Organizational contingencies,organizational blogs and public relations practitioner stance toward publics

Public relations practitioners in this study who perceived social media (e.g., blogs) to be a normal part of their organization's day-to-day communication were less likely to choose an accommodating stance toward a key public than practitioners in “low-tech” conditions. Forty-three practitioners with a mean of 14.5 years professional experience participated in a 2 × 2 (contingencies for dialogue × technological orientation of organization) experiment. The data reveal a disconnect between the potential relational benefits of social media and the stance public relations practitioners in this study chose when social media were introduced as a regular part of their working environment.     

A Comparative Analysis of International Public Relations: Identification and Interpretation of Similarities and Differences Between Professionalization in Austria,Norway, and the United States

This research addresses the need to understand how culture affects public relations. Practitioners from three different cultures Austrian, Norwegian, and American—are compared in terms of professional orientation, fulfillment, and practitioner roles. Austrian practitioners reported a stronger professional fulfillment than their Norwegian and American counterparts. Other differences and similarities are identified and explained using culture-specific, work-related values. For example, strong professional fulfillment in Austria is viewed as a function of the value this culture places upon training and education. Those engaged in international public relations must consider such differences and similarities when choosing between standardized (globalization) and customized (localization) communication strategies.     

Perceived professional standards and roles of public relations in China: Through the lens of Chinese public relations practitioners

As the first quantitative examination of perceived public relations professional standards in China using an online survey, this study was designed based on the standards of professional standards inventory Cameron, Sallot, & Lariscy (1996) constructed and tested among practitioners in the U.S. The survey results suggest six dimensions of perceived standards of professional performance: (1) role and function in organizational strategic planning, (2) sufficiency in professional training and preparedness, (3) gender and racial equity, (4) situational constraints, (5) licensing and organizational support, and (6) participation in the organizational decision-making team. Four dimensions of public relations roles were also identified by the survey participants: (1) brand promotion facilitator, (2) public information specialist, (3) media relations counsel, and (4) conflict management expert. Primary practice area was found to affect how Chinese practitioners perceive the six clusters of professional standards and the four identified public relations roles. These findings provide insights for both practitioners and researchers on how Chinese public relations practitioners view public relations as a profession and how the profession currently holds its professional standards in China.     

Conflict measurements: analysis of simultaneous inclusion in roles,values, independence,attitudes, and dyadic adjustment

A survey of 641 public relations practitioners and journalists showed that the perceived conflict of two professions is their strategic choice. The perceived conflict of two professions can be best illuminated by a bi-level of perceptual differences among agreement, congruency and accuracy between and within subjects of public relations practitioners and journalists in their professional orientation. While the two professions demonstrated their perceptual discrepancies in terms of roles, values, independence, dyadic adjustment and attitudes in conflict, both further revealed a tendency to escalate or minimize the conflict to strategically manage the degree of conflict. This study ultimately proposes a salient indicator to gauge a conflict and further suggest a stratagem for the conflict management in public relations.     

Environmental Concern and Situational Communication Theory: Implications for Communicating With Environmental Publics

Public relations practitioners will find Grunig's situational communication theory to be a useful tool for identifying environmental publics and their orientations toward specific environmental issues. The research reported here explores the utility of Van Liere and Dunlap's (1981) measure of environmental concern in differentiating situational publics. The data were collected by telephone survey from 1,002 adult respondents. Members of the routine public did not perceive environmental issues to be a problem because they favored economic development over concern for the environment. The fatalistic public reported watching television news about pollution and held a pro-environmental attitude. Problem recognition provided a cognitive measure of environmental awareness and was consistently associated with communication behavior. Level of involvement and environmental concern provided attitudinal measures of the respondent's orientation toward environmental issues; however, these variables were not consistently associated with communication behavior. Public relations objectives designed to increase awareness and knowledge of an organization's environmental position may be far more effective than attitudinal objectives designed to create a more favorable image for the organization in view of the fact that the relationship between cognition and communication is much stronger than that between affect and communication.     

What counts amid contention? Measuring perceived intractable problems in public relations

Existing public relations measurement and evaluation frameworks may struggle to adequately capture (1) organizational engagement regarding contentious or intractable issues, and (2) external or publics-centered outcomes beyond the realm of organizational objectives and interests. In this research, qualitative, semi-structured interviews (41) with experienced U.S. public relations practitioners examined measurement and evaluation in the context of managing perceived intractable issues. In order to capture public relations engagement and potential impact on such issues, the paper presents a new measurement framework to encourage metrics for issues, communities, and societies—not just organizational priorities. This approach ensures a wider scope of levels of analysis (from message-level metrics to societal and global levels) as well as recognition of the potential value of dissensus, agonism, and agonistic metrics (Davidson & Motion, 2018) for more nuanced understandings of the work of public relations practitioners in contentious contexts.     

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.     

The state of public relations in Singapore

The public relations (PR) industry in Singapore is presently in a state of transition. A recent survey reveals that while many of the industry practices are still limited within the scope of media relations, print production, event organization and promotions, there is a growing realization among practitioners for the need to provide higher profile activities related to issues development, strategic planning and image management. The latter activities reflect the trend that the PR industry in Singapore is maturing towards at the agency, private, and public sectors.Findings in the survey indicated that both the agencies and end-users emphasised the need for more training in, and greater usage of services ranging from investor relations to community relations to research (survey). A notable development which lends support to the emerging trend in the PR industry is the Singapore government's push towards the regionalisation of local companies in building the country's external economy.Yeap Soon Beng is a lecturer at the School of Communication Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also a council member of the executive committee of the Institute of Public Relations in Singapore, which has given him permission to use data from a survey which was conducted by a local research firm.     

State of public relations education in the United States: 2006 report on a national survey of executives and academics

A survey of 312 public relations executives and educators examined how well practitioners and instructors perceive public relations students to be prepared for the practice, the content and value of public relations curricula and, the future of public relations education in the United States. Results are largely consistent with those from a slightly smaller 1998 survey, suggesting that the views of both groups are consistent over time and providing the first two data points in what it is hoped will develop into a longitudinal line of research addressing public relations education. Judgments regarding the desired characteristics among job applicants and essential curriculum content were extremely similar between the practitioner and educator groups with both wanting more emphasis on research, ethics and strategic planning as the field moves from a low-paid technical emphasis toward a much better paid strategic planning and research emphasis.     

Revisiting gendered assumptions of practitioner power: An exploratory study examining the role of social media expertise

The purpose of this exploratory study was to expand upon previous literatures in public relations power, and fill the need for more scholarship regarding practitioners’ perceptions of social media work, power, and gender. Findings from a survey of PRSA members showed that there is a gendered difference in power perception between males and females regardless of their PR roles or level of experience, but social media expertise was perceived equally between both genders. We argue that while social media expertise may serve to reduce a gendered power divide in public relations, continued critical exploration of social media and gender inequality is necessary.     

Power to the people—health PR people that is!

Inspired by the seminal typology of power first suggested by French and Raven, this study identified five types of power (Expert, Information Reward, Information Coercive, Advertising Coercive, and Influence Powers) that health public relations practitioners believed they have in media relations. This study also examined the effect of four variables, such as personal closeness with reporters, openness towards the media, perceived media job performance, and perceived expertise in the health field, on these five types of perceived power. The results suggested that public relations practitioners who highly evaluate themselves as an expert in health and as a competent media communicator, and who are personally close with reporters have greater Expert Power in media relations. Also, when practitioners are personally close to reporters, they are more likely to use Information Reward Power.     

Power Over,Power With,and Power to Relations: Critical Reflections on Public Relations,the Dominant Coalition,and Activism

Symmetrical public relations theory acknowledges primacy of the dominant coalition in making organizational decisions and influencing public relations practices but reveals little about this powerful inner circle. Drawing from interviews with 21 public relations executives, this article opens up the dominant coalition and reveals its complex power relationships and a matrix of constraints that undermine and limit the function, rendering it difficult for practitioners to do the "right" thing, even if they want to. If public relations is to better serve society, professionals and academics may need to embrace an activist role and combine advocacy of shared power with activism in the interest of shared power.     

Arabs, the west and public relations: A critical/cultural study of Arab cultural values

Using a critical/cultural perspective to examine Arab culture, this study tests the cultural-economic model of international public relations to identify cultural value orientations that influence Arab culture. These orientations include commitment to religion, devotion to the group, resistance to change/attachment to history and recognition of hierarchal order. Based on an initial review of these orientations, the study identifies guiding principles exhorting practitioners to carefully consider the nature, function and purpose of public relations practice in the Arab world and the relationship among cultural value orientations. The study concludes with useful implications and guidelines sensitive to Arab culture for public relations professionals and scholars.     

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.     

Towards the professionalisation of public relations in Malaysia: Perception management and strategy development

The aim of this study is to explore how the status and standards of public relations as a profession are perceived by the three main groups involved in public relations: academics, practitioners, and business leaders. It is concluded that public relations can be a ‘true’ profession if all parties involved are united and committed to developing standardised, universal forms of public relations practise.     

Toward a Theory of Public Relations Practitioners’ Own Conflict: Work Versus Life

This study took a first step to build a theory understanding public relations practitioners’ work–life balance. Through a national sample of Public Relations Society of America members, we examined what factors influence practitioners’ perceptions of work–life conflict and what kind of impact such perceived work–life conflict may have on their income and career path. Analysis of online survey data of 820 practitioners found that a more family–supportive organizational work environment overall would minimize practitioners’ reported work–life conflict. Gender did matter, especially in explaining strain-based conflict perceived by practitioners. Last, women whose career was interrupted earned significantly more than those whose career was not.     

Industry perceptions of intercultural competence in Singapore and Perth

This study investigates public relations practitioner perceptions of intercultural competence i.e. the skills required in an increasingly globalized world. The findings, drawn from analysis of interviews with seventeen practitioners in two cities in Australasia, reveal intercultural competence is perceived as integral to public relations practise, regardless of whether the public relations activity occurs across national borders. Although practitioners value personal attributes such as openness and adaptability, the findings suggests that practitioners require intercultural competence, as procedural knowledge i.e. of specific cultures and as conceptual knowledge i.e. a reflexive and dynamic understanding of culture. More research is needed to understand the relationship between culture and public relations, and industry expectations regarding intercultural competence in an era of globalization.     

Spaces for public orientation? Longitudinal effects of Internet use in adolescence

The article departs from an overarching research question: How does young people's engagement in different Internet spaces affect the development of their public orientation during adolescence? It analyses longitudinal panel data in order to explore how young people's public orientation develops during a phase in life (13–20) which is critical for political socialization. Data are derived from three waves of data collection among young people who were 13–17 years old at the time for the first data collection. The concept public orientation is measured by three indicators: young people's values, interests and everyday peer talk. These indicators are analysed with reference to respondents' Internet orientations, which we conceptualize as four separate but inter-related spaces (a news space, a space for social interaction, a game space and a creative space). The results primarily emphasize the importance of orientations towards news space and space for social interaction. Overall, the findings strongly suggest that orientations towards these spaces are related to adolescents' public orientation. The findings confirm the centrality of news and information in political socialization, but they also challenge the idea that social media facilities – such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging – enable forms of social interaction and creative production that have an overall positive impact on young people's public orientation.     

The U.S. capability framework for public relations and communication management: Results of a national three-stage study

Using a novel-capability approach to explore the full potential of the profession, this study utilized a three-stage, mixed-methods design to develop the first U.S. capability framework for public relations. This research also investigated which newly defined capabilities public relations academics and practitioners perceived as the most important for the profession as a whole and for them as professionals. Finally, the research investigated what impediments professionals in the USA face to achieve these capabilities.