Public Relations Roles,Intraorganizational Power,and Encroachment

Encroachment occurs in public relations when professionals with expertise in such fields as marketing, law, human resources, or engineering occupy the senior public relations position in an organization. When encroachment occurs, public relations frequently becomes little more than a technical support function servicing other units of the organization—rather than a central management function in itself. I explored the idea that encroachment does not result so much from outsiders grabbing the turf of public relations as from weaknesses of public relations practitioners themselves. I used a systematic sample of 166 public relations practitioners in the United States to test the idea that public relations manager role aspirations and competencies and the schema held regarding the public relations function explains the extent to which encroachment takes place. Results suggest that managerial aspirations and competencies and the belief that public relations is a powerful organizational function decrease the likelihood of encroachment.     

Communicating Public Relations Research

In this article, I report a study on the extent and nature of research in the public relations industry. I begin with a document analysis of all campaigns submitted to a national industry awards in 1991 and 1992 and then investigate the research experience of public relations practitioners by using interviews with a sample of award-winning practitioners. The discussion provides insights into attitudes toward research. The implications of the study are useful for assessing the development of the profession, the issues facing practitioners in competing for resources, and the usefulness of initial and continuing public relations education. Critical theory is used to examine the way individuals conceptualize their research activity and focus on the importance of the language used by practitioners to describe their data-gathering processes, its significance for understanding and rewarding public relations contributions to organizational effectiveness, and its relevance for communicating across disciplines.     

Public Relations and Symbolic Politics

In German-speaking countries public relations scholars emphasize the role of public relations (PR) in society in their theorizing. These scholars seek to understand PR as a macro-level, or sociological, phenomenon in contrast to the micro-level, or management, emphasis of scholars in the United States. This article builds a sociological theory of PR by comparing it with the practice of symbolic politics as conceptualized in political science. The theory states that both PR and symbolic politics develop and use symbols—signs that influence and guide conceptions—to achieve their purposes. They also rely heavily on journalistic media. Media reality, however, frequently departs from extramedia reality. The difference between these two types of reality makes it possible for symbolic politics and PR to influence the gap and perhaps to separate the symbolic world from the external world. On the other hand, attention is a scarce resource, and increased activity in PR and symbolic politics eventually will have a declining marginal social utility.     

Diversity Issues and Public Relations

Perceptions of diversity issues and implications for public relations were explored within the theoretical framework of organizational culture and requisite variety. Qualitative interviews with 28 practitioners and 5 executives revealed a continuum that ranged from organizations with no commitment to those with a fully integrated diversity strategy. Examples of effective diversity management illustrated the connection between diversity and the strategic management of public relations. We discuss the findings in relation to diversity integration and propose that a final stage not mentioned by participants--diversity as social responsibility--may represent the juncture where public relations and diversity are linked most meaningfully.     

Managing Public Relations for Nonprofits

Making the News: A Guide for Nonprofits and Activists, by Jason Salzman. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1998. 320 pp., $19.95 paper. Strategic Communications for Nonprofit Organizations: Seven Steps to Creating a Successful Plan, by Janel M. Radtke. New York: Wiley, 1998. 256 pp., $49.95 paper.     

Demonstrating Effectiveness in Public Relations: Goals,Objectives, and Evaluation

Public relations planning and evaluation were explored among 32 practitioners and 10 top executives. Practitioners said their goals reflect the priorities of their institution. The CEOs believed public relations' ultimate aim is communicating the image of the organization. Responses showed many practitioners conduct informal evaluation, whereas only a few conduct formal evaluation. This research suggests public relations planning and evaluation are becoming more systematic but are still constrained by lack of resources and difficulty.     

Psychological Type and Public Relations: Theory,Research, and Applications

This research applies psychological type theory (articulated by Jung and developed by Myers) to public relations, especially to matters of persuasion and message effectiveness. It includes an instrument developed to measure characteristics inherent in messages that relate to how persons gather information and make decisions. It reports a preliminary study that supports the hypothesis that a person will prefer a message that exhibits the characteristics of his or her own psychological type, and it offers guidelines for using psychological type theory in the production of public relations messages.