Public Relations Roles Carried out by Practitioners in Zambia

Abstract

Ordinarily, public relations professionals can be identified as communication managers who organize and integrate communication activities, or as communication technicians who predominantly write and create messages. Studies in this field led to the identification of four specific roles: the technician role and three types of communication managers. This study sought to establish the specific roles public relations practitioners in Zambia are inclined to execute. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. Questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews were primary data collection techniques used while secondary data was collected using media content analysis. Fifty respondents from Lusaka and along the line of rail in Zambia from organizations consisting of service and manufacturing organizations, central and local government institutions, quasi-government organizations, and government agencies participated in the study. Informal interviews were also conducted with a number of public relations practitioners’ sampled using non-probability sampling, purposive sampling and snowball technique. The study established that the technician, manager, and strategist roles are performed and present in Zambia and Public Relations (PRs) managers double between the role of manager and technician with the latter most prominent in the practice much as the line between the two roles is indistinct. There is uncertainty regarding PR practitioners’ perspectives regarding their management role in terms of activities carried out.