The personal influence model of public relations, developed principally by public relations scholar Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, acknowledges that the success of public relations is greatly influenced by personal networks. With this model, practitioners try to establish personal relationships - friendships, if possible - with key individuals in the media, government, or political and activist groups (Grunig, 1995, 18). This model has created some embarrassment among public relations scholars, educators and practitioners because its most immediate implication is that the 'people whom you know' bear more relevance in one's professional career than other competencies (Falconi, 2008).

Despite a general hesitancy to acknowledge this model, maintaining good personal relationships encompassing trust and authenticity, with strategically placed persons, is a business imperative. In organizations, this model can be applied by nurturing relationships with stakeholder publics - which could be media, employees, shareholders, customers, vendors, and the other myriad publics who have interest in the organization.

Organizational capital is formed by various indicators, including intellectual property such as good will and trust. If an organization could succeed in transforming individual relationships into organizational relationships, there would be one more indicator that would greatly enhance the value of the organization, and contribute to the overall value public relations has for the organization (Falconi, 2008).

There is an opportunity to institutionalize the personal influence model in public relations through the use of knowledge management tools, creating enormous value for an organization with reciprocal benefits to the employees. Several well managed organizations are already using knowledge management tools to collect information within their respective organizations to make them more efficient, profitable, and desirable as both an employer and product or service provider. Still, it is unclear if organizations are capturing and rationalizing the personal relationships of their managers, consultants and employees; how they do this; and how they measure the value. This paper provides background on knowledge management and examines the role that the personal influence model could play in organizations by the adoption of knowledge management practices, which would involve instituting a mechanism to capture and rationalize relationships with stakeholder publics.