What's your world view?

Once formed, worldviews (also see: ideologies, presuppositions, or mindsets) are deep seated within our thinking, perhaps left unexamined and are very hard to change. They’re also a guide to action – what we do will be an outcome of the way we see the world.

Turning to public relations, according to the worldview drawn on by those examining or taking part in the practice, there are a number of social roles that can be identified, including pragmatic, conservative, radical, idealistic, neutral, and scientific – and their practical implications can be drawn out.

Before doing this, it’s worth setting out some context. In a country like the UK, there’s a prevailing and sceptical worldview which raises questions and has doubts about political and business practices. In law, it warns buyers to beware of business practices; and in politics, it leads to hesitation in accepting statements made by politicians.

In this sceptical worldview, public relations is seen as a questionable practice, using information selectively and in support of special interests.  And translated into the thinking of business leaders, the practice may be seen as superficial and secondary to the achievement of significant objectives.

Therefore, attempts to change the thinking of business and other leaders regarding the value of public relations must strive to work against this worldview.

The pragmatic social role
The presuppositions in this worldview are that public relations is a useful practice, which can help achieve results for a client’s or organisation’s objectives. These presuppositions underlie the commercial practice of public relations and will comfortably see public relations subsumed under marketing activities to better serve business objectives.

Taken to extremes, this worldview may lead to doing whatever works and to practices which may, if brought to public attention, bring public relations into disrepute, confirming doubts about the practice.

It’s a worldview that believes the client is right, and that their interests dictate practice.

The conservative social role
Drawing on conservative presuppositions, this presupposes that prevailing interests should be conserved and protected; that the public relations role is to maintain the status quo. Writing about the role of public relations in American democracy, JAR Pimlott suggested that public relations justifies and defends the privileges of the economically powerful. Public relations practitioners, he argued, are like apologists for a social system based on inequality. Others have suggested that public relations is based on a defensive ideology.

In practice, this worldview leads practitioners to adopt a defensive or protective outlook on their clients’ interests, to see society in conservative terms, and to defend existing interests against attack.

The radical social role
In this worldview, public relations is seen as an instrument of change, of organisations and in wider society, by feeding information into public debate and by bringing resources together in the solution to social questions and the development of public policy. It sees society as a system in which knowledge and information underlie power, and can influence change.

The idealistic social role
In this worldview, public relations is seen as a force for good, helping to define and drive organisational purpose. It is also seen as a contributor to the achievement of essential social goals, through activities relating to corporate social responsibility; latterly, by helping to meet environmental, social, and good corporate governance objectives.

The worldview is bound into professional aspirations, where public relations serves the public interest and works to reconcile the interests of groups in society. It attempts to meet the needs of many, rather than a few stakeholders.

The neutral social role
In this possible worldview, public relations itself has no social role. It is an amoral practice, with no ethical connotations. Neither good or bad, it provides a perspective on leadership and management decision-making and can call into play a number of techniques of analysis, communication, and influence.

Taking this view of the practice, attention can shift to the motives, intentions, and expectations of those who initiate the activities involved in practice – business and other leaders, individuals (celebrities, for example) and practitioners themselves.

The scientific social role
This worldview, allowing for a scientific social role for public relations practice, has emerged in recent years because of:

• technological developments, which have resulted in increases in communication and computing capabilities
• the widespread use of social media
• appreciation of the benefits to be derived from data analysis
• the benefits of drawing on insights from the behavioural sciences
• recognition of the possibilities for practice development following from increasing use of artificial intelligence.

Over the years, going back to Edward Bernays’ writing on public relations as an emerging practice, many commentators – among them, Harold Burson, founder of the Burson Marsteller consultancy – have viewed public relations as an applied social science; testing in the way scientific hypotheses may be tested, against observations and evidence, with findings incorporated into future practice.

This approach can be found at work in approaches to evaluation taken by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation in Communication (AMEC) and to government communication by the Government Communication Service in the UK.

Several challenges obstruct the development of this worldview into more practical uses:

• The first is that scientific thinking on the foundations of practice – for example in relation to the effects of communication – is not easily accessible to practitioners.
• Second, public relations practice draws on a narrow theoretical base, and some models of processes at work in practice are outdated.
• Finally, people working in public relations may not see themselves as applied social scientists.

Practical uses
Studies of public relations, and worldviews into which the practice can fit, open interesting possibilities for practice development.

The worldviews outlined can be added to, but they can be identified in practice – in the attitudes that clients and employers bring to the demands they make, or in the approaches individual practitioners take.

It may be a common experience to have heard practitioners say that their role is to do whatever clients may need to achieve their objectives. In practice, a first step in working with a client or employer can be to determine which worldview they are drawing on. Similarly, in working with important groups it will be important to assess and understand their worldview. A thoroughly sceptical audience may be difficult to reach if they feel they’re being approached using public relations techniques.

Another possibility for practitioners is to use worldviews as a means of understanding their own worldview, and as a way of testing their own assumptions about practice.  

In practice, they may find themselves moving from worldview to worldview. In this case, they can ask themselves whether the worldview currently guiding their decision-making is appropriate to the problem or opportunity presented to them.

The original Excellence study, much criticised over time, set out a worldview allowing for the realisation of an idealistic role for public relations. Some years later, this remains an aspiration for a professional practice, which can now be based on solid scientific, business and evidence bases. Appreciation of different worldviews and roles for practice can help towards this end.