Public Relations Management Report: Smoking Ban in Sydney CBD

This report analyzes the public relations implications of the North Sydney Council's decision to ban smoking in the Sydney CBD. It identifies stakeholders, including smokers, non-smokers, and the council itself, and examines how the smoking ban creates a public relations issue due to opposing argu...Read More

Running head: PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGEMENT
Public Relations Management
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Executive summary
This essay describes the impact of a social decision by a governmental organization on the
stakeholders and illustrates the definition of issue, publics and prioritization of the stakeholders
in the context of the topic of the essay, that is, a decision of banning public smoking in the CBD
area of Sydney by the North Sydney Council. The stakeholders of the organization are identified
and the issue on the basis of the definition by Rawlins (2006) is explained, followed by the
prioritization of the stakeholders on the basis of three attributes, power, urgency and legitimacy.
It has been observed that the decision by the council creates issue among the public as that
affects the best interests of two groups of stakeholders, smokers and non-smokers, thereby
creating two strong opposite reactions. Hence, for effective public relations, the importance of
efficient communication by the council is suggested.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Stakeholders of North Sydney Council.......................................................................................3
Public relations issue of North Sydney Council..........................................................................5
Publics of the issue......................................................................................................................6
Prioritization of stakeholders.......................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The North Sydney Council has taken the decision to ban smoking in the public places of
the Central Business District (Gorrey, 2019). This decision by the North Sydney Council makes
North Sydney one of the first business districts in Australia that is smoke free. Similar to any
other reformative decisions for the community, this decision also attracts support as well as
criticisms. The Council has introduced this new ban to bring about a positive social change for
the residents and for the CBD workers and the purpose is to establish an environment with
cleaner streets, cleaner harbour and cleaner air for all the people in the CBD. Thus, majority of
the stakeholders of the North Sydney Council are expected to be benefitted from this decision
and some of the stakeholders who are smokers will face challenges. This article presents a
discussion on the stakeholders of the Council and their importance, description and definition of
the issue from a public relations (PR) perspective, prioritization of the public or audience by
using Rawlins to describe the relationship with the organization and the impact of the decision
on the public.
Discussion
Stakeholders of North Sydney Council
Stakeholders are those people who are independent and have a concern or interest for the
goodwill and performance of a business or organization (Mitchell, Lee & Agle, 2017). There are
internal and external stakeholders for an organization and they can affect as well as be affected
by the organizational activities, objectives, policies and performances. The North Sydney
Council is local government body that controls the Lower North Shore of Sydney. Similar to any

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other organization or governing bodies, the Council also has internal and stakeholders.
Organizations must identify and prioritize the stakeholders as per their varied interests. Primary,
secondary and key stakeholders are three major categories in which the organizations categorize
their stakeholders. The old stakeholders are important for any old business or organization as the
association of the old stakeholders with an organization implies the long term credibility of that
organization (Crane, 2018). This relationship with old stakeholders also implies the good
performance of the business in terms of meeting the objectives and demand of the stakeholders
and good will of that business. Earning support from all types stakeholders is very important for
the long term sustainability and profitability of any organization. The presence of old
stakeholders on board increases the importance of the organization in terms of political and
moral aspects (Costa & Pesci, 2016). Moreover, old stakeholders help the organization to
establish a social connection with the young generation of the community through reputation and
credibility, on the basis of ethical and transparent activities and policies. Hence, old stakeholders
matter significantly for any old business or organization.
According to the 2020 Vision, Community Strategic Plan by the North Sydney Council
(2019), the stakeholders are the residents or rate payers, community groups and organizations,
such as, support groups, interest groups, young people and students of that region, business
developers, entrepreneurs and various communities, Federal, State and Local government
agencies, media, educational institutions, members of parliament, tourists, neighboring councils,
employees of the council and the councilors. The North Sydney Council establishes relationship
with these stakeholders through communications and public relations, which are often influenced
by mutual behavior.

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Public relations issue of North Sydney Council
In public relations, an issue is defined by the subject that generates two or more strongly
opposite arguments, in which many people are emotionally involved and there is a concern that
the subject would have a significant impact on people’s lives (Lane, 2019). According to
legitimacy theory, an issue in the public relations appears when there is a gap between the
organizational activities, policies or performance and expectations of the stakeholders. The
difference generates from the mismatch in values, ethics, facts and policies (Lane, 2019). Thus,
as per the definition of the issue in public relations, it can be said that the ban on smoking
imposed by the North Sydney Council in the public places of the CBD is an issue. To explain it
further, it can be said that the decision on the smoking ban results in very strong opposing
arguments. While the smokers are against the ban, as smoking is their habit to get relief from
stress, the non-smokers will support this to avoid passive smoking and enjoy cleaner air, cleaner
environment and cleaner streets. Hence, these arguments are strongly opposite. Secondly, this
decision by the North Sydney Council involves a large number of people and has emotional
impact on them. The smoking ban is imposed in the public places in the CBD area and a huge
number of people stay as well as travel to CBD everyday for work. This large population
consists of people who are regular smokers, occasional smokers and non-smokers. The decision
of ban affects all these people emotionally and hence it s considered as a public relations issue.
Lastly, the decision of smoking ban will affect people’s lives significantly. On one hand, the
non-smokers will get relief from passive smoking; on the other hand, the negative impact of
tobacco on the smokers will be reduced too, thereby improving their heath condition. Thus,
stopping of smoking will have a long term impact on people’s health in a positive way. Thus,
while placing a ban on the smoking in the public places in the CBD area, the Council will affect

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all the above-mentioned stakeholders who smoke and also those who do not smoke and
therefore, it is an issue in public relations for the organization.
Publics of the issue
For establishing public relations, prioritizing the publics and understanding their needs is
highly important for any organization. As highlighted by Rawlins (2006), the term ‘public’ is
different from ‘stakeholder’ as stakeholders are identified as per their relationships with
organizations, while in the public relations, the ‘publics’ are identified as per their relationship
with messages of the organization, that is, publics are recipients of the messages circulated from
the organizations. They are usually segmented in homogenous groups for convenient
communication through appropriate channels. The segmentation is usually done by
demographics, psychographics and geographics. Thus, before prioritizing the publics, it is
important to identify them. As in case of the North Sydney Council, they have identified the
segments of the publics as per the criteria shown in the diagram below.
Figure 1: Identification of stakeholders and their segmentation

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(Source: Rawlins, 2006)
Secondly, these groups are prioritized in terms of three attributes, power, urgency and
legitimacy, as shown in the diagram below.
Figure 2: Prioritization of stakeholders
(Source: Rawlins, 2006)
Prioritization of stakeholders
These attributes are useful in recognizing the groups that can have different levels of
influence over the organization. The stakeholders or publics have power when these groups can
influence the organization in making decisions which they would not have made otherwise.
Legitimacy is determined on the basis of the moral, legal or presumed claim of the stakeholders
to influence the behavior, process or outcome of an organization as many of these people invest

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some type of capital, financial or human value to the business and hence, the combination of
power and legitimacy gives them authority on the organization. The third attribute is urgency,
which arises in two situations, when the claim is time sensitive and/or when it is critical for the
stakeholder. Thus, on the basis of these attributes, there are latent stakeholders, which includes
dormant, discretionary and demanding stakeholders, and expectant stakeholders, in which there
are dominant, dependent and dangerous stakeholders (Rawlins, 2006). Possession of all three
attributes gives the stakeholders highest priority and they are known as definitive stakeholders.
Another important aspect of this model is that each of the attribute is variable and thus,
each group can acquire or lose the power, urgency and dependency on the basis of the situation.
Thus, in case of the smoking ban by the North Sydney Council, the decision can be influenced
by a majority of the stakeholder groups who are health conscious and environment conscious,
and on the basis of the priorities acquired by the stakeholder groups and the publics, the
influence on the North Sydney Council is exercised.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be said that the decision of the smoking ban in the
public places of the CBD area by the North Sydney Council is an issue in terms of public
relations. Being a Local government authority, the organization has large number of stakeholders
with different attributes and needs, as can be classified as well as prioritized on the basis of the
prioritization model by Rawlins. The non-smokers seemed to be the most powerful and dominant
stakeholders, who could influence the organization to make the decision on smoking ban for the
betterment of the community and environment. On the other hand, the smokers, although they
are also a large percentage of the stakeholders, appear to be dominant and hence, face the

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challenge of smoking ban. Thus, in terms of public relations, the organization must communicate
the message of smoking ban in an appropriate manner and through appropriate channels to make
the decision effective.

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References
Costa, E., & Pesci, C. (2016). Social impact measurement: why do stakeholders
matter?. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 7(1), 99-124.
Crane, B. (2018). Revisiting who, when, and why stakeholders matter: Trust and stakeholder
connectedness. Business & Society, 0007650318756983.
Gorrey, M. (2019). Butt out: North Sydney Council bans smoking in business district. Retrieved
19 August 2019, from https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/butt-out-north-sydney-
council-bans-smoking-in-business-district-20190722-p529kb.html
Lane, A. (2019). AMN465 Topic 1.3 lecture slides. Accessed at AMN46519-02Workshop3BB on
27 August 2019.
Mitchell, R. K., Lee, J. H., & Agle, B. R. (2017). Stakeholder prioritization work: The role of
stakeholder salience in stakeholder research. In Stakeholder management (pp. 123-157).
Emerald Publishing Limited.
Northsydney.nsw.gov.au. (2019). North Sydney Council - Community Engagement Framework.
Retrieved 19 August 2019, from
https://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/Council_Meetings/Community_Engagement/
Community_Engagement_Framework
Rawlins, B. L. (2006). Prioritizing stakeholders for public relations. Institute for public relations,
1-14.