Public relations education: our future is banking on it - includes related articles - Section 3: Communication in Transition - From Art to Science

Communication World, Feb, 1992 by J. David Pincus, Robert E. Rayfield

Indeed, the generalist nature of the profession creates almost a smorgasbord of "must know" topics. Many public relations educators feel hampered by course-credit constraints imposed on them by universities and accrediting agencies. They'll almost always argue that students need "an least one more" writing or economics or graphic design class. But how much is enough? It's debatable. Perhaps, the question of the "best" combination of courses is best left to educators and professionals.

As is true at many universities, at Cal State Fullerton, we think so. Like many other public relations programs around the U.S., we formed a Public Relations Advisory Council (PRAC) a few years ago to help us, among other things, examine the nature of our curriculum. The PRAC, comprising 15 or so senior public relations professionals from across the business spectrum who meet twice a year, functions as our in-house devil's advocate. Council members' varying "employer-to-be" perspectives influence our decisions on the content and mix of our courses.

So, on one side of the education coin are a host of issues touching on the development of a future corps of public relations professionals. On the flip side is the relatively unexplored matter of educating future business leaders about public relations' role and uses.

Educating future managers

about public relations

Public relations educators' and professionals' primary challenge has been the breeding of public relations specialists within communication and journalism programs. Those programs, while faced with a multiplicity of problems, are flourishing. In contrast, in the business schools, another challenge, less visible yet equally critical, lies unattended. Ridged with powerful implications for the public relations field, the challenge is to upgrade the public relations education of students in fast-track MBA programs, who graduate with little, if any, knowledge about the role or impact of public relations.

For years, we've been content to leave what MBA students learned about public relations to business school faculty. Unfortunately, most B-school faculty don't see the relevance of public relations to management training. After all, most of them were educated in those same business schools. We shouldn't the surprised, therefore, when top-level managers neither understand nor place much value on public relations. Unavoidably, the future of public relations is directly tied to how tomorrow's top executives (i.e., today's MBA students!) define its function and role, an argument reinforced by preliminary findings from the IABC Research Foundation-sponsored "Excellence in Public Relations" study (see sidebar).

Communication education in

MBA programs

Since their inception, MBA programs, affectionately called "America's management mills," have stressed such subjects as finance, accounting, management theory and operations. Years ago, those topics may have defined a manager's role in the "meboss, you-worker" business environment. But, as that landscape has undergone dramatic alterations -- driven by the wave of mergers and acquisitions and restructures, and stagnant productivity rates -- so has the manager's role. The manager of today is expected to be tough, but also accessible, sensitive and collaborative -- what Business Week has termed a "compassionate tyrant."