Public relations

As construction project management becomes the focus of greater scrutiny to a growing number of public groups, project managers find themselves faced with the challenge of new degrees of accountability to these groups. Aside from employees on all levels from management down to the general workforce, these public groups (or “publics”) include suppliers, the general community, and customers [6]. Consequently, the success of any project is dependent to a large measure on the project manager's people skills [7].

In learning to deal with these publics, the project manager and members of the project team are afforded a real advantage when the partnering process is utilized due to the fact that one of the central tenets of partnering is open communications among the project team members. This communication is the key to effective result-oriented public relations.

In traditional or nonmatrix organizations, the public relations manager is often at a disadvantage in that this person seldom has decision-making power. On the other hand, in managing the typical project, there is seldom a separate position for a public relations manager. Therefore, for a smoothly functioning operation, the typical project manager must learn through the partnering process to respond quickly and effectively to issues affecting the project's many publics.

PUBLIC/SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF PMs

One publication issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce Task Force on Corporate Social Performance distinguished 13 classifications of corporate social responsibility along with 92 specific measures for these classifications. Following are the 13 classifications, along with an example measurement:

This article was double-blind reviewed.

1. Economic impact: Number of newly created jobs by type and location.
2. Quality of products: Number and type of product liability complaints.
3. Consumer relations: Number of complaints, by type, turnaround time for answering the complaint, etc.
4. Environmental impacts: Level of emissions, by type of pollutant.
5. Energy conservation: Amounts of energy conserved, by major type.
6. Employee relations: Equal employment opportunity evidenced by number of minorities and women employed in nine categories defined by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
7. Employee relations: Job satisfactions shown by the number of employees involved in career-advancement programs; provision of day care.
8. Employee relations: Occupational safety and health; number of accidents, by type.
9. Investments (primarily for banks and insurance companies): Investments that have social impact or that maybe risky and have below-normal rates of return.
10. Community relations: Voluntary contributions; assessment of impact of charitable contributions.
11. Community relations: Minority economic development; dollar amounts of goods and services purchased from minority-owned firms.
12. Other community relations activities: Number and type of community activities held on company property.
13. Government relations: Number and occupation of employees who have direct contact with government officials [4].

While this list may indicate the corporate expectations of many people, is it possible for a project manager to comply with all of the above items? At what point does the project manager encounter problems with public relations?

In order to answer these questions, it is useful to break down organizational responsibilities into three basic categories:

1. Performance of basic economic tasks (the business of the organization).
2. Responsibilities arising as a result of performing the business of the organization (in other words, repercussions of the performance of basic business or organizational tasks on groups outside the organization).
3. Responsibilities for assistance with general social problems not directly connected with the business organization [2, p. 55].

Generally, dealing with public groups through public relations is most directly linked with the first two categories.

ADVANTAGES OF PARTNERING

What is partnering? It is really a new name for the old belief in mutual cooperation, a voluntary relationship (not a contract) of good faith in which teambuilding processes forge a project management team committed to work toward achieving mutual goals. Key elements in partnering:

1. Commitment
2. Trust
3. Common objectives
4. Shared risks/shared rewards

How can the typical project management team use the partnering process to promote public relations? As pointed out in a Project Management Journal article [5, p. 18], for each project the purpose of partnering is to create an effective “problem-finding/problem-solving management team.” Members of that team must appreciate that maintaining the partnership is to everyone's advantage and, thus, is everyone's responsibility.

For each project the partnering process necessitates prompt communication of facts or news as well as the preservation of open and precise lines of communication among all team members. Any problems need to be exposed and solved on site by the site team whenever possible [5, p. 20].

DEALING WITH PUBLIC RELATIONS PROBLEMS

Since public relations is a communications function, as much information as possible must be available to the project management team during all phases of the project in order to make organizational decisions and statements beneficial to all parties. In dealing with public relations problems, there are usually four stages [2, p. 57]:

1. Issue identification
2. Issue analysis
3. Issue change strategy alternatives
4. Issue action plans

Partnering aids the project management team in all of these areas. For example, in the construction of the Arizona Canal Diversion Channel (ACDC), Reach IV, which was partnered between the Flood Control District of Maricopa County, Arizona, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Sundt Corporation, seven common goals were established: safety, quality, milestones, public relations, problems dealt with in the field, fair profit, and having fun (while completing the job) [1]. (Interestingly, most of these mutual goals were included as categories in the list of the U.S. Department of Commerce Task Force on Corporate Social Performance.)

Dealing With the Challenges

One of the unprecedented challenges of the ACDC project was moving underneath the parking lot of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, a five-star resort. while the project management team was allowed to do a lot of pot-holing, exploration, and drilling ahead of time throughout the 16 miles of the ACDC (looking for types of materials which would be encountered), they were not allowed to do any exploratory work in the Biltmore Hotel area, and that was the very locality where they ran into groundwater and a differing site condition. Working under a stipulated deadline (1500 feet of work had to be completed between May 28 and September 10, 1991), the only way the partners could resolve this dilemma was to share all information and act quickly. Acting as a unified organization, the team was able to excavate the unexpected site condition, then come in and set the steel, place the invert, place the walls, place the deck, backfill everything, and restore the final grade in the three months allowed [1]. The team's success not only resulted in favorable media coverage, thanks to effective public relations, but also reinforced the team's resolve to maintain the partnership.

Handling the Specifics

In any construction project, noise and public safety may pose problems. Again, partnering aided in the ACDC project. Detailed coordination with City of Phoenix officials resulted in a night-haul operation approval that improved the public safety predicament and assisted in helping reduce costs. The contractor diligently persisted in efforts to reduce the noise level through sound barriers and other measures.

The success of this endeavor was attributed to quick reactive and response time. As the team reported, newsletters, flyers, public meetings, etc., showed a great good faith effort and, again, received favorable media coverage.

DEVELOPING SYNERGISTIC PUBLIC RELATIONS OUTCOMES

All project team members who have been involved in successful partnering are familiar with synergistic outcomes. In a public relations sense, synergy can occur when one reaches a large audience and influences attitudes, thinking, and behavior in a positive direction; in essence, a public relations strategy that has a multiplier effect. Following are a two examples of creative public relations strategies.

1. Invite a reporter to a partnering workshop. This approach has resulted in favorable newspaper coverage in several U.S. cities. For example, an article in The Post Bulletin (Rochester, Minnesota) described partnering as an effective way to dam the litigation flood so common in the construction industry [8].

2. Get active in your own professional association. Some of the early change agent giants utilizing and recommending partnering with a synergistic effect have been Dan Burns, Corps of Engineers; Larry Bonine, formerly Corps of Engineers and Bechtel/Parsons/ Brinckerhoff of the Central Artery Project and currently director of transportation, State of Arizona; Charles Cowan, formerly Corps of Engineers and currently director of economic development, State of Arizona; Dick Bogert, resident officer in charge of construction, U.S. Navy, San Diego, California; Neil Erwin, director of Maricopa County Flood Control; Bill Dorey, executive vice president, Granite Construction; Peter Figue, president of Cianbro Corporation; Robert S. Peckar, senior partner with Peckar and Abramson.

Prior to the introduction of partnering in the public sector, claims and lawsuits averaged $1 billion annually. Rating its partnered projects with a 90 percent success rate, the Corps of Engineers views the process truly as a means for all parties to “win” [9].

SUMMARY

Perhaps one of the central keys to successful project management public relations through partnering lies in early action to an_y issues that are raised by an organization's many publics. Keeping all internal organizational channels open allows the project management team to identify, diagnose, and evaluate salient issues as well as develop viable action plans to deal with these issues. The Arizona Canal Diversion Channel stands in testimony of-the effectiveness of such partnering strategies.