Published in the National Business Review on 11 April 2008

Study identifies core competencies led by relationship management

Public relations practitioners and communications managers think their job is mainly about managing relations and managing the communications process, a study of the profession has shown.

The study by Massey University for the Public Relations Institute of NZ showed that communications professionals thought there were six competencies central to their profession with relationship management being the most important.

The other five (in descending order of importance) were: managing external relations, being socially responsible communicators, evaluating the results of communications, monitoring the operating environment of the organisation, and being persuasive communicators.

PRINZ's Executive Director Paul Dryden said the academic literature on PR and communications often showed a lack of understanding about the role of public relations and the communications professional.

He said the research showed "consistency and agreement" among practitioners about their job.

"People may wonder about what we do, but in New Zealand at least, the practitioners know," he said.

Senior members of the profession identified the core competencies in focus groups, and these were then tested in an online survey to which over 700 communications people responded.

"We are satisfied that the results are robust," Mr Dryden said.

The study also asked respondents to assess to what degree practitioners possessed each of the six competencies.

"The most striking aspect of the evaluations was that the industry did not rate practitioners as having high levels of skills in any category," the Massey researchers' report said.

Competency averages "were evaluated from a low 3.1 to a high of 3.7, where a 3 represented moderate skill and 4 represented high levels of ability.

Mr Dryden described the self assessment as "reasonably conservative'.

According to the survey report communicators rated their greatest skill as undertaking "socially responsible communication... followed by managing the external interface, relationship management and environment monitoring."

While relationship management was rated as the most important skill for a competent PR professional to have, on the industry's assessment of the skills actually possessed, it came in third.

It was behind socially responsive communication which was rated as the third most important skill to have, but scored highest in the industry's assessment of what skills practitioners actually possessed.

Managing the interface between an organisation and its operating environment was rated as the second most important skill required, and was also second in the industry's assessment of the skills its practitioners possessed.

What is a PR Practitioner?

The PR world in New Zealand is dominated by under 40s females.

The typical PR practitioner was a 39 year old female with a degree in PR or communications working in Auckland or Wellington earning nearly $84 000 a year.

Her major responsibilities are media relations, corporate communications, publicity and issues management. She was twice as likely to work in house as for a consultancy.

The communications teams were small; around 80% of both consultancies and in house teams were five or fewer staff, and two thirds of the in house teams had budgets in the $300 000 to $2 million range.

Source: 2006 PRINZ Survey