Eight in 10 large organisations in Australia manage a community relations business unit or area of practice in their organisation, which is commonly integrated into the corporate public affairs management function (2019-2020 State of Public Affairs in Australia).

This reflects where the discipline sits in other Asia Pacific economies.

Where the community relations is not managed in corporate public affairs – such as in some large, global mining and resources companies – it is frequently managed in a health, safety, and community management function.

The community relations discipline focuses on stakeholder relationships and the impact of an entity’s corporate community investments in communities in which a company has a physical footprint and operations, such as a retail site, a manufacturing plant, a mine, or large office or campus.

In many organisations community relations strategy and senior management resides in a head or divisional office, with most practitioners in the discipline embedded on site in the physical asset or site.

Practitioners working in the asset/site are in many cases the corporate public affairs interface, accountable for being part of site-level decisions by providing socio-political expertise and advice.

Community relations team onsite also steward priority relationships with local government and agencies of state/regional governments, community groups and organisations, and local businesses that are in some manner involved with/affected by the operation of the corporation in the community.

Practitioners onsite are frequently also involved in managing some aspects of community-based corporate community investments, including community partnerships and non-marketing sponsorships that seek to generate a positive social impact.

The community relations discipline plays an especially important role in corporations that operate assets in indigenous communities, and/or in communities in where a proportion of the population comprises indigenous peoples.

An important responsibility of the discipline is to ensure that local existing and potential issues are recognised, understood, and factored into deliberations of senior management at divisional or corporate headquarters.