The Practice and Challenges of Public Relations in Ethiopian Federal Government Offices
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Public relation s, in it s modern se nse, is bel ieved to have been started in Ethiop ia in
1960 's. Unfortunate ly, a ll the reg im es th at assumed power durin g those time s
impl emented public relations fully depriving its profess ion a l nature and und e rminin g
its roles. Government public relations were made to serve seem in g ly trivial tasks, such
as looking after traveling process of their bos ses and organiz in g meetings. In very rare
circumstances, where efforts were made to exercise practices that mi g ht
approximately to the re a l practice of public relation s, the driving force behind was
primarily serving the interest of the ruling class. Though so me efforts are being made
rec ently so as to reform the PR practice in the co untry, the earl ier trend of
practicing public relations is more or less, is sti ll in existence.
In the contemporary world, the task of the governmenl to inform the public is not a
matter of choice; r ath er, it is somethin g related to the concept of good governance and
a must be delivered task. Especiall y in d evel oping countries like Ethiopia the task of
the government to inform the public is highly attached to peace, development and
democratization. From this perceptive, examining the practice of government public
relations would be a study worth taking. Though public relations, a system whereby
the government informs its public, has an important role to play , it is evident that
public relations in the federal government offices doe s not see m to li ve up to
expectation. Different stakeholders including public relations practiti oners, se riou sly
complain about the problems in the practice of public relations in the government
offices.
Addressing th e problem requires co ndu cting a syste mati c stud y in the a rea, and to date
there is paucity of academ ic re sea rch conducted in thi s context.This study therefore, aims at filling the gap. To this end, it focuses on exam ining the
practices and challenges of public relations in the Federal Government Offices. A
two-way symmetry of public relations theoretical framework was used to inform the
study. What is more both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in the
study. Under the qualitative method, data gathering tools such as document analysis
and in-depth interview were used, whereas under the quantitative method a survey
questionnaire was administered to respondents selected purposely. About 92 or
around 77% of the respondents returned the questionnaire. In-depth interview with 12
purposely selected public relations practitioners and government communication
affairs office leaders was also conducted.
The analysis of the data clearly demonstrates that though some achievements have
been made through a recently initiated effort to transform government public relations,
what has largely emerged is a change in form rather than in content. The practice is
still shacked with some serious problems such as limiting the practice to trivial
activities like organizing meetings, looking after traveling process of officials and
writing minutes that impede public relations to move forward and contribute to mutual
intelligibility between the government and the public.
Based on the findings, a few relevant recommendations that would contribute to
improving the practice of PR in the government offices were made.
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Keywords
Public Relations, Ethiopian Federal Government Offices