An Empirical Comparison of the Predictors of Excellence in Public Relations
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Volume 8 Number 1
An Empirical Comparison of the Predictors of Excellence in Public Relations Suman Lee Iowa State University, IA Dixie Shipp Evatt Syracuse University, NY
ABSTRACT This study explores the relationship between excellence in public relations and its predicting variables. It develops a ten-item measurement of excellence in public relations based on generic principles of public relations. A total of 249 IABC (International Association for Business Communicators) members from 14 countries participated in the survey. Each respondent was asked to answer questions about the public relations activities of their organization. The relationships between excellence in public relations and its various predictors were tested using regression analysis. Those predictors were: (1) number of employees, (2) years of operation, (3) level of globalization, (4) type of organization, (5) pressure by activist groups, (6) number of PR practitioners, (7) relative size of PR department, (8) education level of primary communicator and (9) gender of primary communicator. The findings indicated that PR practitioner ratio, education level of primary communicator and the level of pressure by activist groups are significant predictors for excellence in public relations controlling for other predictors.
KEYWORDS: Public relations, public relations excellence, public relations measurement INTRODUCTION Evaluating various aspects of public relations has been one of the most challenging topics to both scholars and practitioners.
Without reliable tools to evaluate the performance of the public relations department, it is hard to demonstrate the value of public relations and the PR department to the organization. Without such evidence, public relations can be easily marginalized by other segments of management such as marketing, finance, accounting and human resources. The most challenging stage to developing public relations evaluation tools is how to identify a standard set of criteria for successful public relations and its function within an organization. One of the ways to develop this kind of standard can be called ‘benchmarking’ research. Benchmarking studies identify organizations that are believed to be leaders in an area of practice and describe how these organizations practice public relations. If theoretical rationales or principles are drawn about successful public relations from these, they can function as a standard for evaluation (Grunig and Grunig, 2001; Fleisher, 1995). Grunig and his associates (Grunig, 1992; Grunig et al., 2002) suggest a theoretical standard or benchmark of successful and best practices in public relations. It is often called the study of excellence in public relations and was funded by the IABC (International Association for Business Communicators) Research Foundation. In their landmark work to identify and quantify normative principles of excellence,
Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2005, pp. 31–43 # Henry Stewart Publications, 1363–3589
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An Empirical Comparison of the Predict
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