Abstract:
In this study, the landscape of public relations has been explored in terms of craft
and professional practices in Pakistan. The theoretical lenses of models and roles are
applied to reflect a comparative picture of the profession in public and private sector
organizations. The professional structure and competence of public relations departments
is examined by observing their relationship with the top management, their contribution
to different functions including strategic planning and decision-making, their prestige
within dominant coalition, their involvement with the activist groups and their expertise
level and usage patterns of models and roles.
This study is quantitative in method and survey instrument has been adopted. The
data are collected from highest ranks public relations practitioners heading public
relations departments in public and private sector organizations in Pakistan.
The results of this study specified that PR professionals in Pakistan consume all
four western models while performing their professional tasks. Press agentry model is the
first choice of the PR professional while two-way symmetrical model is least consumed
by PR professionals in Pakistan. Comparatively, one-way models are more practiced in
public sector and two-way model are most practice in private sector. Media relation role
is mostly employed and technician role is least employed by practitioners in Pakistan.
Manager role is more adopted by private sector practitioners as compare to public sector
practitioners in Pakistan. Technician role is more employed by public sector practitioners
as compare to private sector practitioners in Pakistan. Interesting findings of this study
was that private sector organizations in Pakistan give more importance and prestige to
public relations function as compare to public sector organizations. PR departments in
Pakistan are employing all four models to deal with the activist pressure as per their needs, requirements and expertise in each model usage. Two-way symmetrical model
with medium effect rate is the most useful against involving activist groups.
