Public Relations have two major functions that work together to facilitate an organization with the communication that goes out to their various publics. Organizational functions are functions that promote the company from within while societal functions mainly benefit the company externally. Overall, each aspect of public relations intertwines organizational and societal functions but in a general sense, the two functions can be looked at separately.
The organizational functions of public relations are the activities that occur within the organization and the benefits that the organization receives mainly come from within. Some examples of the organizational functions of public relations include employee relations and communications management. Both employee relations and communications management have impacts external to the organization but for the most part, the impacts occur within the organization.
Employee relations are those communications that occur between administration and their employees. Many times employees and administration have difficulty communicating with one another. For this reason, good organizations stress ongoing managerial training to assist managers and senior administration with communicating with their staff. The public relations department can measure employee satisfaction using employee surveys, communicate the goals and mission of the organization during employee meetings, and use flyers within the organization for announcements. Treating the employee well and having satisfied employees will benefit the company externally as well. One example of the employee/employer relationship hurting the organization externally can be seen in school districts. When the teachers are consistently overwo ...