PUBLIC  RELATION IN
INTERDEPENDENT WORLD
By Dr.G C Banik,Chief General Manager(PR),Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited

The interdependence of the peoples of today's world is a consequence of the development of science and technology. Primitive man was essentially self-sufficient within his family or tribe, which lived off the land in the immediate neighbourhood. As he developed horticulture, the domestication of animals and more sophisticated tools, different members of the community were assigned different tasks, and specialisation began. Family squabbles expanded to tribal wars and individuals became dependent on the tribe for defense of their animals, their land and other possessions. As horse-drawn vehicles and ships increased in size and range, trading between tribes and with countries in even more remote areas became possible, making a wider range of commodities and more advanced standard of living possible.

The state-of-the-art of public relations aims at understanding the profession of public relations, the environment in which it works and the technology which it uses for the ultimate objective of achieving its desired professional goals.
In almost all parts of the world, the trend is towards increased influence of people.The trend is fostered by instant and world-wide communications, making all aspects of life visible to most people.

There is great increase in diversity of people and their interests. That leads to splintering of view-points and identification with various special interest organisations, ideas and movements. These facts make the process of dealing with the human climate much more complex, requiring a broader awareness of social dynamic and application of more sophisticated skills.

Public relations theory and philosophy applies equally in every country and in every facet of business and private life. The emphasis will however, vary considerably according to circumstances and to the needs of the situations. In different countries public relations practice will be influenced, of course, by the country's culture, religion and all other inherent characteristics.

When writing was invented, interdependence was extended from manual skills to intellectual ones and to the specialisations of the craftsmen, were added those of the scribe, the lawyer/administrator, and the philosopher/scientist. The permanence of the written record makes us as dependent today on the work of our ancestors as on that of our contemporaries. Now "Nation speaks unto Nation" and it is an easy to communicate with a colleague on another continent as one in the next village. In early times the death of one man would be of concern only to his immediate family; today can have worldwide repercussions and may even change the course of history.

But the world is finite and this increase specialisation and interdependence cannot continue forever. The limit would be reached if we had a single world government, a single world bank, one distribution system for each kind of food, one transport authority, one grid for the distribution of one kind of power, and one system of education. This might appear on paper to be the most economically efficient way of running things but experience of large centralised governments and organisations has already shown that, beyond a certain size, they become unwieldy and unable to adapt to changes of technology or fashion. Even when everything works according to plan they are unpopular because the individual customer has no choice and little influence; when there is a breakdown, the lack of alternatives, the complete dependence on the specialist monopoly, can lead to catastrophe.

In many growing complexity of our civilisation, the need of PR was felt for winning goodwill of the various constituents of the public. Modern business too, with their social perspective started thinking in terms of their social obligations and social sanction-a sense of duty to the society in which they operate.

Interdependence is an essential for survival in any but the most primitive of societies and the sharing of unequal talents and tasks makes these tasks easier for all and is the 'sine qua non' of an advanced civilisation. But for individual happiness as well as an insurance against unforeseen events, some independence is also essential even if the individual's efforts are less efficient than those of Big Brother. we have to find a compromise between monopoly and diversity, between the World State and the individual, between interdependence and independence. In only one activity is total interdependence desirable and that is in the maintenance of individual and international law and order through the police and military forces. The desirability of even this must be questioned unless the laws which those forces uphold are made by the community as a whole through the democratic process.

The explosion of new communication technologies is opening up new frontiers of knowledge and experiences. This is also radically changing the techniques for influencing public opinion. PR in this interdependent world stands for linking the people and binding them together as never before and ultimately make it possible for any individual anywhere on earth to tap into man's entire store of knowledge or to gain access to the multidimensional media sources. In this environment of global communications, PR is an ever more effective instrument for the creation of understanding, harmony and mutual benefit among organisations, sovereign nations and the world at large, bringing into being the concept of a "global village".

Interdependence has two components, a giving and a taking, a provider and a dependent. There is no virtue in being dependent, it is something which is forced on us all from birth; on the other hand, there is, of course, virtue in unselfish giving. Whilst the poor and the need for charity are always with us, the ideal that we strive for is independence in an interdep- endent world, independence achieved by exchanging our skills and our resources for those of others. But the skills are unequally divided among people and the resources are unequally distributed over the world. This latter statement is, unfortunately, particularly true of man's most essential requirements-food and energy.
Civilisation is in a major transition. All over the world, relations between people and organisations are in a flux. All relationships are under stress. The pressure of change involve transformations in people's attitudes and how they relate to all organisations and institutions. Clearly, means of reconciling institutions and restive people are vital. Established means are being questioned. Public relations as it is perceived by sophisticated practitioners, encompasses new means and processes.

Whether the public relations field will rise on the crest of new needs depends on 
* how public relations people perform 
* how new practitioners are educated and developed, 
* how the field is perceived by those who need its services and 
* how it adapts to the multiple demands of the emerging era.

This condition creates a crossroads. Public relations will either become recognised as an indispensable key to all organisations' viability or it will be relegated to merely carrying out a range of useful techniques.

In almost all parts of the world the trend is toward increased influence of the people. That trend is so pronounced, in fact, that repressive governments find it necessary to cut the people off from the outside world in their effort to control them. The trend is fostered by instant and worldwide communications, making all subjects and aspects of life visible to most people. Expectations are elevated and become demands. A major demand is for a role in the increasingly sophisticated economy and society that people see emerging.

This trend is inherent in what is being called the post-industrial world. Unless a major catastrophe diverts the trend, it means that understanding, dealing with and directing public attitudes can become the most vital skill of the remainder of this century. Just as invention was the main force in the first portion of the century and administration in the second.
Public relations helps organisations and groups adapt to the times and to their publics. That requires perceptive planning based on, 
* careful analysis,
* objective evaluations,
* creative synthesis and 
* sound principles of communication.

Sophisticated public relations professionals can conduct such planning for the organisations.

There is a great increase in diversity of people and their interests. That leads to a splintering of viewpoints and to identification with various special organisations, ideas and movements. We have a strong trend toward individualism and attitudes; at the same time, there is an explosion of cults, causes, movements and groups that call for selfless cooperation. People exhibit an apathy toward voting, at the same time they demand participation in decision-making.

These facts make the process of dealing with the human climate much more complex, requiring a broader awareness of social dynamics and more sophisticated skills. Whenever an area becomes more complex and splintered, the need for professional skills to deal with it is increased.
Conversely, there is a continuing trend toward specialisation in almost all fields. Specialists devote their attention more and more to the narrow confines of their fields, thereby becoming less attuned to the interests and concerns of all others. The problems of understa- nding between groups and individuals, or between one group and another, are accentuated. That heightens the need for the 'switchboard' function of people who consciously keep themselves as broad as possible.

With the modernisation and technological upgradation, the expectations of the work force are also changing and increasing. The society as a whole in this interdependent world has too become more demanding. These changing and increasing expectations of the employees and the public at large, have made the task of the communicators more challenging. PR will have to play a crucial role to meet these situations. PR, therefore, should cover a broad spectrum of activity from communications and information technology to the achievement of productivity.

The continuation of old economic laws and big power diplomacy in a world beset by political cross-current poses a dilemma for the 20th century nation states. On the face of it, it looks as if the West is vulnerable to economic dislocation at a time of political uncertainties and shifting alliances in the developing world covering the vast span of Asia, Africa, Middle East, and Latin America. Yet, in the last 30 odd years, the division of wealth, trade and power has become even more uneven than in the past. Countries which have gained from industrialisation in the existing international economic order continue to become rich, while developing countries are denied the benefits of world development. Countries with greater degrees of specialisation and greater division of labour have become richer. Maldistribution of national resources, the rapid growth of population, limited savings and capital, all these have introduced a disturbing imbalance in the world economy.

Conflict of behaviour in many parts of the world and the increasing dependence of the industrialised Western nations on external sources of raw materials, especially oil signaled the beginning of a new era. With the rapid integration and interdependence of world markets, the international monetary system shifted toward exchange rate flexibility to adjust to free world trade.

Today the world poised on the edge of radical transformation of the existing economic and political relationships. Because of the widening gap between the rich developed North and the poor developing South, tensions and contradictions of the system as a whole have surfaced and are giving a new dimension to a struggle for restructuring the world economy. The inadequacy of the existing system and the emerging imperative of a more just global community have come to the force as the developed nations press for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) and a greater say in the restructuring of the world economic system. The objectives is to create a new and better environment for development so that the developing countries are to get the maximum benefits from development and transformation of their economies and societies.

While under colonialism, many countries felt dependent on their colonizers as the only source for a better education, for technological development, and for the improvement of their standard of life, the third world countries nowadays demand of their allies to facilitate these benefits only through an exchange of interests but also as a moral duty between the rich and the poor, the North and the South, the highly developed and the developing.
Interdependence is so important that we must direct all of our available science and skills towards improved relationships between people. Undoubtedly this is the most urgent need of man today.

It is a well established fact that the social or behavioural sciences provide the only verifiable knowledge of human behaviour. The missing link is a catalyst between behavioural scientists and managers of profit, not-for-profit, and government organisations to apply important scientific knowledge that is available.

Every human being is a consumer. In some markets of the world the consumer is fortunate and is rich enough to select from sophisticated luxuries of every kind, available from every part of the world. In other markets the contrast is tragic and even the necessities of life carry too high a price tag.
In a world that is being reduced in size every day by one form or another of communication, verbal, visual, and by air travel, we now have amazing facilities for learning about people who are remote from us in distance and tradition. Sadly we are slow to make use of these facilities. What is required is a strong desire to understand. Once understanding is established then goodwill should follow and eventually one hopes that skills, goods, health standards, educational opportunities and all life's comforts that many have been fortunate enough to take for granted, may be shared with those who so sorely suffer from their lack. In an interdependent world this sharing of atleast the necessities of life should be the objective of us all.

The PR practitioners have now a golden opportunity to become involved internationally as well and play their role, drawing on the international pool of information and other opportunities provided by the international medias. It is impossible for us to live in isolation in a world that cries out for global solutions and for better communications.

Information and communication have become the most vital inputs for the process of economic development. The underdeveloped countries of the world, who are trying to raise their living standards, to modernise their traditional societies, and to develop an industrial structure without which they cannot hope to raise income level, are finding that the present situation in this regard to the flow of information is loaded with disadvantages for them. However much the effort may be made to decry the attempt to link up the issue of a new world information order with the demand for a new world economic order, there is no gainsaying the fact that for the developing countries the correction of the prevailing imbalances in the area of information flows is a matter of urgent importance.

The world is constantly changing. Such changes affect the life of every one of us and in turn bring the world closer, together. In reality, we are a 'one world' whereas Rudyard Kipling may have been correct in his famous ballad when he wrote, "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.", this is not true today. East and West have, met and we live in one world, a world which is interdependent. Such interdependence has brought upon us all new and demanding challenges requiring us ence has brought upon us all new and demanding challenges requiring us all to cooperate more closely whether in developed or undeveloped nations. Only through more effective political and economic coordination the industrial democracies can cope with the challenges raised by the world's poorer nations and by state-run communist economies.
The world today is a large interactive system of different types of societies, similar and dissimilar. They have so far remained together in a state of relative equilibrium through a balance of various forces. In such a wider perspective the community of interests between different dissimilar groups appear somewhat tenuous. The conflict of interests assume greater proportion instead. As a result situations of disequilibrium appear at different times, places and levels of intensity. This is further aggravated by an unequal relationships of interdependence among certain groups of nations.

In such a world, trust and cooperation, communication and mutually beneficial working relationships among all social entities are not only vital to human progress, but in view of the nuclear threat that hangs like a sword of Damocles over all our heads, vital to human survival.

In the context of interdependence the major task would be to understand one's own country in all its dimensions as also the other countries in the same manner and find a commonality of interests to change attitudes that hinder and obstruct interdependence and thus build bridges among people. It is a battle for men's minds. The challenge before the public relations profession today is to find ways and means of cutting across the barriers to reach out to the peoples of the world with the message of interdependence for peace, progress and prosperity.