RACE Model (Research, Action Planning, Communication, Evaluation) Essay Example

an organization and an important characteristic of managers.

Strategic thinking must be a core competency of an organization, requiring that managers develop strategic insights to guide a company.There is no system, technique, or program that can help with the strategic planning process. The only necessary competency is sharp minds in touch with the situation. Successful business strategies result not from rigorous analysis but from a particular state of mind.

Strategic planning is concerned with what shall be done when it comes to an organization envisioning and developing the necessary procedures and operations to achieve their goal. The existence of a plan is recognized as an essential management tool and therefore, operating from a plan is an indication of strategic behavior.The role of public relations managers in the strategic decision-making process is to be boundary spanners between organization and environment. As members of the dominant coalition, they can perform a two-way function. That is, public relations managers communicate stakeholder views to senior managers and vice versa.

Introduction. Public relations is the management function that establishes and maintains a mutually beneficial relationship between an organization and the stakeholders on whom its success or failure depends (Cutlip, Center, and Broom 1985; Dozier and Broom 1995; Lindenmann et. al. 1997).

Grunig and Hunt (1984) and Grunig (1992) define public relations as the management of communication between an organization and its stakeholders. Studies on how Pubic Relations contributes to organizational effectiveness have been a central issue in public relations research ( Grunig 1992; Grunig, Grunig and Dozier 1995, 2002; Grunig and Huan (2000). Many public relations researchers have tried to develop standards for evaluating public relations effectiveness. However, there is no

consensus on what those standards are. Difficulties in measuring public relations effectiveness can be found in the characteristics of public relations.First, public relations activities have been largely confined to a low-level of techniques such as information production and distribution or media relations rather than as a primary function of an organization.

Further, Public Relations has been viewed as subservient activities to support other organizational functions such as marketing, personnel, or finance. Second, it has been viewed that public relations has no direct, tangible benefit to the organization. Third, on the whole, the worth of public relations has been discussed in terms of the social worth of public relations, the so-called social responsibilities of an organization.This view provides the basis for legitimization of public relations but does not provide the managerial basis. Such conceptual characteristics reflect difficulties in measuring public relations effectiveness in terms of a strategic management function. Despite these difficulties, many public relations researchers have agreed on the contribution of public relations to organizational effectiveness in terms of relationship and environmental scanning (Grunig, Grunig, and Dozier 2002; White and Dozier 1992; Dozier 1990).

Public Relations has value to an organization because it helps to build good long-term relationships with strategic publics through communication. Public Relations identifies strategic constituencies in the environment of the organization and builds and maintains relationship with these strategic publics through a variety of communication activities. Although credible relationship may not necessarily make money for the organization, poor relationship with strategic publics can be very costly. Good relationship contributes to such bottom-line factors as employee productivity, customer satisfaction, and stockholder investment.

When organizations make decisions, there must be an interaction with stakeholders because

the decision may affect the publics or because the publics may attempt to set the agenda for an organizational decision. Also, the organization needs supportive relationship with publics to implement decisions and achieve organizational goals (Grunig, Grunig, and Dozier 2002). The Race Model (Research, Action planning, Communication, Evaluation). Research Model. This was based at fund-raising models at public historically black colleges and universities.

This empirical study examined whether public historically Black colleges and universities predominantly practiced the press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical, two-way symmetrical or mixed motive models of fund raising. The findings reported the heavy usage of press agentry model of fund raising by advancement officers. The most interesting concept emerging from the research was the emergence of a mixed motive model of fund raising. The model describes the practice of fund raising in an adaptable and changing environment and incorporates asymmetrical and symmetrical tactics that describes the actual practice of fund raising.Action Planning Model.

This was based at a Leadership group that developed models for actions and strategies, for diversifying industries. The leadership of the public relations profession is stepping up its efforts to improve diversity within the industry. The survey process is currently underway. The content of the report is based on a summit of leaders of the member organizations last January, coupled with a recent compilation of resources that members and others could use to develop and grow their diversity effort.

PR Coalition is proud of the fact that it was able to bring together, for the first time, the industry’s top leaders to collaboratively address the vital issue of diversity. There were three areas that were identified as key elements for

improving ethnic and gender diversity in any organization: recruiting, mentoring and advocacy. While there were several specific recommendations for each area, it was recognized that they are interrelated and part of a process that can be adapted to meet the organization’s specific needs Recruiting: the first step in the process, it’s critical to make the recruiting of a more diverse workforce a top down commitment and an integrated effort supported by every part of the organization; • Mentoring: mentoring programs need support from top management who must lead by example. • Advocacy: The communication of the importance of diversity must begin with a business strategy that links to diversity and then helps facilitate the dialogue that will build understanding and strengthen workplace relationships.As part of the framework for the Summit, an excerpt from the Coalition’s working definition of diversity was presented by and it reads: “Diversity is not about exclusion, but about inclusion in all respects. It is not about taking away anyone’s position of power, but about building on everyone’s strengths for the future.

For the purposes of the Summit, the primary diversity issues are the importance of building alliances and generating outreach to increase the number of women and people of color within the upper ranks of the public relations industry. ”Communication Models. Information is being distributed, attained and accessed through new media technologies enabling instantaneous availability of information. This development is quite obviously going to impact how people communicate. It is the social tools of the new technologies, in particular virtual communities, which has facilitated new modes of real-world engagement, communication and collaboration. Therefore, how organizations communicate in both their internal and external

relationships will need to evolve with the technology, thus affecting the practice of public relations.

Terry Flew (2002, pp 38), defines a cultural approach to communication in that communication is understood not simply as the sending and receiving of messages (the transmission model of communication), but rather as a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired or transformed. It can be said that with virtual communities, the reality is the production of the communication occurring. Unlike conventional public forums where communication was dominated by the rhetoric of political debate, the issues, ideas and views being discussed gain their authority from personal experience.Therefore, the business of public relations is no longer just concerned with a one-way type of communication, but with two-way communication. The two-way concept emphasizes communication exchange, reciprocity and mutual understanding. The expanded concept includes organizational adjustment adding counseling management and taking corrective action to the role of public relations (Broom, Center and Cutlip, 2000).

Evaluation Models. It is increasingly acknowledged that the evaluation of public relations programmes requires a mix of techniques.A set of mutually consistent methodologies needs to be developed, from which practitioners can choose according to the circumstances. Public Relations evaluation, in fact, requires a more sophisticated analysis. As (Cutlip et al. ) note “The most common error in programme evaluation is substituting measures from one level for those at another level”.

The challenge is to establish and define the range of tools that will form the public relations professional’s future evaluation toolkit. Quantitative and qualitative methods should be used in combination and provide valuable insights into PR results.Public relations practitioners need to adopt a progressive, consecutive approach to measurement and

evaluation and develop the necessary skills for collecting data and conducting appropriate research. Standardizing evaluation methods remains a problematic issue in the industry, mainly due to the inability of PR practitioners and scholars to reach to an agreement on how it could be effectively applied. Evaluation is and will continue to be a hot topic in public relations theory and practice, until generally accepted ways are found to finally provide evidence of PR’s contribution to results.

Conclusion Despite strong evidence that public relations research produces more effective programs, many departments conduct little or no research. In one survey, 50 percent said they rarely or never budget for research (Gronstedt, 1997). The most common reasons for not conducting research include lack of funding, lack of training in research by public relations practitioners, and fear by practitioners that measurement research will show that they have not been successful with their programs.Of those organizations that do conduct research, the cost of research averages about 10 percent of the total budget (Williams, 2003). Public relations practitioners are often unaware that sources of secondary research are often readily available for little or no cost (Hon, 1998).

Secondary research involves examining data already available, including information from academic, trade and professional journals (Lindenmann, 2003, p. 3).