Week 11: Asian Pubic Relations Management

I think it is important that public relations practitioners develop an understanding of not only how cultures differ, but also how cultural differences impact public relations practices.

As mentioned in the book, I agree that language and government plays a huge part in public relations practices. For Singapore, she has a multi ethnic and multicultural environment and, Public Relations were practiced since the occupation of British Colonists here. Multinationals brought big public relations budgets to Singapore and these monies attracted multinational public relations and advertising agencies. At the same time, local consultancies spruced up to serve local industries that either could not afford the big consultancies or believed their business plans were better entrusted to well-established native speakers. The dramatic economic changes of the early 1980s led to tremendous growth in certain industries. Until then, the government used to propagate the information using a one-way communication model hence, the flow of information was top down. Since then, with rapid economic changes which includes trade expansion, the entry of multinational companies in Singapore and the rise of middle class consumer markets, began to shift in the level of importance and nature of public relations. Public relations became an increasingly decision-making function. As mentioned by Joseph (1991), the establishment and development of stock markets throughout Asia, together with the privatization of government-run companies, have helped to drive the need for corporate positioning, financial communication and investor relations programs. Restrictive government legislation and pressure from special interest groups has increased the demand for crisis communication and issues management as well as high level public affairs programs. Hence, with the rapid expansion of communication and media technologies including satellites, computers and cable enabled television technologies have also aided the growth of the public relations profession including increased recognition of public relations as a management function.

In conclusion, as the world becomes more and more interdependent in many ways, the use of culture as a key consideration in management communication planning is inevitable. Public relations have become vital for the study of employee communication, community relations, understanding of other stakeholders interests, awareness, perceptions and information needs. This critical information is necessary for strategic planning of communication campaigns, more so in communicating with multicultural societies and for cross-cultural communication.