Consider:

The managers of two department stores frantically scrambled to do damage control following employee-actions that sparked public outrage.

In first scenario, a sales person refused to call 911 when a mother requested help for her child who was experiencing a seizure. "It's not our policy to make phone calls for customers," said staffer.

In second incident, a sales person walked away wordlessly when a pregnant woman reported dizziness and asked for help. Other shoppers assisted after she collapsed. "An unfortunate incident," manger told local journalists.

The media coverage of these two incidents could not have been good for business. That old saying "No such thing as bad publicity" isn't always true.

Meanwhile, in another department store in a different city, a shopper suffered an injury to her arm when a heavy box fell from a high-up shelf. The woman pointed out to a supervisor that boxes were unstable in their present position. She suggested they be moved elsewhere before someone was seriously hurt. Several weeks later, supervisor merely shrugged when shopper returned and pointed out that boxes had not been moved.

The above incidents all involved large, international chains. Is situation any better with medium or small businesses?

We'd like to think so, but answer is "Not always." In one example, a diner at a small mom-and-pop restaurant was dumped unceremoniously on floor when a chair collapsed. The waiter snickered and walked away, leaving it to other customers to ask if person was hurt.

Undoubtedly, it was not store policy to refuse assistance to customers experiencing medical emergencies. Undoubtedly, it was not company policy to stack merchandise in such a way that shoppers are at risk of injury, or to laugh at customers who are victims of damaged restaurant chairs.

The problems occurred when employees were faced with situations that called for good judgment and independent decision making. In other words, they failed to display what most of us call "common sense."

True, some values may be less obvious, but they are just as useful to organization life and operations as those public relations values that jump right off page.

Fundamental Value

Just look at fundamental premise of public relations: People act on their perception of facts leading to behaviors about which something can be done. When public relations creates, changes or reinforces that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviors affect organization, public relations mission is accomplished.

Reading those words, can anyone seriously question whether any organization – business, non-profit or public entity – should embrace this discipline?

I believe gold medal value is contained in that very fundamental premise – i.e., behaviors of your key audiences are crucial to success of your organization. If those audiences don’t behave as you would like them to, achieving your organization’s most important goals and objectives will be immensely more difficult. The fundamental premise tells us that precisely because public relations zeros in on altering perceptions, and thus behaviors of your key target audiences, it helps you get to where you want to be. Which strongly suggests that proper application of public relations can be central not only to your organization’s success, but possibly to its very survival.

Strategic Value

Public opinion is leverage that allows us to succeed. But our most significant contribution to organizational achievement is strategic ability to create, change or reinforce existing public perception and behaviors. It is this capability, this talent if you will, that can lead an employer/client to organization success.

Tactical Value

Equally valuable is public relation’s ability to follow with carefully selected tactics tailored to reach target audiences with effective communications, to create and also tailor persuasive messages designed to influence their perception/behavior, and to gain momentum and impact by implementing those tactics with pinpoint accuracy and timing.

In process, employer/client receives value and benefits when public relations gains and holds understanding and acceptance of those audiences, those publics, without which his or her organization cannot prosper.

Reputational Value

Concurrently in process, organization’s reputation is burnished delivering value that only strengthens its ability to pursue successfully its goals and objectives.

A successful business benefitting from public relations values such as these is more able to meet its obligations to society as a good corporate citizen, taxpayer, employer and reliable maker/supplier of quality, fairly-priced goods or services – thus delivering enormous value by serving public interest.