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Brianna Kennedy

PRL 206 Research Paper

Government Relations, Public Affairs, and Lobbying

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An Overview of Government Relations

Government relations is a broad specialization of public relations that covers many

different functions, including public affairs and lobbying. In different ways, these specializations

help to create and build important relationships between governments and organizations.

Specifically, government relations is defined as a “public relations function organizations—both

for-profit and nonprofit—use to strategically influence the public policy aspects of their

environments” (Taylor, 2013).

Another aspect of government relations is lobbying, which is “the process of supporting

issues and mobilizing individuals to affect public policy change” (Hansen-Horn, 2013).

Lobbying is a crucial part of government relations because it is the main way to achieve

legislative change or reform. Lobbyists bring issues to the agenda of Congress and serve as a

way to connect the people to the legislative branch. These people come together and use various

public relations tactics to “politicize” an issue, such as social media campaigns, pseudo events,

letter writing, rallies, petition signing, telephone calling, and more (Hansen-Horn, 2013).

Lastly, public affairs is another sector of government relations. Public affairs

professionals strive to “advance the interests of their employers with decision-making bodies,”

such as state and federal governments (“Job description: Public affairs manager,” 2017). For the

purpose of this research paper, I am going to be researching public affairs in depth.

The Field of Public Affairs

Public affairs is defined as a “management process by which corporate organizations seek

to influence public policy, policy makers, and stakeholders” by engaging with their key publics:
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state and federal governments (Levenshus, 2013). It is crucial for corporations and organizations

to have public affairs departments because these professionals attempt to influence legislative

policy in order to benefit the company. One of the main jobs of public affairs managers when

working for an organization is to “affect public policy so as to provide a favorable operating

environment for the organization” (Hannaford, 1988). Public affairs managers should always

know what is on the political agenda to determine which policies will affect the organization

they are working for and seek to influence policy that will benefit the organization in any way.

They directly interact with the government in order to get their needs and wants heard in

Congress. As well as a line of communication with government officials, there should also be

“great importance in building strong and trusting relations between the organization and the

community” (Hawin, 2018).

Public affairs is not a limited career choice; there are many different industries that need

and rely on public affairs professionals. Different public affairs roles include working for city,

county, and state governments; different types of organizations; corporations and companies;

federal departments and agencies; hospitals, schools, and public utilities; trade associations; and

more (“Public Affairs and Government Section,” 2019).

There are many advantages and disadvantages of pursuing public affairs as a career. One

advantage is the fact that the typical work hours are from 9:00 am-5:30 pm. These hours are very

normal and manageable, and leave time for an outside life from work. This is very different from

other public relations specializations, such as sports PR, where they are constantly traveling and

working long, tiring hours. Another advantage to a career in public affairs is “the stability it

provides” and “the generous benefits” of the field (“Public Affairs: A Career Worth Exploring,”
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2011). On the other hand, the average salary may be a disadvantage to some people. The typical

public affairs salary is definitely not the lowest paying job in the world, but it is not the highest

either. The average salary of a public affairs manager is between about $40,000 and about

$67,000 (“Job description: Public affairs manager,” 2017).

Historic Development of Public Affairs

The importance of the relationship between an organization and government began to be

recognized over 50 years ago, and a historian named J. A. R. Pimlott was the first person to

connect public relations and government together (Taylor, 2013). During this time, people began

to realize that the government was an extremely important publics for organizations and

companies.

Henry Mintzberg identified the government as a major publics and stressed the

importance of engagement between organizations and the government. In 1983, Mintzberg

expressed the idea that the government is “one of the most important external publics with which

an organization must engage” (Taylor, 2013). Essentially, the government has the ultimate

authority and has the power to create regulations that affect different organizations.

In 1985, Richard E. Crable and Steven L. Vibbert made the important distinction that

“organizations do not have authority in public policy. Rather, organizations have the ability to

influence public policy” (Taylor, 2013). This key distinction shows that public affairs teams are

vital to organizations; since these organizations do not have the ability to control public policy,

they need experts to come in and help influence public policy and opinion.
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Communication Activities of Public Affairs

Activities vary between different public affairs jobs, but the main activities of this career

include establishing relationships with important publics, interacting with colleagues and

bringing new ideas to the table, keeping up-to-date with government and media activities,

creating written and oral briefings, and writing press releases for the media (“Job description:

Public affairs manager,” 2017).

Public affairs managers also practice external and internal communications. External

communications are messages that are spread widely to external audiences, such as the media or

the public. On the other hand, internal communications are messages spread throughout the

individual company through newsletters or bulletin boards (“Public Relations Activities,” 2018).

Public affairs managers are always interacting with people, whether it be externally with the

public/media or internally with their own fellow employees within the organization.

While these communications activities are very similar to those of public relations agents

in other specializations, advocating for an organization or corporation directly in Congress is

unique to public affairs. Public affairs managers are very present with the activities that occur in

Congress. Some of these activities include helping “prepare clients for Congressional hearings”

and helping “the client market its political action committee to its eligible employers”

(Hannaford, 1988).

Essential Skills for Public Affairs

In order to succeed in the field of public affairs, one must possess proficient skills of

writing and speaking. It is essential to be able to write and speak well in order to effectively get
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ideas across to a group of people. Public affairs practitioners are constantly writing press releases

and briefings as well as giving oral presentations to communicate ideas, so these basic skills are

vital. The ability to network well is another key skill that public affairs managers should have.

Managers are always interacting with different kinds of people, so it is important to have the

ability to “confidently approach a diverse range of people and strike up a conversation” (“Job

description: Public affairs manager,” 2017). These basic skills are needed for many different

public relations specializations; however, public affairs professionals should also have brief

knowledge of economics, banking, and finance in order to have an “understanding of how the

world works,” and knowledge of psychology and sociology for an “understanding of why people

behave as they do, individually and as members of groups” (Hannaford, 1988). Public affairs

manager interact with all employees in management, like the head of finance or marketing, so

they should have some knowledge of these fields. They are also constantly interacting with the

public, so having an understanding of the way people think and act is extremely helpful.

The Future for Public Affairs

The future for public affairs is bright due to the increasing recognition of public affairs as

an essential and vital part of an organization. More and more companies are relying on public

affairs to link themselves to the government and are adding public affairs professionals to their

management teams. One study by the Foundation for Public Affairs found that “80% of

companies did not cut their public affairs budgets during the economic recession,” which is most

likely linked to the “recognition of public affairs’ importance” in companies in recent years
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(Levenshus, 2013). Public affairs continues to be recognized as a key management function in

any organization or corporation.

Personal Opinion of Public Affairs

After conducting an immense amount of research on government relations and public

affairs, I am very interested in public affairs as a career path now. I was very skeptical of this

specialization when first beginning my research and did not think I would enjoy learning about

it. I always thought I would want to specialize in arts and entertainment PR because it seems fun

and interesting. Frankly, I thought that public affairs was a boring and grueling career choice

before researching it. However, I was very surprised when I found myself enjoying what I was

researching. Not only do public affairs managers need to keep up with what is happening in the

media, they need to be up-to-date as to what is happening in Washington as well. It is important

that they always know what is on the legislative agenda in order to protect their organization and

its stakeholders. This seems like a very exciting career to me because there is always something

new that is happening and new to be done. The legislative agenda is always changing and public

affairs managers therefore always need to be informed to determine what is at stake for the

organization they are working for. I love keeping up-to-date about politics and it is exciting that

this is what the job of public affairs entails. After researching this field, public affairs is now a

career path of interest to me and is definitely on my radar for the future.

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Works Cited

Taylor, M. (2013). Government relations. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), ​Encyclopedia of public relations

(Vol. 1, pp. 403-405). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi:

10.4135/9781452276236.n226

Levenshus, A. (2013). Public affairs. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), ​Encyclopedia of public relations​ (Vol.

1, pp. 710-711). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi:

10.4135/9781452276236.n389

Public Affairs and Government Section. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2019, from

https://www.prsa.org/public-affairs-government-section/

Hawin, P. (2018, June 06). Public affairs vs. public relations: What is the difference? Retrieved

February 19, 2019, from

https://www.ragan.com/public-affairs-vs-public-relations-what-is-the-difference/

Hannaford, P. (1988). What is public affairs?​ Public Relations Quarterly, 33(​ 3), 11. Retrieved

from ​https://search.proquest.com/docview/222503937?accountid=14214

Job description: Public affairs manager. (2017, January 4). Retrieved February 19, 2019, from

https://www.prweek.com/article/1461024/job-description-public-affairs-manager
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Hansen-Horn, T. L. (2013). Lobbying. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), ​Encyclopedia of public relations

(Vol. 1, pp. 521-522). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi:

10.4135/9781452276236.n285

Public Affairs: A Career Worth Considering. (2011, December 05). Retrieved from

http://platformmagazine.org/2011/12/05/public-affairs-a-career-worth-considering/

Public Relations Activities. (2018, May 28). Retrieved from

https://www.agilitypr.com/resources/pr-glossary/public-relations-activities/