Developing a behavioral paradigm for the performance of public relations

Abstract

The official Public Relations Society of America’s definition of public relations defines public relations in terms of professional activities, whereas most other definitions describe public relations in broad terms as to what public relations is professionally designed to achieve. The Grunig model, although providing the symbiotic relationship needs of organizations in sustaining excellent public relations, again defines the existing types of performance on the part of organizations or provides a progression of the way in which public relations has evolved in societies. Therefore, a serious omission exists in most public relations textbooks in not providing students with a paradigm or definition of public relations as the behaviors necessary for the achievement and maintenance of effective public relationships. Honesty and openness are frequently stressed as important to performance, but neither is identified as a part of the descriptive definitions of what public relations is. This may be a major factor in use of the term public relations as “whitewash” on the part of politicians, and the media, and contributes to the lack of understanding on the part of managements and the public. Drawing from the literature on ethics, rhetorical theory, public relations management, case studies, and from observation and experience, a definition of public relations as behavior is provided and supported with a model explaining the difficulty of achieving each behavior and the cost to organizations when the behavior is not achieved. Melvin L. Sharpe, APR, Fellow PRSA, is professor and coordinator of the Public Relations Sequence in the Department of Journalism at Ball State University.