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The study examines the impact of critical organizational factors (organizational culture and excellent leader performance) on public relations professionals’ overall job satisfaction by focusing on testing the joint mediating effects work engagement and trust could generate. A national online survey of 838 public relations professionals working in a variety of organizations was used as the empirical data to test the relationships in a proposed conceptual model. Results confirmed the strong impact organizational culture and leader performance could have on public relations professionals’ work engagement, trust, and job satisfaction. More importantly, results revealed the significant joint mediating effects of engagement and trust on professionals’ job satisfaction, when supportive organizational culture and excellent leader performance were achieved. The study concludes with research and practical implications.

Although millennials have been extensively examined in the popular and academic literature, there have not been sufficient studies in strategic communication that help us fully understand this uniq...

Purpose How to effectively manage information flow continues presenting challenges for effective responsive strategies in communication, reflecting the magnitude and impact of a data-driven and strategy-oriented market environment globally. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discover how concerns related to the rise of social media have affected communication leaders’ operational and managerial practice from an international perspective. The overarching aim is to better understand these concerns in order to contribute to effective responsive strategies in communication practice in the future. Design/methodology/approach The authors relied on data from an international online survey of public relations and communication professionals in multiple countries who were asked their perceptions and behaviors concerning the impact of information flow and the digital revolution on their practice. ANOVA analyses and hierarchical regression models were used to identify the heterogeneity across five clustered groups of countries. Findings Results confirmed a strong desire among communication professionals in multiple countries to learn more about information management in practice. Results identified the overall patterns of responsive strategies that have been widely adopted by public relations professionals in specific country clusters across the globe. In order to better manage social media and the digital revolution, all five of the surveyed country clusters indicated that it is effective to integrate more social media strategies and to train employees in social media. Originality/value The research has explored the importance surrounding information management in an era of widespread digital content, including how concerns in this area have affected strategic decision-making in communication practice. Equally important, the authors provide a more global perspective on this critical topic by analyzing communication professionals’ perceptions in grouped country clusters. Results of the research have identified the similarities and differences in responsive strategies to cope with information flow concerns across grouped country clusters.

Synopsis This study uses a model of excellent public relations leadership to examine gender differences in perceptions of professional leadership among Russian public relations practitioners. Analysis of a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews indicate that Russian women place greater importance on leadership than Russian men. However, female practitioners seem hesitant or unable to take a leadership role due to a perfect storm of gender effects: existing societal and professional gender stereotypes, male-dominated societal and organizational culture, and lack of support from educational programs and professional associations, among others. While experiencing this perfect storm, female professionals assumed a traditional gender role rather than a professional leadership role. In addition, those women who were top leaders in organizations did not necessarily desire leadership nor saw themselves as leaders in the communication field.

This study investigates the role of leadership in facilitating strategic communication management and effective public relations practice by proposing a set of dimensions measuring corporate communication executives’ perceptions on leadership. A measurement methodology was applied and suggested to facilitate empirical investigation. Data from two groups of senior corporate communicators and public relations executives (N = 384) nationwide were used to assess the validity and reliability of proposed leadership dimensions that contribute to effective communication management. Results from both groups demonstrated strong support for the proposed higher-order measurement model. The analysis suggested that 6 major dimensions (self-dynamics, team collaboration, ethical orientation, relationship building, strategic decision making capability, and communication knowledge management capability) are crucial for communication executives to expand their influence in the institutional context and generate desired comm...

To better understand leadership in public relations and explore its value in successful communication management, this article captured the perceptions of mid- and senior-level public relations executives (N = 222) regarding the important qualities and dimensions of excellent leadership in the practice. According to study participants, strategic decision-making capability, problem-solving ability, and communication knowledge and expertise are the three most important qualities of excellent leadership. In addition, respondents said that on-the-job experiences, individual initiative and desire, and role models are the most valuable sources of leadership skills and development. About half of the respondents indicated that excellent leaders in public relations are different from leaders in other fields in three ways: They must hold a compelling vision for communication, possess comprehensive understanding of media and information systems, and effectively develop and implement strategic communication plans. Pr...

This study investigates viewer recognition of brands placed in films, according to film genre, gender, and previous viewing experience. A sample of 137 moviegoers watched 12 film clips representing three popular genres (action, comedy, and drama) and reported their recognition of brand placements. Results suggest that brand recognition is more common in drama films. Previous viewing experience and gender did not make significant differences in brand recognition. It is suggested that brand placements require more public relations research.

PurposeThis study sets out to understand the extent to which public relations practitioners use dissent tactics in the face of organizational unethical decisions, and to examine how organizational environment facilitates such dissent.Design/methodology/approachA web‐based survey was conducted with the assistance of the research team of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). A systematic random sample of 6,126 practitioners was drawn from the 2008 PRSA membership directory.FindingsThe results reaffirmed that “assertive confrontation” was the most frequently adopted tactic to resist an unethical organizational decision. Practitioners were more likely to confront management in an organization where top leaders do not support or exhibit ethical behavior. When an organization does not have an ethics code, practitioners were more likely to agitate others to oppose the unethical decision. Selective use of information and sabotage tactics were adopted when an organization does not value open communication.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was limited to practitioners in the USA, and the response rate was very low (4.02 percent).Originality/valueAs one of the grounding studies in public relations dissent, this research contributes to better understanding how public relations practitioners make an effort to promote organizational ethics by resisting unethical organizational decisions. The study also sheds light on the characteristics and nature of dissent in public relations, an important but little explored area in the field.

This study investigated the public's perception toward organizational crisis response strategies by using a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design with level of responsibility (individual vs. organizational level), organizational response (causal and treatment responsibility), and two countries (the United States vs. South Korea). Students responded to hypothetical news stories. The results showed that students in a highly collectivistic culture had more anger, negative attitudes, and impressions toward the organization than students in a highly individualistic culture, when the organization used the individualistic-level strategy. The results suggest organizations may benefit by using a strategy in which they accept responsibilities for crises.

Pasadeos, Renfro and Hanily (1999) investigated the public relations literature's most-cited works in the 1990s and identified research networks. In the present study we expand that work by examining public relations scholarship ten years later. We identify current authors and their publication outlets, taxonomize most-cited works, and draw a co-citation network. Further, we compare current findings with those of ten years earlier and speculate on the state of public relations as a scholarly discipline.

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the opinions of newsletter editors in the Sierra Club in an effort to understand the roles an editor and newsletter content play in building relationships in an activist setting. There are two goals: to examine editorial decision making in an activist organization; and to examine the role of interpersonal interaction as part of an organizational‐public relationship (OPR).Design/methodology/approachIn‐depth interviews with 14 Sierra Club newsletter editors examined issues related to newsletter content choice, issue frames, sources, and mission.FindingsThe findings illustrate normative practices for grassroots gatekeepers. Editors saw their role as facilitating relationship building and activism among members. This has theoretical implications for OPR theory by suggesting a new facilitative relationship type.Research limitations/implicationsAs all qualitative research, the findings of this study are not generalizable. This study is further limited because it focuses on a single organization and one communication channel.Practical implicationsMost editors suggested that content selection was based on the expertise of the editor or an editorial or executive board. This provides strategic communication opportunities for both the national and the grassroots organization, if the editorial decision making model is identified by strategists.Originality/valueMid‐level gatekeepers, such as newsletter editors, are an important public to study because of their potential impact on key publics. This paper provides both practical and theoretical implications. Practical implications include insights into how some activist gatekeepers make decisions and into information salience.

Responses from 869 public relations practitioners were examined to see how female and male practitioners perceive and enact power-influence in public relations, including perceptions of power-influence, resources, preferred influence tactics, constraints on power, persuasive appeals, and what it means to “do the right thing” in public relations. Male and female practitioners shared similar definitions of power-influence in practice and similar beliefs in the value of personal advocacy and ethical appeals to influence decision making. Practitioners illustrated differences in the value of influence resources, choice of influence tactics, perceptions of constraints on practice, and style and vocabulary of dissent.

Interviews were conducted with 97 high-level U.S. communications managers to assess factors related to professional success in public relations. The executives most commonly defined success in managerial and strategic terms and indicated that excellent communication skills and a proactive nature were crucial to success in the field. However, the results suggested that success follows diverse pathways, which appear to be linked by 10 patterns or themes. These include the power of performance, varied experiences, dense networks of relationships, complex communication skill sets, and passion for work and the profession. Some modest gender differences were noted. The study captures perceptions about success among top public relations leaders, a group little represented in the literature on this topic. The research also bears implications for education, practice, and organizations that seek to hire and develop successful communications professionals.

PurposeTo examine how public relations practitioners define influence and where they find influence.Design/methodology/approachDepth interviews with 162 public relations practitioners.FindingsPublic relations professionals defined influence in terms of shaping decisions, having access, and being heard. They said they were most influential in crisis situations and when preparing communication messages or plans. They are least influential in strategic decision making, when they are perceived as technicians, and in interactions with senior executives. The most common influence tactic used by these professionals was rational influence.Practical implicationsThe authors suggest eight tenets regarding influence for public relations practitioners.Originality/valuePractitioners have long noted the need for increased influence across the organization. But, there is little scholarship that examines just how public relations pracitioners should increase their influence and ascent to organizational decision making circles.

Master and sub frames used by the Sierra Club to communicate with its members and the public were identified in Sierra Club chapter newsletters, regional and national newspapers via content analysis to identify the occurrence of message frames and sources. Frames in three areas – drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), coal-fired power plants (CFPP), and sprawl – were analyzed. Sprawl was the most mentioned subject in all three media. Sierra Club themes were found infrequently, suggesting the need to focus frames. But, Sierra Club frames appeared with greater frequency than competing frames. Environmental sources were the majority in the sampled articles, suggesting the opportunity for powerful framing of public opinion, with focused message frames and trained environmental spokespeople at all levels, i.e., national, regional, local. New theoretical ground for public relations scholarship is opened and findings could influence message strategies of activist and corporate or government organizations.

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.

Public relations researchers and practitioners acknowledge the importance of chief executive officers (CEOs) to the function and to organizational image, but studies of CEOs in media coverage are rare. This study used content analysis of 4 newspapers during the period from 1990 through 2000 to assess trends in the salience and valence of CEO press coverage and to examine dimensions of CEO images in the coverage. Results suggest increasing salience and a somewhat positive valence in coverage, as well as a sharp focus on competency and personal dimensions of CEO images. The study contributes to a thin literature on the topic by developing a baseline of data about CEOs and press coverage and by assessing implications of the findings for theory and practice.

This research surveys public relations practitioners at leading corporations to determine what anticipated benefits drive investments in new communication and information technologies. The dominant symmetrical model in the public relations literature highlights efficiency and relationship‐building benefits, but research here incorporates control benefits of new technologies that are under explored—a voiding media gatekeepers, enhancing stakeholder monitoring and surveillance, and capturing more stakeholder data. Results of a survey with practitioners at 107 of the Fortune 500 companies suggest that efficiency benefits are especially important and that control and relationship‐building benefits are more or less equally important considerations. The research contributes to our understanding of control aspects of new technologies and underscores the need for more critical research into ethical concerns associated with such controls.

This study examined how similarly or differently American and Korean public relations practitioners use dissent tactics. The results showed that assertive confrontation was the most frequently adopted tactic among practitioners in both countries. However, Korean practitioners were more likely to work to sabotage implementation of unethical decision, and to leak information to external stakeholders than the US counterparts. This study will shed light on the impact of cultural difference on public relations practitioners’ dissent selection on unethical management decisions.

Most of the active learning literature focuses on approaches in undergraduate courses. However, active learning also can benefit students in public relations and integrated communication courses at the graduate level. This case report describes how three active learning approaches—research and field work, student accountabilities for learning, and student reflection and reflexive exercises—were used in a graduate class project to help a Fortune 50 consumer products company identify and address real-time merger communication issues.

This research examines corporate public rhetoric used to describe and justify business restructuring activities in the past decade, during which more than 40 million American jobs were eliminated. The study is grounded in content analysis of 340 Shareholder Letters found within the annual reports of 53 corporations which restructured operations during the period 1989‐1997. The findings suggest that American CEOs use isomorphic restructuring idioms and three common justification themes in public statements. These common idioms, along with the prevalence of restructuring actions by well‐known corporate actors, and incorporation of restructuring responsibilities into the job requirements of employee teams, may contribute to the legitimation of ongoing business restructuring practices and corresponding job losses.

This research examines attempts by the Business Roundtable (BRT) to influence federal policy agendas regarding four private issues (i.e., policy issues not salient on media and public agendas). BRT's information subsidies are studied along with media coverage, public opinion, and policy agenda developments. Results suggest that BRT uses information subsidies to control the scope of issue conflict and that these subsidies influenced the policy agenda for study issues. Corporate influence on private issues may alter the traditional agenda-setting process, and an alternative, elitist model is proposed.

This study conceptualizes organizational public relations as attempts to construct ideological world view. Three aspects of ideological world view—distortion, legitimation, and terrain of struggle—are elaborated and then grounded in a case study of the public relations practices of The Upjohn Company, a pharmaceutical manufacturer and researcher, during the Halcion(R) (sleeping pill) crisis in the 1980s. The case study reveals how such practices helped create a supportive scientific world view for Halcion, which may have contributed to the product's steady growth in sales and profits during the decade, despite intense media scrutiny and criticism and the restrictive actions of health authorities in some countries.