ABSTRACT
This thesis, Roles of public relation in building customer
trust in the banking sector.. A case study of wetland microfinance bank,
ogwashi uku is based on finding out the need of Public Relations at management
level in a business organization using Wetland microfinance bank, ogwashi uku.
I this research work the researcher has investigated on how
the management sees the public relations unit of the bank and how its
activities affects the bank and also its benefits from these activities.
Questionnaires and oral interviews were used by the
researchers to gather data in the analysis.
A total of 126 questionnaires were sent out to respondents comprising of
the management staff, the working staff and customers of Wetland microfinance
bank, ogwashi uku. The researcher took
note of their responses and this formed the basis of this research. Above all the researcher read and made use of
important and reliable books written by authors on Public Relations.
From findings, the researcher was able to observe that the
Public Relations unit of F.B.N. is used as a managerial tool and its activities
are being used effectively to obtain the bank’s goals and objectives.
Another major discovery is that the bank through the Public
Relation Unit has been able to make use of suggestions made by customers to
make amendments in the course of its operations.
In ending this work, the researcher has made some
recommendations both for the growth of the bank and also for further studies in
this area.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF
THE STUDY
1.
STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEMS
1.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1.
CONCEPTUAL AND OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF VARIABLE
1.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
REFERENCES
CHAPTER TWO
1.
LITERATURE
REVIEW
1.
THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
1.
PUBLIC RELATIONS DEFINED
1.
OPERATIVE PARTS OF THE
ABOVE
DEFINITIONS
1.
PUBLIC RELATIONS PROCESS
1.
THE PLACE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
IN MANAGEMENT
1.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
1.
AGENDA SETTING THEORY
REFERENCES
CHAPTER THREE
1.
METHODOLOGY
3.1 RESEARCH METHOD
1.
STUDY UNIVERSAL/POPULATION
1.
SAMPLE SIZE
1.
INSTRUMENT OF DATA COLLECTION
1.
METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
REFERENCES
CHAPTER FOUR
1.
DATA ANALYSIS AND
PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
1.
RESULTS
1.
TESTING OF HYPOTHESIS
1.
MAJOR FINDINGS
CHAPTER FIVE
1.
SUMMARY
AND CONCLUSION
1.
RECOMMENDATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Business organizations do not exist in a vacuum. Whether dealing on good or specialized in
rendering service. Organizations (both
private and public) exist at the expense of people in two factors have added
impetus to the concept of people in today’s organizations. They include firstly, the upsurge in the
number and complexity of organizations and secondly are the ever increasing
sophistication in the demand of consumers.
Today, the need for improvement in the use of “public
Relations” as a means of achieving greater organizational results is
increasingly being realized. Today,
organization that really wants to have the leading edge must be plugged or
placed into trotline relationship with the customers and other publics. Today it is being realized, more than ever
before, that any organization, which chooses to work at cross – purposes (misunderstanding) with its various publics
especially the customers will not survive for a long time. the notion of secrecy that characterized the
activities of most business organizations is now far past.
Ikechukwu Nwosu, (1990) rightly put it “Public Relations is
of great importance in human indispensability in creating goodwill,
understanding the support needed between an institution (business organization)
and its public”. This seen in his
definition of Public Relation, when he said that Public Relations practice is a
deliberately planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual
understanding between and organization and its public.
The prevailing notion that the customer is “all powerful and
therefore needs to be consulted in the various stages of production of foods
and service so that the product comes out exactly the way he wants it has made
public relation more and more relevant in today’s business organization. So business organizations in general must not
isolate themselves from the public, but should maintain a cordial continuing
relationship with them.
Banks have gone a long way in the country or society as a
whole. They are recognized as business
organizations selling services to the public.
The public’s readiness to buys the services depends largely on how much
they know about the services and the confidence does not come however through
“quietness” but through their effort in publicizing their activities on
confidence overtime. Looking at the
failed banks situation in the country, where most customers of such banks lost
their money to the illegal activities of such banks. So there is the need for publicizing bank
activities for proper knowledge or information to the customers and
public. By the time all the necessary
information are made known to the public, dubious banks would be well
differentiated by the public.
Banks cannot afford and should not afford to loose their
customers, particularly on a continuous basis.
They have to strive to win customers but should not stop at that. They should also retain the customers, and
this has to do with public relations.
As a management function, public relations encompass the
following:-
1.
Anticipating, analyzing and interpreting public
opinion, attitude and issues which might impact, for good or ill, the
operations and plans for the organization.
1.
Counseling management at all levels in the organization
with regard to policy decision, courses of action and communication, taking
into account their public ramifications and the organization’s social or
citizenship responsibilities.
1.
Researching, conducting and evaluating on a continuous
basis, programme of action and communication to achieve informed public
understanding necessary to the success of an organization’s aims. This may include marketing, financial, fund
raising, employee, community of government relations and other programmes.
1.
Planning and implementing the organization’s effort to influence
or change public policy.
1.
Setting objectives, planning, budgeting, recruiting and
training staff, developing facilities; in short managing the resources needed
to perform all the above (Salu 1994).
Banks exist, therefore to serve the financial needs and
wants of people as individuals, businesses, institutions, government, etc.
Conversely, a public relation is primarily concerned with
creating goodwill, promoting and selling bank services, that, marketing in
order to enhance bank’s profitability.
However, of recent, many factors have contributed to the
decline of bank’s profitability in the Nigeria banks such factors include
inflation, central banks regulatory guidelines, poor management of institution,
fraud and malpractices, bad asset composition, political instability among
others. Such factors have sent hoe some
banks to their distress levels today.
Public relation through its specialized communication skills owes it a
duty to package effective communication message necessary to put the management
and staff of the banks including their external public in apposition to see the
bank a positive perspective or point of view, making the to shun such vices
like fraud, malpractice, etc. that run counter to the wealthy development of
the sector. The public relations
department owes its as duty to carry out trend analysis or environment scanning
by engaging on a periodic assessment and monitoring of banking environment.
The department in doing this uses the formular known as SWOT
analytical approach i.e. you assess the banking system’s Strength, Weakness,
Opportunity and Threats and provide adequate information to the management
(Nwosu, 1996).
It is indeed painful to note that after many years of the
integration of the department in the banking system, banks have not changed
much for the better. Worthy to mention
in this discourse is also the fact that some banks give a lean attention to the
department while other, out of deliberate misinterpretation and misconception
or through ignorance thought of the department to be negligible or have not
effect at all.
It was against this backdrop or finding lasting solution to
this sector that rekindled the interest of the research in assessing the use of
public relations as managerial tool in business organization (Wetland
microfinance bank, ogwashi uku, Enugu branch).