Determining the value of Public Relations to an Organisation: Beyond the “Excellence Approach”

The purpose of this research is to explore an alternative approach to determining how valuable the Public Relations (PR) function is to an organisation.

An online survey was carried out to identify how the current economic downturn was affecting the PR industry as whole, the purpose of which was to identify if the results would translate into it becoming a primary determinant of the importance, status or value of the PR function to an organisation. An interview was also carried out with a former President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations to further buttress the findings.

While a large majority of respondents perceived the economic crisis as having a negative impact on their organisation as a whole, it was not however, having a negative impact on their function within the same. Despite this show of resilience of the PR function, respondents did not consider it as being the ideal indicator of the perceived value of their function.

Festus Akinbusoye 2008