Managing Corporate Reputation, Stakeholder Relations, and Corporate Social Responsibility Using Best Practice Public Relations Strategy: A Nigerian Perspective

Abstract

Studies have proven that the reputation of any organisation is an aftermath of a robust relationship between that organisation and its stakeholders. The relationships that exist between these stakeholders are also on the grounds of the interrelationship existing between the organisation and its publics and the social behaviour of the organisation and the stakeholders who are also the publics of an organisation thereafter. For this reason, an organisations’ reputation among its stakeholders is in accordance with the treatment the organisation gives its publics that translate into a corporate image and then to corporate reputation which on the whole informs the reputation the stakeholders would have later. The purpose of this paper is to identify the managerial role of managing corporate reputation, stakeholder relations, and corporate social responsibility of an organisation especially in Nigeria. The relationships that exist between these three key concepts; corporate reputation, stakeholder relations, and corporate social responsibility from a managerial perspective of corporate public relations strategies identifies and places organisations in the eyes of their publics as reputable. The study is relying on the postulation of the stakeholder theory which attempts to present a model that looks at who or what really is of essence. It hinges on the assumption that organisations, whether private or public, have an obligation to serve groups that constitutes into that organisation’s publics. Keywords: Social Responsibility, Corporate Reputation, Corporate Stakeholders, Public Relations.