BUS603: Managing People

Public relations scholars have long expressed concerns about the potential for functional encroachment by marketing and other similar departments, which is defined as "one department intruding on the activities traditionally in the domain of the other". But are public relations practitioners claiming internal communication as part of their domain? Neill found evidence of confusion regarding public relations' oversight of internal communication among other departments. While public relations practitioners in the study named employee communications as one of their primary responsibilities, a human resources executive said the "focus and influence for public affairs is external a lot of times rather than internal with HR issues" Scholars and industry leaders reported that marketing and human resources also have managed internal communication, and marketing scholars have provided evidence of an interest in managing internal communication from an employer branding or internal marketing perspective. 

Even more threatening to public relations is structural encroachment, which is defined as assigning someone from outside of public relations to manage the function, which also diminishes public relations' influence in communication policy decisions. So if public relations executives yield management of employee communication to marketing or human resources, it remains to be seen whether or not that would weaken their influence in the organization and increase the likelihood of structural encroachment. This merits more research into the oversight over internal communication.