6: Internal & External Publics of Organisation and 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 behavioral 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 Labor 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
- Describe general public and PR Public.
- How do you identify and segment publics of an organisation?
- Briefly explain internal public
- Tell about external public
- How do PR or CC Department reach out to publics and why?
Model Answers
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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.
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Y. BABJI
Academic
Counsellor, Public Relations (since 1989)
AP
Open University/Dr BR Ambedkar Open University
Editor,
Public Relations Voice