Adding value to organizations: An examination of the role of senior public relations practitioners in Singapore

• Main Authors: YEO, Su Lin, Sriramesh, Krishnamurthy
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2005
• Subjects: Senior practitioner role; Roles research; Value of PR to organizations; PR in Singapore; Business
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4394
• Institution: Singapore Management University

A key characteristic of public relations excellence in organizations is ensuring that the senior public relations practitioner – the head of the communication function – has the competencies to enact the strategic role of a manager. It is only when the top communicator possesses strategic management knowledge and engages in managerial work with support from colleagues who are technically skilled in traditional craft work can public relations work be considered to be value-generating. This paper presents the findings of the examination of the role of senior public relations practitioners in organizations in Singapore. It also explores the importance of core communication activities to the role of top in-house communicators, examines the time they allocate to managerial and technical work, and assesses if the managerial role which the practitioners play adds value to organizations. Data collected from both in-depth interviews and self-reported log of daily activities showed that although top communicators in Singapore enjoy strategic reporting and unhindered access to senior management, it also revealed, paradoxically, senior management's mixed worldviews of public relations; and that Singapore's top in-house practitioners lack the strategic knowledge to enact the managerial role as they are too focused on technical work. The paper concludes with recommendations on how the level of public relations professionalism can be raised in Singapore, starting with the practitioners themselves having to be fully equipped with the relevant academic knowledge of what makes communication excellent