HARLOW’S PUBLIC RELATIONS DEFINITION AND WHAT IT IS

Rex Harlow, considered by many in the public relations world as one of the best things to happen to the profession defines

Public relations as the distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance and cooperation between an organization and its publics; involves the management of problems or issues; helps management to keep informed on and responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and sound and ethical communication as its principal tools. (CCB, p.4, Harlow)

Critiquing and relating this definition to what public relations is all about, words such as distinctive, management function, establish, maintain, and mutual will be interrogated in the perspective of Public relations..

As per the definition, the word distinctive goes to give credence to the fact that Public relations even though correlates with other fields, it stands out because its core and nature is like no other of the allied professions.

Public relations as a management function as in Harlow’s definition and any other public relations template shows that public relations should be embedded in the management of a company without hindrance from any bureaucracy whether internal or external. The public relations department should have direct input in the management of the company.

Picking on “establish and maintain”; These  words lay importance to the fact that public relations people need to create relationships and go on to keep them intact for the benefit of the organization and its publics which is a mutual stand.

Zooming into what public relations is all about, it is the conscious creation of a mutually beneficial relationship between an organization and its publics for a two way continuous flow of information.