Environmental and consumer issues, that arose in the recent era, and the high skepticism as a characteristic of the post-modern societies has led to the formation of activists groups. Of course freedom of expression as one of the democratic values has offered a fruitful environment for the development of activism as well. These groups are formed by people who have become aware of an issue or problem and are being organised to do something about it, trying at the same time to influence with their actions other publics.
Corporations and NGOs have both welcomed a growth during the last years partly because of the globalisation; however these organizations are of a very different type and have different agendas. The conflicting dynamic interactions between them shape partly the society we live in.
One of the greatest challenges that PR practitioners working in corporations face nowadays, is the reconciliation between the corporation’s interests and the demands by pressure groups.
On the other hand, let’s not forget that many PR practitioners are employed by activist organizations as well. PR practitioners working in NGOs have a clear vision and it is more simple for them to define objectives than their colleagues working in corporations. They deliver campaigns to force corporations meet legal requirements and social expectations. When the legitimacy of a corporation is undermined, the name of the brand and its market value could be harmed or it could even have a negative impact on its relationships with key stakeholders, such as employees or customers. The impact of pressure groups’ activity can be greater on the corporation when government and the media are involved.
The Edelman Trust Barometer for 2011 showed that people trusted NGOs by 5% more than they trusted business. Corporations have realized that for the wellbeing of their business it is necessary to monitor these publics and their perceptions towards the corporation. Corporate PR started being more proactive than reactive. Consequently issues management has become very important.
Corporations and NGOs have started to develop collaborations, under the assumption that this would be beneficial to both organizations. However there are some issues that occur from that collaboration such as transparency and integrity. Providing to NGOs sensitive corporate information could be quite risky for the wellbeing of a corporation and that raises the question in what extent the corporation is willing to reveal such information. On the other hand media coverage over this collaboration could harm the legitimacy of the NGO and people might start doubting for the integrity of its members. Before implementing an NGO-Corporation collaboration as a tactic to resolve conflicts, PR practitioners from both sides should rethink the consequences that this could have on their organisation and consider that it might backfire.
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