Definition

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) claimed in 1988: "Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other."^{[citation needed]} According to the PRSA, the essential functions of public relations include research, planning, communications dialogue and evaluation.

Edward Louis Bernays, who is considered the founding father of modern public relations along with Ivy Lee, in the early 1900s defined public relations as a management function which tabulates public attitudes, defines the policies, procedures and interests of an organization. . . followed by executing a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance" (see history of public relations).

Today, "Public Relations is a set of management, supervisory, and technical functions that foster an organization's ability to strategically listen to, appreciate, and respond to those persons whose mutually beneficial relationships with the organization are necessary if it is to achieve its missions and values." (Robert L. Heath, Encyclopedia of Public Relations). Essentially it is a management function that focuses on two-way communication and fostering of mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics.

There is a school of public relations that holds that it is about relationship management. Phillips explored this concept in his paper Towards relationship management: Public relations at the core of organisational development in 2006 which lists a range of academics and practitioners who support this view.