Participative public relations: Power to the people or legitimacy for government discourse?

This article adopts a Foucauldian lens to critique public relations practices that engage stakeholders in participative processes with predetermined outcomes. It contests the popular notion that the role of public relations is to minimize or diffuse conflict, arguing that such efforts are in fact manifestations of power designed to legitimate the discourses, power and positions of the dominant coalition. The analysis concentrates on attempts to transform a national economic discourse at the Catching the Knowledge Wave Conference, held in New Zealand. It illustrates how a government–university alliance deployed public relations to gain legitimacy for economic change with the business community and more generally, New Zealand citizens.     

Issues Management Mediation of Linkages Between Environmental Complexity and Management of the Public Relations Function

Issues management (IM) is the process that allows organizations to know, understand, and interact effectively with their environments. In this study, the approach to IM practices in organizations is posited to mediate the relation between perceived environmental complexity and the type of public relations practiced in organizations. Outer directed IM is a proactive, open-systems approach based on symmetrical presuppositions that uses IM instrumentally to make strategic decisions. Such an approach to IM is fostered by participative organizational cultures. When organizations face complex environments, outer directed IM and participative organizational culture increase the involvement of public relations practitioners in dominant coalition decision making. This, in turn, is positively related to practitioner enactment of the manager role. A study of public relations practitioners and IM specialists (N = 182) within large U.S. corporations confirmed the mediating influence of outer directed IM and participative culture on public relations practices.     

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.     

The Missing Link: The Public Relations Manager Role as Mediator of Organizational Environments and Power Consequences for the Function

We argue that the public relations manager role provides the "missing link" between environmental challenges and the consequences for the public relations function. Conceptualizing the manager role in terms of organizational power, the concept provides linkages between the environmental-imperative and the power-control perspectives. The model posits that environmental challenges to the organization, in part, determine the role enacted by the top public relations practitioner. This role enactment, in turn, increases the function's capacity to maintain the integrity of its domain. Using a sample of 262 public relations practitioners in the United States, we tested the relationships just stated. Findings indicate that the range of publics and changeability of publics (environmental variables) are positively related to the manager role. The manager role is negatively related to marketing involvement in public relations activities and to the assignment of individuals from outside public relations to head the public relations unit.     

Exchange and Power in Networks of Interorganizational Relations*

An extension of the exchange model for the analysis of interorganizational relations is developed, incorporating into the model recent developments in exchange theory. Organizational interactions are viewed as networks of exchange relation, and various forms of interorganizational activity such as merger and coalition or alliance formation are analyzed in relation to power and position in the network. Linkages between various types of exchange networks and what economists refer to as market structures are examined. Finally, previous criticisms of exchange formulations are reviewed, and directions for future theoretical and empirical work concerning networks of interorganizational relationships are discussed.     

Power struggles: A sociological approach to activist communication

This paper proposes an alternative approach to the scholarship of activist public relations, based on the ideas of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu; notably his understanding of activism in society. Although Bourdieu is one of the most quoted sociologists in the world (Santoro, 2011; Truong & Weill, 2012), his work has only received limited attention in public relations, and has been entirely ignored within the context of activist communication. This is despite his focus on power, relationships and the role of activists in modern democracies, all of which are central themes in public relations practice and research. Based on Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the discipline’s prevailing, dominant, industry serving, functionalist paradigm positions public relations’ role in society as to perpetuate social inequalities. However, drawing on his ideas leads us to question if public relations skills could be equally utilized to challenge existing power imbalances in society, either in support or on behalf of those groups and individuals whose voices have been drowned out by traditional public relations efforts. The author argues that Bourdieu was not only an accomplished scholar, but also an activist in his own right. It is this combination of personal experience with academic ideas that lends weight to his scholarly work through which he urged the scholarly community to utilize their skills, knowledge and research to challenge (perceived) inequalities in society. The emergence of this type of activist academic, committed to giving voice to multiple coexisting, sometimes directly competing points of views, would arguably further justify and strengthen the existence of public relations as a scholarly discipline in its own right.     

Conflict,strategic management,and public relations

Public relations will be a viable contributor to strategic management if it has knowledge and experience in the mixed motive model of public relations to include contention, avoidance, compromise, accommodation, cooperation, being unconditionally constructive, win/win or no deal, principled, and mediated.Secondly, membership in top management also depends on the experience and ability of the practitioner to do strategic planning and solve problems for the organization. This assertion incorporates the long-term accumulation of expertise and a relationship with the dominant coalition built on sound judgment and trust.     

Toward excellence in public relations: identifying practices and barriers in Kuwaiti corporate,governmental and non-profit organizations

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine the applicability of the Excellence principles in Kuwait, generating insights into factors that affect the practice of strategic public relations management across corporate, governmental and nonprofit organizations. The findings, based on 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Kuwaiti public relations practitioners, revealed that the public relations profession demonstrates low levels of adherence to the generic principles of excellence. Public relations practitioners are less involved in strategic management and less empowered in the dominant coalition. Practitioners have provided various barriers including higher management’s lack of understanding of public relations, and lack of qualified practitioners, which have created disparities in understanding symmetrical communication. The sector of the organizations and the employment system in the country have also contributed to the situation.     

Public Relations in a Global Context: The Relevance of Critical Modernism as a Theoretical Lens

This article aims to interrupt the modernist goals of public relations research that predominantly privileges a management discourse. The emergence of the intertwined nature of cultural phenomena in the context of globalization necessitates alternative ways of thinking about public relations. This article explores the possibilities of postmodernism to disrupt the accepted norms of the dominant discourse of public relations. However, given the fragmented nature of the discursive space in postmodernism, this article advances the argument that critical modernism provides a relevant alternative to the modernist paradigm of public relations research by utilizing globalization theories. It suggests a space for articulating the roles of power and structure situated within the constitutive spaces of discourse.     

An Analysis of the Relationships Among Structure,Influence, and Gender: Helping to Build a Feminist Theory of Public Relations

Feminist public relations scholars have suggested that the organizational context may be to blame for the powerlessness of some female public relations practitioners. This study assessed this claim by using feminist theory and a structural framework. This study tested whether the perceived organizational influence of men and women in corporate public relations was related to formal structural power, relationship power, or gender. Women had less formal structural power than men, but there were no gender differences in relationship power or influence. Consistent with feminist hypothesizing as well as the structural framework, practitioners' influence was related to both their formal structural power and relationship power-but not gender.     

Newspaper Editors' Perceptions of Public Relations: How Business,News, and Sports Editors Differ

In this study, I develop a feminist theory of public relations by explaining discrimination against female practitioners and positing an agenda for change. Thirty-seven "long" interviews and three focus groups conducted with female practitioners revealed that major obstacles for women are marginalization of public relations, problems stemming from male dominance at work, women's "balancing" act between career and family, and gender stereotypes. Solutions for overcoming barriers are proposed for society, organizations, public relations, and women.     

Public Relations and Technology: Practitioner Perspectives

The purpose of this research was to gather detailed information about public relations practitioners' new technology use. Seventeen semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted. This study describes how use of communication technologies can affect public relations roles. It discusses practitioner challenges associated with diffusing new technologies; practitioner perceptions of technology, organizational status, and power; and how public relations professionals are employing new technologies to improve research, increase productivity, and advance two-way symmetric communication in their organizations.     

Cultural Diversity., Public Space,Aesthetics and Power

In this paper we argue that issues of inclusion and exclusion to public space can be examined by invoking the principle of “aesthetics”. Those that are aesthetically pleasing, tasteful, or desirable are allowed in public spaces, yet these characteristics are defined through social and cultural mechanisms. Differences between cultural groups in terms of body movement, proximity relationships, definition of personal space, clothing, and other visible features, are evaluated and judged through the filter of power relations. Numerous non‐European migrants who reside in the North experience discrimination as a result of being “visible foreigners”. They are not welcome in public areas and they do not meet the prevalent aesthetic standards, defined by the dominant discourse around aesthetics. This trend obstructs the development of multicultural coexistence and the possibility of transnationalism. In order to realise cultural expression for all, we extend an invitation to scrutinise power inequalities by means of multicultural educational programs.     

Effective Public Relations Leadership in Organizational Change: A Study of Multinationals in Mainland China

This study explored the role of public relations leadership during organizational change in 3 multinationals in mainland China. Based on 40 in-depth interviews, the findings suggested that the leadership of public relations unit or function during organizational change was shown through coaching middle management to manage employee emotions, providing communication training to middle management, communicating and reinforcing shared visions for change, and managing the conflicts between middle management and top management regarding change rationales, planning, and procedures. The leadership role of public relations managers was enacted through consulting CEOs' communication styles, exerting upward influence in change management, and acting as the different voice when decision making for change was questionable. Results of the study extended existing public relations leadership scholarship and shed light on some tentative dimensions of public relations leadership during organizational change: (a) coaching emotion management, (b) educating communication knowledge and skills, (c) reinforcing shared visions, (d) resolving conflicts, (e) exerting upward influence, and (f) acting as a different voice. Limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.     

A Postmodern Turn for Social Media Research: Theory and Research Directions for Public Relations Scholarship

The public relations literature on social media has focused primarily on how social media platforms can be leveraged to the advantage of organizations for relationship building and so-called dialogue with publics. Yet most research has positioned relationships in social media merely as opportunities for information exchange, perpetuating models of public relations grounded in systems theory that ignore power imbalances. Consequently, this article offers insights from postmodernist theories to first deconstruct existing research and then offer suggestions for future social media scholarship. The article argues that social media scholars have privileged dominant rational models of social engagement. Dissensus and disorder, according to Lyotard, may be as legitimate and more liberatory states of discourse for marginalized publics. Postmodern theories of language games and differential consciousness are also positioned as ways in which social media theory and practice may be advanced. The article thus complicates how relationships are theorized in contemporary scholarship and challenges both scholars and practitioners to rethink approaches to social media practice through a postmodern lens.     

A Human Nature Approach to Image and Ethics in International Public Relations

This article addresses the role of the concept of image in the ethics of international public relations. It argues that the right to construct mental images is fundamental to the human experience and that ethical international public relations can enhance this right. The article identifies two diametrically opposed approaches to image in public relations. The first view uses instrumental or "i images" in an attempt to manage publics by managing the organization's communication with them. This instrumental approach is essentially one-way and monological, which is inviting for many practitioners and clients. I images are usually unethical, however, because they reduce the public's chance to use symbols and images rationally and to make informed choices. The second approach uses "h images" for the humanitarian view of images. With this approach, practitioners and their clients use two-way dialogical communication and accept the ethical responsibility to enhance, not degrade, the humanity of all parties involved in public relationships. Dialogical communicators assume that their publics have as varied and valid interpretations of the world as do their clients. They assume that the goal of public relations is not reducing publics to the service of clients but joining with publics in the process of interpreting the world together. The h image approach is especially important in international public relations, which can be understood as the attempt of one culturally bound community to deal with the interpretations of another. Based on the humanitarian approach, the article proposes five tests that international public relations practice should pass to be ethical.     

The Missing Story of Women in Public Relations

This study proposed to advance the research on roles in public relations by considering through a feminist analysis the breadth of roles that women perform under the managerial label. Although management and technician roles have been useful as parsimonious tools to educate future public relations practitioners about public relations, these labels have begun to develop values of hierarchy and power not found when they were operationalized.

Based on a sample of 1,003 respondents, we asked for self-report data on a list of 17 role activities. The resulting factor analysis of responses by gender indicated a two-factor construct that represented managerial and technical dimensions. Further analysis of the dimensions by gender indicated that a combination of roles existed; the women managers did "it all," for less money, and the men in technical roles more likely did managerial activities as well. The women technicians carried out technical tasks.     

Communicating on Behalf of Global Civil Society: Management and Coordination of Public Relations in International Nongovernmental Organizations

In the last few decades, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become influential actors in creating awareness of international social, political, environmental and economic causes in global society. However, NGOs have not received much attention in research on international public relations. This study contributes to filling that gap by analyzing how NGOs manage public relations according to the generic principles of excellence in global public relations and how they coordinate strategic communication between headquarters and local units. An online survey of 440 practitioners revealed 2 excellence clusters and 4 clusters of organizations with differing degrees of centralization. Excellent NGOs were found to assign more resources to public relations and more frequently considered cultural context in their communication programs. Thus, the study gives significant insights into international public relations practice in the global civil society sector and reveals further need for modifying and extending public relations theory in that respect.