International Journal of Social and Management Sciences International Journal of Social and management Sciences
ISSN 1504-8446
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IJOSAMS - Volume 2 Number 2 April, 2009
Model Job Analysis and Description for Public Relations Practitioners in Kenya

By Tom Kwanya , MPRSK
University of Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa

Abstract

A popular misconception is that public relations (PR) practitioners either hang out with celebrities and sell “kiss n tell” stories to newspapers or whisper in politicians’ ears and spin the entire national media (Tench and Yeomans 2006). Clearly, the role of Public Relations in facilitating the achievement of the “bottom line” in organizations has neither been fully understood nor accepted worldwide and the scenario is graver in developing countries like Kenya. PR practitioners are viewed as mere technicians who are mostly idle but once in a while perform peripheral duties as assigned by the management and get paid for their “sweat of the brow” . This is manifested by the arbitrary, diverse and callous Job Descriptions assigned to PR positions. It has also emerged that most organizations in Kenya do not perceive PR as a full-time job worth a concrete budget. Consequently, the PR practitioner in Kenya is generally under-employed, underpaid and ultimately undervalued. This study sought to address this issue head-on by investigating and proposing a Model Job Analysis and Description for PR practitioners in Kenya. The researcher conducted a content analysis on all PR job advertisements appearing in the Daily Nation between 1997 and 2007. He also conducted a Functional Job Analysis (FJA) of current PR positions through interviews with practitioners sampled from the Public Relations Society of Kenya (PRSK) membership register. Using the findings and guided by the Competing Values Framework and Enactment Theory, the researcher hereby proposes a Model Job Analysis and Description for PR practitioners in Kenya which ensures organizational stability, control, performance, adaptability, efficiency and creativity through inspired, valued and motivated PR professionals playing specified roles through clearly stated rules.

 
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