Systems Theory and Public Relations

Discuss about the Systems Theory and Public Relations.

Public relation can be defined as a management function that institutes and retains two way reciprocal relationship and communiqué between public, stakeholders and organisations. A sound pubic relation in management systems determines success of companies as it includes researches, planning and evaluation before the execution of decisions. Publicity management as well as interactions with outside people and government plays a critical part in any organisation and to maintain it properly is the key function of PR practitioners (Hazleton,2006). PR can also be termed as a strategic discipline which integrates organisations with outside people to achieve key objectives behind organisation’s incorporation. Key spokesman or CEO is responsible for making contacts with people present internally or externally. Sound relationships will always be seen in the form of fine relations between organisation and media along with investors, industry associates and public. PR practitioners represent themselves on behalf of their company or brand and convey news or messages via Social Medias, news channels and magazines. The art of speaking and communicating develops after gaining knowledge about PR practicing and skilled ones are those who influence people in favour of the company (Cohen, 2011). The basic focus of PR management is to build good relationship with public through constructive publicity and profound corporate image while handling crisis management problems. Various PR models and tools are there for managers of organisations which can help them to align their business with overall mission. While implementing PR models into situations, management have to think about the issues from different perspective so that the decision made is beneficial to the firm. Thus analysing errors requires considering more than one PR theory for making sound decision. This report will analyse a PR error made by United Airlines Company in which a passenger was dragged out from the aircraft aisle. The managers of the company added to the mistake by not taking actions immediately to recover the error and thus let the company fall into bad publicity (Cornelissen, 2000).

The incident that will be discussed in this report took place on 19^th of April, 2017. The incident happened in one of the flights of United Anilines, flight 3411 that was scheduled for Louisville in Kentucky from Chicago airport. One of the travellers was Dr David Dao who was travelling with his wife and two children who became the victim because of company’s mistake. The doctor was beaten by officials for refusing to get down of the flight which made him traumatised to such extent that he had to be admitted to the hospital. United Airlines had to make four of their employees reach Louisville for some maintenance purpose and thus Dr Dao, who had four seats for his family was taken into account. The flight officials made excuses of some technical error and that they could not let him on board with limited number of seats. Dr Dao did not accept their finding and denied to let go of his paid accommodation. The officials became furious and dragged him brutally throughout the way while injuring him. Earlier also United Airlines have been recorded for such incidents of technical errors. But every time the passengers without help had to agree with them as airport militants showed them power and legal guidelines (Lint, 2017).

The case of Dr Dao was recorded by passengers present on the spot as they recorded the fiasco in their smart phones. Instant tweets and videos were uploaded which was shared by people all around the world. After looking at the video, people became furious and demanded apology from company’s side along with compensation (Guardian News, 2017). Social media here was main reason which let the situation spread instantly and with no control over it, United Airlines had to face immense loss in its share prices overnight. The PR practitioners of the company did not take their responsibility sincerely and made their company’s image collapse (Bannister, 2017).

Munoz is presently the CEO of United Airlines who is also famous for being one of the most skilled and dedicated person. He had also received award from New York magazine along with many other awards. The incident of Dr Dao happened due to mistakes made by company’s staff but Munoz could have handled the situation if he would have reacted promptly. Chinese took this incident as a case of discrimination, as the doctor belonged to China country, and they demanded a written apology for it (Adams, 2017). The CEO made apology for the part of technical error made by his company instead of apologising for the injuries and inconvenience made to Dr Dao. This made people all the more frenzy and they showed their anger towards the company by making marches and appalling slogans against United Airlines. The CEO added fuel to the fire by appraising his employees for following company’s manual as they refused to leave the seats for Dr Dao. This shows that the CEO lacked qualities of PR that should be present in managers of companies. The insensitive decision made by the company made United Airlines suffers a loss of $600 million which is the highest until today. In this report, two PR theories will be analysed that could have prevented the situation or at least could have made repairs for it immediately (Netimperative, 2017).

The incident of United Airlines have made entire airline industry fall under suspicion which demands the managers incorporating PR practicing into their operations. In PR, many theories have been formulated by researchers that may be applied into situations accordingly. The role of managers here becomes crucial as they are the ones who decide upon which model shall be applied to make benefits out of it (White). Thus, managers need to get insight of different PR models and theories so that decision made by them is more acceptable and help in maintaining public relationships. The two theories that need to be incorporated by United Airlines are System theory and Agenda setting theory that could have saved the company from falling into such situation.

In public relations, systems theory can be applied to many aspects to regulate the core activities of organisations. This theory is utilised while creating business systems to analyse the problems that needs to be diagnosed. Systems theory states that every organisations consists of three components i.e. organisations, public and organisational goal. Public in form of customers, workers and neighbours are all form of social environment for organisations which keeps changing like physical environment. Successful leaders are the ones who amend situations according to changes and make advancements whereas the organisation who fails to adjust has to face failures (Roach, 2016). The goals of company according to the mission statement shall be contemplated after making place for amendments and adjustments that may be required during business growth path. The main reason behind implementing systems theory is to get feedback from public since if the feedback is positive, the decisions are considered to be fruitful. Managers of the firm require making study of received messages from public and take actions after evaluating them. Organisational leaders shall not make decisions quickly and without thinking of its adverse affects (Systems Theory: It’s All Connected, 2014).

In United Airlines case, the CEO made decision without thinking about its future affects. Systems theory could have provided the management take a thought out decision as public became outrageous by company’s decision of not accepting their fault. Recently many companies have tried to make their employees as focal point but still the society does not consider giving much attention to them. It is PR’s professionals of organisations who have to understand what is required to gain positive reaction of masses. They need to make more focuses on surveys and monitoring graphs, whichever is possible, and then make necessary interaction with publics in their best possible way. Undoubtedly there are situations where the leaders have to treat many problems simultaneously but to make wise decision is possible only if the leaders take responsibility critically and thoughtful way (Hazleton, 1992). In United Airlines case, the CEO had to make choice between passenger’s responsibility and maintaining company’s principle. The CEO took company’s principle as indispensable and ignored the moral ethics side of the business. The decision made him establish as unethical person from public point of view. If only he could deal the situation tactfully and in balanced way, the error could have been minimised.

In United Airlines case social media has played a very crucial part as due to social sites, the news came out swiftly and was spread within few hours. Social Medias and news channels are very active in today’s world and people follow them to get current news. Agenda setting theory is therefore implemented in today’s PR practices as the major function of this model deals with setting of information that needs to be shared with the public (Spring, 2002). People who are related to the firm in the form of stakeholders, employees or customers are approached by PR managers of the firms to share messages and information’s which could benefit the company. The messages shared shall be determined precisely as they may be responsible for elevating or decreasing the image of companies. Public absorbs quickly those news in which they find interest due to which relation between media and public can be made. Medias are responsible for the actions taken by people as Medias not only shows pictures of scenarios but also enter characteristics to it. The agenda setting theory is further divided into three stages i.e. policy agenda setting, media agenda setting and public agenda setting (Communication Theory, 2017).

Policy agenda setting stage helps managers evaluate the significance of news and what amount of information’s shall be shared with the public. Uncomplicated issues are generally absorbed by public promptly and they react to such news with great interest. Thus policy agenda setting allows managers to decide upon the amount of information and the manner it needs to be presented in front of general public. Media agenda setting is the second stage in which the decision is made regarding the type of news to be shared with mediators and with public. Normally, in the second stage outside mediators like journalists, editors and communicators are contacted in order to make amendments in the news to be shared. The PR practitioners of the organisation’s has to be very specific here as they deals with outsiders and any unwanted act can affect the company adversely. After the news is shared, the mediators make their decision upon the amount of information they would like to share with masses. After these two stages final stage takes place in which the evaluation of shared information is made. Public agenda setting ascertains the ultimate reaction of people after the message is conveyed. The valuation can be made through graphs and changes seen in revenues which is utilised by the company to make further amendments. The task of mangers or PR representatives becomes crucial as mediators or outsiders are depended on them for gaining information’s about the company (Communication Theory, 2017).

The PR representative’s act on company’s behalf while influencing outsiders from PR perspective and thus it shall be done specifically. In United airlines the media acted very promptly unlike company’s representatives. The agenda setting theory could have helped the company from spreading the news in very first position. The managers of the company should have made apologies earlier and the sharing of such news could have reduced anger inside people in the beginning only. The press conference or interview made by CEO of his apology could also have saved the company. The viral video of mishap which was taken by fellow passengers was spread quickly as people took the incident personally and anger within them destroyed United Airlines image (Hallemann, 2017). The agenda setting theory could have helped the managers saving from such situations as they could have estimated the after affects of their decisions in the very first stage.

Recomendations

The case study of removal of Dr David Dao from United Airlines flight had been recorded as worst PR errors made by any company and after analysing the situation, the PR error of the company have been examined in this report (Chu, 2017). This report has made a close study of the case and considered two PR theories that could have helped avoiding the situation or rather have minimised its effects. The news that was spread all over the nation was related to common man and thus public took more interest in the news. As discussed in agenda setting theory, the news was spread because of its intensity. Under this theory, United Airlines can be recommended to make further decisions of company after studying future consequences of situations. PR practitioners shall implement agenda setting theory into their operations that can save the company from making similar errors. The company must inculcate PR practicing among its managers also. Techniques relating to manage public relation shall be educated to its staff through training programmes (O'Rourke, 2017). Systems theory as discussed in the report is also necessary to be incorporated in United Airlines operations which will assist managers to make decisions regarding type and amount of information’s required to be shared with public (Meghan, 2010). In the above case, Munoz should have apologised Dr Dao for injuries in front of the public. Such decision could have not only saved company’s reputation but also created responsible image of company’s CEO in front of public. The harsh treatment made to Dr Dao was unacceptable humanly which shows that the company lacked PR in its managing system (London, 2017). Thus, recruiting PR professionals is recommendable to United Airlines so that the employees can contact to them immediately at the time when crises management is needed. The analysis made of the case study from PR perspective view suggests United Airlines to consider PR practicing in their management system so that further making of errors is avoided by the company in its future growth path.

References

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Bannister, K. (2017). Lessons in Crisis Management From the United Incident. Retrieved from https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/lessons-crisis-management-united-incident/

Chu, B. (2017). The treatment of David Dao by United Airlines is a lesson in the economics of air travel. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/united-airlines-david-dao-lesson-in-the-economics-of-air-travel-a7685921.html

Cohen, H. (2011). 31 Public Relations Definitions. Retrieved from http://heidicohen.com/public-relations-definition/

Communication Theory. (2017). Agenda setting theory. Retrieved from http://communicationtheory.org/agenda-setting-theory/

Cornelissen, J. P. (2000). Toward an Understanding of the Use of Academic Theories in Public Relations Practice. Retrieved from http://engine.koduleht.net/templates/kajatampere/files/mdl_files.php/academic_theories_of_pr.pdf

Guardian News. (2017). United passenger dragged off plane likely to sue airline, attorney says. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/13/united-airlines-passenger-lawsuit-david-dao

Hallemann, C. (2017). How Much Does United Airlines Have to Lose? Retrieved from http://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/travel-guide/a9266366/david-dao-united-law-suit/

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Hazleton, V. (1992). Toward a Systems Theory of Public Relations. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-322-85772-9_3

Lint, J. (2017). United Airlines Incident Provides Management Case Studies for Business Schools. Retrieved from http://onlinecareertips.com/2017/04/united-airlines-management-case-studies/

London, E. (2017). The United Airlines beating of David Dao and the case for public ownership of the airline industry. Retrieved from https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/04/12/unit-a12.html

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Netimperative. (2017). Crisis management case study: United Airlines. Retrieved from http://www.netimperative.com/2017/05/crisis-management-case-study-united-airlines/

O'Rourke, J. S. (2017). How United Airlines could take a customer service lesson from Delta. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/04/11/how-united-airlines-could-take-customer-service-lesson-from-delta.html

Roach, T. J. (2016). Systems Theory and Public Relations. Retrieved from http://www.rockproducts.com/key-issues/community-relations/15485-systems-theory-and-public-relations.html#.WdR1iI-Czcs

Spring, M. S. (2002). Agenda Setting. Retrieved from http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~johnca/spch100/7-4-agenda.htm

Systems Theory: It’s All Connected. (2014). Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/schwartzcampaigns/2014/02/18/systems-theory-its-all-connected/

White, J. E. (n.d.). The Effect of Worldviews On Public Relations Theory and Practice. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DZOMAQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT53&dq=pr+theory+and+practice&ots=_bJdPFxpH1&sig=oxzv0t7yXyK-zqPG46FTD5eMtFc#v=onepage&q=pr%20theory%20and%20practice&f=false