Public Relations as Negotiation: An Issue Development Perspective

In this essay 1 reconceptualize public relations as negotiation within an issue development perspective, Issue development is a communication approach to negotiation that focuses on the framing and reframing of issues. Theoretical characteristics of communication and negotiation models are utilized to identify shortcomings of the two-way symmetrical model and to advance notions of public relations as negotiation within an issue development framework. Issue development public relations is a management process of negotiating the organization public relationship. Theoretical implications and future research questions are indicated.     

Field Dynamics and Public Relations Theory: Toward the Management of Multiple Publics

This article expands on the theoretical idea that public relations should be a two-way symmetrical process in which organizations use principles of communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution to manage relationships with strategic publics. We point out that the symmetrical model is two-way and does not explain the situation in which an organization must communicate with multiple publics about a problem. In the typical public relations case, the organization carries on a public debate with at least one relevant public in front of numerous other publics. This article adapts the method of field dynamics for assessing the relative positions of publics and organizations. The method makes it possible to compare organizations and publics on the dimensions of dominance—submissiveness, friendly-unfriendly, and group versus self-orientation. We compare our method with the situational theory of publics, co-orientation, and cultural analysis—all of which have been used in public relations theory and research. We then apply field dynamics to a dispute with Native Americans in Wisconsin and suggest intervention strategies for dealing with the dispute.     

Public engagement with nonprofit organizations on Facebook

Explicating Facebook's engagement features, this study explored whether organizational message strategies based on the four models of public relations have an impact on the different levels of public engagement. The study found that publics demonstrate high levels of engagement with organizational messages when two-way symmetrical communication is used, compared to public information or two-way asymmetrical models. The study also provided practical implications for nonprofit practitioners to engage with publics via social media.     

An Intercultural Competence Model of Strategic Public Relations Management in the Peru Mining Industry Context

This study develops and tests an intercultural competence model of strategic public relations management in the Peruvian mining industry. The model proposes that public relations practitioners' trait-level intercultural competence (empathy, open-mindedness, and flexibility) affect their perceptual-level competence (anxiety and uncertainty management), which in turn influence their behavioral-level competence (public relations practices) and the consequent relational quality with the publics. Structural equal modeling was used to analyze the data from 90 practitioners with rich intercultural public relations experiences. Results indicated that trait competence components worked differently in reducing practitioners' uncertainty and anxiety. Such distress reduction enhanced the use of symmetrical and two-way public relations. Finally, symmetrical public relations and lowered anxiety increased practitioners' perceptions of trust and control mutuality in the relationships their organizations had with the publics. The model's theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The use of the internet by ten South African non-governmental organizations—a public relations perspective

Practitioners using the internet in their public relations efforts often do not use the interactive features of the medium to their fullest potential. This article explores the interactive nature of the internet by applying the two-way symmetrical model of public relations to the web sites of 10 South African non-profit, non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The findings confirm that managing a web site successfully requires more than technical knowledge. Much more important is a sound understanding of communication within an organization, especially with regard to public relations. An understanding and practice of the two-way symmetrical model would optimize the communicative use of an organizational web site.     

Investor Relations: Two-Way Symmetrical Practice

Although public relations claims investor relations as one of its specializations, scholars have paid little attention to it and practitioners historically have been divided between finance and public relations. A national survey of 145 members of the National Investor Relations Institute and the Public Relations Society of America's Financial Communications Section tested models and dimensions of practice to build theory. Results show that such investor relations officers predominantly practice the two-way symmetrical model and their work is characterized by the dimensions of symmetrical effects and—to some degree—two-way communication. Practitioners do not differ by their orientation to either finance or corporate communication/public relations. This study is the first to find the predominant practice of the normative model across its sample, thereby refuting long-standing criticism that the symmetrical model is a utopian ideal. The two-way symmetrical model does exist in the real world, and it can be found in the bastion of capitalism—publicly owned corporations in the United States.     

Public perceptions of public relations

Public relations has been portrayed in the media in a consistently negative manner over several decades, providing images that may become part of public perceptions. Perceptions about public relations affect the perceived credibility of the profession and influence whether people see public relations as valuable to society. Second-level agenda setting and cultivation theories purport that mass media contribute to beliefs about social reality by creating a cumulative, general consciousness upon which assumptions and judgments are based, suggesting that public perceptions about public relations would match media portrayal. Results of a telephone survey found public relations is perceived more positively than media portrayal would suggest. Respondents viewed public relations as an important activity that benefits society by providing information and disagree that it is damage control, an attempt to hide or disguise something, or a non-substantive activity. However, public relations is associated with publicity, media relations, and the attempt of an organization to advance its own agenda.     

Public relations in public administration: a disappearing act in public administration education

How is public relations viewed when it is considered a sub-field of another discipline? In the profession of public administration, from its first textbook in 1924 through the end of the 1950's, public administration training—as mirrored in the most widely cited texts of the era—included teaching about the uses, importance and benefits of public relations to the public administrator-in-training. However, as measured by the most widely cited textbooks of the 1980's and 1990's, the subject of communications in general, and public relations in particular, largely disappeared from the agenda of public administration education.This article documents the rise and fall of public relations in public administration education, notes some early signs of renewed attention and suggests re-establishing public relations as a valuable part of contemporary public administration education.     

Public relations in Ghana: Work-related cultural values and public relations models

This study explores cultural influences on public relations practices in Ghana. This survey research brief reports data collected from Ghanaian public relations practitioners (n = 64) and describes work-related cultural values as well as the practices of public relations models in Ghana. The result reveals that Ghanaian public professionals tend to utilize international public relations and two-way communication models. The study extends knowledge of international public relations in African cultures.     

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.     

Postmodernism,symmetry, and cash value: An Isocratean model for practitioners

Postmodern philosophy has presented significant challenges to the practicality, universality, and justice of a pervasive paradigm in public relations theory: Excellence Theory, including the concept of the two-way symmetrical worldview. Conversely, however, the practical value of postmodern public relations remains problematic for current practitioners. This article seeks to show that the symmetrical rhetoric of Isocrates – with its values of moderation, justice, and inclusive discourse – presents a practical, successful model for the infusion of postmodern values into 21st-century symmetry.     

Overcoming Ethnocentrism: The Role of Identity in Contingent Practice of International Public Relations

Based on literature from the contingency theory of public relations and psychocultural conflict theory, this study explored how multinational corporations (MNCs) are practicing public relations in Korea, and what contingency factors impact MNCs' stances in conflict situations. Interviews of leaders in public relations agencies whose major clients are MNCs found that "fear factor" plays a critical role in MNCs taking more accommodative stances in conflict situations. MNCs tend to move toward accommodative stances based on their fear of Korean media and local culture, regardless of the presence of 2-way symmetrical communications with publics. More specifically, accommodation seemed to be enacted through 1-way communication (i.e., local publics' claims) and MNCs' fear of media, local culture, or publics. This finding implies the following: First, 1-way communication may not always result in advocacy as is claimed in Western cultures, but may actually lead to accommodation. Second, indigenous local cultural dimensions should be explored in examining international public relations practices.     

Communicating for the good of the state: A post-symmetrical polemic on persuasion in ethical public relations

As inarguably one of the most influential theories in public relations scholarship, the symmetrical theory devalues the most common public relations objective, persuasion. This article deconstructs Grunig's work and re-constructs classic rhetoric to provide a post-symmetrical direction for public relations scholarship devoted to influencing behavior. By viewing the practice of persuasion from the perspectives of Aristotle, Plato, Isocrates, Burke, Nietzsche and others, this paper provides ethical and procedural guidelines on how today's public relations scholars can refocus the public relations agenda to focus more on real-world issues.     

The Role of Public Relations With Internal Activists

Abstract

Within the context of benefits/outsourcing reviews at a small, Eastern U.S. college, this qualitiative case study examined potential internal activism, employee/organizational leadership communication strategies, and ensuing changes in internal public relations practices/structure. Findings revealed that employees implemented activist strategies in response to perceived communication gaps, prompting organizational leadership to increase solictiation of employee input and commit to ongoing, two-way symmetrical communication; structural changes in internal public relations practices and reporting relationships also resulted. Extending previous activism research findings to internal publics as activists, in this study I suggest that the prodrome of potential employee activism should inform future public relations practice.     

Getting past the impasse: Framing as a tool for public relations

J. Grunig, L. Grunig, and Dozier (1995) have proposed a two-dimensional model of public relations that combines the two-way symmetrical and asymmetrical models. They also have named strategies important for both public and organizational influence and called for research dealing with others. This article proposes frame analysis as such a strategy. To demonstrate the technique’s potential, the author employs framing to show how sex education can be promoted more effectively within public schools.Myra Gregory Knight is a doctoral candidate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.     

Extending Symmetry: Toward a Convergence of Professionalism,Practice, and Pragmatics in Public Relations

The professional values, practice, and pragmatics (3Ps) model is a framework to evaluate professional values and the practice of public relations within the context of situational pragmatics. In essence, this is a move from the two-way symmetrical model to a three-dimensional space anchored by professional values, practice, and pragmatics. The pragmatics dimension is developed from three subdimensions: threat versus opportunity, uncertainty, and perceived control. In addition, symmetry and skills have been reorganized into core professional values and professional practice, each with three subdimensions of their own.     

Craft and Professional Models of Public Relations and Their Relation to Job Satisfaction Among Korean Public Relations Practitioners

To determine which model Korean public relations practitioners use and their levels of job satisfaction, a survey of 167 Korean public relations practitioners in Seoul was conducted. Results showed that Korean practitioners use the craft models of press agentry and public information. However, they aspire to practice two-way, or professional public relations, models. Practitioners of high professionally oriented public relations are more satisfied with their jobs than practitioners of low professionally oriented public relations. This gap between a positive and a normative model also indicated a strong positive relation between the professional models and job satisfaction.     

Fund-raising models at public historically Black colleges and universities

This empirical study examined whether public historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) predominantly practiced the press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical, two-way symmetrical or mixed motive models of fund raising. The findings reported the heavy usage of press agentry model of fund raising by advancement officers. The most interesting concept emerging from the research was the emergence of a mixed motive model of fund raising. The model describes the practice of fund raising in an adaptable and changing environment and incorporates asymmetrical and symmetrical tactics that describes the actual practice of fund raising.     

It Depends: A Contingency Theory of Accommodation in Public Relations

We argue here for a contingency theory of accommodation in public relations based on a continuum from pure accommodation to pure advocacy. The theory posits that antecedent, mediating, and moderating variables lead to greater or lesser accommodation. We identify 87 variables for inclusion in the matrix of factors affecting the degree of accommodation undertaken by public relations practitioners. We offer the theory as an alternative to the normative theory of excellence in public relations based on the two-way symmetrical model.