Public Relations 2002 Abstracts
Public Relations Division
RESEARCH
Leadership and Gender in Public Relations: Perceived Effectiveness of Transformational and Transactional Leadership Styles • Linda Aldoory, Maryland and Elizabeth L. Toth, Syracuse • This study used a quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups to examine perceptions of leadership styles, sex differences in these perceptions, and opinions about the gendered nature of leadership in public relations. In summary, the focus group data supported survey results that indicated a strong preference for transformational leadership style over transactional leadership. However, there was also strong evidence for a preference for situational leadership. Findings are interpreted within the frameworks of public relations theory and gender theory.
Public Relations Orientation: Development. Empirical Testing and Implications for Managers • Leeora D. Black and Charmine E.J. Hartel, Monash University • The study uses both theory construction and theory testing techniques to develop and validate the construct and a measure of public relations orientation. The public relations orientation measure assesses the degree to which organizations (1) pursue both behavioral and symbolic relationships with publics, (2) set public relations goals to support organizational goals and facilitate effective use of public relations information within the organization, (3) provide adequate resources for public relations, (4) are responsive to the needs of publics, and (5) engage in dialogue with publics.
Corrective Action After a Crisis: Should Public Relations Require or Request Implementation? • Lori Boyer, Louisiana State University • Public relations practitioners counsel an organizationÕs leadership after a crisis. Should practitioners suggest or require the implementation of corrective measures after a crisis? Participants in an experiment read news accounts of a crisis that was set in a restaurant. Results indicate that organizations that implemented corrective actions after a crisis received significantly higher positive evaluations from consumers than organizations that did not implement corrective action.
Fortune 500 Company Web Sites and Media Relations: Corporate PR Practitioners’ Use of the Internet to Assist Journalists in News Gathering • Coy Callison, Texas Tech University • A content analysis of all 2001 Fortune 500 company Websites was conducted to determine how corporations are using the Web to meet the informational needs of journalists. Analyses revealed that the majority of Websites do not have dedicated pressrooms where media content is centralized. In pressrooms, news releases, executive biographies and executive photographs are the most commonly included materials. Statistics suggest that higher-ranking companies more often provide pressrooms and materials in pressrooms than lower-ranking companies.
Corporate Reputation As A New Media Agenda Item: Attribute Agenda Setting And Business News Coverage • Craig E. Carroll, Texas at Austin • Business news has grown dramatically over the past thirty years suggesting that there has been a shift in the media agenda. This paper proposes examining agenda setting theory for its ability to explain the impact of media coverage on public opinion for matters beyond public issues. Finally, this paper describes the data and methods necessary for testing this extension of attribute agenda setting theory by examining perceptions of corporate reputation.
A Content Analysis of the Journal of Public Relations Research and Public Relations Review, 1989-2001 • Tina B. Carroll, Miami • This study analyzed 498 articles in the Journal of Public Relations Research and Public Relations Review from 1989 to 2001 to investigate the status of published public relations research. Variables that were examined included author characteristics, methodological procedures, and research topics. Results indicate that nearly half (49%) of the articles discussed or tested a theory and 48% of the articles had at least one female author.
PR Educators – “The Second Generation”: Measuring and Achieving Consensus • Erik L. Collins and Lynn M. Zoch, South Carolina • A Delphi study of public relations academics identified James L. Grunig, Scott M. Cutlip, Robert L. Heath, and Glen M. Broom as the public relations researchers who have made the greatest contribution to the theoretical and analytical understanding of public relations during the period from 1960-1990. Findings also indicated that there is little agreement about the important contributions to the theoretical and analytical perspectives of public relations as a profession made by PR academics.
Journalists’ Hostility Toward Public Relations: A Historical Analysis • Fred Fedler and Denise DeLorme, Central Florida • Journalists seem to treat public relations and its practitioners with contempt. However, no studies have investigated the problemÕs historic roots. Thus, this paper explores the perspective of “early insiders” through a historical analysis of autobiographies, biographies, and magazine articles written by and about early U.S. newspaper reporters and editors. Results revealed six interrelated factors that contributed to the origins, persistence, and contradictions surrounding the hostility. The paper concludes with practical implications and future research directions.
Crisis Public Relations: A Study Of Leadership, Culture, Demand And Delivery • Terence (Terry) Flynn, Syracuse University • This study explored how public relations practitioners and their respective managers responded to the crisis events of September 2001. In depth interviews were conducted with five communicators and five managers in an effort to understand how organizational leadership, culture and the demand and delivery of crisis public relations affected the overall response of their organizations to the 9/11 attacks. The study provides the first insights, beyond the Excellence Study, of the demand-delivery cycle as proposed by Dozier, Grunig & Grunig.
Measuring Public Relations Outcomes: Community Relations and Corporate Philanthropy Programs • Margarete Rooney Hall, Florida • This study measured the relationship-building value of the community relations and corporate philanthropy programs of a regional utility company. The strength of the company-customer relationship was determined. Customers were then asked about their awareness of specific community relations and corporate — philanthropy programs, and the importance of those programs. The study compares the strength of the relationship between the company and its customers who were aware and those who were unaware of community relations and corporate philanthropy.
An Integrated Model Of Public Relations Effectiveness: A Conceptual Framework And An Empirical Study • Yi-Hui Huang, National Cheng-Chi University, Taiwan • The purposes of this paper are twofold: 1) develop a comprehensive and integrated framework for evaluating public relations effectiveness, and 2) empirically explore the relationships between and among the performance measures of public relations. Taken as a whole, the results provide valuable insights into these two areas and indicate that public relations is characterized by both direct and indirect effects.
Five Decades of Mexican Public Relations in the United States: From Propaganda to Strategic Counsel • Melissa A. Johnson, North Carolina State University • This paper describes U.S. public relations for Mexico through a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 940 Foreign Agents Registration Act listings from 1942 through 1991. The article delineates the shift from government to industry representation, the move from press agentry and public information models to more research and counsel, centralization trends, and the evolving roles of US public relations from technicians to high-stakes public relations managers. The continuing robust technician role is confirmed.
The Effects of Relationships on Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Future Behavior A Case of a Community Bank • Yungwook Kim, Ewha Womans University, Seoul and Samsup Jo, Florida • Testing why relationship building contributes to an organizational bottom line is a key issue in developing relationship-building theory. The results reveal that customers who have positive relational features are less likely to switch the banks their bank accounts whereas the customers who are dissatisfied are more likely to switch their bank account to alternative competitors. CustomerÕs satisfaction and loyalty clearly influenced on the customers’ future behavioral intention.
Cross-National Conflict Shifting: A Conceptualization And Expansion In An International Public Relations Context • Juan-Carlos Molleda and Colleen Connolly-Ahern, Florida • The main purpose of this paper is to introduce, illustrate and expand the concept of “cross-cultural conflict shifting” as it relates to the international public relations arena. The illustration is accomplished by summarizing a legal incident involving America Online Latin America (AOLA) in Brazil with repercussions in the U. S. and European financial markets. After the conceptualization is expanded, theory building and research opportunities in an international public relations context will be introduced.
International Paradigms: The Social Role of Brazilian Public Relations Professionals • Juan Carlos Molleda, Florida • This study uses factor analysis to test the construct “social role” of Brazilian public relations professionals developed through an analysis of the Latin American School of Public Relations. Two factors were extracted and called: (1) “Corporate Social Policies and Employee Relations,” and (2) “Government and Community Relations.” The study was to add to the theoretical base of the U.S. body of knowledge by identifying the similarities between the Latin American and U.S. scholarships.
An Analysis of the Relationships Among Structure, Influence, and Gender: Helping to Build a Feminist Theory of Public Relations • Julie O’Neil, Texas Christian University • Feminist scholars have suggested that the organizational context may be to blame for the powerlessness of some female public relations practitioners. This study assessed this claim by using feminist theory and a structural framework. Women had less formal structural power than men, but there were no gender differences in relationship power or influence. Consistent with feminist hypothesizing and the structural framework, practitioners’ influence was related to both their formal structural power and relationship power — not gender.
Marching in Lockstep: Public Relations Roles in the New South Africa • Barbara K. Petersen, Derina R. Holtzhausen and Natalie T. J. Tindall, South Florida • This study provides an important descriptive framework for understanding public relations practitioner roles in multicultural, politically, and socially complex environments. Quantitative analysis revealed a strong professionalism among South African practitioners (N=208). They did not follow the traditional manager/technician division of roles, but instead, practiced all four tested in this research — liaison, media relations, cultural interpreter, personal influence — with the level of practice increasing as the practitionerÕs position became more senior.
Reconciling Multiple Roles: Toward A Model of the Female African-American Public Relations Practitioner • Donnalyn Pompper, Florida State University • Failure to promote diversity in the public relations workplace handicaps our ability to apply the two-way symmetrical model for public relations excellence. Fortunately, public relations theorists have addressed excellence impediments by fueling “feminization” debates, by confronting the “velvet ghetto” and “glass ceiling” phenomena, and by valuing public relationsÕ “management” function. Unfortunately, by homogenizing “women” and “minorities” in our research, African-American women’s unique contributions have been obscured.
New Partnerships for the Poor: A Case Study Advancing Relationship Theory • Catherine Quoyeser and Elizabeth L. Toth, Syracuse University • This case study advanced and tested a synthesis of two relationship theories, and assists development practitioners in building strategic partnerships for the worldÕs poor. Using the case study method, it examined a partnership between the World Bank Vietnam and Save the Children, United Kingdom in order to test a new operational model of relationships. The study concluded that elements of the new model — causal interactions between antecedents, maintenance strategies, outcomes, and organizational effectiveness — account for changes in the relationship between these organizations.
Building Business Relationships Online: Relationship Management in Business-to-Business E-Commerce • Bryan H. Reber, Alabama and Scott Fosdick, Missouri • A survey of 517 executives examined relationship management within business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. Companies that employed B2B e-commerce evidenced communication and public relations tenets of relationship management. They allowed consumers to order and pay online, to access online support, to contact the company or sales staff, and to get product information. Engendering loyalty, by tracking customer satisfaction, was weak. Commitment to B2B e-customers was high, evidenced through personnel dedicated to B2B e-commerce and stated organizational commitment.
Asking What Matters Most: A National Survey of PR Professional Response to the Contingency Model • Jae-Hwa Shin, Glen T. Cameron and Fritz Cropp, Missouri • For the first time, a random sample of public relations professionals assessed 86 factors in the contingency theory of public relations. This study aims at identifying what contingent factors matter most in public relations practice to provide public relations professionals with a refinement of the contingency factors in public relations activities. Support was found for a matrix of variables affecting public relations practice, and organizational factors (i.e. top management, public relations department, organizational culture, etc.) were identified that affect the contingency undertaken by public relations practitioners in a given situation.
A Cross-Cultural View of Conflict in Media Relations: The Conflict Management Typology of Media Relations in Korea and in the U.S. • Jae-Hwa Shin and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri • This study provides practical guidelines for American public relations professionals who plan to design and implement media relations practice in Korea and for Korean professionals in the U.S. The first section of this study addresses the conflict components essential to the relationship between PR professionals and journalists. The second section of this study addresses cultural components essential to media relations in Korea and the U.S..
In the Face of Change: A Case Study of the World Wide Web as a Public Relations Tool for Art Museums • Nicole Elise Smith, Louisiana State • As we become even more immersed in the Information Age, a key question for those in the museum public relations field is: What is the impact of the Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, on the traditional role of museums? This case study uses in-depth interviews, a Web site analysis and a museum visitor study to explore the status of the Web as a public relations tool for an existing art museum.
The TPO Endorsements and Consumer Evaluation of a Web Store: Do Seal, Customer Testimonials, and News Clip Affect Consumers Differently? • Alex Wang and Ron B. Anderson, Texas at Austin • Is there any distinction among TPO endorsements? Do consumers process TPO endorsements differently? This study investigated how consumers evaluate a commercial Web store by examining three types of TPO endorsements, a seal, customer testimonials, and a news clip. The laboratory experiment tested several hypotheses on the determinants of a consumer’s favorable evaluation toward a Web store.
Distilling Grunig’s Situational Theory: A Case Study • Hsiang-Hui Wang, Syracuse University • Grunig’s situational theory is a wonderful theory because it is capable of capturing the dynamic nature of publics and is capable of predicting different communication effects among different segments of publics. However, there is little evidence showing that the situational theory has been applied to the practice, although its validity has been widely tested in academic research.
TEACHING
Virtual Issues in Traditional Texts: How Introductory Public Relations Textbooks Address Internet Technology Issues • Lois Boynton and Cassandra Imfeld, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • The purpose of this paper is to explore how textbooks for undergraduate, introductory public relations courses address Internet and World Wide Web technologies. This study examines the topics and skills that commonly used textbooks address, and explores some of the challenges associated with staying current in an ever-changing environment. Finally, this paper will make some recommendations of how educators and publishers might address the challenge of information obsolescence in textbooks.
Service-Learning Integration in a Public Relations Program: A Pedagogy for Skill Development and an Opportunity for Need Fulfillment • Emma Daugherty, California State University, Long Beach • In professional educational programs, such as public relations, students are expected to develop specialized skills to meet the challenges of a demanding workplace. Thus, service-learning offers a unique opportunity for public relations students to apply classroom concepts in a real-life setting, hone their skills, and gain insight into the field. Moreover, service-learning can help students enrich their understanding of the importance of social responsibility – a key concept in public relations education.
Public Relations Graduates: A Survey Across Three Institutions • Diane Atkinson Gorcyca and Marilyn D. Hunt, Missouri Western State College; Charles A. Lubbers, Kansas State University and Pamela Bourland-Davis, Georgia Southern University • A total of 183 public relations graduates from three institutions reported what public relations tasks they use in their present careers and which curricular elements best prepared them for their careers. The most frequently used public relations functions focused on strategic planning and implementation. Students from all three institutions rated the public relations campaigns course as the most beneficial.
Investigating Effects of Tolerance-Intolerance of Ambiguity and the Teaching of Public Relations Writing: A Quasi-Experiment • Lynne M. Sallot, Georgia and Lisa J. Lyon, Kennesaw State University • An exploratory, quasi-experiment found that students’ individual levels of tolerance-intolerance of ambiguity (TIA), along with different teaching techniques, mitigated their views of public relations and their evaluations of their experiences in the public relations writing course. Students with high TIA and multiple “class clients” for writing assignments were better prepared to recognize complex problems than those with a predominant “class client.” Students permitted portfolio grading were more likely to “recommend this instructor to a friend.”
Bright Lights, Big Problem: An Active Learning Approach to Crisis Communication • Shirley A. Serini, Morehead State • Crisis training in the professional world involves engaging individuals in role play encounters that are videotaped and critiqued. Bringing that professional model into the classroom provides students with the opportunity to learn the complexity of crisis management in greater depth. This paper presents a crisis management component of an undergraduate public relations class that incorporated a variety of traditional and non-traditional pedagogical techniques, including the involvement of professionals as both trainers and critiquers.
The Dire Need for Multiculturalism in Public Relations Education: An Asian Perspective • Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Nanyang Technological University • The globalization that has occurred in the world in the past ten years has made a majority of public relations practice multinational or multicultural. But, current public relations education and literature almost exclusively rely on experiences from the United States. Asian examples relating to culture, political ideology, media systems, etc. are helpful in highlighting the need for making public relations education and research more multicultural and holistic.
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