How organizational shared purpose and communication enhance the good health and wellbeing in ageing societies: Toward a typology of public relations’ role in the SDGs

This article reports the results of in-depth interviews on how an organisation involves SDGs for developing organizational purpose that directs the organization’s operations. It explores the role of public relations in the process in engaging and communicating WITH the organization’s stakeholders in establishing a shared purpose for improving social issues. We studied a New Zealand-based retirement village and rest home operator with New Zealand and Australia villages. The literature and 20 interviews suggest a typology of public relations roles in helping organizations and networks accomplish the SDGs via the fulfillment of shared purpose. • Shared-purpose-driven organizations provide a lens to understand stakeholder engagement. • The process of establishing a shared purpose to secure stakeholder buy-in is analyzed. • Dialogic communication and listening provide useful mechanisms for shared-purpose-driven organizations. • Shared-purpose-SDG integration effectively achieves SDGs with stakeholder values. • Public relations has a role to play in the SDGs at the internal, external and network levels.