43 2. The Public Information Model
UNIT 4 PUBLIC RELATIONS MODELS (THE MELVIN SHARPE’S MODEL)
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UNIT 4 PUBLIC RELATIONS MODELS (THE MELVIN SHARPE’S
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certain behavioural actions are necessary for good public relations as those behaviours lubricate relationships; and that communication is a tool for creating awareness of those actions.
The analysis of the personal or organisational behaviour of what it is that lubricates relationships for the achievement of long term stability resulted is what Sharpe calls the
‘five behavioural principles’ necessary for the performance of public relations. The interesting side to these five principles is that they are relevant not only for public relations purposes in an organisation but they are equally applicable in harmonising personal relationships with friends, a spouse, or an employer. They are all about social ethics and by extension organisational ethics. In the same ways in which the presence or absence of these behaviours harmonises or disharmonises interpersonal relationships, so do they in organisational and public relations situations.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Based on the assumptions of the Melvin Sharpe model, is it safe to say that anyone with good human relations qualities would be a good public relations practitioner? If not, what other qualities do you think are useful to an aspiring public relation person?
Sharpe thinks that adherence to these principles would serve the long range interest of the organisation rather than the immediate self-interests of its individual members. In this way, long term stability is possible. According to Sharpe, the behavioural principles that achieve harmonious public relationships and what they achieve are:
Honesty for credibility
Openness for consistency of actions for confidence Fairness for reciprocity
Continuous communication to prevent alienation and build relationships
Continuous image analysis for corrective adjustment in behaviour or communication.
We won’t take much time on this topic, but the crux of these five principles is that when they are imbibed at the micro level of inter human relationship, they engender smooth relations; and when adopted at the macro level of an organisation with its various publics, they achieve the same results or probably better ones. But we must note that it is not as simplistic at the corporate level as it sounds because here you are dealing with wide ranges of interests in the form of publics with different values, so what you regard as honesty may not be enough honesty to some of your publics. Again when you take the last behavioural principle of continuous image analysis, you find out that the way you analyse yourself will not be the same way your publics would analyse
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you. The result of this is that the corrective adjustments you make in behaviour or communication may not fit into their expectations.
These principles are depicted in a tabular format below. It provides a summary of the public relations principles, the reasons for their performance, the difficulty in achievement, the cost to public relations performance if the behavioural principle is not achieved or maintained.
Behavior Reason Difficulty Means of
Achievement
Cost to Public Relations Performance
if Not Achieved
Cost to Organization if
Not Achieved
Honesty Credibility New knowledge/
Social value change
Environmental research/
Continual self- analysis
Message rejection/
Ineffective communicatio n
Loss of internal
&external support
O p e n n e s s /
Consistency
Confidence Openness need is situational
Public opinion analysis/
Management commitment &
control
Message rejection/Mistr ust
High cost of ineffective
communication/Loss of internal &
external support
Fairness Reciprocity Concepts
differ/Basis must be communicated
Public opinion analysis/
Continuous self- evaluation of basis/
Willingness to adjust
Damaged relationships/
Communicatio n rejection
Loss of repeat sales/Govt.
Regulation/Punitive regulation/Loss of support/Increase d taxation/Loss of employee loyalty
C o n t i n u o u s
communicati on
Prevent alienation/
Build relationships
Overcoming communication roadblocks/
Maintenance of two-way communication
Continuous evaluation of communicatio n
effectiveness/
Strategic public relations planning
Communicatio ns
rejection/
Misinformatio n Uneducated audiences/lack of change adjustments
Increased cost of repairing
relationships/Time required in rebuilding
relationships/Loss of support for management goals/Target audience
self-interpretation of organizational messages
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Accurate image analysis
Corrective adjustment s
Achievement of accurate self- analysis/Manageme nt reluctance to change existing behavior
Continuous target public opinion analysis/
Corrective communicatio n
Ineffective public relations programs/Dep en den c e on one- way communicatio n
strategies/
Misinformatio n without awareness/Ima ge damage without knowledge
Expense of using ineffective communication or public relation strategies/Inadequa te
information upon which to base sound management decisions/Lack of full productivity potential/Unionizatio n
Melvin Sharpe’s Behavioral Theory Model for Public Relations
This model would be useful in helping management understand its role in achieving effective public relations and why good performance requires professional guidance.
It should also be useful in making management realise the cost to the organisation when there is a lack of public relations performance achievement.
4.0 CONCLUSION
As noted earlier, models provide a good basis for analysing several variables and issues in public relations as well as providing explanations for the differences between theory and reality. A proper grasp of the models discussed in this unit will equip you with the ability to analyse and provide explanations for several decisions, failures and success you may see in your public relations programmes.
5.0 SUMMARY
This unit has seen us through a very important aspect of the public relations: models of public relations. A model is a small-scale or miniature representation of something that serves as a guide in constructing the full scale version of that thing. We took off from basic communication models like the unidirectional model and the interactional model.
We also looked at the very important Hunt-Grunig models of public relations. Lastly we attempted to plug whatever holes there are in the Grunig model with the behavioural theory model for public relations.
6.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSESSMENT
Discuss the relevance of the Melvin Behavioural theory model of public relations in contemporary public relations practice.