IMPACT OF PUBLIC RELATION IN PERFORMANCE TO CORPORATE ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the Study

 Public relations is defined as the management process whose goal is to attain and maintain accord and positive behaviours among social groupings on which an organization depends to achieve its mission (Broom & Tucker, 2008). Its fundamental responsibility is to build and maintain a hospitable environment for an organization.

The British Institute of Public Relations (BIPR) defines public relations as the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics. This means that public relations are not a chance activity or a haphazard endeavour. It is a process that must be deliberately planned, carefully implemented and assiduously monitored to achieve a given goal or objective, targeted mainly at building and sustaining mutual understanding between an organization and its publics. “Sustained effort” means that the public relations exercise or process does not end until it has achieved its objectives. Public relations plan and activities must be carried out to a logical conclusion, no matter the difficulties encountered in the process (Onwunali, Bel-Molokwu, Onwubere & Ofulue, 2006). Daramola (2003) observed that public relations consist of all forms of planned communication both inward and outward between an organization and its publics for the purpose of achieving objectives concerning mutual understanding. This definition emphasizes the place of effective communication as foundation for success in the building of mutual understanding and cooperation between an organization and its publics and indeed in any public relations exercise. To do this effectively, public relations takes expertise and knowledge from the social sciences and arts. For instance, the survey method has become very useful in public relations to find out target publics’ feelings, opinions, attitudes and beliefs in an organization, its products or services. Hence, it is the duty of the corporate communications or public relations manager to professionally ensure that public relations serve as an intermediary between the organization that he or she represents and all of that organization’s publics (Meintjes, 2011).

Recently, Nigeria has been in a high rate of distress of commercial banks resulting in liquidation and closures that threw a lot of depositors and families into unforeseen difficulty, untimely death and squalor. These unpleasant developments are thus, the motivation for this study, to examine the impact of public relations practices on the corporate performance of commercial banks in Nigeria.

1.2   Statement of the Problem

Many organizations do not recognize public relations as a management function and this has been leading to many bad unforeseen occurrences befalling these organizations. Even so many organizations without official public relations department, section or units. Despite the advantages of public relations in building and sustaining cordial relationship between corporate organizations and their target publics, some commercial banks in Nigeria accord less than priority attention to it and this is manifest in the non-existence of discernible public relations department in them. The consequence of this is that such commercial banks suffer from corporate image problem with a resultant poor public patronage (Nwosu, 2003).

Apart from the fact that these organizations that has no official section for public relation, there are some categories that may have a public relation unit, but do not have the professional knowledge of how to practice it, their problem start from what is known as the concept of image. They do not understand what this means, and this is where the work of the public relations starts. Therefore, considering the high distress rate and liquidation rate in the Nigerian banking industry over the years, it becomes pertinent to investigate the impact of public relation in performance to corporate organization.

1.3   Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of public relations in performance of corporate organization. The specific objectives include the following:

1. To examine the impact of customer relations practices on the corporate performance of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.
2. To ascertain the effect of media relations practices on corporate performance of an organization.
3. To determine the effect of corporate image management practices on corporate performance of an organization.

1.4   Research Questions

The following research questions were stated to guide this study:

1. What is the impact of customer relations practices on the corporate performance of First Bank of Nigeria Plc?
2. What is the effect of media relations practices on corporate performance of an organization?
3. What is the effect of corporate image management practices on corporate performance of an organization?

1.5   Research Hypotheses

The following research hypotheses were formulated to guide this study:

Hypothesis 1

H₀:    There is no significant relationship between the impact of       customer relations practices and corporate performance of First     Bank of Nigeria Plc.

H₁:    There is a significant relationship between the impact of customer relations practices and corporate performance of First Bank of Nigeria Plc.

Hypothesis 2

H₀:    There is no significant relationship between the effect of media       relations practices and corporate performance of an    organization.

H₁:    There is a significant relationship between the effect of media relations practices and corporate performance of an    organization.

1.6   Research methodology

The researcher employed oral and direct interview in administering this research questions. Responses from the respondents were needed unlike questionnaires, which is less rewarding due to late receipt and loss of responses from respondents. The method of data analysis used by the researcher is econometrics and chi-square statistics. More so, percentage and degrees of the responses were also used in the analysis. Here, the ratio of those whose responses were not in the affirmative were found and conclusions were drawn there upon.  The survey design is a strategy for gathering information about the beliefs opinions, and behavior of various kinds of public survey types available, mail-back, telephone interview and interview survey. We chose the last because of us relative strength.

1.7 Significance of the Study

In this study, the researcher set out to examine the impact of public relations in performance of corporate organization. The results from this study will educate the general public on the benefits to Nigerian banks particularly First Bank of Nigeria Plc. It will also educate on importance of corporate organizations public relations to the public.

The research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars and researchers who are interested in carrying out further research in this field or similar area.

1.8 Justification of the study

The effectiveness and efficiency of any organization is lies greatly on the public perception of their activity, this is because it is no longer news if there is a negative perception of the activity of the organization, there is likely to be low patronage. This is detrimental to banking activity. The choice of first bank as a focal point of this study boils down to the fact that apart from being the first bank in the country it customer base and banking outlet is one of the largest in the country.

As part of my requirement for the award of Bachelor of science degree (B.Sc.) in Entrepreneur and business management, this study is carried out to ascertain the impact of public relation in performance to corporate organization with emphasis on first bank Nigeria Plc.

1.9 Scope of the Study

This study is on the impact of public relations in performance of corporate organization with a particular reference to First Bank of Nigeria Plc. The study will further cover theoretical framework, conceptual framework and other related areas on the public relations in the performance of corporate organization.

1.10 Organization of the study

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), historical background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlights the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study

1.9   Definition of Terms

1. a) Public Relations: According to Broom & Tucker (2008), defined public relations as the management process whose goal is to attain and maintain accord and positive behaviours among    social groupings on which an organization depends to achieve     its mission.
2. b) Corporate Organization: Corporate organization is a legal entity that is separate and distinct from its owners.
3. c) Performance: Performance is completion of a task with application of knowledge, skills and abilities (John and Michelle, 2015). In work place, performance or job performance means        good ranking with the hypothesized conception of requirements of a task role, whereas citizenship performance means a set of      individual activity/contribution that supports the organizational

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