Employee Perception of Public Relations in Public Organisations and its Impact on PR Practice. A Study of the Forestry Commission Headquarters.

Abstract

Perceptions about Public Relations affect the perceived credibility of the profession and influence whether people see public relations as valuable to society. Credibility is the cornerstone attribute that public relations practitioners must possess if they have any hopes of influencing an audience’s perceptions or attitudes (Budd, 2000; Judd, 1989) In assessing these perceptions of employees, the study was focused on assessing employee perceptions of public relations practice in the Forestry Commission of Ghana. The study also sought to investigate employee perceptions of the influence and impacts of PR to the organization. The study adopted the mixed methods of data collection and triangulated the findings using graphs and Pie Chats. About 87 respondents were sampled and administered questionnaires whiles 8 other respondents with PR backgrounds were interviewed. The findings from the study revealed that almost all of the employees were aware of the presence of the existence and operation of the Public Relations unit of the organization. The findings indicate that while a few persons were not aware of the existence of the unit, the greater majority represented by 95 percent of the total respondent were aware there existed a functional PR unit in the organization which performed unique PR functions. The findings therefore indicate that the PR unit was well known amongst employees from other departments. The study further showed that for respondents who had some awareness of the functions of the PR unit, they considered media relations role as the most essential role performed by the department. This agrees to the hypothesis the researcher formed in the beginning of the research. Other employees also identified internal communication, crisis management and social media management as some of the top functions of the department. The study further found that employees considered the PR unit as an influential department in the organization. Thus close to all of the respondents believed that indeed, PR was influential in contributing to the overall performance of the organization. The study also found that factors such as lack of recognition and awareness of the functions of PR by top management members, lack of adequate finances, and consistent negative media reportage were the main challenges that the PR department of the Forestry Commission face.