The Practice and Challenges of Public Relations in Ethiopia: The Case of Government Universities

The fields of public relations has dramatically grown to build the relationships between an organization and its key publics through effective communication. The study is conducted to assess the practice and challenge of Public Relations in government universities public relation offices in Ethiopia. The research used mixed approach which enable the researchers to use both qualitative and quantitate data and analysis. The main subject of the study were internal publics and external stakeholders. The researcher used questionnaire as a data gathering tool from the above subjects. The findings of the study depicted that professional Public Relations practice in the given13 government universities are in difficult condition as the office is not professionally and structurally organized despite its key role is well recognized. The PR practitioners have not well understood the concept of Public relations especially its management function to create mutual understanding with the internal and external publics rather they are considered to stage the debate other than mediates. Lack of professional skilled human power, having minimal attitudes and lack of empowering the office, absence of adequate capacity building trainings, lack of infrastructure, inadequate assistance from the concerned leaders took the first line as challenges for the public relations practitioners.

Keywords: public Relations, Government Universities, Internal Publics, External Publics, Practitioners, Ethiopia.