As Hayward describes it, 'an organisation without public relations is like a politician without a personality' (Hayward, 1984: 3). In other words, an organisation cannot afford to male enemies wither internally such as employees, or externally like communities and shareholders. The personality of an organisation is demonstrated through the attitudes it adopts and relationships between management and employees. Up until recently, such relationships were either non-existent or poor. Companies exist to create value, and value is determined by economic performance in the marketplace. By increasing the amount of action taken by employees to achieve business objectives, a company can improve its economic performance. The following is an example of a company that appears to have poor communications between management and employees and as a result certain crisis situations have occurred. If the company is going to recover its reputation and image among the workplace and community, it has to restructure itself and management especially has to work hard to re-establish and improve communications with its employees.

At a large chemical plant and explosion has occurred injuring many employees. In addition to this, the remaining workforce has gone out on strike demanding an inquiry into the explosion. They want company pollicies and safety issues addressed. Such an inquiry will expose a 'centralised' system where top management have 'lagged' in their appreciation of employees participation (AMC, 1990: 73) and middle management more than likely have the perception that participation with employees threatens their own position and prerogative (Davis and Lansbury, 1996: 11). For a company to perform to its best ability, it must replace the old system with 'enterprise bargaining' whereby employees and management have a shared interest and increased trust and flexibility (BCA, 1989: 5). Managers must lead, not boss (Corrado, 1994: 8).

There is nothing to be gained from adopting as MacNamara puts it, the 'ostrich' syndrome (MacNamara, 1996: 34-35) where management put their heads in their hands and hope it sorts itself out. Employees are more diverse, vocal, knowledgeable and multicultural than ever before. If management and employees at the chemical plant had effective relations between them, chances are the explosion would not have happened, let alone the following industrial disputes. Apart from this, it is assumed that the chemical plant had some sort of crisis plan (see Appendix 1), often referred to as 'issues management' (Howard and Mathews, 1994: 149) and put it into action at the appropriate time.

After assessing the situation, securing the site, notifying family members and dealing with the media, the first step towards improved management-employee relations would be to begin polling employees thereby uncovering all the trouble spots. This may be done with attitude surveys, face-to-face interviews and observational studies or as Hendrix calls it, 'episodic communication channels in organisations (ECCO)' (Hendrix, 1995: 119).

Secondly, the PR practitioner must collect background data about the organisation, its personal and financial status, present reputation, past and present PR practices, PR strengths and weaknesses, awareness of Government regulations with regard to workplace safety, opportunities or ventures it may be involved in and seek professional legal advice as to the proper procedures and consequences of this accident. Such data may be collected through past newspapers and financial statements as well as documented news releases, television advertisements, past events and community projects such as attended charity functions, meeting with community leaders, fetes or local shows. Dowling refers to this as the 'SWOT analysis', that is, internal Strength and Weakness and external Opportunities and Threats (Dowling, 1994: 71). This will help in identifying relevant publics and the present status of the company from an in-house perspective.

After evaluating and analysing the company's immediate status, a poactive plan needs to be developed to improve relations with all necessary publics, especially employees. One such plan is referred to as the 'seven step employee-management communication program' (See Appendix 2). Overall objectives and aims of the company plan include a mission statement composed of a company description, company aims and company principles (Garbett, 1988: 18). Such a statement (mission) may include:

'this chemical plant is a diversified chemical energy and specialty products company with a strong tradition of hard work and pride through its employees and management and is committed to the environment, investors, and the community. The fundamental purpose is to provide products and services of high standard and quality so customers will receive superior value, employees and business partners will share in the success, stockholders will receive a sustained and superior return on their investment and communities may be assured of a safe environment. The company will maintain the highest ethical standards in conducting its business and will discharge moral as well as legal responsibilities. Honesty and integrity are rewarded to ourselves, employees, and customers, both in the communication and work performance'

 

Garbett, 1988: 21-27)

Within the company there needs to be a climate or trust, common purpose and the opportunity for all employees to develop skills to the fullest and to contribute to improving company performance. Management must have aims and objectives for achieving this. They must be active, open and honest. Some examples of management objectives towards employees may include:

(Hendrix, 1995: 116-117)

The following are management's and employees' aims towards improved employee-management relations:

These objectives and aims may be achieved by introducing many different structures, for example, warning stickers such as 'Poisonous' "WARNING - Hazardous Material' and "BEWARE - High Voltage'. These alert all personnel of potential dangers. Posters, training seminars, weekly or monthly newsletters, company insignias on uniforms, notice boards, social clubs (Tymson and Sherman, 1996: 189-195), notification in pay slips, allocated meetings, discussion groups and management 'walking the floor' are some ways of making sure relations remain of a high standard and communication flows continuously (Hendrix, 1995: 116-117). Newsletters are particularly useful and may publish many different things such as employees' recreational and social activities (photo included). Evaluation of in-house communication programs begins almost immediately using observation techniques and face-to-face communication. Attitudinal surveys written in plain English is a technique used later and a relatively easy way of gathering information from employees concerning their attitudes towards the company (anonymous is better in some instances).

There are many other relations the company must attend to in the case of a crisis or accident such as community, legal, media, shareholders, affiliated groups such environmentalists and financial. The media is particularly important. It has the power to make or break the company. Therefore these relations must be positive and long-standing. Whether a crisis situation or not, the company must adopt media techniques such a publicity releases and backgrounders, feature articles, editorial inserts, advertisements and interviews. This requires highly trained personnel who are aware of media ethics such as 'what to say' and media etiquette such as 'how to say it' (MacNamara, 1996: 21). Perceptions whereby media seem to be anti-business, anti-government and anti-everything else is as a result of paranoia. Media does take a critical stance however it is becoming more and more aware of the importance or putting across credible and truthful news.

Past, present and future media releases have, do and will influence heavily the company's reputation and status as an organisation. Although a company may have experienced devastating events recently, the company stands a good chance of rebuilding its reputation by sticking to planned objectives while making sure these objectives are completed within the prescribed time frame. Changing management structures from 'bossing' to 'leading' allows for poor relations between management and employees to be turned around. Management has a big task ahead of them as can be determined by the above plans. It has to earn the trust of employees just as employees have to show their trust in management. Both parties must reach amicable solutions to their problems. Once this has been achieved, all other publics' opinions and relations will improve.

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