A Comparative Analysis of Internal Communication and Public Relations Audits. State of the Art.

A review of current literature regarding the state of the art in the conduct of internal communication and public relations audits by public relations practitioners reveals that these two related measurement activities are of considerable importance to the practice of public relations. Public relations audits are concerned with exploratory research on relations between an organization and its public. Internal communications audits describe and assess the process and structure of communication within an organization. Both types of audits are used by public relations practitioners in managing communication activities of organizations, but they serve distinctly different functions, reflecting divergent origins and perspectives. Open systems theory is used to distinguish the two different functions of the audits. A public relations audit is a boundary spanning activity that measures the public's attitudes, levels, and behaviors affecting an organization's survival and growth. An internal communication audit is concerned with the structure and function of the system. Because an organization has less control over its external environment than its internal systems, the public relations audit is of greater importance than the internal communication audit. (DF)