Schools have been faced with a new set of magnifying glasses peering into our schools and classrooms like we have not encountered in the past. We’ve been forced into the spotlight throughout the pandemic, and every facet of what we do, how we teach, how our teachers spend their time, is now up for public scrutiny. In an effort to open our doors and educate children and allow anyone a peek into the other end of our online classes, we have opened ourselves up to a new set of criticisms and critiques, and very few tools at our disposal to manage this perpetual window into our schools. 

When we think of public relations in general, we hear, “that must be a PR nightmare,” or “they put a nice spin on that.” The reality is, this isn’t public relations at all. When it comes to schools in particular, public relations is so much more than these colloquial phrases, because the backpedaling needed for damage control or “adding a spin” becomes nearly obsolete when public relations theories, codes of ethics, and communications aligned to vision and mission are effectively used as a critical component of your own school management strategies. Simplified, these strategies allow for the flow of information to happen equitably between all defined stakeholders and audiences, and when used purposefully and effectively, these strategies can be implemented at the school level to improve school, community and parental relations, and manage some of the additional public scrutiny that is now a new norm. 

Internal PR Strategies

The first question we need to ask ourselves is, “what is our internal PR approach?” School administrators can take an immediate first step by assessing your own public relations practice within your schools or district. While there are toolkits available to use to evaluate practices, essentially what we want to know is if we have an effective two-way synchronous communication pathway (Grunig, 2006) within our schools or district. In other words – when we look in our own buildings, is there an even flow of information to and from all groups of people within our buildings? This means everyone – teachers, teaching assistants, nurses, custodial and maintenance staff, substitutes, volunteers, administrative assistants and even students. Do they all have an avenue to talk to each other, talk to you, talk to the community, and spread the school’s message? 

A research study by Macnamara (2016) found that the internal public relations strategies were just as important as external strategies. The top-down approach in management is reflected as a top-down approach in external public relations, and a one-and-done approach to communications, such as an annual survey, is not an effective way to manage public relations within our schools. 

On the other side of that, Smith (2015) found that capitalizing an internal system that values each employee’s or department expertise and creates a cohesive team-approach to internal and external communications strategies will promote open communication within the organization to allow for problems to be solved openly and before they become more amplified externally. If you create a school culture that implores open lines of communications between all parties within, the external approach to a public relations strategy will be able to fall into place.

The research by Jin, et al, (2019) contends that even before a crisis occurs, organizations must also plan for the resources and training for its teams in order to prepare for these scenarios that are bound to hit all of us. It feels too late for that now, but we know that we are constantly bombarded by what may be the next school crisis. By properly preparing your teams through professional development and promoting consistent messaging, you have the power to create systems within your organizations that allow your teams to think critically whenever an issue arises, make the appropriate decision for your organization in the approach to managing it – or know who to turn to, have the financial resources set aside for implementation, and the social capital necessary to communicate your messages effectively, to the correct audiences, and at the right time. Our teams, our teachers, our students, our colleagues, are our greatest assets when it comes to any type of communication, and even more so during a crisis. 

It’s more than sending phone and email blasts.

We think of developing any kind of communications plan and can probably point to the number of phone call blasts we have put out, emails, and website updates. Public relations by the notion of its title deals with two important factors in your strategic management planning – the publics you manage and the relationships with those publics. According to Macnamara (2016), a top-down approach to communication becomes “talking at” versus “talking with” in organizations. In doing an internal assessment of our communications, we can purposefully give voice to what our employees have to say about how we listen to them, and to each other. We must use this same strategy in our approach to all things public relations. In order to effectively build these tactics into your organization, listening to all of your publics in an organized and purposeful manner will contribute to your positive image, more effectively communicate your school’s mission and vision, and strengthen your overall communications plans. 

Your stakeholders need to know that not only have they been listened to, but that they have concrete evidence of being heard. Macnamara (2016) also states that the idea of being heard can take many forms, but that there must be processes, systems, and specific articulation that all publics understand are methods used to affect change when appropriate. When we have a parent event – are we talking at or talking with our parents? When we have faculty meetings, are we disseminating information, or opening critical problem-solving dialogue? How do we ensure follow-up on concerns that were raised? Shifting our mindset to a public relations focused one becomes more important under crisis situations, or in a year-long pandemic.

Planning for a crisis and resource management

While many public relations strategies may have been used inadvertently during this pandemic, and we have found ourselves in more amplified roles of spokesperson and expert, the careful planning of your public relations program can help thwart preventable issues that arise during a crisis. By establishing a strong method that allows for a continual feedback loop to happen inside and outside of the organization, you better position yourselves to respond in times of crisis. 

In a 2017 study by Veil and Anthony of the Hurricane Katrina crisis with FEMA, the researchers found the pariah effect, which is when an organization has not developed enough social capital to be able to collaborate with other organizations and solve a critical issue at hand. FEMA had been alienated, because it deflected responses related to critical issues, appeared to be lying or covering up life-threatening breakdowns in supply, and fundamentally not understanding the downward spiral of how its poor communications strategies were pivotal to its demise in this national crisis. FEMA had alienated itself so much that other government agencies stepped back and would not assist – even though this ran contrary to their own missions of supporting people in crisis.

What this means for school leaders is that we have to cultivate these honest, open relationships with the community resources that can support us in times of need. We must lean on each other as administrative colleagues to offer support, ideas, and even resources. Organizations and their leaders must be able to call on others within and outside of their organizations to help in times of crisis and the only way we do that is by building these relationships along the way.

To Social Media or Not to Social Media? That is the Question. 

The approach to social media must be taken with a planned and structured approach, just like every other type of communication. It is important to note that Allagui and Breslow argue that social media is an essential aspect of communications, but that the purpose is to enhance or contribute to the communications of an organzations. Social media use cannot be the only approach to communications, and it is not a two-way communication strategy.  Digital engagement works when used in tandem with other strategies, as the major social media networks are really just another way of sending out a phone or email blast. 

Be Trustworthy. Be Ethical. Be Credible. Be Honest. 

The most important factors in any communications plan are trust, credibility, honesty, and ethics. Any organization must understand that the goal of any communications program should be that internal and external stakeholders find you and your organization trustworthy, ethical and credible. They have to trust what they are hearing at all times, so that when a crisis occurs, they aren’t questioning the message. 

Grunig (2013) and Porter (2009) – who are are odds on many facets of public relations – both agree that as long as an ethical approach, trust-building techniques and honest policies are driving even persuasive communications, your communications can be strengthened by understanding how to use persuasion within your contexts. Ultimately, the goal of strategically implementing public relations into our school management is that we do want our families, students, communities, and teachers to understand what we are doing, how we are doing it, where we are going, and what they need to do to help us get there – together. 

References

Grunig, J. (2006). Furnishing the Edifice: Ongoing Research on Public Relations As a Strategic Management Function. Journal of Public Relations Research, 18(2), 151-176.

Grunig, J. (2013). Dr. James Grunig talks PR’s influence on management. Lecture presented at Boston University, Boston. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBGjUCmk8ok.

Jin, Y., Austin, L., Vijaykumar, S., Jun, H., & Nowak, G., (2019). Communicating about infectious disease threats: Insights from public health information officers, Public Relations Review, Vol. 45, Issue 1,Pages 167-177, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.12.003.

Macnamara, J. (2016). Organizational listening: Addressing a major gap in public relations theory and practice. Journal of Public Relations Research Vol. 28 (2016), 146-169.

Porter, L. (2009). Communicating for the good of the state: A post-symmetrical polemic on persuasion in ethical public relations. Public Relations Review 36 (2010), 127–133.

Smith, B. G. (2015). Situated Ideals in Strategic Social Media: Applying Grounded Practical Theory in a Case of Successful Social Media Management. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 9, 272-292.

Veil, S.R. & Anthony, K.E., (2017) Exploring public relations challenges in compounding crises: The pariah effect of toxic trailers, Journal of Public Relations Research, 29:4, 141-157, DOI: 10.1080/1062726X.2017.1355805.