An examination of the relationship between a public organisation and its market : a case study on the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC)

Abstract

How does a public organisation establish an understanding and acceptance of its mission among the pre-existing attitudes in its market? The Public Relations department at the Employment and Training Corporation faced such a challenge when the Corporation launched the concept of job related training and customer-orientation in the Government employment services. The difficulties to be addressed were as follows: • ETC faced a national characteristic opposition to Government induced change. • The Corporation was created from a totally new start, new people, new systems and new location. It had no identity and no track record, and consequently minimal credibility. • It was attempting to introduce an entirely new style of Employment service, hither to untried in Malta. • It had associations with a Government department which had a very poor reputation for service and quality. • It needed to produce early results to convince both the Government and the Public that it was a viable operation. • Its public was (and still is) very wide and extremely varied. This study is an analysis and review of efforts to overcome these constraints. My point of departure is a definition of the Corporation itself; what are its functions, its policies and its objectives. Of equal importance is an analysis of its external environment; in terms of the major internal and external publics of ETC. Sound research pin-points which situations and attitudes oppose or hinder the Corporation's objectives. On these grounds a number of communication objectives are set to tackle these problems. This study contains a critique of the communication tools used by ETC in the various situations. The PR strategy aims at informing, with the intention of getting the public's understanding and acceptance of a concept, leading to positive action. To illustrate this process, I focused on one particular ETC "product", the Technician Apprenticeship Scheme and analysed the strategy implemented to change both trainees' and employers' attitude to job related training. Measuring the success of a PR campaign is not easy, as it deals with the measurement of changes in attitudes. I have discussed possible methods of evaluation and how they can be applied to the PR endeavours of ETC.