Suhtekorraldus Eesti äriettevõtetes
Date
2005
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The title of this thesis is “Public relations in Estonian private companies”. The main
presumption when making this research was that the role of the public relations
representative (PRR) is often very broadly and insufficiently defined in private
companies. Quite often the manager and the actual PRR see these duties and obligations
differently. My goal for this research was to look into how the PRR sees its role in the
company and how good is the communication between PRR and the management inside
the company. I also looked into how PRR´s and managers see the function of PR in
private companies in order to get a better understanding of the PR field in Estonia.
The sample contained representatives from ten companies in the Top100 most successful
companies according to Estonian business newspaper “Äripaev”. The main research
method was structured interview and questionnaire. Of the ten companies who
participated in this survey, five had PRR position and in other five the role had been
given to an official of another position. This made it easier to analyze the position, its use
and traditions for different companies.
Research showed that the majority of PRR’s were satisfied with the situation inside their
organization and did not think that there is sufficient need for change. Most companies
have a positive attitude towards using public relations personnel, that among the
companies who actually use PRR and the ones who don’t.
Although the companies who participated in this research had different structures, they
all had PRR represented in one form or another (some of them had actual PRR personnel
- others did not). The overall profile of a PRR is the following. PRR would respond
directly to company’s management. They are seen as professionals in their field, and are
asked to help with processing strategic decisions not just standard PRR responsibilities.
PRR personnel often think of themselves as inside and outside communications coordinators and image creators for the company. PRR´s who deal with strategic roles tie
the function with company success.
Quite often managers and PRR see similar aspects & functions of the field differently.
That can be negative for the company’s functioning and development. Different
expectations may bring the manager and PRR to a conflict.
The biggest conflict relating PRR to success concerns companies who do not have an
actual PRR person. The companies that had the role of the PRR given to an official of
another position, thought that having actual PRR person would not make the company
more successful, at the same time managers did not see it the same way. It raises two
questions. First, if the manager thinks highly about PR, why does PRR not agree and
underestimate his/her work. If the manager thinks high of PR and sees the connection
between public relations and company’s success why has not an actual PRR position
been established. At the same time we cannot forget that these characteristics only
describe companies who participated in this survey and should not be broadened to other
Estonian businesses.
This bachelor’s thesis is the second part of a more thorough research – the first part of it
was completed by Kaspar Jänes in the spring of 2004. It was called “Managers view of
PRR´s role in successful businesses”. This bachelor’s thesis shows how PRR functions
are being used in Estonian businesses and shows ways of doing more researches on this
area.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd, suhtekorraldus, suhtekorraldajad, äriettevõtted, ärijuhid