THE MELBOURNE MANDATE
A call to action for new areas of value in public relations and communication management

WORLD PUBLIC RELATIONS FORUM - NOVEMBER 2012

The mandate of public relations is to build and sustain strong relationships between an organisation and its publics, and, in doing so, contribute to society.

The Global Alliance’s 2010 Stockholm Accords affirmed the characteristics of the communicative organisation and the value of public relations and communications professionals in management, governance, sustainability, and internal and external communication.

Today, unprecedented public access to communication presents new challenges and opportunities for organisations – and for global society. This presents a new mandate for public relations and communication management: a set of roles, responsibilities and principles hereby endorsed by delegates to the 2012 World Public Relations Forum in Melbourne, Australia.

The new mandate Public relations and communication professionals have a mandate to:

• define and maintain an organisation’s character and values;

• build a culture of listening and engagement; and

• instill responsible behaviours by individuals and organisations.

These roles are essential and interconnected: an organization must understand its character and responsibility to have meaningful engagement with its stakeholders. Taken together, these roles form an essential contribution to organisational strategy, and to society.