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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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]