Essay: International Public Relations in Human Resource Management

This essay delves into the multifaceted realm of public relations, with a specific focus on its international dimensions and application within human resource management. The paper meticulously examines the core concepts of public relations, emphasizing its crucial role in shaping an organization's reputation and fostering positive relationships with the public. It explores the significance of media relations, community engagement, and corporate social responsibility in the context of international human resource management. The essay then introduces and applies the five dimensions of the Circuit of Culture—representation, identity, production, consumption, and regulation—to analyze cross-cultural communication strategies. It uses the Kellogg's 'When's Your Perfect Bowl' campaign in Australia and New Zealand as a case study, scrutinizing how cultural factors influence campaign implementation, consumer behavior, and the overall success of international public relations initiatives. The analysis underscores the importance of adapting communication approaches, considering cultural sensitivities, and understanding consumer identities to achieve effective international public relations outcomes.

Running head: PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGEMENT
PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGEMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

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Public Relations is an important factor of any institution or organization. Public relations
can be widely defined as the approach and practice of deliberately or intentionally managing the
spread of information among an individual or an organization with the public. In the arena of
management, public relation plays a vital role for the development of an organization. The public
relation professionals or experts are hired by the management teams of an organization because it
helps a business enterprise or an individual to derive and cultivate assumingly positive reputation
with the public through various paid, unpaid or earned communication. The communication
mediums which public relation professionals generally use are traditional media, social media,
digital media as well as person-to-person engagement portals or platforms. The respective paper
is introspection, analysis and interpretation of different approaches as well as perspectives of
public relations in human resource management as well as international human resource
management, which encompasses the approaches of “global convergence” and “international
diversity” for international as well as trans-national business. The respective paper explores the
important features of cross cultural communication in public relations, how internet can be used
in effective public relation management and also the strength and weaknesses of different media
of public relations. The essay explores its subject with the help of five dimensions of circuit of
culture.
Public relations can be defined as the approach and practice of deliberately or
intentionally managing the spread of information among an individual or an organization with
the public (Culbertson et al., 2012). Public relation is an important aspect as well as factor in the
management arena of an organization because it is due to proper, optimized and effective public
relation strategies that a company or an organization grows its business in a wide and broad
margin and cultivate a reputation (assumingly positive) in the business world and the external

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environment. Creating and cultivating a positive reputation is indeed a very important factor,
rather, a necessity for a company in today’s ever evolving and changing global business scenario.
The media helps a company to make their presence felt in the world in order to survive and
thrive. The most important part of a public relation management is the media by which public
relation is to be propagated, preached and practiced. A dull and inefficient public relation
management of an organization affects the company obnoxiously which can lead to loss of
goodwill as well as business prospects of the organization (Storey, 2018).
A public relation professional is bestowed with the duties and responsibilities of
publicizing the respective organization where he/she is working, and at the same time, keeping
an amicable, cordial and talk able terms between the organization and the external environment
(Grunig, 2013). In order to make the business flow smooth and clear, an effective
communication with clarity is needed for the precision of carrying out business. In this case, the
public relation manager or officer plays a very important role. It is the duty of the public relation
manager to keep an eye on the relationship between the external environment and the
organization with a proper interpersonal as well as external communication techniques and
mechanisms.
Public relations can be classified into different categories and types in the context of
national, trans-national and international human resource management. However, before
understanding the significance and classification of public relations in the context of
international human resource management, the definition of public relations in international
human resource management needs to be understood first. Human resource management of an
organization works in the arena of human management and interaction, whereas, public relation
officers or professionals are hired in order to keep the respective business in public

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consciousness. Therefore, the common factor that plays between a human resource professional
and a public relation professional is that both of them are bestowed with the duties and
responsibilities of understanding and interacting with the humans, or rather, people. The main
difference between both of the professionals is that the human resource professional works inside
the organization, looking after the internal matters of the organization, while the public relation
professionals work with the exterior part of the organization, looking after the external matters of
the organization. In the arena of international human resource management, it is the duty and the
responsibility of the human resource managers to see whether the department of public relations
is well-equipped, well-trained, optimized or adequate enough for the welfare of the company.
Therefore, from the point of view of the international human resource management, the public
relations can be classified into: media relations, community relations, corporate social
responsibility relations and social media relations. The most important factor in international
public relation is that it involves a plethora of cross-cultural and intercultural communication
(Fredriksson, Pallas & Wehmeier, 2013).
An effective cross-cultural communication is very much necessary for the present
globalized community of business and enterprises in the fierce competitive world. The task of
the public relation department of a company is crucial in case of maintaining a cross cultural
communication because it is due to the public relation officers that a company can achieve
instant success or failure in this competitive world. The public relations profession is highly
communicative in nature and the representatives of the public relations department of the
companies need to be highly skilled and optimized (Gregory & Halff, 2013). In this paper, the
cross-cultural communication in the international public relation management can be analyzed

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and interpreted on the basis of a cultural study theory, which is five dimensions of Circuit of
Culture.
Before beginning with the analysis and interpretation of the role of international public relations
with the help of five dimensions of Circuit of Culture, the definition and significance of the
mentioned theory needs to be deciphered and comprehended first. The five dimensions of Circuit
of Culture can be defined as a theory or a framework which is largely used in social studies
where there the phenomenon related to culture (universally and objectively) are classified into
five parts, namely, representation, identity, production, consumption and regulation (Hall, 2014).
To classify the significance of international public relations with the help of the five dimensions
of Circuit of Culture,
1. Representation: in the context of cross-cultural public relations management, the
definition of representation as the first dimension of Circuit of Culture can be widely
deciphered as representation of communication on the basis of language, art, images,
photography, paintings and other media. According to the representation way of cross-
cultural communication, the interaction happens with the help of signs, symbols and
semiotics with different approaches of interpretation. In public relations on international
basis, symbols and semiotics can be largely used while transacting with eastern countries
as they are symbol specific and symbol sensitivity is within their culture and tradition, in
terms of dress codes as well as body language. For example, in middle- east, covering the
head of females is considered modesty and decency, whereas in India, the color saffron is
a depiction of solidarity and unity.
2. Production: Production, which is often called “encoding” is a communication process
where the creators of cultural products imbue or rather arise their products with

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meanings, where the producers tend to encode dominant meanings to their cultural
products for shaping the products into appropriate commodities that are suitable for the
culture where they belong to or where they operate from. It has to be remembered that
beginning from formation of a company, the anatomy and marketing strategies of the
products or services the company would like to offer is highly dependent on the external
environment or culture where the company operates in. Therefore, it is evident that the
public relations officers of a particular company should always make an attempt to
comply with, or follow the rules of the culture and tradition of the external environment
where the company is operating. In this case, the international public relation officers are
given duties to encode their products or services with the given representation of the
culture. For instance, in middle eastern countries, the name “halal” is always put on the
snack packets in order to optimize their products on the basis of the cultural background
of the consumers, both functional as well as prospective. In India, if an individual is
greeted as “Namastein”, it pleases them. Therefore, such techniques should be highly
read and utilized by the PR officials in order to have a proper and an effective
communication.
3. Regulation: In cultural studies regarding the five dimensions of cultural circuits, the
definition of regulation are conditions that are allowable or expected in a culture, which
is often determined. A culture is regulated or kept in surveillance due to various reasons,
beginning from conservative attitude of maintaining and preserving a particular culture of
a particular community to the concepts and ideas of collective as well as individual
identity that determine the making and shaping up of personality of different people
belonging from different ethnic backgrounds and races. The international public relations

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officers and professionals are recommended to maintain a regulative attitude towards the
other negotiator or external environment while having a cross cultural communication on
an international basis in order to keep the dignity as well as integrity of the organization
and the communicators. Regulations and check in the communication approaches that are
being happening in a separate cultural scenario is a very important factor for the
international public relation manager in order to maintain the goodwill and positive
reputation of the respective company in the international business arena. For instance, the
European countries take the gesture of handshake to be very common and ordinary, while
the middle eastern Islamic countries, any communication that has physical touch,
especially between a man and a woman, to be obscene and undesirable. Therefore, such
social statics and dynamics have to be kept in mind to create relation with the
international public for business purposes.
4. Identities: In case of determining what identity is among the five dimensions of Circuit of
Culture, certain factors are to be understood. Identities determine who produces,
consumes and regulates the business. The mentioned approach tries to find out and
optimize who are the individuals or people who are interested in the business, the
products or the services the company might be offering, based on their social as well as
cultural dynamics, because, it has been observed that, often, the cultural and social
dynamics influence choices and preferences of the consumers at a greater extent. In order
to make an effective international public relation, the public relation officer has to also
optimize the necessity and importance of the business they are venturing into at any
particular cultural setting. For instance, Indian women feel less interested in general in

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purchasing bikini as they feel uncomfortable in that dress, which is again linked with the
moral code of conduct that culture imposes on them.
5. Consumption: As far as consumption is concerned, culture highly influences the
consumption tactics and attitudes of a consumer or a buyer. In the approach of
consumption of the five dimensions of Circuit of Culture, it has to be remembered that
the international public relations officers should not waste their time in a cultural setting
that does not encourage consumption of a particular product or a commodity. Every
country has different cultural setting and parameters, therefore, different countries will
have different demands of different goods. For instance, in Pakistan and other Islamic
countries, there is a ban on consumption of Alcohol and other products that has alcohol in
it due to religious as well as cultural issues.
The respective paper is concluded as an introspection, analysis and interpretation of different
approaches as well as perspectives of public relations in human resource management as well as
international human resource management, which encompasses the approaches of “global
convergence” and “international diversity” for international as well as trans-national business.
The respective paper explores and concludes the important features of cross cultural
communication in public relations, how internet can be used in effective public relation
management and also the strength and weaknesses of different media of public relations. The
essay explores its subject with the help of five dimensions of circuit of culture.

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References:
Culbertson, H. M., Jeffers, D. W., Stone, D. B., & Terrell, M. (2012). Social, political, and
economic contexts in public relations: Theory and cases. Routledge.
Fredriksson, M., Pallas, J., & Wehmeier, S. (2013). Public relations and neo-institutional theory.
Public Relations Inquiry, 2(2), 183-203.
Gregory, A., & Halff, G. (2013). Divided we stand: defying hegemony in global public relations
theory and practice?. Public Relations Review, 39(5), 417-425.
Grunig, J. E. (2013). Excellence in public relations and communication management. Routledge.
Hall, S. (2014). Encoding and decoding the message. The discourse studies reader: Main
currents in theory and analysis, 111-121.
Storey, J. (2018). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. Routledge.