Cultural Effects on Public Relations

Remarks: This is for academic purpose only.

CULTURAL EFFECTS ON PUBLIC RELATIONS

Zarhana (2001, p.139) established that a public relations practitioner must conquer the cultural differences in order to communicate effectively with the diverse audience and client. To support the argument, Zulhamri Abdullah (2007, p.292) acknowledged that the ten top business leaders have unanimous endorsed that managing cultural diversity is quite important in determining business success especially in Malaysia which it is a multicultural country. This is because having good understanding of diversity management and multi-cultural issues among the major ethnic groups, other ethnicities and expatriates can improve public relations’ business strategy and increase productivity of an organization (Zulhamri Abdullah 2007, p.292). Ivanova (2008, p.7) also supported Zaharna’s point of view that PR and professional models can be changed while dealing with different cultural conditions. Furthermore, she mentioned that the interaction between organizations and publics can be influenced by cultural elements too. Therefore, PR practitioners should notice the cultural differences in order to communicate effectively with others because some cultural specifics may delay the PR process (Ivanova 2008, p.17).

Several prominent cultural continua are highlighted in Zaharna (2001, p.139) such as Florence Kluckhohn Value Orientation (1953) and Hall’s cultural dimension (1976). Kluckhohn (1953) noted future-oriented cultures and past-oriented cultures are value orientation deals with time. Past-oriented culture means the people may face difficulty when dealing with future planning and they will always take history as reference. In Al-Kandari & Gaither (2011, p.272), they stated that Arabs have great pride in their history and most of the practitioners will always refer to their ancestors’ work because they trust the knowledge and judgment of their ancestors. Non-practitioners might need to...