Public Relations and Public Responsibility

An organization has relationships with publics when it has conse­quences on those publics or they have consequences on the organiza­tion— that is, they affect each other. Preston and Post have described these relationships as those of "interpenetrating systems." They point out that organizations and publics are neither independent nor does one control the other. "Rather their relationship is better described in terms of interpenetration."

Because of the interpenetration of organizations and publics, the organization must be responsible to those publics if it is to have good relationships with them. Thus, Preston and Post use the concept of public responsibility rather than the more frequently used term "social responsibility," which often is cited as a goal for public relations. Social responsibility is a general term that suggests that an organization should be responsible to society. But "society" is a large and vague en­tity. "Publics" can be recognized more easily: They are groups that the organization affects, such as employees, communities, or stockholders.

Thus, the responsible organization is the organization that is re­sponsible for the consequences it has on its publics. It does so by com­municating symmetrically with those publics. Such communication effectively builds good relationships for the organization.