Public Relations: The Concept of the Corporation Chapter 2

This is an interesting little section but a little sad. Here, public relations refers to corporate relations with the public, a two-way flow of information, not merely publicity for the company. Drucker seems to think that companies can put together boards that will facilitate that flow. General Motors is trying to do something in Dayton that will involve all local industry.

I know that there are indeed community roundtables and business discussion groups. Information does flow through these methods. But so often, it is really nothing more than opinion surveys and corporate messages. Abstraction upon abstraction with a dose of alienation. Not an easy problem to solve. Not an issue for which Drucker gives a lot of ideas. It is not merely board reform, he notes, because boards of directors are not representational. Members are supposed to think about the good of the organization not the good of the segment that support them. If such is the case, then community relations are clearly an operational activity.