175502 Relationship Management

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 12:50 PM

Kurt Wise, PhD, APR , School of Communications -- Public Relations Department, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT
     
The field of health diplomacy has drawn considerable attention in recent years. Some writers have noted the need for those involved in health diplomacy to adopt new strategic approaches, learn new skills, and be trained across disciplines. Public health leaders searching for new approaches and skills would benefit from exposure to public relations scholarship, and more specifically, relationship management.

Relationship management, recently explicated as a general theory of public relations, offers those in the health diplomacy arena a method for managing the myriad relationships necessary in planning, implementing, and evaluating global health efforts. Public health officials have worked in partnerships and collaborations for years, but without a system for forging and maintaining relationships necessary for improving health. This article serves to introduce public health leaders to the concept of relationship management and suggests ways relationship management might be implemented in health diplomacy efforts.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will be introduced to the concept of relationship management, a system public health leaders can use when collaboration is necessary for success – including collaboration with partners at the global level. Emphasis will be placed on the emerging arena of health diplomacy. Participants will hear from Dr. Kurt Wise, Associate Professor and Chair of the Public Relations Department at Quinnipiac University. Dr. Wise holds a Ph.D. in public relations from the University of Maryland and is an accredited public relations counselor who has held public relations management positions in the public and private sectors. Dr. Wise will explain how public relations practice and scholarship has moved from an emphasis on managing communication to an emphasis on managing relationships to increase organizational effectiveness. Some of the learning objectives are as follows: 1. Participants will learn how to view public relations from a relational perspective. 2. Participants will learn about the need for new strategies and skills in the growing arena of health diplomacy. 3. Participants will learn how to construct and apply a relationship management system. 4. Participants will learn how to use relationship management to assess the success of their efforts and improve effectiveness with respect to their collaborative efforts.

Keywords: Collaboration, Change Concepts

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I hold a Ph.D. in the field, publish regularly in public relations journals, and Chair the Public Relations Department.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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