LESSON - 6: INTERNAL & EXTERNAL PUBLICS OF ORGANISATION & IMPORTANCE

B A (JMC) (3-YDC), SEMESTER SYSTEM

SEMESTER –IV

SEC III: PUBLIC RELATIONS AND EVENT MANAGEMENT

Unit -1: PUBLIC RELATIONS

LESSON - 6: INTERNAL & EXTERNAL PUBLICS OF ORGANISATION & IMPORTANCE

Objectives:

Differentiate general public and concerned publics

Identify and segregate targeted publics

Know about internal publics

Know about external publics

Understand the need and importance of PR publics

Introduction:

PR practitioners communicate with different groups of people. It is necessary therefore to identify concerned publics from among the general public and then choose the strategy and media to reach them effectively.

Community means the people around and outside the organisation or its location; Opinion Leaders that command influence, such as the politicians, bureaucrats, social workers and others; Media that includes Print, Electronic and Social media; Employees who work for the organisation from the top management level to the lowest workers; Potential employees means those who work for rival organisations; Suppliers of raw material and services; Customers and users of present, past and future; Traders i.e. distributors, wholesalers, dealers, agents etc and Financial contacts such as Bankers, shareholders, investors, brokers and insurers are all the publics. This list is a basic list, but for any one organisation, there will always be a special list of all the groups of people with whom the organisation does or should communicate.

These specified groups of people are called target publics or concerned publics or simply PR Publics with whom the organisation needs to communicate because general public is a myth in public relations practice.

PR Publics

Public Relations and Publics are inseparable. Without publics there cannot be any public relations. To be precise, “publics” means a group of people who share a common interest, characteristic or behavior. For example, a company might have different publics they are trying to reach with their marketing efforts, such as customers, investors, or employees. On the other hand, “public” refers to the general population or society as a whole. To lump together entire population of India under the umbrella of “public” is to misconstrue and oversimplify the term. For convenience, PR practitioners prefer to segmentise publics into broad, general groups. These are referred as employees, stockholders, customers etc. In short, “a public may be defined as any group of people tied together, however loosely, by some common bond of interest or concern”.

In PR parlance, publics are divided into two categories – External and Internal. External publics are those outside an organisation that have some relationship to the organisation and can have widespread impact on its functioning. Internal publics are those which an organisation most closely relates to one that shares the institutional identity.

Organisation and its publics

An organization is an entity such as a company, an institution, or an association. There are a variety of organizations, including corporations, governments, non-governmental organizations, political organizations, international organizations, charities, not-for-profit corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, and educational institutions etc. Each organisation will have its own publics. As mentioned earlier, the nature of an organisation usually dictates its publics and one can draw some major distinctions applied to the nature of organisations and its publics.

1.    Organisation with similar goals and purposes have similar publics. For instance, every daily newspaper in the country sustains itself by attracting readers and advertisers, hence reading and advertising publics are basic publics for daily newspapers.

2.    The unique nature of an organisation can often make its publics different from organisations which seem similar to it. For instance, all colleges exist for the purpose of educating students, but some college admit only women like the Kasthurba Gandhi College for Women and some offer co-education while some draw students from the entire country like IGNOU or any Open University.

3.    As organisations change in nature and purpose, so do their publics. For instance, if a textile manufacturing firm which hitherto produced only cloth switches over to readymade garments, the nature of its publics also changes from cloth stores to readymade garment stores.

4.    It should also be noted that there are publics within publics and many of them are hidden from you. As issues arise which affect them, these latent publics begin to stir, surface and organise. For instance, booksellers are the immediate public for a college. But the people who supply paper to these booksellers form a latent public i.e. the public hidden from the view. Suddenly, due to government policy there may be a crisis in the paper industry. These paper merchants may then create problems for the booksellers and therefore for the colleges indirectly.

5.    Similarly, public utilities like Municipalities, Water supply boards, Power distribution companies, Railways, Airlines, Road Transport Corporations, Industrial establishments, Business houses, Hospitals will have their own publics.

Identification of publics

Public is ever changing and virtually infinite in number. Also, the multiplicity of publics can cause internal conflicts as different publics have different interests and needs. These conflicts cannot be easily resolved. For example, the employees as a public are interested in knowing more about an organisation, its personnel policies, wage policies, incentives for the work force etc. The customers want to know the product range, quality of products, prices, after sales service etc. What is true of the divergence of interests among these two publics, such as employees and customers, is also true of other publics.

The PR practitioner must carefully identify each public pertinent to a particular project and determine other publics that might affect it. To achieve this, the PR practitioner will have to undertake research to find out who these publics are, what they think and what they want in order to communicate appropriate messages effectively. Also, PR should not assign importance to major public alone. While it must gauge the majority opinion, it must also consider the view point of the smaller or minor publics. Sometimes, the public relations practitioner has to study the emotional and behavioural characteristics that define each group. The identification and segmentation of publics is an important step to effective and meaningful communication. Having identified internal and external publics, let us list them out.

Internal Publics

1.    Management/Board of Directors: Management is the administration of organizations, whether they are a business, a non-profit organization, or a government body. It is management of employees, resources of businesses, governments, and other organizations. According to George R Terry, “Management is a distinct process consisting of planning, organising, actuating and controlling, utilising in each both science and art and followed in order to accomplish pre-determined objectives.” Peter Drucker says “Management is a multipurpose organ that manages a business and manages managers and manages workers and work”. According to FW Taylor “Management is the art of knowing what you want to do and then seeing that they do it in the best and the cheapest way”. In this context, management as internal public of an organisation means the Board of Directors occupying higher management positions that take policy decisions and manage everything related to that organisation including employees. Individuals in the management hierarchy are reckoned as internal public.

2.    Employees/Workers: Joseph Juran, the management consultant says that “Organisations have both internal and external customers and that internal customers have a direct link to a positive external customer experience.” The internal customer plays a strategic role in the achievement of high quality standards throughout the organisation. Employees are the individuals employed by the management for work either in production or service and are paid for their work. They may work in a full time on regular basis or on contract or outsourcing basis or on a part-time. They can be permanent or temporary. Employees first and Customers next. Employees are the ambassadors of the organisation. Employees are the assets beyond balance sheets etc are the statements indicating the importance of employees. Employees or Workers of the organisation are internal publics.

3.    Shareholders/Stockholders: A stockholder or shareholder is someone who owns shares of a Corporation. Shareholders are a part of stakeholders of a company. If stakeholders are those who have some interest in the organisation such as employees, consumers, suppliers, government etc the shareholders represent those who have purchased shares. In fact, shareholders are the owners of the company. Shareholders meet once a year in an Annual General Meeting of the company. The Annual Report is the key publication that gives information about the performance of the organisation, balance sheet, profit and loss account etc. It is essential to keep the shareholders aware of financial aspects of the company which will make them active partners in the functioning. Thus, these people form part of internal publics.

4.    Dealers: An individual or a business concern involved in the activities of buying goods and then selling it off from their stock is known as Dealer. In simple, a dealer is someone who deals in the trading of a particular product. The dealer is the middleman between the distributor of goods and the consumer. They are the authorized seller of those commodities in the particular area. A dealer can attract the customers of another dealer or a different area. In this way, there is a fierce competition between various dealers and they have to behave nicely with customers to retain them for a long time. The dealer sells goods of competing brands. He realizes a profit, by selling the goods at a price higher than what he paid for the commodity when he purchased it. Dealers are thus internal public.

5.    Distributors: The distributor is an intermediary between the producer of the products and its dealers. They are the one who is responsible for supplying the goods in the market. He acts as an agent, in a way that they have a direct contact with the manufacturing entities. He purchases goods from those entities and sells the commodities on their behalf to various other parties. Distributors are appointed and authorized by the companies to sell their products in a particular area. Except the distributor, no other person has the right to sell that product in the specified area, so he is the only source for retailers and dealers to purchase that product. Distributors buy the products from the company in bulk and sell them in small lots to other businesses and stores. They offer some services to the customers like after sales services, replacement service, technical support, etc. Distributors belong to internal public category.

6.    Marketing personnel/Sales representatives: Sales representatives are responsible for selling a company's products by identifying leads, educating prospective buyers on products through calls, trainings, and presentations, and providing existing customers with exceptional support. Sales representatives are either inside or outside sales reps. Inside sales reps sell products over the phone and online, while outside sales reps sell products through face-to-face meetings. Sales reps span almost every industry. Marketing staff and Sales representatives are internal public.

7.    Trade Unions: A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees etc. The union representatives in the workforce are usually made up of workplace volunteers who are often appointed by members through internal democratic elections. The trade union bargains with the employer on behalf of its members, and negotiates labour contracts with employers. Unions may organize a particular section of skilled or unskilled workers, a cross-section of workers from various trades or organize all workers within a particular industry. The agreements negotiated by a union are binding on the employees and the employer. Trade Unions or Labour Unions or Officers Forums or Employees Associations are meant for the welfare of employees and thus belong to internal public category.

8.    Volunteers: Volunteers are the individuals who dedicate themselves for a service without expecting anything in return. Volunteering with an NGO allows individuals to align their efforts with a specific cause. NGOs are often dedicated to addressing pressing social issues, such as education, healthcare, environment, and poverty alleviation etc. This focused approach enables volunteers to make a meaningful impact in areas that resonate with their values. These volunteers are internal public.

External Public

1.    Customers/Consumers: A customer is an individual or business that purchases another company's goods or services. Customers are important because they drive revenues. Without them, businesses can neither survive nor thrive. All businesses compete with other companies to attract customers, either by aggressively advertising their products, by lowering prices to expand their customer bases, or by developing unique products and experiences that customers love. Customer and Consumer are generally used interchangeably. However, there is a slight difference between customer and consumer. Primarily, a Customer is a client whereas the Consumer is the ultimate user of the goods. According to Mahatma Gandhi, “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” That is the importance of a customer. Therefore, this category falls under external public.

2.    Stakeholders: A stakeholder is someone who has an interest in a business. A stakeholder is a party that has a stake and can either affect or be affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its customers and suppliers. However, with the increasing attention on corporate social responsibility, the concept has been extended to include communities, governments and trade associations. Stakeholders can be internal or external to an organization. Internal stakeholders are people whose interest in a company comes through a direct relationship, such as employment, ownership, or investment. External stakeholders are those who do not directly work with the company but are affected somehow by the actions and outcomes of the business. Suppliers, creditors and communities are all considered external stakeholders. This group belong to external publics.

3.    Suppliers: A supplier is a person or business that provides a product or service to another entity. Suppliers act as intermediaries and bridge the gap between manufacturers and retailers by offering the raw materials, products, or services. The relationship between a business and its suppliers is symbiotic. Businesses rely on suppliers for the necessary inputs for their products or services, and suppliers depend on businesses to purchase their offerings. This interdependence forms the basis of the supplier-customer relationship. Suppliers belong the category of external public.

4.    Retailers: Retailers are the mediators between wholesaler and customers. They purchase goods from the wholesaler and sell them to the ultimate customers in small quantity. Retailers offer a wide variety of goods and are in direct communication with a large chain of suppliers, giving them an opportunity to manufacture and develop more sustainable goods. A retailer does not manufacture any product they sell, but they are the final link in the distribution chain and the one who connects and delivers the goods and services directly to the customers. These retailers also belong to the category of external publics.

5.    Bureaucrats/Government officials: Government attempts to shape the business practices directly and indirectly, implementing rules and regulations. Govt influences organizations by establishing regulations, laws, and rules that dictate what organizations can and cannot do. To implement legislation, the government generally creates special agencies to monitor and control various aspects of business activity. Governments sometimes take an indirect approach to shaping the activities of business organizations through their agencies. Therefore, maintaining cordial relations with the Govt employees by the Organisations is necessary.

6.    Elected representatives/Nominated non-officials: In a representative democracy, elected representatives represent their constituent public in the law or policy making bodies like Gram Panchayats, Mandal Parishads, Zilla Parishads, Nagar Panchayats, Municipalities, Legislative Assemblies, Parliament. They are called Sarpanches, MPTCs, ZPTCs, ZP Chairpersons, MLAs, MLCs & MPs. Govt also nominate non-officials to hold the positions in some public utilities and corporations as Chairpersons and Directors. These people wield a great influence in the Society as well as Government. It is always good for the organisations to keep them in good books.

7.    Media: Print and Electronic media are the mass media of communication. Media relations is a form of public relations. The goal of media relations is to educate the media like newspapers, radio, television, and other forms of journalism to report on a company’s objectives, accomplishments and also periodical events. Although media relations and public relations are sometimes used interchangeably, they are distinctly different. PR entails communication to multiple channels and, ultimately, consumer and business targets. It is necessary for PR or CC Departments to maintain good relations with the reporters and representatives of media houses. Media is an important segment of external publics.

8.    Competitors: A Competitor is a person, business, team, or organization that competes against a company. If somebody is trying to beat in a race, that person is the competitor. In business, we call a close competitor a rival. In other words, rivals are the same size and make similar products. If two companies are leaders in their field, we refer to them as competitors and arch rivals. Closely watching the competitors and their employees is a must for any business.

9.    Investors: An investor is any person or an entity who commits capital with the expectation of receiving financial returns. Investors rely on different financial instruments to earn a rate of return and accomplish important financial objectives or merely accumulating additional wealth. A wide variety of investment methods exist to accomplish goals, including stocks, bonds, commodities, mutual funds, etc. Investors typically generate returns by deploying capital as either equity or debt investments. Maintaining relations with Investors both present and prospective is important for any business and hence investors form part of external public segment.

10. Bankers/Creditors/Financial Institutions: Financial institutions play an important role in the overall development of the country. The Govt of India, in order to provide adequate supply of credit to various sectors of the economy, has evolved a well-developed structure of financial institutions in the country. These institutions have long been providing a variety of financial products and services to fulfill the diverse needs of various sectors. Besides providing mid-term loans at reasonable rates of interest these financial institutions subscribe to the debenture issues of companies, underwrite public issue of shares, guarantee loans etc. There are 12 public sector banks, 22 private sector banks, 11 scheduled small finance banks, 3 scheduled payments banks, 43 scheduled regional rural banks and 46 scheduled foreign banks in India. Also there are 12 major financial institutions like IDBI, SIDBI, LIC, HDFC etc and several investing financial institutions

11. Local community organisations/Public groups: Community organization or community based organization aim at making desired improvements to a community's social health, well-being, and overall functioning. Community organization occurs in geographically, psychosocially, culturally, spiritually, and digitally bounded communities. It is a commonly used model for organizing community within community projects, neighborhoods, organizations, voluntary associations, localities, and social networks, which may operate as ways to mobilize around geography, shared space, shared experience, interest, need, and concern.

12. Trade Associations: A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association participates in activities such as advertising, education, publishing, lobbying, and political donations, but its focus is collaboration between companies. Trade associations may offer other services, such as setting industry standards, holding networking or charitable events, or offering classes or educational materials. Many associations are non-profit organizations. 

Importance of PR publics

Internal publics are the first and foremost because, they provide service to the public. Human resource alone makes everything move. These publics are the manpower in the organisation. Also coming in this category are people and establishments living/or operating in and around the vicinity of the organisation. All management disciplines perform their assigned role, through the organisation’s manpower, upgradation of skills and overall human resource development is vital for the organisation. The staff morale has to be kept high so that they perform well. Then good work needs to be publicised through the mass media, first to recognise their work and then to tell the outside world that the organisation is staffed by excellent human resource which is an asset for any organisation.

Public Relations or Corporate Communication has to have continuous interface with HR and other Departments to gather information about performance of men and machines, make it usable or publishable and get it across to the people through the mass media – print, electronic, web, IT new media, social media and so on. Such a wide and sustained projection helps boost the morale of employees’ families who in their own way contribute to the satisfaction level of the employers. Some of the organisations bring out house journals, newsletters, e-magazines, corporate and unit films and also use media for video conferencing to keep the top management and the employees together as contributors to the organisation’s progress. PR has the responsibility to inform, educate and motivate employees.

External publics are very vast as explained earlier.  These publics are vital for the organisation. PR or CC reaches out to these publics through many media. Each communication from PR or CC has to be tailor-made. For example, for reaching out to peoples’ representatives, the organisation has to select very vital aspects and the organisation’s performance, challenges and problems so as to elicit their cooperation and muster their support. Similarly, for reaching out to the present and prospective customers, users and investors, PR has to devise different strategies and media so as to communicate in an effective manner.

Summary                    

Every organisation, business or service will have to identify and segregate the concerned publics into two categories i.e. internal public and external public in order to communicate with them because general public is a myth in the practice of public relations. There is no strict compartmentalization between categories of public but PR publics are identified and broadly divided into internal and external publics. Board of Directors, Employees, Shareholders, Stockholders, Dealers, Distributors, Marketing Personnel, Sales Representatives, Trade Unions, Employees Associations, Volunteers etc are identified as internal publics. Customers, Consumers, Bankers, Stakeholders, Suppliers, Retailers, Media, Govt officials, Elected Representatives, Competitors, Investors, Financial institutions, Local Community leaders, Trade Associations etc are identified as external publics. Together, both internal and external publics are called specified publics or targeted publics or concerned publics and become PR publics of the organisation. It is important to establish meaningful connection and maintain relationship with these segmented publics for a two-way communication and for seeking their favorable opinion towards the goods and services of the organisation and also for its survival.

FAQs

1.     Describe general public and PR publics

2.     How do you identify and segment publics of an organisation?

3.     Briefly explain internal public

4.     Tell about external public

5.     How do PR or CC Department reach out to publics and why? 

Model Answers

1. General public constitute the entire population of India. General public is a myth in the practice of public relations, because an organisation need not communicate with the total population. Therefore, every organisation will identify and segregate publics related to it for communication and for maintaining relations. These people are variously called as targeted public, segmented public, concerned public or specified public and PR publics. These publics are broadly divided into two categories i.e. internal public and external public.
2. Identification and segmentation of PR publics is an important exercise of every organisation. It is needed for establishing and maintaining relations with them and for communicating with them. Identification and segmentation of public into internal and external is the exercise of PR / CC Department in consultation with the Management of the Organisation. Internal public are those who are directly involved in the organisation. They produce goods and extend services for consumption by the external public as well as general public. External public are those who are indirectly connected yet play a key role for existence of the organisation.
3. The nature of an organisation usually dictates its publics. The products and services of a business entity decides the publics of that entity.  Internal publics are Board of Directors, Employees, Shareholders, Stockholders, Dealers, Distributors, Marketing Personnel, Sales Representatives, Trade Unions, Employees Associations, Volunteers etc. Public are ever-changing in nature. Sometimes, some categories of segmented publics serve the purpose of both internal and external depending on the circumstances.

4.    The size of external publics is usually bigger than internal publics. They are Customers, Consumers, Bankers, Stakeholders, Suppliers, Retailers, Media, Govt officials, Elected Representatives, Competitors, Investors, Financial institutions, Local Community leaders, Trade Associations etc are identified as external publics. The organisation finds support as well as market for its goods and services in the arena of external publics.

5.    PR or CC Department of an organisation communicate with internal and external publics through print, electronic, web, IT new media, social media and so on. Organisations bring out excellent house journals, newsletters, e-magazines, corporate and unit films and also use media for video conferencing to keep the top management and the rank and file of employees together as contributors to the organisation’s progress. To communicate with external publics, a medium that is suitable to the context or a media mix is adopted.  PR has the responsibility to inform, educate and motivate its targeted publics.

Multiple Choice Questions

1.      Public Relations or Corporate Communication is concerned with _________

a.       General public

b.      External public

c.       Internal public

d.      Internal and external publics

2.      Employees fall in the category of _________

a.    External public

b.    General public

c.    None

d.    Internal public

3.      Public Relations and Publics are __________

           a.  Different

b.    Separable

c.    Inseparable

d.    Divisible

4.      Customer is the purpose of business, said ___________

a.       Peter Drucker

b.      MK Gandhi

c.       FW Taylor

d.      Joseph Juran

5.      Shareholders of an Organisation meet in __________

a.    Board Meetings

b.    Executive Committee Meetings

c.    Annual General Meetings

d.    All the above meetings

 Keys to Multiple Choice Questions: 1. (d)  2. (d)  3. (c)  4. (b) 5. (c)

Glossary

Public: Ordinary people in general; the general public

Internal public: The people that work for the organisation and directly related to it.

External public: The people that are outside the organisation yet connected to it.

PR Public: Public with whom PR or CC Department will establish relationship and two-way communication.

Media: Communication channels viz Print, Electronic, Web, IT new Medium and Social Media

Organisation: An entity such as a company, an institution, or an association

Key Words:

Publics, Internal, External, Organisation, Management, Employees, Customers, Media, Shareholders, Stakeholders, Stockholders

Y. BABJI

Academic Counsellor, Public Relations (since 1989)

AP Open University/Dr BR Ambedkar Open University

Editor, Public Relations Voice