CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In educational institution Public relations (PR) is defined as a planned and systematic management function to help improve the programs and services of an education system (especially tertiary institutions of learning) (Ofuani, Sulaimon, & Adebisi, 2018; Okwelle & Agwi, 2018). According to the scholar, public relation in (tertiary) academic institutions depends on a comprehensive two-way communication process which involves both internal (e.g., sta and students) and external (e.g., general public, parents, communities and the government) publics with the aim of arousing enhanced grasp of the tasks, goals, accomplishments and needs of the institution. Hence, public relation performs a reinforcement role to organizational communication (Okwelle, 2010; Yahaya & Abubakar, 2017). Public relation is a critical tool for enhancement of employee performance, establishing, fostering and developing growth and stability in any organization (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015). Furthermore, Michnik (2015) highlighted that public relations concerns the total communication of any organization. In a time when information is being regarded as power (Ofuani et al., 2018; Paul, 2016) it is important that communication channels and Public relations practices are updated to meet critical needs and routine of their organizations, including public tertiary institutions (Adagala & Michael, 2017). There are about two key resources in the organizational public relation industry which include information and communication which are the raw material and the internal and external publics are the market for information and communication services while management and employees are considered as the factors of service production (Ofuani et al., 2018; Paul, 2016). This research will focus on the internal publics, specifically staff and workers. Hence, all these factors must be maximized to ensure that all internal publics are effectively informed and enlightened about events, orders and developments in order to ensure symbiotic relationships in the organization (Suchan, 2016). In this perspective, formal organizations such as tertiary educational institutions must deploy all the available means to communicate effectively to the internal publics because communication is indispensable to job performance in any organization (Adagala & Michael, 2017)