PUBLIC RELATIONS AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING PUBLIC POLICY IMPLEMENTATION. A STUDY OF IDEMILII NORTH LGA

ABSTRACT:This study examined public relations as a tool for enhancing public policy implementation. The study subjects consist of a limited number of sampling units, which represent the target population of the Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambara State. Public relations is the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization to earn public understanding and acceptance. A sample of 168 staffs was selected from the population using simple random sampling technique method. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources presented in tables and analyzed using percentages and frequencies. Hypotheses were formulated and tested using Chi square method. It was discovered among other things that, effective practice of public relations will lead to enhanced public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area, it was also revealed that there are no factors hindering public relation practice in enhancing public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area, the study further revealed that Qualified and competent public relations managers being are not used by the policy makers in executing Public Relation strategies in Idemili North Local Government Area. Following the above findings, the researcher has recommended that Public relations managers should constantly embark on research in order to understand current public sentiments regarding the policies of the government. Public opinion is not always static; it shifts, depending on prevailing circumstances. Where public sentiments are discovered to be negative, public relations can advise management on how best to correct such impressions. The study also recommended that Public Relations departments/units should also be well funded, to enable PROs discharge their duties effectively and professionally.

AN OVERVIEW OF PUBLIC RELATIONS AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING PUBLIC POLICY IMPLEMENTATION. A STUDY OF IDEMILII NORTH LGA

• CHAPTER ONE
  • Introduction
    • Background of the Study

  Public relations describe any form of communication which is aimed at bringing about goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. As a planned communication, it concerns every organisation, whether commercial or non-commercial, government inclusive. This is because; every organisation needs to create a favourable image for itself before its internal and external publics for successful operation (Asemah, 2011).

  The recognition and acceptance of public relations as a vital communication tool in the hands of all organisations in all modern societies cannot be overemphasised. Public relations is a management function in human organisation, which helps in establishing a favourable relationship between an organisation and its publics. The import of this is that, every organisation, be it commercial or non commercial, government or non-governmental, has certain goals to achieve; such goals may be long term or short term, ranging from increase in sales, expansion, customer satisfaction, innovation, fighting competition, diversification and increase in the numbers of customers. Effective coordination of activities will be needed to achieve these goals and objectives. Public relations, which is a management function becomes handy in facilitating effective communication of organisational goals and objectives. The public relations department in any human organisation handles various activities, which include: conflict resolution or crisis management, internal or employee relations, community relations, promotions, media relations, environmental scanning and sponsorship programmes (Asemah, 2009).

  According to Yaroson (2007) public relations is acknowledged to be very vital to the survival of organisations, institutions and individuals. Through its multifaceted functions of evaluating attitudes and executing actions, it eliminates suspicion and friction thereby, providing bridges of understanding upon which goodwill reigns between an organisation and the public that deal with it. As a planned communication, public relations is capable of redeeming an organisation’s image (however poor an organisation finds itself) and in its place, restore confidence, goodwill and mutual understanding and patronage that every organisation needs for survival. Since public relations is all about creating mutual understanding through action, information and communication, as well as, knowledge management, the imperative of every organisation seeking to maintain mutual understanding with its teeming publics for harmonious coexistence can no longer be overemphasised. This is because, when properly harnessed, public relations can assist organisations to achieve their objectives; it can be used to positively influence the attitudes of both, internal and external publics. Through public relations, an organisation can win the favour of the public and this will in turn; bring about the achievement of set aims and objectives (Jacdomi, 2010).

  Public Relations (PR) is not a recent profession. It has existed since 1890 when Lloyd George used it to explain the new old age pension. The First World War also employed a lot of public relation activities through the establishment of information services and ministries of information for the purpose of publicity (Puri, 1995). Government public relations practice in Nigeria has been in transition since its inception in the early 1940s. From its rudimentary and/or embryonic form to its modern phases, public relations till date has not assumed a particular or sustained status in government or best practices of the concept practiced in governance. What seemed to have prevailed over the years is an admixture of models promoting pernicious propaganda, and application of press agentry, public information model and oftentimes two-way asymmetrical communication. There has also been deliberate subversion of the tenets of public relations and brazenly enthronement of nonsensical and commonsensical derivatives or understandings of public relations by those who man the saddles of Public Relations Units in government agencies, parastatals and institutions (Okoye, 2013).

  According to Shamsan & Otieno (2015) Increasing globalization, alongside the rapid development of media and technology, has resulted in a situation that nobody could accurately predict. The internet has become a primary channel for publics to get together in cyberspace for communication; it has given the population opportunities to speak out. All the same, this electronic sounding-board has become a good place to detect problems and issues as soon as they arise. For example when clients have a problem, they may go to the organization’s web site to complain or look for chartrooms and discussion groups to converse with other people who have similar complaints and issues. Advances in technology have brought the world closer together and hastened communication. Consequently, organizations need to communicate faster than ever with a growing number of audiences.

  Organizations including public Organizations have been increasingly aware of the importance of understanding what is going on in their environment, about established public policies. They employ various methods for gathering this information such as monitoring news media or conducting surveys. However, these forms of research are not comprehensive enough to fully understand the environment. More over a number of public relations scholars and professionals have maintained that organizations should make more efforts to discover problems in their initial stages, before they affect the organizations. Otherwise, these problems can evolve into issues, possibly crises, which may be critical to the organization’s survival (Grunig, 2000).

  In any modern political system where political and administrative powers are not concentrated in only one agency/authority, the process of making public policies can be a relatively complex one. It is an exercise that comprises a number of phases or stages, each of which is vital for the overall success of the venture. As Jega (2003) has observed, it is generally recognized that the process through which public policy is conceived, formulated and implemented is one of the most important processes of governance and societal development in modern nation-states; and its importance lies in the fact that it serves as the political, legal and administrative context and framework within which functionaries of government and the institutions of governance interact with a myriad of non-governmental stakeholders, synthesize ideas on how to satisfy identified needs and aspirations of citizens, convert these into executable policies, and then mobilize resources to provide goods, products and services aimed at addressing these identified needs and aspirations as efficiently and effectively as possible. The public policy-making process is often influenced by a complex network of factors/variables, one of which is public relations (Obo, Eteng & Coker, 2014).

  The major objective of public relations is aimed at promoting mutual understanding with audiences and with confidence and strong reasoning and logic meanwhile safeguarding organization interests protect from the public interest, governments and other organizations. Public relations recognized desires, needs and attitudes of organization audience and will transfer to managers of organization and by providing technical consultations to organization policy makers can play significant share in policy formulating and executive programs of organization (Botan, 2006). In public organizations, having reliable information, accurate and timely, considering the purpose and structure is an organization’s greatest asset. The survival of an organization depends on having a reciprocal relationship between internal and external environment of organization and advertising, and also possessing up to date and useful information of the real public relations in public affairs station (Laver, 2011).

  • Statement of the Problem

  Public relations generally refer to efforts to communicate information to the general public in order to win interest or support. Traditionally, it has been a tool used by private corporations to enhance their image, frequently through the mass media. Many federal and state government agencies also have realized the benefit of a strong public relations program towards the implementation of public policies.

  The situation in Nigeria clearly shows that most public policies in the country hardly reflect the opinions of the populace. In other words, the various administrations which the country has had have rarely considered the genuine opinions and desires of the Nigerian masses in the process of making and implementing public policies. There is no doubt that public policies should be wholly driven by the need to promote the welfare of the majority of the masses (Obo & Obo, 2013); but regrettably, this has not been the case in Nigeria. A major reason for this is the disregard and contempt with which those who run the Nigerian state have treated the Nigerian people and this is reflected in the many obnoxious and self-serving policies and programmes presented as “public policies” (Obo & Obo, 2013).

  It has been alleged that the Government of Nigeria does not take the issue of public policies implementation seriously in this country. People complain about high incidences of abandoned projects and unfulfilled promises on the part of the Government for which little or no explanations were adduced. Demonstrations against the government at all levels and public unrest were known to have taken place in various parts of the country in the recent past (Okoye, 2013). Consequently, the Government seeking actively to improve on its public relations programmes for public policy implementation does not know how such programmes are perceived by the general public.

  There have been calls for Public Relations practice in government to be given serious consideration in terms of budgetary allocations, staffing, positioning, and recognition. However, according to Ombara (2011), Public Relations units in many ministries are not well established. The units exist as small offices, with inadequate facilities and often rely on other offices for equipment. Further, some Information Officers who are seconded to various ministries as PROs lack adequate training and are usually not prepared to undertake their duties as Government Public Relations Officers.

  • Objectives of the Study

  This major objective of this study examined public relations as a tool for enhancing public policy implementation. The specific objective of this study includes;

  1. To determine if effective practice of public relations will lead to enhanced public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area. .
  2. To examine the factors hindering public relation practice in enhancing public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area. .
  3. To find out whether qualified and competent public relations managers are being used by the policy makers in executing Public Relation strategies in Idemili North Local Government Area. .
     • Research Questions
  4. Will effective practice of public relations lead to enhanced public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area?
  5. What are the factors hindering public relation practice in enhancing public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area?
  6. Are qualified and competent public relations managers being used by the policy makers in executing Public Relation strategies in Idemili North Local Government Area?
     • Research Hypotheses

  In a bid to facilitate this research and make it more purposeful, the study will test the following hypotheses;

  Hypothesis One

  H_o: Effective practice of public relations will not lead to enhanced public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area. .

  H_i: Effective practice of public relations will lead to enhanced public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area. .

  Hypothesis Two

  H_o: There are factors hindering public relation practice in enhancing public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area. .

  H_i: There are no factors hindering public relation practice in enhancing public policy implementation in Idemili North Local Government Area. .

   

  Hypothesis Three

  H_o: Qualified and competent public relations managers are being used by the policy makers in executing Public Relation strategies in Idemili North Local Government Area. .

  H_i:  Qualified and competent public relations managers being are not used by the policy makers in executing Public Relation strategies in Idemili North Local Government Area. .

  • Significance of the Study

  The study will be of immense benefit to different institutions, It would also unearth some facts that could aid the government in its policy and decision-making formulation that will be mutually rewarding to all the parties involved. Findings from this study will be beneficial to both private and government organizations; It would help to engender a climate of peace, friendliness, goodwill and cooperation between the public sector and numerous stakeholders. It would help the organizations to establish what they have wrong in the past in their Public Relations practices and how best to do it now and in future in order to earn and sustain the confidence and goodwill of the beneficiaries.

  Furthermore the study will serve as a reference material for students and practitioners of public relations and other related fields; it would provoke further studies on this subject matter from other students and researchers alike.

  • Scope of the Study

  The study is meant to investigate public relations as a tool for enhancing public policy implementation. The participants of this study are delimited to employees of Idemili North Local Government Area. , Anambra State.

  • Limitations of the Study

  In the course of carrying out this study, the researcher encountered some difficulties, the researcher discovered that the resources needed to carry out this research was limited, moving from one library to another. Also the questionnaire had to be typed and administered to selected respondents of the organization not as one thought process, it required the personal involvement of the researcher to motivate the worker to fill the questionnaire, explain certain words and answer. Another constraint is lack of total cooperation from the respondents in Idemili North Local Government Area. , who was unwilling to co-operate with the researcher because they felt that they had nothing to gain from the study. Another serious constraint is finance, because of economic difficulties Nigeria is passing through, it was difficult to get enough money to achieve ones crucial desires. A research of this nature involves a lot of fund e.g for typing, distributing and collecting the questionnaire, and other necessary data for the study.  Others, when interviewed refused to disclose certain information relating to their organization for fear of victimization from the authority of the organization.

  In spite of all these limitations, however, data collected were able to provide enough insight to the research.

  • Definition of terms

   

  Public Relations: this can be defined as the Management function that identifies, establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the various public on whom its success or failure depends.

  Public Policy: this can be seen as government programme of action or anything government chooses to do or not to do for its citizens.

  Implementation: this is the second stage, after a public problem had been identified and made its way to the policy agenda, and various options has been provided, what remains is putting the decision into action or practical terms.

  Local Government: Any form of government whose remit covers an area less than that of the nation, and in some cases less than that of a state.

  Organization: Organization is used to mean a system of well-identified jobs, each bearing a measure of authority, responsibility and accountability.

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