Expanding the organization–public relationship scale: exploring the role that structural and personal commitment play in organization–public relationships

Abstract

A number of scholars recently have published scales designed to measure respondent relationship–public relationship attitudes. The scale that was developed by Bruning and Ledingham showed that organization public relationships focus on key public member personal, professional, and community relationship attitudes. The current investigation was an attempt to expand the scope of that scale by including two dimensions of personal relationship commitment—personal and structural—to provide a more complete examination of organization–public relationships. Data were collected from 135 respondents. A factor analysis with a Varimax rotation was computed and showed that organization–public relationships have at least five dimensions: anthropomorphism, professional benefits/expectations, personal commitment, community improvement, and comparison of alternatives. The results are discussed, the implications of the findings for practitioners presented, and the limitations to the investigation reported.