Assessing the Practice of Public Relations Practitioners In Creating Service Awareness and Reputation: Commercial Bank of Ethiopia in Focus

Abstract

Public relations are very important tool to facilitate the effort of CBE undergoing public attitude and disseminate information to publics. The general objective of the study was assessing the practice of public relations practitioners in creating service awareness and reputation of commercial bank of Ethiopia. It identified the profession, practice, experience, awareness, role and tools of public relations practitioners in CBE. It assessed whether the pr practitioners practice their roles effectively to create service awareness of commercial bank of Ethiopia. The study adopted case study design. The study used qualitative research approach and purposive sampling method. The study employed in-depth interviews, focus group discussion and document analysis to understand pr practices. The qualitative data and the document review, data analyses were done using thematic analysis method. The result indicated that public relations are powerful pivot to achieve effective communication between internal and external publics. Public relations ensure consistency of message and flow of information that is communicated with aim of CBE. The study mainly indicated that less attentions was paid to professional public relations practice, poor understanding and misconception of profession; activities were not considered a top management function. Lack of effective professional skill, unrelated field of study, lack of human power, lack of adequate budget and absence of adequate capacity to building trainings were main challenges of the practice in CBE. Therefore, the study recommended that to creating effective service awareness and to sustain reputation of CBE, PR unit should recognized active PR programs. Beside, CBE better to give due attention to public relations practice, top management and practitioners should understand their strategic public relations activities.