A STUDY OF THE RELEVANCE OF A PUBLIC RELATIONS UNIT

 ABSTRACT

 The study is focused on the relevance of a public relations unit in the University Of Benin Teaching Hospital. The objectives of the study were: to find out what the public thinks of public relations as a management function in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, to ascertain the attitude of the public towards the effectiveness of public relations in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), to evaluate the relevance of public relations department in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH). For its methodology, the survey research method was used to gather the data used for the study. Findings of the study revealed that the respondents are exposed to the managerial functions of the public relations unit of UBTH, and that the unit uses press releases more often in passing out information to the public. The findings also indicate that the public relations unit in UBTH help in explaining actions and policies of management. However, they are undecided on the influence of the public relations unit in policies formulation by management of UBTH. The researcher, therefore, concluded that public relations being part of management can help achieve tremendous results, by making contributions that would lead to the attainment of organisation’s goal. The researcher also recommends, among other things, that the public relations unit should be allowed to attend management meetings and make contributions that would be beneficiary to the organization from the public relations perspective.  The public relations manager and members of the unit must work hard and continue to build themselves as diplomas and interface between the organisation and the publics as this could influence policy formulation by management.