Community Relations: Unleashing the Power of Corporate Citizenship

Research and Markets have announced the addition of the 'Community Relations: Unleashing the Power of Corporate Citizenship report to their offering.

In the recent past community relations (CR) was viewed as an ancillary function designed to boost the morale of handfuls of employees and respond to the demands of social networks in which senior officers of the corporation participated. Today, the purpose of community relations is undergoing a significant evolutionary process. No longer viewed as the department of balloons and T-shirts," community relations is now being defined by businesses as a strategic function designed to provide returns to a dual bottom line" for the company and society. The Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations (BCCCCR) suggests that todays core goals of corporate success must include-in equal standing-the aspiration to become:
- the supplier/provider of choice,
- the employer of choice,
- the investment of choice, and
- the neighbor of choice.

Neighbor, in this context, is defined not only by proximity but also by relationship to those individuals, groups, or organizations that are stakeholders" of the corporation, i.e., those publics that can affect or are affected by corporate operations. For businesses worldwide, the call to take a strategic approach to community relations represents a formidable challenge. Requirements include:
- overcoming skeptical attitudes within the corporation,
- defining the link between community involvement and business success through
conceptual reorientation,
- spanning the cultural boundary between the business and civil sectors, and
- planning to move from a reactive crisis-response organization to a proactive
opportunity- and value-creating operation.

STUDY FOCUS

Drawing from both the expertise of the Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations and community relations literature, identified were five key areas on which to focus our efforts. The five areas guided the design of the data collection instruments and were the base from which we drew our findings. A brief description of the five areas is provided below.

Situation Analysis

The first step in creating strategic community relations functions and programs is to gain a comprehensive understanding of a companys current activities and how they are perceived by the public. The study examined how organizations performed a situation analysis to identify:
- the companys reputation;
- community needs, attitudes, awareness, expectations, and evaluation of community
involvement;
- key community stakeholder groups; and
- critical community issues that pose challenges or opportunities to the business.

Corporate Relations Strategy

It is important to tie community relations activities to corporate objectives. We wanted to know how organizations create a strategy that drives community relations activities to ensure that activities both help the community and support the companys goals.

Organization

Community relations programs are typically fragmented-even at the local level. This becomes apparent when looking at the activities of the corporation as a whole. We examined how organizations coordinated activities-a necessity to ensure that the corporation is most effectively using its scarce resources.

Process

Companies with successful community relations programs have processes in place to support day-to-day activities. This study investigated how companies create processes that ensure the smooth operation of the community relations function on an ongoing basis.

Measurement

Successful community relations programs have a positive impact on the bottom line. This study examined how companies are attempting to measure the tangible and intangible benefits of community relations programs.

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