Essachess (Jul 2021)
The Future of Public Relations as an Organizational Challenge: Topic-Oriented Control, Strategic Integration and Agile Organization in the PR Newsroom
Abstract
Abstract: Public Relations (PR) faces many challenges in respect to society (loss of trust, polarization), organizational terms (increased demands on legitimacy and responsibility) and in terms of communication (speed of communication processes, increased number of communication and communicators). As a result, communication must be faster, more flexible, more consistent and more transparent. Organizational conditions must also be established to meet these demands. Speed and flexibility must be ensured in terms of structure and personnel. Organizational structures and processes must be designed accordingly. This article focuses on the discussion of organizational theory, selects meaningful concepts and applies them to the reality of PR. It concludes that newsroom-like structures in PR, which take such theories and concepts into account, provide a suitable answer to these challenges. Accordingly, this article develops a definition of PR newsroom concepts. Firstly, the PR newsroom is presented as a multidimensional concept in which topic and channel levels are intertwined. Secondly, newsrooms are described as agile organizations with flat hierarchies and high internal autonomy. These structures are characterized by topic-oriented management. Such units must still be strategically integrated into the overall organization. Examples from German-speaking countries are provided. Finally, this article proposes five requirements for PR to fulfill in order to be able to cope organizationally both addressing present challenges as well as future ones.
