New Research on Public Relations as a Global Strategy Function

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New Research onPublic Relations as a Global
Strategy Function

• James E. Grunig, Professor Emeritus
• Department of Communication
• University of Maryland
• College Park, Maryland, USA

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Types of Public Relations Research

• Research IN public relations.
• Used by practitioners in their work.
• Research ON public relations.
• Constructive, critical research by academic
  scholars on the practice of public relations.
• Research FOR public relations.
• Applied basic research to develop concepts and
  tools for the practice of public relations.

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Two Paradigms of Public Relations

• The symbolic, interpretive, paradigm.
• The behavioral, strategic management, paradigm.

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The Symbolic, Interpretive, Paradigm

• Public relations manages how publics interpret
  the organizationto buffer the organization from
  its environment.
• These interpretations include popular concepts
  such as reputation, brand, image, impressions,
  and identity.
• This paradigm can be found in the concepts of
  reputation management in business schools,
  integrated marketing communication in advertising
  programs, and rhetoric in communication and
  public relations departments.
• Emphasis is on publicity, media relations, and
  media effects.

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The Behavioral, Strategic Management, Paradigm

• Public relations participates in strategic
  decision-making to help manage the behavior of
  the organization.
• Public relations is a bridging activity to build
  relationships with stakeholders rather than a set
  of messaging activities designed to buffer the
  organization from stakeholders.
• Emphasis is on two-way and symmetrical
  communication of many kinds to provide publics a
  voice in management decisions and to facilitate
  dialogue between management and publics.

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This Paradigm Adds Stakeholder Relations to
Strategic Management and Reveals the ROI of PR

• The corporation is more than an extension of the
  basic human right to own property.
• organizational wealth can be created (or
  destroyed) through relationships with
  stakeholders of all kindsthat is managing
  relationships with stakeholders for mutual
  benefit.
• Corporations ARE what they DO.
• (James E. Post, Lee E. Preston, and Sybille
  Sachs 2002, Redefining the the Corporation
  Stakeholder Management and Organizational Wealth,
  pp. 12, 1, 2.)

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Purposes of My Research

• Explain and measure the value of the
  communication function to organizations and to
  society (research on public relations).
• Define the role of public relations in strategic
  decision-making and organizational governance
  (research on public relations).
• Develop concepts, tools, and measures for
  communication professionals to use in strategic
  management (research for public relations.

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Stages in My Intellectual Journey

• Research on the behavior of publics and
  development of a situational theory of publics,
  beginning in the 1960s.
• Research in the 1970s on how characteristics of
  organizations and their management affect the
  behavior of public relations practitioners and
  departments.
• Development of a theory of symmetrical,
  dialogical, public relations, 1970s-1980s.
• Evaluation research in public relations for ATT
  in the late 1970s.
• The IABC excellence project in the 1980s and
  1990s, which explained the ROI of public
  relations and articulated the strategic role of
  public relations.

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Public Relations Contributes to Strategic
Management by

• Participating in management decision-making to
  identify consequences that create stakeholders.
• Segmenting stakeholders and publics.
• Using communication to cultivate relationships
  with strategic publics.
• Influencing management behavior.
• Measuring the quality of relationships.

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Ongoing Research Since the Excellence Study to
Develop Strategic Tools for Public Relations
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Environmental Scanning

• Chang (2000) study of corporate PR executives.
• Most did not know what environmental scanning
  was, or they relied solely on media, polls, or
  published information.
• Personal sources most useful customers, activist
  groups, journalists, and government officials.
• Monitor websites, blogs, and other sources of
  information from activists.
• Develop a database of issues for issues
  management.

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Identifying Stakeholders

• Identify stakeholders by monitoring the
  consequences of management decisions on those not
  making the decision.
• A stakeholder is anyone who has something at risk
  because of an organizational decision, behavior,
  or lack of behavior.
• Most common stakeholders found in the Excellence
  study were employees, customers, investors,
  community, government, members, media, and donors.

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Stakeholders Can Be Segmented into Publics

• Activist, active, passive, or no communication
  behavior.
• The more active the public, the more likely are
  communication effects.
• For example, the probability of an effect on
  behavior can be increased from .5 to about 50
  by selecting an active public rather than a
  nonpublic.

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Environmental Publics Found for the National
Wildlife Federation

• General environmental public.
• Special-issue public air pollution.
• Special-issue public superhighways.
• Special-issue public killing of whales.
• Hot-issue public energy shortage.

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Employee Publics Found in Two Utilities

• Management publics.
• Routine behavior older employees.
• Upwardly mobile, younger employees.
• Apathetic employees.

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Scenario Building (Sung 2004)

• Learn from the past.
• Envision possible futures.
• Examine comprehensive future options for
  decision-making.
• Reduce the risk of decisions.
• Case of two issues for an insurance company
  Credit scoring and national regulation.

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Empowering Public Relations

• The Excellence study showed that PR executives
  enter the dominant coalition and strategic
  management when they. . .
• Develop extensive knowledge of their
  organization.
• Develop knowledge of public relations and
  strategic management.
• Respond at times when their expertise is needed,
  especially during a crisis or when facing an
  issue.
• Berger (2005) found that coalitions change in
  corporations and that public relations is
  included when its expertise is relevant.

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Evaluation of the Long-Term Value of Public
Relations Can Be Done by Measuring the Quality of
Relationships

• Trust
• Mutuality of control
• Satisfaction
• Commitment

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Relationships and Reputation

• The concept of reputation has value when used in
  conjunction with relationships.
• Reputation is a byproduct of organizational
  performance, as evaluated by stakeholders, and of
  relationships with stakeholders.
• Open-End Questions Measure Reputations Best (In
  a sentence or two, please tell me what comes to
  mind when you think of organization.)

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These Measures Have Been Applied by Strategy
One/Edelman

• Identify key stakeholders and measure
  relationships with each separately.
• Ask qualitative questions about reputation and
  relationships.
• Measure relationships quantitatively.
• Explore cultivation strategies that improve the
  quality of a relationship.

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Cultivation Strategies Are the Heir to the
Symmetrical Model

• Access.
• Positivity.
• Openness.
• Assurances of legitimacy.
• Networking.
• Sharing of tasks.
• Win-win or no deal.
• Being unconditionally constructive, even if the
  other side doesnt reciprocate.
• Avoid contending, avoiding, or accommodating
  (asymmetrical strategies).

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Case of Brookhaven National Laboratory

• Crisis over toxic waste.
• Public relations department used symmetrical
  communication to consult with community
  stakeholders.
• Issues management system established.
• Importance of personal communication between
  employees and community.
• Involving employees in community improved
  employee relations.

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Expanding the Role of Public Relations in Global
Strategy

• Research in several countries has extended the
  Excellence theory to a theory of generic
  principles and specific applications.
• Ni (2006) found that relationships with employees
  are better for multinational corporations in
  China with a local responsiveness strategy that
  those emphasizing global integration alone.

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Moving to the Future

• Research is needed on the institutionalization of
  public relations as a strategic management,
  bridging, function rather than its common
  practice as a symbolic, buffering, function. (Yi,
  2005)