This document discusses current trends and future directions for public relations research. It outlines two paradigms for public relations - the symbolic/interpretive paradigm which focuses on managing interpretations, and the behavioral/strategic management paradigm which focuses on building relationships through two-way communication. The document then summarizes several areas of ongoing research, including stakeholder identification, situational theory, relationship measurement, and applying public relations concepts in specialized areas. It argues that future research should focus on institutionalizing public relations as a strategic management function.

1. Current Trends and Future
Directions for Public
Relations Research
James E. Grunig, Professor Emeritus
Larissa A. Grunig, Professor Emerita
Department of Communication
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland, USA

2. 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.

3. Two Paradigms of Public
Relations
The symbolic, interpretive,
paradigm.
The behavioral, strategic
management, paradigm.

4. The Symbolic, Interpretive,
Paradigm
 Public relations manages how publics interpret the
organization—to 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 kinds…—that 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.)

7. Purposes of Our 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.

8. Stages in Our Research Program
 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 AT&T 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.

9. Public Relations Contributes to
Strategic Management by
1. Participating in management decision-
making to identify consequences that
create stakeholders.
2. Segmenting stakeholders and publics.
3. Using communication to cultivate
relationships with strategic publics.
4. Influencing management behavior.
5. Measuring the quality of relationships.

10. Ongoing Research
Since the Excellence
Study to Develop
Strategic Tools for
Public Relations

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. Employee Publics Found in
Two Utilities
 Management publics.
 Routine behavior older employees.
 Upwardly mobile, younger employees.
 Apathetic employees.

16. Extension of the Situational
Theory by J.-N. Kim (2006)
 Information acquisition.
 Processing (passive).
 Seeking (active).
 Information selection.
 Permitting (passive).
 Forefending (active).
 Information transmission.
 Sharing (passive).
 Forwarding (active).

17. Further Extension of the
Situational Theory by Kim
 Cognitive entrepreneurship.
 Alpha.
 Forward reasoning.
 More tolerance in thinking.
 More committing.
 More careful in finalizing solution.
 Omega.
 Backward reasoning.
 Less tolerance in thinking.
 Less committing.
 Less careful in finalizing solution.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. Developing an Ethics
Framework for Strategy
 It is a moral obligation for an
organization to engage in dialogue with
publics (deontology) when it has
consequences on publics (teleology) (J.
& L. Grunig, 1996).
 Kantian framework for public relations
ethics (Bowen, 2000, 2004).

21. Evaluation of the Long-Term
Value (ROI) of Public Relations
Can Be Done by Measuring the
Quality of Relationships
 Trust
 Mutuality of control
 Satisfaction
 Commitment
Huang (1997), J. Grunig & Huang (2000),
Hon & J. Grunig (1999)

22. 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-ended questions measure reputations
best (“In a sentence or two, please tell me what
comes to mind when you think of
[organization].”)

23. Research on Relationships
and Reputation
 J. Grunig & Hung (2002). Recall of good
and bad behaviors most associated with
the quality of relationships.
 Yang (2005). Active communication with
publics leads to better relationships.
Relationships predict reputation.

24. 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.

25. Cultivation Strategies Are the
Heir to the Symmetrical Model
 Symmetrical (such as openness, access, and
sharing of tasks).
 Asymmetrical (such as contending, avoiding, or
accommodating).
 Hung (2002, 2004) and Rhee (2004) identified
additional strategies.
 Coercion can be combined with symmetry, as in
NATO (van Dyke, 2005).
 Symmetry must be mediated by organizational
justice (H.-S. Kim, 2005)

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. Applying This Framework to
Specialized Areas of PR
 Kelly (1991) applied excellence concepts to
donor relations.
 Schickinger (1998) found similar principles in
shareholder relations.
 Rhee (2004) identified interaction between
employee and community relationships.
 H.-S. Kim (2005) demonstrated importance of
organizational justice in employee relations.
 Chen (2005) applied principles to government
relations in China.

29. 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)