An insider's outside view of public relations

Abstract

In this article, Bruce R. Barstow takes a candid look at public relations' position in the corporate firmament and suggests ways practitioners can insure their impact on the management function. Never has management needed public relations expertise more, Barstow notes. Today's managers increasingly are turning their attention to external publics, yet public relations staffs are underutilized by CEOs and line personnel, who perceive them as uninvolved in corporate issues, who characterize them as “risk avoiders,” and who believe their skills do not extend beyond party planning and brochure writing. To lift themselves out of a seemingly bottomless pit of misperceptions, Barstow suggests that public relations practitioners plan a different kind of career path—not ascending directly up the public relations ladder but by putting time in at the general executive level in order to move to top corporate communications posts.