PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTIONER IN AN ORGANISATION/DEPARTMENT/COMPANY

First of all, I would like to emphasize that the last week of Februarywas my last day of serving internship, for seven weeks in Labour department which is based regionally in the second city of Botswana. I understood that the industry of Public Relations it’s challenging and therefore it needs someone who is enthusiastic about his work, hardworking, meet deadlines, very creative and who can work well in a team.

I have realized that in Botswana the industry is growing everyday and companies are starting to realize the importance or need for Public relations Practitioner in their staff, the reason why Public relations is growing in Botswana is because most of the companies are owned or run or have international relations with foreign countries therefore they term to copy the styles of other international companies.

Being a Public relations Practitioner alone in an organizational company, gives many task which are challenging, since the success of the company begins with you, making sure the company has good reputation is one of your task as a Public relations Practitioner. Although you need to work together with the team , but your role as a Public relations should be seen for example things like company or organization’s newsletter, press release, brochures should be made show that they are done and well designed, although you might need help from other employees but you should contribute more.

In conclusion I personally think the success of a public relations practitioner in an organization or company is determined by other employees and that is by working together as a team, and all this needs employee goodwill and good internal communications.

REPORT ABOUT COMMUNICATION HELD

After 5 weeks in my internship, since its seems I am now familiar with what is being done in the department I was assigned to write a report by my supervisor,(Acting Regional Labour officer) a report about staff meetings held this year, since our department is located regionally it has four district departments to control. So I personally contacted district Labour officers concerned to get the information of whether they had meetings or not this year, and if they had any what was the main issues covered. The report is written in the form of a saving gram, and then sent to Ms Tidimalo Palai, who is working as a public relations officer in commissioner of Labour.

I personally think it’s the responsibility of the public relations staff of the organization to oversee the productions of reports either they are monthly or annually, since by looking at this reports she can easily evaluate whether the department is improving or not, because the reports shows what has not been covered. The report is as below.

SAVINGRAM

FROM: Regional Labour Office -----------------------

Francistown D. Koolefhile

Acting Regional Labour Officer

TEL: 2416933

FAX: 2412396

TO: Commissioner of Labour &

Social Security

Gaborone

ATT: Tidimalo Palai

REF: FRL 1/24/2 I (7) 16^th February 2010

RE: COMMUNICATION HELD

Regional Labour office-Francistown includes district offices such as Masunga, Sowa town, Letlhakane and Francistown.

1. Francistown Regional Labour office: we held two staff meetings this year, both on February as on 11^th and 15^th of February respectively. The welcome remarks were given by the Acting Regional Labour Officer, Ms Dimpoetse Koolefhile and covered many issues concerning our office. She covered issues such as conduct of officers, this include dress code and punctuality at work, other issues covered include handling of correspondence and confidential matters, allocation of duties amongst ourselves, acting appointment, scrutiny of work permits, corruption, attendance of meetings and lastly covered social responsibility-and asked what we have been doing to show the spirit of oneness as an office.

District Labour office-Francistown: no staff meeting held this year; their last meeting held was on December 2009.

Letlhakane

This year they did not have any staff meeting.

Sowa

They held staff meeting on the 3^rd of February 2010 and issues covered/discussed were Customer Relations, Social Clubs and on Communication. The district Labour officer shared with them what transpired at the Annual Labour Conference.

Masunga Satellite Office

No staff meeting held.

Thank You.

IT IS VERY CRUCIAL TO MAINTAIN EMPLOYEE GOODWILL IN AN ORGANISATION OR DEPARTMENT

Since I am doing in Labour department which is located regionally, our boss is known as regional labour officer, although at the moment is Acting. The importance of maintaining employee goodwill is well known by all officers. Although junior officers may think its difficult to judge senior officers or people at the top. Today most of the organization /departments have what is called organizational chart - which really make communication between the higher, middle, junior levels and those termed as industrial class run smoothly, for instance in our organization junior officers supervise industrial class, or monitor then, middle class supervise junior levels and if both classes are happy or think they are ill-treated or undermined can report to higher class, so that the issue can be solved..

Major reasons why maintaining employee goodwill; makes good cooperation for the department/ or organization include for instance in our department we have 16 employees including myself on then an incident or situation where one employee is unfairly treated will be known to the rest of the staff through word of mouth, and this results in more employees unhappy-this will lead to small teams within the same organization or department and therefore it will be always difficult for all the staff to work together or remind each other in order to achieve the same organizational goal. According to Goldhaber 1990; Tedeschi etal 1985 says this is the same for large organization and studies of rumor show that we can stop it spreading by closing the knowledge gap-that is providing more information.

If the organization or department can manage to achieve employee goodwill, this can lead to

· Good reputation of the organization

· Good cooperation amongst employees, therefore delivery of all employees

· Supporting each other, even in social matters and this can be termed social responsibility

· Good relationship with clients and the entire public

· Trust between employees, therefore lead to them being happy, loyal and safe

In conclusion I would say in any organization either private or government owned maintain employee goodwill will also give positive results for the organization or department, there its very crucial that all practice it.

I THINK ALL ORGANIZATIONS OR DEPARTMENTS NEED A PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONER

Since I am doing my internship in Labour department-which deals with Labour issues and its based in a region, they is only one Public relations practitioner who handles all issues concerning Public relations, since she is located in the headquarters, I think she cannot manage all 27 departments across the country, I think most of the departments have never realized or come to a point to see that a Public practitioner is very crucial in any organization or department. Since I am doing my internship in a regional Labour office based in the 2^nd city of Botswana, it’s busy and has to accommodate even neighbor village or towns. They are many issues or concerns in the department that I think they need public relations practitioner to settle. Issues like social responsibility-This gives an organization or company a better image to the public at large, even though I know any employee even not PR practitioners can do social responsibility, but social responsibility done by a Public relations practitioner can or may be always convincing than the one done by any person. Since Public relations Practitioners are guided by ethics of public relations industry.

Public relations duties also that may help the organization will include, communicating with the media people, when they need relevant information concerning the organization or department. Also crisis that may affect the organization may be solved by a Public relations Practitioner since her or will have to make research of what happened and how it can be solved, this is also.