I guess its been long since i have blogged here, but there was no subject bugging me enough to write.I was preparing to take a lecture with my post graduate students on the subject of systems theory when i bumped into this very interesting paper by Broom on this subject (link at the end).
Public relations that we have understood so far acts as a very important buffer between an organisation and its publics, which is correctly explained by the concept of systems theory by Miller (1978).He explained that no organization has a simple, measurable goal but can be evaluated on the bases of systems characteristics such as growth, equilibrium, or decline.
Yuchtman and Seashore (1967) futher addded that organisations could be evaluated by their ability to get crucial inputs and process them in such a way that they were able to maintain their stability within the market environment.
Thus here comes the link betwen systems theory and public relations.Public relations is that part of the system or or organisation that helps in gathering, assimilating, interpretating and disseminating intelligence about the organisation as explained by Broom (1986).
Public Relations departments or Corporate Communication departments are not isolated entities but a subsystem or boundray spanners of an organisation.They can be barometers in predicting any change in the environment in which the organisation works.Here the importance of public relations as a managment function (discussed in previous postings) is also exemplified.
To read more on this concept go to this link:-
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/2f/7d/80.pdf
