hired to write and edit employee newsletters, write news releases and feature stories, develop website content, deal with media contacts etc.

Practitioners in this role usually are not present when management defines problems and selects solutions. They are brought in later to produce the communication collaterals and implement the program, sometimes without full knowledge of either the original motivation or the intended results. Practitioners not only begin their careers in this role, but also spend much of their time in the technical aspects of communication.

Expert Prescriber

These practitioners are seen as authorities on public relations problems and solutions. They are consulted by top management of an organisation for public relations solutions in very difficult situations.

Expert practitioners define the problem, develop the program, and take full responsibility for its implementation. Public relations becomes compartmentalised and isolated from the mainstream of the enterprise.

Communication Facilitator

The communication facilitator role casts practitioners as sensitive listeners and information brokers. Communication facilitators serve as liaisons, interpreters, and mediators between an organisation and its publics.

They maintain two-way communication and facilitate exchange by removing barriers in relationships and by keeping channels of communication open. The goal is to provide both management and publics the information they need for making decisions of mutual interest. They find themselves acting as information sources and the official contacts between organisations and their publics. Communication facilitators occupy boundary-spanning roles and serve as links between organisations and publics.

Problem-solving Process Facilitator

Problem-solving process facilitators collaborate with other managers to define and solve problems. The problem-solving facilitator helps other managers think through organisational problems using a public relations perspective. They are invited to the management team because they have demonstrated their skill and value in helping other managers avoid and solve problems.

As a result, public relations thinking is factored into management decision making. Research on these four roles found that the communication technician role was distinct from the other three roles and that the latter three roles were highly correlated. Sometimes the latter three roles are combined into one role: Communication Manager

One of the major predictors of excellence was whether the role of the top public relations executive was a manager role or a technician role. Those in the management role are much more likely to have a positive impact on the organisation’s public relations practice