An Empirical Analysis of the Influence of Perceived Attributes of Publics on Public Relations Strategy Use and Effectiveness

This study replicates and extends previous research by examining the influence of problem recognition, constraint recognition, involvement, and goal compatibility on use of informative, facilitative, persuasive, and cooperative problem-solving strategies. Members of the Public Relations Society of America (n = 403) were surveyed using direct mail and online modes of administration. The results indicate that perceived attributes of publics significantly influence public relations strategy use in organizations. In addition, attributes of publics were significant predictors of strategy effectiveness. Goal compatibility was found to be the strongest predictor of effectiveness across strategies.     

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.     

Social Media Adoption Among University Communicators

Long interviews were conducted with university communicators at 2 distant universities with distinct social systems. Participants were drawn to adopt social media mainly by relative advantage, compatibility, and trialability attributes of the innovation. Inductive themes that emerged from the interviews included an emphasis on publics, information sharing, cost, and convenience. A believer–nonbeliever distinction among adopters is introduced. Believers are driven by the same characteristics of social media that public relations researchers have found to be essential to the practice of public relations itself: 2-way communication, interactivity, dialogue, and engagement.     

Typology and dimensionality of litigation public relations strategies: The Hewlett-Packard board pretexting scandal case

This study examined the content of litigation public relations (LPR) strategies Hewlett-Packard used in its recent board pretexting scandal by analyzing the press releases and newspaper coverage. Seven types of LPR strategies were identified and mapped using multidimensional scaling (MDS) along two continuums representing Defense–Accommodation and Ambiguity–Specification message attributes. Threat type was found to influence the choice of LPR strategies, which in return, impacted on how the publics attributed the organizational responsibility in the crisis. The use of emotional message played an important role in the two new LPR strategies, Information Supply and Strategic Avoidance.     

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.     

The value of public relations: Different impacts of communal and exchange relationships on perceptions and communicative behavior

The study, using a survey of 508 university student publics, investigates (a) the impacts and mechanisms that a relationship has on a public’s perceptions and behavior around an issue and (b) how relationship types impact a public’s perception toward a tuition increase issue differently. The situational theory of publics was used as a theoretical framework. The results generally supported the theories. More important, the findings indicated that a communal relationship and an exchange relationship had different impacts on problem recognition, constraint recognition, and involvement recognition.     

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.     

Situational Theory of Publics: Exploring a Cultural Ethnocentric Bias

The situational theory of publics demonstrates that stakeholders are best segmented into active publics, given their high problem recognition, low constraint recognition, and high level of involvement in an issue. This study further demonstrates that low identification with an issue is significant as the public's situational drivers are increased by a high ethnocentric bias. This argument is investigated with regard to a specific type of public: journalists. The results confirmed previous discussions of how a specific public's situational behavior might be influenced by a referent criterion representing a biased mindset of that public toward the topic.     

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.     

Tornado warning: Understanding the National Weather Service’s communication strategies

This study explores the National Weather Service’s communication through a multi-sited rapid ethnography that extends the fully functioning society theory. National Weather Service field offices do not employ public information officers. Instead, forecasters predict the weather, craft messages, and build relationships with their publics. Scholars have called for public relations research that examines messages, including how crisis communication can help publics cope. Additionally, scholars have noted that all organizations need public relations, even if they do not employ formal public relations personnel. In our study, forecasters emphasized the need to build their publics’ tornado threat awareness and provided strategies to make weather science accessible. Forecasters discussed a variety of message strategies including avoiding fear appeals, humanizing the organization, and visualizing risks. Forecasters also built relationships with active publics through soliciting weather spotters and empowering them to prepare others for severe weather. Overall, findings expand knowledge about how organizations can employ strategic public relations to benefit society, thereby extending fully functioning society theory.     

Imperializing spin cycles: A postcolonial look at public relations,greenwashing, and the separation of publics

This article draws on postcolonial theory to critique ongoing neocolonial aspects of public relations theory and practice and especially the field's recent appropriation of terms such as “corporate social responsibility” and “sustainable development.” It positions such appropriation as a continuation of the old colonial strategy of reputation management among elite publics at the expense of marginalized publics. The article makes the case that public relations can only begin to be ethical and socially responsible if it acknowledges the diversity of publics, breaks down the hierarchy of publics, and takes into account the resistance of peripheral publics.     

Contextual and Audience Moderators of Channel Selection and Message Reception of Public Health Information in Routine and Crisis Situations

A richer understanding of audience channel selection and message reception during routine and crisis situations through receiver-oriented research offers great promise to extend situational theory's predictive utility. Key variables of situational theory, including involvement, constraint, and problem recognition in information seeking and processing may be moderated by broader demographic and contextual factors in consumption of health information. Thus, situational theory frames this analysis of channels most important for public use in routine and crisis contexts in health information seeking, differences in preferences between contexts, and the criteria publics apply when evaluating the quality of health information. Results of a national random telephone survey (n = 400) indicate a need for more receiver-based studies in public relations, as involvement and demographics played key moderating roles in channel preferences. Use of several channels including radio, magazine, and television differed between crisis and routine contexts for health information consumers. In both crisis and routine contexts, those with high health involvement were more likely to use active media channels such as newspapers and magazines. Perceived accuracy is also revealed as a key criterion in evaluating the quality of health information consumers receive.     

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.     

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.     

The utility of situational theory of publics for assessing public response to a disaster prediction

The study of public response to disasters is a relatively recent discipline that developed following the passage of the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977. Because earthquake prediction is an inexact science, few formal predictions have been issued, which has limited the opportunity to study public response to predictions. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of public relations theory, specifically situational theory of publics, for assessing response to the New Madrid earthquake prediction.Situational theory demonstrates that there is not a single, general public for disaster predictions as has been assumed in studies of disaster response. Instead, multiple publics develop in response to a prediction based on how members of those publics view the situation. Contrary to previous findings that believability and personalized risk are correlated constructs, high personalized risk was associated with high constraint recognition regardless of belief in the prediction. Based on the findings, suggestions are proposed for the development of more effective messages for communicating with publics at risk.     

The limits of collaboration

The premise of the essay is that collaborative public relations is unfeasible in some situations. Certain types of conflicts virtually require asymmetric or win-lose public relations efforts. The involvement of multiple parties in a dispute or the timing of a dispute, may necessitate reactive and confrontational responses on the part of public relations personnel. Practitioners sometimes perceive few degrees of freedom in how they may respond to a situation. There are also cases in which activist publics are motivated to pursue confrontation and to avoid open communication and collaboration.     

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.     

The influence of perceived shared risk in crisis communication: Elaborating the situational theory of publics

The study explored whether perceived shared experience with a media portrayal could influence various cognitions—such as concern, sense of personal involvement, and desire to learn more—that are important for behavior change. This research used the situational theory of publics in order to evaluate whether perceived shared risk is an antecedent to the factors leading to communication behavior. In general, the findings from this experiment supported the idea that shared risk experience with portrayals in news coverage has the potential to influence problem recognition, involvement recognition, and a new variable that combines information seeking and processing: that of information gaining.     

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.     

International public relations’ influence on media coverage and public perceptions of foreign countries

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of international public relations on a target country's news coverage and public perceptions toward other countries. This study proposed a public relations influence model of national image formation and tested its relationships based on 27 countries’ public relations effort targeting the U.S. news coverage and publics. This study found that (1) public relations of other countries in the U.S. had a direct impact on how significantly the U.S. public perceived those countries; (2) the more prominently and favorably foreign countries were covered by the U.S. news media, the more significantly and favorably the U.S. public perceived and felt toward those countries.