Blackwell Reference Online

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Public relations (PR) is a strategic management function responsible for cultivation of good relations between an organization and its strategic constituencies (stakeholders and publics; →  Stakeholder Theory ; Grunig 2006 ). The ultimate goal of →  Public Relations is social harmony. The co-orientation model of public relations assumes that organizations prefer harmony to conflict and that they can use communication for that purpose (→  Organization–Public Relationships ; Consensus-Oriented Public Relations ). The co-orientation model of PR originates in psychological balance theory, which is a motivational theory of attitude change (→  Consistency Theories ). Heider (1946) proposed the consistency motive that helps people toward psychological balance. Links between people, and an object or idea can be favorable or unfavorable, and people rationalize and adjust their attitudes and/or behaviors to achieve internal balance. Two friends should both like or dislike a third person; if not, each of them suffers a psychological imbalance that can be overcome by one of them changing their attitude toward the third person. If that change of attitude does not occur, friendship suffers and a psychological balance can be restored by breaking the friendship. Now they still do not value the third person in a similar manner, but they do not like each other anyway, so this is no longer problematic. ... log in or subscribe to read full text