International public relations      

                        Can be defined as the planned and organized effort of a company, institution, or government to establish mutually beneficial relations with the public’s of other nations” (Wilcox, Ault, Agee, & Cameron, 2000, p. 343) or of different cultural contexts.

Research. Is referring as the controlled, objectives, and systematic gathering of information for the purpose of describing and understanding (Broom&Dozier,2009 p .g 128). The professions research skills, public relations serves as the eyes, ears, and voice of organizations. When organizations move into the global economy, practitioners will need to adjust to see, listen and speak to international publics. An internationalization of public relations is both an opportunity and a challenge for professionals.

The need for international public relation practitioners to operate in an international context is an exciting opportunity. Because the practitioners are able to serve the organization during a time of transition and uncertainty, astute practitioners will become more valuables resources for their organizations.

Issues Management is the capacity to understand, mobilize, coordinate and direct all strategic and policy planning functions, and all public affairs/ public relations skills toward achievement of one objective: meaningful participation in creation of public policy that affect personal institutional destiny (W .Howard Chase, 1976).

Issues management is a five step process that (1) identifies issues with which the organization must be concerned (2) analyzes and delimits each issue with respect to its impact on consistent publics, (3) displays the various strategic options available to the organization (4) implements an action program to communicate the organizations views and influence perception on the issue, and (5) evaluate its program i terms of reaching organizational goals.

Issue identification can be accomplished through traditional research techniques, as well as through more informal methods. Organizations are most concerned about issues that affect their own residential area so due to this they decided to use different ways of doing research so that it could be easy for them to identify the problem and find different solution so as to overcome the problem.

The following are the importance of research and issue management in the practice of international public relation.

As international public relation practitioner doing research it will help to identify the problem and find the solutions to deal with and the research can show whether a problem suspected to exist truly does exist. It also can help identify where the problem is ,when the problem occurs or when it developed and make easy for that issue to manage as the same as we go international we need research so as we can manage to deal with publics internationally and how we can manage issues internationally.

Research can help to confirm whether complains about an organization are widespread beliefs or whether they represent the impressions of a vocal minority that holds little credibility with key stakeholders. It also can prevent organizations from wasting effort on nonexistent issues.

Research makes communication two-way by collecting information from publics rather than one-way, which is a simple dissemination of information. Research allows us to engage in dialogue with publics, workings and policies of the organization. Scholars find that two-way communication is generally more effective than one-way communication.

Especially if there is an issue management occurred as the international public relation practitioner you must conduct research as explained above so as to know your publics and exact knowing what is the real problems and if you want to work in a country other than your own, you must do research and learn language; you must adopt to theirs because business is conducted in the language of the host country. Get as many language and skills as possible, including conversational skills and business application.

Researches it will help to know current event because the world is at your finger tips in the news media so what u want to do are also around the world so u need to do research by paying attention to the world by following current events. Knowledge of current events is valued highly in public relations but becomes even more important at the international level. You must be well informed if you are to know what is happening and how it might affect your organization on a local and international level. Start immersing yourself in current events now. This will build a wider base of knowledge than starting after an issue occurred  professional international public relation practitioners must deal with information and current events are an important part of that information.

 Research can help to confirm whether complains about an organization are widespread beliefs or whether they represent the impressions of a vocal minority that holds little credibility with key stakeholders. It also can prevent organizations from wasting effort on nonexistent issues.

Research it will help to know the culture the culture you’re going to enter. This includes the history of a country and their believes and customs a particular country and make sure show your employer you have done the work and you have learned not only about their country but also about their culture .It is not  to read and research about culture, you learn and understand  it much better by living in one for  a certain period of time so that if there an issue it will occur and you already understand their culture it will be easy to manage because through culture you already know them what they want and what they don’t want.

Helps to build trust among publics towards an organization, through research and management of different issues a public relations practitioner will be competence by providing accurate and credible information about an organization to the public’s a thing which will make the public’s to have confidence and trust on that particular organizational and to believe the things done by that organization on that particular country. And also by managing issues will ensure the public’s that they are safe and they made a right decision by choosing that particular organization or brand.

Doing research and managing an issue facing an organization, a public relations practitioner will be able to understand different moral values and ethics that people have in that particular country and so by understanding that it will help that practitioner to maintain ethical issues so as to go in accordance with the moral values of that particular society. And also the management of issues like language and other moral consideration will ensure that organization observes and respect the moral values of that particular society hence success on that organization.

Helps to increase sales in an organization, by doing the research and managing the issue that will increase the sales of an organization because an organization will produce products which resemble the needs of the target publics as the result of conducting research and managing issues that organization was likely facing. And also by managing issues will make the public have to trust the company and start being the customers for that particular organization.

Research makes international public relations activities strategic by ensuring that communication is specifically targeted to publics who want, need, or care about the information. Without conducting research, public relations are based on experience or instinct, neither of which plays large roles in strategic management. And this can be used during crisis management where it will prevents us from wasting money on communications that are not reaching intended publics or not doing the job that we had designed them to do.

 Research allows us to show results, to measure impact, and to refocus our efforts based on those numbers. For example, if an initiative is not working with a certain public we can show that ineffectiveness statistically, and the communication can be redesigned or eliminated. Thus, we can direct funds toward more successful elements of the public relations initiative.

Without research, international public relations would not be a true issue. It would not be strategic or a part of executive strategic planning, but would regress to the days of simple process, following hunches and instinct to create publicity.

 International public relations uses research to identify issues and engage in problem solving, to prevent and manage crises, to make organizations responsive and responsible to their publics, to create better organizational policy, and to build and maintain long-term relationships with publics. A thorough knowledge of research methods and extensive analyses of data also allow public relations practitioners a seat in the dominant coalition and a way to illustrate the value and worth of their activities.

BY JOSHUA HELENA M

BAPRM  42571