危机传播中公关与法务的冲突:理论述评与实践考察

Conflicts Between Public Relations Practitioners and Legal Counselors During Crisis Communication: Theory Review and Practice Examination

在危机传播管理这个公共关系的重点领域,法务履行公关传播管理职能的现象在实践中日益突出,相关研究却还较为缺乏。本研究从职能侵占和公关伦理的角度,对危机传播中公关与法务的冲突进行了理论述评,探讨了法务对公关职能侵占的特点、伦理价值下公关实现管理角色的必要性以及组织卓越度对二者冲突的影响。本研究还对236名国内具有实际危机应对传播经验的公关经理和法务经理进行了实证调查,二者均认为目前国内危机传播中组织高层更多偏重法务意见,且组织的战略规划程度越高法务侵占公关职能的可能性越大。研究结论提出,公关人员应当在危机传播中更多促进组织履行社会责任,实现公关的伦理价值,而非以与法务的冲突为由仅在危机中维护组织的法律责任。

The involvement of legal counselors in the functional area of public relations practitioners has been increasingly recognized in the practice of crisis communication management, which is considered as one of the most important field of public relations. However, few researches have been conducted to explore this phenomenon in China. From the perspectives of functional encroachment and public relations ethics, this study presents a theory review of the conflicts between public relations practitioners and legal counselors during crisis communication. It discusses the characteristics of legal functional encroachment on public relations, the manager role enactment of public relations practitioners based on their ethic value, and the influence of organizational excellence on this conflict. The study conducts a survey of 236 in-house public relations managers and legal counselors in China who have experiences of crisis communication. The findings show that both public relations practitioners and legal counselors in China perceive that their top executives rely more on the advice of legal counselors when making decisions about crisis response. Additionally, the results show that perceived legal encroachment is more likely to occur in the organizations with higher quality of strategic planning. The study contributes to encouraging China’s public relations practitioners to promote social responsibility of organizations and prove their ethic values rather than only defend organizational legal responsibility behind the conflicts with legal counselors.