Advancing relationship management theory: Mapping the continuum of relationship types

Building on the literature of relationship management, this study explores the way organization type influences the nature of the organization–public relationship. Three types of organization–public relationship were examined (nonprofit organization–volunteer, retailer–consumer, and political party–member) and which were mapped to Hung's (2005) continuum of relationships, ranging from communal to exploitive. Four dimensions of the relationship were examined: trust, control mutuality, satisfaction, and commitment. Surveys were completed by 313 respondents to measure their relationships with all three organizational types. Significant differences were detected between organizations which were deemed high, medium and low in communality. Results provide insight into the role that communality plays in levels of relationship quality in the organization–public relationship.     

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.     

Words matter: The impact of workplace verbal aggressiveness on workgroup relationship conflict,work-life conflict,and employee-organization relationships

Workplace verbal aggressiveness is detrimental to employees and organizations and is perceived as unwanted and unproductive. This study examined whether and how verbal aggressiveness from supervisors and coworkers influences workgroup relationship conflict, employees’ work-life conflict, and employee-organization relationships. An online survey was conducted with 392 full-time employees in the United States. The key findings of this study showed that when verbal aggressiveness abounds in a workgroup, it creates workgroup relationship conflict, which triggers individual employees’ work-life conflict and tarnishes their trust, satisfaction, commitment, and sense of shared power with their organizations.     

Using dialogue to build organization–public relationships,engage publics,and positively affect organizational outcomes

The study and practice of public relations continues to explore the many benefits accrued when organizations adopt a relational approach to public relations management. One area that is relatively unexplored in the relationship management literature is the role of dialogue in organization–public relationships. Historically, scholars have focused dialogic research on either interaction – where an organization and a public exchange information – or a debate – where organizations and public engage in a process of statement counterstatement. The current investigation explores the notion of dialogue and examines the ways in which relationship attitudes and dialogue may positively affect key public member evaluations and behavioral intent. The results suggest that both relationship attitudes and dialogue positively affect respondent evaluations of and intended behaviors toward an organization. The implications of the findings are presented and suggestions for managing organization–public relationships are considered.     

Mediating the power of antecedents in public relationships: A pilot study

This study presents one of the first examinations of the influence of antecedents of relationships on the organization-public relationship. Results from a pilot study of adolescent volunteers suggest that reason for volunteering with a nonprofit organization was a significant predictor of volunteers’ future intentions toward the organization. Two variables partially mediated the relationship between antecedents and future intended behavior, involvement and relationship quality. Findings suggest that while reasons for relationship initiation play a powerful role in the organization-public relationship, organizations can minimize the impact through relationship management.     

Relationship Cultivation in Public Diplomacy: A Qualitative Study of Relational Antecedents and Cultivation Strategies

Political public relations and public diplomacy both focus on managing communication to build and maintain relationships for a political purpose. Public diplomacy focuses on foreign publics and involves governments and organizations seeking to build relationships internationally. This study explored relationship cultivation, i.e., the process of initiating, nurturing positive, and recovering from negative relationships between various public diplomacy actors. Data included 32 in-depth interviews with communication officers in the United States. Results confirmed some of the previously developed relationship cultivation dimensions and suggested new ones. The study offers a nuanced discussion of relationship cultivation factors and an explanation of how they apply to public diplomacy engagement.     

Prioritizing relationships: The investment model and relationship maintenance strategies in organizational crises

Crisis communication and crisis management are dominated by research in image repair and restoration, but much has to be done to address the lack of research that engages relational perspectives in these fields. Adopting the investment model (Rusbult, 1980) as a theoretical framework and using structural equation modeling, the study develops a crisis relational maintenance model to explain how organizations can (re)build relationships with publics. Survey results show that publics’ commitment and publics’ trust are two significant mediators that influence publics’ relational behaviors post-crisis. The investment model provides a suitable framework to explain publics’ commitment to an organization, with explained variance more than 90 percent, and an organization’s relationship maintenance strategies during and post-crisis significantly affect publics’ trust. Whether an organization’s relationships with the publics can be maintained or repaired depends on whether an organization engages in these relationship maintenance strategies that prioritize publics’ need, which can be reciprocated from publics as publics reorient themselves along with the long-term goals and well-being of the relationships. Results of this study call for further attention on relationship maintenance approaches in crisis communication and management research.     

Smartphones and young publics: A new challenge for public relations practice and relationship building

This study focuses on smartphones and their potential contribution to relationship building, between organizations and young publics. A survey among a representative sample of 550 young, Israelis, aged 21–31, and sixty personal in-depth interviews with undergraduate students were, conducted. The findings reveal that the smartphone satisfies both interaction-related and cognitive-related, needs, but organizations do not utilize the dialogic potential of the smartphone to engage and, to build relationships with young publics.     

Redefining sewardship: Examining how Fortune 100 organizations use stewardship with virtual stakeholders

Although Kelly's (2001) stewardship strategies have been discussed conceptually in public relations literature, they have not been examined through scholarly inquiry outside the fundraising realm despite repeated suggestions in relationship management literature. Through content analysis of the Fortune 100 organizations’ websites, this study examines how the four stewardship strategies are used by for-profit corporations. Results indicate that the current conceptualization of stewardship strategies for virtual behavior may be a better representation of relationship cultivation strategies than relying on the adaptation of interpersonal communication strategies to organizations.     

Exploring the development of an organizational approach to media relationships

Using semi-structured, qualitative interviews with practitioners, this study explored an organizational approach to media relations. Interviewees provided insight as to how organizations and their media relations practitioners integrated principles of excellent public relations and principles of relationship management with principles of traditional practitioner–journalist relationships. Results indicated that the practice of media relations can be viewed as a theory-based organizational commitment at the meso-level, and not merely as an atheoretical practitioner skill at the micro-level.     

Crisis communication in higher education: The use of “negotiation” as a strategy to manage crisis

This case study examined the crisis response strategies of Louisiana State University after its women's head basketball coach resigned amid charges of inappropriate conduct with former basketball players. This case study draws on relationship management and negotiation as the theoretical lens to examine the efforts of the University in managing relationships and restoring its image. Data for this study was collected through opened-ended questionnaires from students, faculty, and staff at the University. The findings from this study indicate that the good reputation of the University was responsible for the positive evaluation of the crisis management. In addition, results from this study suggest that “negotiation” can play an important role in managing a crisis when the conflicting parties are not willing to participate in a dialogue.     

Strategic Role of Relationship Building: Perceived Links Between Employee–Organization Relationships and Globalization Strategies

Based on literature in relationship management and strategic management, this article explores the perceived connection between relationship building and the global strategies of multinational corporations, and in turn, the value of relationships as organizational resources that can contribute to the implementation of strategies. Interview data showed that different global strategies were perceived to be related to different types of relationships, as well as quality of relationships with employees in the local subsidiaries in China. This study extended the research in relationship management, as well as the strategic role of public relations in the global setting.     

Profiling Donors of Blood,Money, and Time

Understanding donor profiles is crucial for donor relationship management. Whereas previous research has focused on profiling blood, money, or time donor segments separately, we define seven donor profiles based on their former donation behavior for blood, money, and time donation and compare them to non‐donors. Relying on representative data from the German Socio Economic Panel, we use an extensive set of characteristics that include sociodemographic, psychographic, health‐related, and geographical measures and simultaneously investigate profiles of donors for single and multiple donation forms and non‐donors by means of a multinomial logistic model. Our results reveal valuable insights for donor acquisition and retention strategies of nonprofit organizations along the identified profiling characteristics of donor segments. By this, our findings help nonprofit organization managers to better target single and multiple donors across three donation forms.     

Dynamics between fragmentation and unity: Identity and nonprofit relationship management in the Asian American Community

Focusing on community-based nonprofits with specific missions of serving the Asian American community, this study examined the dynamics between various layers of identity, including ethnicity and panethnicity, and identified how intercultural relationship management contributed to a sense of community and empowerment among minority communities. Interviews from both nonprofit community organizations and community members revealed the following major findings. First, Asian American community nonprofits needed to manage a myriad of identities within their community, particularly the interplay between diverse ethnic identities and the pan-Asian ethnic identity. To help manage these identities, these nonprofits adopted a dual approach using both segmented outreach and coherent advocacy. Second, these community nonprofits used intercultural relationship management to build a sense of community and efficacy, promoting outcomes such as health awareness, communicative activeness, cultural shift, political engagement, and community alliances. This study contributes to relationship management literature through introducing identity-based relationship building strategies.     

Innovativeness of social economy entities in Poland. An empirical study from the perspective of Positive Organizational Scholarship

The Polish system of tackling social exclusion is based on social economy entities, such as social integration centers and social cooperatives. The aim of the article is to define the essence and conditions of their innovativeness while answering the question to what extent the organizations can make use of management theories created for business entities. The empirical basis for the article are 3 focus group interviews with representatives of social integration centers and social cooperatives operating in Poland. The results suggest that low innovativeness of the entities is, among others, the effect of an authoritarian management style and a lack of care about positive relationships among employees.     

PR in the ER: Managing internal organization–public relationships in a hospital emergency department

Focusing on a university-affiliated emergency department, this case study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of internal organization–public relationships as well as the cultivation strategies used to manage internal organization–public relationships (OPRs). The case study includes interviews with members of the emergency department's (ED) dominant coalition and focus groups with ED staff, as well as field observations in the ED itself. Findings illustrate that structural and policy antecedents acted as barriers to relationship maintenance, that a reliance on asymmetrical cultivation strategies culminated in poor internal OPRs, and that these poor relationships fostered negative attitudes, non-compliant behavior, and an arguably toxic organizational culture. Also, there was some evidence of symmetrical cultivation strategies (e.g., positivity and networking) fostering positive OPR perceptions among some employees. This case study can be used to guide best practices in internal public relations and answers the call for more research on public relations and health communication. Moreover, the current study suggests avenues for extending the relationship management perspective by considering organizational culture as a possible outcome of internal relationships.     

Relationship management as antecedents to public communication behaviors: Examining empowerment and public health among Asian Americans

This study examined the effects of relationship management by community health organizations on the situational perceptions, and, in turn, on information behaviors about health issues among community members. Survey data with 222 Asian Americans indicated that trust and control mutuality played different but complementary roles on problem recognition, involvement recognition, and constraint recognition, which then differently impacted four information behaviors ranging from information attending, information forwarding, information sharing, and information seeking. This study proposed and tested a public-oriented model and contributed to two lines of research: examining public-centered consequences of relationship management and exploring antecedents to the formation of publics. It has practical implications on fostering relationships and empowering community members.     

Creating shared value (CSV) and mutually beneficial relationships to address societal issues and develop corporate competitive advantage: A case study of Yuhan-Kimberly and an aging population

Through creating shared value (CSV) initiatives, companies have attempted to contribute to solving social problems that the public sector cannot address alone, such as migration, health, climate change, and job losses due to automation. Companies are also using CSV as business opportunities to develop their competitiveness. Only a few studies, however, have examined how organizations can develop and implement CSV programs, and the outcomes of those programs. We conducted a case study on how a multinational company, Yuhan-Kimberly, a joint venture of Kimberly-Clark and Yuhan, developed and implemented its CSV program, and created win-win, mutually beneficial impacts, in response to an increasingly aging society in Korea. South Korea is the world’s most rapidly aging society with the highest poverty and suicide rates among older adults. Yuhan-Kimberly’s CSV initiative includes fostering small-sized senior care businesses, creating jobs for older adults, changing the negative perception of older adults, and ultimately creating a market ecosystem for the older adult care industry. We used triangulation through company documents, including annual sustainability reports (N = 10), news reports (N = 623), company-conducted survey results (N = 80), and in-depth interviews (N = 14) with employees and members of other organizations and publics. The results reveal how the company developed and implemented a CSV program to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships and shared value for the company, older adults, other organizations, and society. The results indicate that CSV programs can be powerful relationship cultivation strategies to create mutual benefits both for society, by providing sustainable and feasible solutions, and for organizations, by enhancing their competitive advantages.     

Do public relations professionals understand corporate governance issues well enough to advise companies on stakeholder relationship management?

The King Reports on Governance for South Africa are internationally respected for proposing integrated reporting in a triple bottom-line business context to improve corporate governance. The most recent report, King III, views stakeholder relationship management as a key tenet of corporate governance. This raises the question whether public relations professionals (PRPs) understand the principles of corporate governance well-enough to inform and guide organizations on the management of stakeholder relationships. The views of senior PRPs at selected top performing companies were elicited on their practice of stakeholder relationship management in line with corporate governance principles. It was found that their knowledge on corporate governance was limited, although they recognized its importance. They propose six role functions for managing stakeholder relationships on a strategic or managerial level; these role functions are aligned with the King III principles on stakeholder relationships. The following three were of particular importance: developing a corporate strategy, giving advice to senior management and managing crisis communication. Different terminologies were used to build relations with stakeholders and different approaches were used to profile stakeholders. It is recommended that organizations leverage their public relations functions on strategic and managerial levels in support of their corporate governance efforts. In turn, PRPs are encouraged to ensure a deep knowledge on corporate governance issues when counseling senior management on building stakeholder relationships.