Fulfilling the dialogic promise: A ten-year reflective survey on dialogic Internet principles

A decade ago, using the dialogic theory of public relations as the theoretical framework, Kent and Taylor [Kent, M. L., & Taylor, M. (1998). Building a dialogic relationship through the World Wide Web. Public Relations Review, 24, 321–340; Kent, M. L., & Taylor, M. (2002). Toward a dialogic theory of public relations. Public Relations Review, 28, 21–37] provided a strategic framework to facilitate relationships with publics though the World Wide Web. Based on a review of research exploring Web-based public relations practices drawing on Kent and Taylor's theoretical framework, this essay offers a ten-year reflective survey on past, current, and future directions of Kent and Taylor's Internet principles, as they relate to the dialogic theory of public relations.     

All glamour, no substance? How public relations majors and potential majors in an exemplar program view the industry and function

Studies in public relations often conclude that the field is misunderstood [Kopenhaver, L. L. (1985). Aligning values of practitioners and journalists. Public Relations Review, 11(1), 34–42; Stacks, D. W., Botan, C., & Turk, J. V. (1999). Perceptions of pubic relations education. Public Relations Review, 25, 9–29] and misrepresented in media [Spicer, C. (2000). Public relations in a democratic society: Value and values. Journal of Public Relations Research, 12(1), 115–130]. Public relations professionals themselves often do not know what is involved in or support public relations education [Wright, D. K., & Turk, J. V. (2007). Public relations knowledge and professionalism: Challenges to educators and practitioners. In E.L. Toth (Ed.), The future of excellence in public relations and communication management: Challenges for the next generation (pp. 571–588). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum]. Both the special issue (Public Relations Review, 1999) on public relations education and a following study published in this journal [Bowen, S. A. (2003). I thought it would be more glamorous: Preconceptions and misconceptions of public relations among students in the principles course. Public Relations Review, 29, 199–214] argued that public relations majors often do not realize what is involved in the academic discipline or the professional field. This research builds on the findings of those studies to ask: are public relations educators doing any better in communicating the core competencies, responsibilities, knowledge requirements, skills, and abilities of the discipline and the public relations major? Through the use of 10 focus groups across majors at a top research university, we can see that little is known about public relations among non-majors, but public relations majors can articulate the requirements and functions of the field. Several primary areas of confusion emerged about public relations related to: marketing or promotion, spinning the truth, image, and public relations as a career choice. These ideas show a critical lack of transparency in public relations. Credibility of the public relations function is hampered by this failure to communicate about the functions and core competencies of the field. Implications for both the public relations practice and for public relations education are discussed.     

Memory for Investor Relations Messages: An Information-Processing Study of Grunig's Situational Theory

Marketing managers have used segmentation techniques to divide mass markets into specialized markets for some time, and many public relations practitioners have adopted the same techniques for their practices. Most marketing techniques segment markets more effectively than publics, however, and thus have limited value in public relations. Few public relations scholars have developed segmentation techniques for publics that are comparable to those used to segment markets in marketing. Grunig and Childers (1988) developed a situational theory of publics that has been tested and used widely by academic researchers. The theory segments publics by the activeness and passiveness of their communication behaviors and the extent to which their behavior affects organizations. Grunig maintained that active publics are more likely to process information actively and to remember it than are passive publics. This study uses the context of investor relations to test the cognitive effects of Grunig's theory. In doing so, it applies cognitive psychological methods of experimentation rarely used in public relations research and tests the effects of involvement, problem recognition, and constraint recognition on two types of memory performance. Differences were found in cued recall and recognition memory; the implications of these differences are discussed.     

Relationship Cultivation in Public Diplomacy: A Qualitative Study of Relational Antecedents and Cultivation Strategies

Political public relations and public diplomacy both focus on managing communication to build and maintain relationships for a political purpose. Public diplomacy focuses on foreign publics and involves governments and organizations seeking to build relationships internationally. This study explored relationship cultivation, i.e., the process of initiating, nurturing positive, and recovering from negative relationships between various public diplomacy actors. Data included 32 in-depth interviews with communication officers in the United States. Results confirmed some of the previously developed relationship cultivation dimensions and suggested new ones. The study offers a nuanced discussion of relationship cultivation factors and an explanation of how they apply to public diplomacy engagement.     

Bring publics back into networked public relations research: A dual-projection approach for network ecology

This essay critiques the absence of publics in networked public relations research, and proposes the dual-projection approach as a solution to simplify and analyze the multi-mode public relations network ecology (Yang & Taylor, 2015). Compared to most previous studies that employ organization-centric networks where ties stand for hyperlinks, collaborations, or coalitions, the new approach projects organization-public relationships and public-public relationships onto interorganizational ties. By doing so, it (1) brings publics back into networked public relations research; (2) presents organizations and publics—the two most important subjects of public relations research—equally in the same network, (3) drives literature further away from a dyadic view of relationship management, and (4) constitutes one of the first techniques that can analyze direct and timely consequences of organziation-public relationships in the network ecology. To demonstrate the new approach, the network of publics overlap is introduced and applied to US-based LGBTQ advocacy groups. The essay also discusses the theoretical inquiries needed to further dual-projection networks, and invites scholars to create novel ways to incorporate publics into their network studies using dual projection.     

Testing an environmental framework for understanding public relations practitioners’ orientation toward relationship management

This study offers an alternative conceptual framework for an integrated understanding of public relations practice globally. It investigates the relationships between political, economic, and media constructs and relationship management in public relations by building upon an environmental framework for understanding public relations. Based on a survey of public relations practitioners in Singapore, this study positions relationship management as a conceptual locus for public relations theory and practice. Four environmental variables—perceptions of the degree of democracy in the political system, level of economic development, level of economic freedom, and level of media freedom—are found to be associated with public relations practitioners’ orientation toward relationship management, based on Hon and Grunig’s relationship management scale.     

Managing a nation's image during crisis: A study of the Chinese government's image repair efforts in the “Made in China” controversy

The image of a nation is crucial in the conduct of international relations (Wang, J. (2006). Managing national reputation and international relations in the global era: Public diplomacy revisited. Public Relations Review, 32, 91–96). A favorable image plays a critical role in asserting one's influence (Benoit, W. L., & Brinson, S. L. (1994). AT&T: “Apologies are not enough”. Communication Quarterly, 42, 75–88; Wang, J. (2006). Managing national reputation and international relations in the global era: Public diplomacy revisited. Public Relations Review, 32, 91–96). Often, strategic communication tools like public relations and media diplomacy are used to enhance a nation's image (Giffard, A., & Rivenburgh, N. K. (2000). News agencies, national images, and global media events. Journalism Quarterly, 77, 8–21). In 2007, China's reputation as “the workshop of the world” (Gaulier, G., Lemoine, F., & Unal-Kesenci, D. (2005). China: A workshop of the Cd and a market for Europe. At: http://ideas.repec.org/a/cii/cepill/2005-245.html. Accessed on 14 May 2009) came under severe threat with a series of product recalls. This was arguably the first time that allegations of product deficiencies were targeted at a country. Using the image repair theory, this paper examined the strategies used and the image these strategies generated for China. Findings showed that the initial defensive strategies generated an image of a hurried and harried country. After it was willing to confront the crises through corrective action, a surer and more determined image emerged.     

The link between strong public relationships and donor support

Based upon a mail survey completed by 275 donors of a non-profit organization, this study measured the association between perceptions of public relationships and donor support. A modified version of Hon and Grunig's [Hon, L. & Grunig, J. E. (1999). Guidelines for measuring relationships in public relations. Gainsville, FL: Institute for Public Relations] relationship scale was used. Results of one-way analyses of variance indicate that strong public relationships are not related to amount donated, but they are associated with years of support, happiness to continue donating, and happiness to recommend others to donate.     

Corporate public relations dynamics: Internal vs. external stakeholders and the role of the practitioner

Most public relations research advocates for stronger organization-public relationships and the implementation of dialogic theory to advance the practice and elevate the status of the public relations practitioner. However, this study reveals that internal relationship dynamics can prevent corporate public relations practitioners from carrying out this function of the public relations role. Twelve weeks of observation and eleven interviews were conducted at a Fortune 1000 technology company to gain insights on how corporate PR practitioners build relationships with external publics, to gauge practitioners’ orientation to dialogue, and to identify challenges to external relationship building. Results show that internal relationship management is a prerequisite to corporate public relations practitioners’ success in developing mutually beneficial relationships with key publics. These findings have implications for both the theory and practice of public relations especially when considering the discussion of the technician versus strategic manager role of public relations and the advancement of the field to a professional status.     

Relationships between organizations and publics: Development of a multi-dimensional organization-public relationship scale

Public relations has long struggled to develop an identity in both scholarship and practice. An increasing number of scholars are adopting the perspective that public relations should be viewed as the management of a relationship between organizations and publics. The current investigation was an attempt to design a multiple-item, multiple-dimension organization-public relationship scale. Results of this investigation show that organizations and key publics have three types of relationships: professional, personal, and community. The organization-public relationship measure developed in this investigation should provide an instrument that can be used to measure þe influence that perceptions of the organization-public relationship have on consumer attitudes, predispositions, and behavior, as well as an opportunity to track changes in organizationpublic relationship perceptions over time. Results of the investigation, conclusions, and suggested applications for future research are presented.Dr. Bruning and Dr. Ledingham are members of the Department of Communication at Capital University, Columbus, OH.     

Dialogues with entrepreneurs in China: How start-up companies cultivate relationships with strategic publics

This qualitative study examined relationship cultivation and public relations practices in start-up companies in Mainland China. Findings from 28 in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs in China¹ suggest that employees and customers are the most important strategic publics for start-ups, followed by investors, the media, and the government. Symmetrical relationship cultivation strategies suggested in previous literature apply to the start-up context in China with specific variations. New strategies such as vision and value communication, empowerment, authentic communication, and proactive reporting were identified for start-ups to build quality relationships with various strategic publics. Compared with large established corporations, start-ups have unique public relations purposes, needs, and scope of practice. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Reconsidering public relations models

This essay examines some of the methodological and conceptual problems involved in measuring public relations models. The analysis suggests that there are several contradictions between the relationship management metaphor underlying this work and how public relations models are conceptualized and measured.Drawing on examples from the historical evolution of leadership studies, the authors argue that “public relations models” need to be measured at the relational level, rather than being aggregated across publics and relational stages. They also argue that an adequate normative theory of organizational practice will have a developmental component built into it.     

Explicating Public Diplomacy as Organization–Public Relationship (OPR): An Empirical Investigation of OPRs between the US Embassy in Seoul and South Korean College Students

Based on a theoretical proposition that public diplomacy can be explicated as management of organization–public relationship (OPR) between an organization concerned and foreign publics, practical and functional utility of OPR measures was empirically investigated in this preliminary study within a public diplomacy context involving the US embassy in Seoul and South Korean college students. Validating reliability and validity of Hon and J. E. Grunig's (1999 Hon , L. C. , & Grunig , J. E. ( 1999 ). Guidelines for measuring relationships in public relations . Gainesville , FL : Institution for Public Relations . [Google Scholar]) OPR measures in evaluating the quality of relationships between the US embassy and South Korean college students, the findings help further advance the theoretical and practical convergence of public relations and public diplomacy. In addition, with statistically significant links between South Korean college students' perceived relationships with the US embassy and their attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the United States and its citizens, the findings suggest that public diplomacy outcomes are related to OPR management, to some degree.     

A social capital approach to improving public relations’ efficacy: Diagnosing internal constraints on external communication

This article extends Heath's (2006) concept of fully functioning society theory (FFS) and argues that public relations can be used as a force to enhance collective social capital in communities. To serve this purpose, however, the effectiveness of an organization to serve its external publics is often dependent on the status and relationships the public relations function has developed within the organization. This paper provides a network analysis of a government agency in Jordan that illustrates the relationship between internal organizational social capital and the potential problems for establishing external relationships with publics. Implications for public relations research methods and theory are also discussed.     

The influences of relationship quality with external partners and required levels of approval of messaging on crisis preparedness

As funding for public health promotion is increasingly limited in the U.S., public relations research informing management of crises that threaten public health is especially critical. Crisis planning models such as Reynolds and Seeger’s (2005, 2014) crisis and emergency risk communication model offer comprehensive directives for crisis managers and present opportunities to extend the utility of best practice recommendations. A survey of public information officers (PIOs) (n=208) at local public health departments across the U.S. examines the quality of their relationships with partners in public health crisis management, including first responders, media, law enforcement, and hospitals, and reveals that relationships with key publics in crisis management are lacking. Further, PIOs at state governed health departments may face critical delays in releasing crisis messages, as their messages are required to clear more levels of approval than locally (city/county) governed departments. Implications and future research for these key variables extending public relations crisis communication research with a focus on inter-organizational relationships are discussed.     

Corporate social responsibility engagement and communication by Chinese companies

Premised upon the centrality of relationship management in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and public relations functions, and the growing momentum toward CSR in China, this study reports survey results of corporate communication/public relations executives in Chinese companies on aspects of CSR accountability and transparency. Responses to four key topical areas – drivers for CSR engagement, areas of practice, importance of CSR communication, and preferred channels for communication – suggest a strong concern for corporate image and culture in pursuing CSR, an overwhelming emphasis on disaster relief despite the recognition of a much broader array of societal priorities, and the Chinese companies’ current reliance on in-house and Internet media for CSR communication.     

Restoring a reputation: The Duke University lacrosse scandal

Duke University was thrust into a crisis situation when three members of its lacrosse team were indicted on charges of first-degree rape and sexual assault. As the story received extensive media coverage and while the prosecution and defense were making their legal arguments, the reputation of Duke University was called into question and it too was in need of appropriate public relations communication strategies. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the actions and public relations communication emanating from Duke in its attempt to frame the story and restore its reputation. Public relations theories that focus on image restoration as articulated by Benoit [Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration strategies. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press; Benoit, W. L. (2000). Another visit to the theory of image restoration strategies. Communication Quarterly, 48(1), 40–44] and Coombs [Coombs, W. T. (1995). Choosing the right words: The development of guidelines for the selection of the “appropriate” crisis response strategies. Management Communication Quarterly, 8, 447–476; Coombs, W. T. (2006). Crisis management: A communicative approach. In C. H. Botan & V. Hazleton (Eds.). Public relations theory II (pp. 171–197). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates] as well as the concept of message framing are presented and used to analyze Duke's communication response. Studying the Duke case provides an example of an organization executing theoretical concepts in a practical situation.     

Operationalizing genuineness in CSR communication for public engagement on social media

Public relations professionals from global corporations have increasingly communicated corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on social media to engage publics. Yet the link between CSR communication of global corporations, particularly with regard to the dimensions of genuineness exhibited in their communication and public engagement on social media is under-researched in China. This empirical study conceptualized and operationalized the dimensions of genuineness, which encompass providing information about different CSR themes, being responsive to publics, demonstrating empathy, and being consistent in what corporations say and do, and then investigated how global corporations engaged Chinese publics through genuine CSR communication on Sina Weibo. Enhanced public engagement outcomes of comments, likes, and shares were observed for the provision of information about the community involvement and development CSR theme alongside the use of empathy. This study informs public relations scholars and practitioners about the importance of providing information on the CSR theme of community involvement and demonstrating empathy to generate higher public engagement.     

Culture and Chinese public relations: A multi-method “inside out” approach

This study adopts an “inside out” approach to examine contemporary Chinese public relations and culture's effect on it, based on an analysis of the top 15 domestic Chinese public relations agencies’ Web sites and 17 in-depth interviews of public relations professionals from multinationals operating in mainland China. Results indicate an emerging trend of Chinese strategic management and a new understanding of guanxi as an ongoing process of one-on-one bonding.