*Economics / 6. Marketing and Management

Babalola Yisau Abiodun

Accounting and Auditing Department

Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, Lugansk, Ukraine

APPLICATION OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER IN AN ORGANIZATION

Introduction

The position of public relations officer in the structure of the organization will determine its success of building relationships with public. The size of organization will determine the role required to have effective public relations while the top management of the organization will determine the authorities of public relations practitioners that reflect directly on the role expected in both internal and external of the organization (Babalola and Tiamiyu, 2007). The top management of the organization plays a key role in success of public relations of the organization. The role of public relations in large organizations will indicate more role and effectiveness of public relations as practitioners will responsible of managing relationships among departments and vertical or horizontal structure of the organization (Babalola and Tiamiyu, 2007).

Total Quality Management strives to maximize the competitiveness of an organization through the continual improvement of the quality of its products, services, people, processes, and environment. Total Quality Management is not a flavor of the month, and when it is implemented in such a way it earns a poor reputation for all the wrong root causes and the same applies for some Six Sigma programs. Many companies strive for awards and decorations to bragging rights, public relations, and customer appeal and sometimes this works. Quality requires a never ending pursuit of improvement and significant breakthroughs that are sustainable often require a lot of time, education, and effort along with difficult choices.

The methodology includes everyone from managerial to hourly workforce. It does not necessarily mean that zero defects or absolute perfection must be achieved as this can be more costly and unpractical than making balanced sustained gains.

Total Quality Management requires cross functional cooperation and the elimination of corporate and departmental silos. However, it does not demand radical organizational realignment. It needs the liberation of people from stifling control systems and the tyranny of functionalism which precludes teamwork. Public rewards would be provided (not necessary money) for long term success and remove praise for short term and uncontrolled changes.

Total - Encompasses the entire organization, supply chain, human resources, IT, processes, and product development. Everyone is involved, practicing what is preached, and regular communication of the purpose driven goal.

Quality - defined by the beholder and can take on many forms but in the case it is the perception of the customer(s). The emphasis is on things being done right the first time.

Management - continuous management of 5ms that is man, money, machine, materials and methods to achieve the organizational objectives.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach that organizations use to improve their internal processes and increase customer satisfaction. When it is properly implemented, this style of management can lead to decreased costs related to corrective or preventative maintenance, better overall performance, and an increased number of happy and loyal customers.

The public relations officer has the responsibility of planning and conducting public relations programmes designed to create and maintain a favourable public image for his employer or client; is also responsible for planning and developing the communication of information designed to keep the public informed of the employer's programmes, accomplishments, or arranges for efforts in order to meet needs, objectives, and policies of individual, special interest groups, business concerns, non-profit organizations, or governmental agencies, prepares and distributes fact sheets, news releases, photographs, scripts or tape recordings to media representatives or other persons who may be interested in learning about or publishing employers activities or messages.

The public relations person arranges for and conducts public-contact programmes designed to meet the employer's objectives, utilizing knowledge of changing attitudes and opinions of consumers, clients, employers, or other interest groups and Promotes goodwill through publicity efforts as speeches, exhibits, and question/answers sessions. Represents employer during community projects and at public social and business gatherings; should be a specialist in contacting media representatives, or representing employers directly before the general public.

Public relations officers monitor publicity and conduct research to find out the concerns and expectations of an organisation's stakeholders. Public relations officers plan, develop, put into place and evaluate information and communication strategies that present an organisation to the public, clients and other stakeholders. They also promote good information flow within the organisation and report the findings to its management.

The success of public relations practice will be determined through the continual analysis of existing organizational behavior and the feedback collected through the public’s (Shapiro, 1994). In this respect, the public relations practitioners may build successful relationships through build favorable relationships with publics offering quality products or services that meet publics’ expectations and the commitment to strong relationship exchange (Kim, 2006).

The objective of total quality management (TQM) and public relations (PR) for the organizations is to improve corporate image, corporate reputation, professional relationship, community relationship, personal relationship and trust.

References

Babalola and Tiamiyu (2007). Application of Total Quality Management in a Business Organization. School of Vocational and Technical Education Journal.Vol.1, 2007.

Kim, S. (2006). Public service motivation and organizational citizenship behavior in Korea. International Journal of Manpower. Vol. 27(8): 722-740.

Shapiro, S. P. (1994). Premiums for high-quality products as returns to reputations. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 98, 659-681.