Public relations as a complex decision-based practice

Abstract

This article considers public relations through the prism of decision-making. Decisions can be regarded as a way of dealing with complexity. In the following, two approaches to decisions and complexity are discussed. The first is an actor-based prescriptive approach, which focuses on decision-making as a means of managing environmental complexity. There are different tools and techniques that support public relations managers in finding adequate responses. The second is a descriptive approach, which is more interested in the ways in which such tools and techniques contribute to the complex decision process itself. In accordance with Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, public relations decisions are regarded as a specific form of communication that (a) emphasizes the selectivity of the process by specifying particular public relations options or choices, (b) attributes this selection to a ‘decision-maker’ (e.g. a public relations manager) while simultaneously presuming strategic intent with respect to public perception, and (c) engages the past and future in a specific way. A decision-based approach that builds on communication may thus contribute to a more detailed understanding of public relations practice. Such an approach raises, among others, questions concerning strategic public relations options or the participation of digital entities as ‘decision-makers’. With its focus on decisions as communications, it furthermore links the field of public relations research to schools of thought such as CCO (communicative constitution of organizations) and strategy as practice.

Envisioning PR research without taking organizations as collective actors for granted: A rejoinder and extension to Hou

“…At the same time, a constitutive view has also found increasing resonance in PR scholarship lately (e.g. Osswald, 2019; Torp, 2015; Van Ruler, 2018; Wehmeier and Winkler, 2013). What constitutive views of the communication-organization relationship have in common is that they draw on communication as explanatory lens for organizational phenomena (incl.…”

Engaging universe 4.0: The case for forming a public relations-strategic intelligence hybrid

“…This variety of terms supports the thesis defended by a critical and reflexive current of public relations regarding the potential of multiple intelligences to reconfigure the discipline once again . Furthermore, as established by Panda et al (2019), artificial intelligence is causing a strategic disruption in Public Relations: it is turning into an instrument used to face both today's complexity and the uncertainties of organisational strategic management and communication decision-making (Osswald, 2019). Once public relations intelligence is conceptualised, this latter point helps to build the binomial concept of Public Relations-Strategic Intelligence proposed in the present work.…”

Between strategic clarity and strategic ambiguity – oscillating strategic communication

“…Since the publication of the English-language edition of his major work on organization theory, “Organization and Decision” (2018), Luhmann has received even more attention in international organization theory discourses (e.g. Holmström, 2005; Osswald, 2019; Seidl, 2018). Niklas Luhmann's starting point is the complexity that is reduced in autopoietic social systems.…”

“…This theoretical perspective thus embeds aspects of ambiguity and clarity in the discourse on strategic communication in organizational and decision-based approaches (e.g. Osswald, 2019).…”