Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the tasks through which communication professionals and public relations contribute to organizational decision making. In-depth interviews were conducted with Finnish public relations professionals about how they contribute to organizational decision making. The findings provide a rich picture of the tasks in relation to this. The results show that public relations professionals contribute to organizational decision-making processes by nine different tasks. Furthermore, the results indicate that during an organizational decision-making process, professionals switch from one task to another over time, and work simultaneously on several tasks. This paper offers a comprehensive representation of the various tasks through which public relations professionals contribute to organizational decision making, and provides a detailed description of the various tasks throughout the phases of a decision-making process. Based on the findings, this paper introduces a contribution model for further investigation of the topic. The model can be used as a referring tool in practice to enhance communicative processes related to organizational strategy and decision making, and in this way the model will also further the bridging function and strategic role of public relations when adapting to a changing environment.