Corporate Public Relations Research Articles

An investigation of the sources of influence of corporate public relations practitioners

Research is unclear about what types of measures contribute most to the influence of the public relations practitioner. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine what combination of measures—structural, individual, or relational—contribute most to the organizational influence of corporate public relations practitioners, and (2) to analyze what types of upward influence tactics have the most impact on corporate public relations practitioners’ organizational influence. Slightly more than 300 senior-level public relations practitioners employed at corporations across the United States participated. Factor analyses and multiple regression analyses were used to interpret the data. Four measures were found to contribute to the organizational influence of corporate public relations practitioners: perceptions of value, enactment of the managerial role, reporting relationship, and years of professional experience. The upward influence tactics of rationality, assertiveness, coalition, and ingratiation also contribute to practitioners’ organizational influence. Implications and suggestions for future research are offered.

An Analysis of the Relationships Among Structure, Influence, and Gender: Helping to Build a Feminist Theory of Public Relations

Feminist public relations scholars have suggested that the organizational context may be to blame for the powerlessness of some female public relations practitioners. This study assessed this claim by using feminist theory and a structural framework. This study tested whether the perceived organizational influence of men and women in corporate public relations was related to formal structural power, relationship power, or gender. Women had less formal structural power than men, but there were no gender differences in relationship power or influence. Consistent with feminist hypothesizing as well as the structural framework, practitioners' influence was related to both their formal structural power and relationship power-but not gender.

Examining how the 11th September, 2001 terrorist attacks precipitated a paradigm shift advancing communications and public relations into a more significant role in corporate America

This paper explores how corporate communications and public relations were affected by the 11th September, 2001 terrorism attacks on the USA.

Unchanging Innovation and Changing Economic Performance in Japan

The Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology gives its visitors much to ponder. Established at the site in Nagoya where in 1911 Sakichi Toyoda founded his automatic loom factory (the basis of the family fortune, which later funded his son Kiichiro's development of automobile production), the museum was opened on June 11, 1994, the 100th anniversary of Toyoda's birth. It is a popular stop on field trips for Japanese schoolchildren, who are required to study in the 3rd grade the automobile industry. The messages, which Toyota wishes to instill in its young visitors, are the importance of making things and of creativity and research. And confronting all museum visitors upon entry, having central place in the vast and largely empty first room of the exhibits, is Sakichi Toyoda's one-of-a-kind vertical circular loom. As described in the museum's catalog, Even in the closing years of his life, [Sakichi Toyoda] continued to work to perfect the [vertical] circular loom. To symbolize this unfailing spirit of his, we are proud to exhibit the only circular loom he developed that is still in existence. This first Symbolic Exhibit in the Museum, whose distinctive outline serves as the museum's logo, was manufactured in 1924. Though Toyoda first applied for a patent in 1906 on a circular loom design, and eventually held a patent in 18 countries for the concept, and though the circular loom is quieter than flat looms (meaning it is also more energy efficient) and able to produce longer bolts of cloth without seams, the circular loom was never produced in volume. In fact, no sales, let alone profits, were ever made from this innovation. In 1924, Toyoda also perfected the Type G Automatic Loom, a flat nonstop shuttle changing loom-embodying an incremental but significant improvement on previous loom technology-which became Toyota's all-time bestseller in the sector. The Type G Loom, however, is not the museum's symbolic first exhibit or logo; instead, it takes its place chronologically back in the succession of exhibits. Why does one of Japan's, and the world's, leading manufacturing corporations choose to feature an innovative product, which was never brought successfully to market nor became any sort of technological standard, as the emblem of its tradition of industry and technology? Neither corporate public relations efforts, nor Japanese culture, are generally known for their sense of deliberate irony. Nor is either known for rewarding quixotic individual quests of little practical value to the larger purpose. Whether intentional or not, perhaps the message is the one given at face value: that technological innovation is its own reward, and should be appraised on its own noncommercial merits. While the process of innovation is certainly related to a corporation's profitability, there is no easy one-to-one relationship between the best innovation and the best economic results, beyond the fact that innovative people over the long run have the fundamental potential for success.

William S. Burroughs and Corporate Public Relations

William S. Burroughs and Corporate Public Relations

Public relations practice in Japan: an exploratory study

Ninety-four (62%) survey responses in the Japanese language from 151 corporate public relations professionals in Japan were analyzed to investigate how Japanese management styles have changed since the recent economic recession, and how present management styles have impacted public relations practice in Japan. Findings suggest today’s Japanese management styles are not a static system unaffected by the economic pressures, and that current public relations practices in Japan align more closely with mixed models of public relations practiced in Western societies.

Reputation management: the new face of corporate public relations?

An empirical study of Fortune 500 companies suggests that “reputation management” is gaining ground as a driving philosophy behind corporate public relations. Whether the phenomenon is a trend or a fad is not clear, given the lack of consensus in defining reputation, the instability and questionable validity of reputation measures, and unanswered questions about when and how (or even whether) reputation can be “managed.” Besides reputation management, corporate public relations departments in the study embraced a wide variety of other definitions of their function, suggesting that public relations continues to have great difficulty in defining itself. While the study did not find a strong correlation between reputation and overall spending on corporate communication activities, as had a similar study the prior year, it did find some interesting correlations between reputation and specific categories of spending.

The Technical Communicator as Corporate Spokesperson: A Public Relations Primer

A survey of CEOs, corporate spokespersons, and media representatives suggests that the evolving roles and responsibilities of corporate spokespersons may result in greater opportunities for technical communicators in corporate public relations. However, these opportunities require communication principles and skills that have not traditionally played a strong role in technical communication education. This essay discusses these requisite considerations so they can be more explicitly addressed in the contemporary technical communication curriculum.

The rhetoric of arrogance: the public relations response of the Standard Oil Trust

The dissolution of the Standard Oil Trust in 1911 was an early landmark in the development of corporate public relations. Faced with public criticism as a result of Ida Tarbell’s “History of the Standard Oil Company,” Standard Oil responded with aloofness and bolstering strategies that together created a “rhetoric of arrogance.” In later years, Standard’s founder seemed to recover from this public relations debacle, but the breakup of Standard Oil testifies to the hard lessons learned by his and other corporations in the early twentieth century: publics and their opinions matter and require candid responses. Corporations with positions of market leadership today might do well to revisit the lessons of Standard Oil.

New Technologies and Public Relations: Exploring Practitioners' Use of Online Resources to Earn a Seat at the Management Table

A survey of corporate public relations practitioners classified as managers or technicians revealed that although online databases are having positive effects on the practice of public relations, most practitioners are not yet taking advantage of these empowering opportunities. Practitioners need to be aware that online databases provide a new avenue for participation in management decision making. As greater numbers of practitioners begin cruising the information superhighway and put the new technologies available to full use, public relations can experience even greater opportunities to pull up a chair at the management table.

Public relations, business news and the reproduction of corporate elite power

This article discusses the rise of corporate public relations in Britain and offers an alternative explanation of how it has benefited the corporate sector. Most assessments of corporate PR tend to support traditional radical media accounts of strong corporate influence over media production and public opinion. All either argue or assume that PR is an effective form of ‘mind control’ with which to influence ‘the masses’. Against this account, this article instead argues that corporate PR has been more frequently used to gain a competitive advantage over rivals and has been primarily targeted at other corporate elites. This corporate elite focus has worked to further exclude non-corporate elites from participation in the production of financial and business news. As a result, a more general corporate advantage has been gained as much by exclusion as persuasion of the general public. After a brief discussion of the evidence and debates, these conclusions are illustrated with a case study of the Granada take-over of Forte in 1995–96.

Differences between public relations and corporate social responsibility: An analysis

This article compares corporate social responsibility and corporate public relations by reviewing their origins, theories, processes, and primary responsibilities and found them to be quite similar in these respects. By comparing the two disciplines, theorists and practitioners can gain greater insight into each field. The comparison reveals a key difference whereby effective communication methods are largely absent from the social responsibility literature; yet by including such techniques, one can enhance the development and overall impact of managing corporate–stakeholder relationships. A communication management approach, which is linked to stakeholder analysis, is offered. Cynthia Clark is an assistant professor in the College of Communication at Boston University where she teaches Corporate Communication.

Measuring the Bottom-Line Impact of Corporate Public Relations

This study uses econometric models to test a methodology for establishing a relationship between public relations goals and bottom-line contribution to the organization. Regression analysis showed that non-linear models tested in this study were appropriate for measuring the relationship between reputation and revenues. Results demonstrated a positive relationship between these two variables. These models indicate a meaningful landmark in evaluation research that attempts to document the bottom-line impact of public relations activities.

E-Commerce by Design

Designing for electronic commerce poses a new set of challenges for usability professionals. At one level, it is a macroergonomic problem that touches a variety of systems, organizations, processes, interfaces between companies and to customers, and cultural assumptions and social institutions. It is complex even at the interface between customers and companies selling to them as the needs of customers, sales staff, corporate public relations and branding interests, and others need to be balanced against one another. The usability of a given electronic interface for customers is going to be influenced by the access device, a customer's needs (e.g., their shopping goals), past shopping experiences and habits, their experience with the Web, and the shopping context. Unfortunately, the research supporting design is limited. This paper will review the evolution of one e-commerce site, issues that have arisen in the course of that evolution, and approaches to resolving the issues.

Decision-Making Encroachment and Cooperative Relationships Between Public Relations and Legal Counselors in the Management of Organizational Crisis

This research explored general legal counsel's encroachment into the corporate public relations function, cooperative relationships between public relations and legal counselors, and effects of organizational "excellence" and the quality of leader-member exchange on legal encroachment and cooperative relation in decision-making contexts in the process of organizational crisis management. The findings indicated that legal encroachment into public relations occurs. Nevertheless, public relations and legal counselors have highly cooperative relationships. Organizational excellence is negatively related to legal encroachment but positively correlates with cooperative relations. The quality of leader-member exchange positively affected the cooperative relationship between general counsel and public relations but not legal encroachment. These findings refine prior studies on encroachment and support predictions made by the Excellence Study.

Creating a Favorable Business Climate: Corporations and Radio Broadcasting, 1934 to 1954

Beginning in the 1930s, American corporations increasingly turned to radio for their public relations campaigns. Major firms, including Ford, Du Pont, and General Motors, sponsored network radio programs that carried messages designed to improve their image. Other large corporations funded national radio news commentators, while smaller businesses sponsored weekly or even daily local radio programs. For twenty years, radio was an important component of corporate public relations, allowing businesses to speak more directly to the public than print advertisements had. By the mid-fifties, institutional broadcasting, combined with other public relations activities, had succeeded in helping business improve its status in American society.

Validating credibility measures of public relations and communications: Interviews with senior‐level managers and executives from other corporate disciplines

This paper reports on personal and telephone interviews with senior‐level corporate managers and executives from fields other than public relations and communications (administration, engineering, finance and accounting, human resources, legal, marketing, sales and production) in three corporations. This qualitative study (n = 61) is a follow‐up to the author's earlier quantitative postal questionnaire survey of a similar group of subjects (n = 423). All interview participants were subjects in the quantitative research. The results add additional evidence to the author's previous findings suggesting that corporate executives from other fields do not understand the corporate communications or public relations functions. As was the case in the quantitative research, subjects interviewed in this qualitative study considered external communications — especially media relations — to be the most important task that their organisation's public relations professionals were responsible for. Technical public relations skills were considered more necessary than communications management abilities for public relations professionals. The findings also suggest that the public relations function needs to do a better job of being accountable by establishing metrics to measure the effectiveness of communications efforts. Public relations also needs to be managed in such a way that it will help organisations better to achieve business goals, especially those of the new global economy.

Aligning internal and external communications to gain competitive advantage

The thought process that this paper describes originated in the author's time as a corporate public relations consultant. All too often chief executives complain that their business strategy is misunderstood by the financial markets, legislators and other stakeholders. The reality is usually that their strategy is unclear — even to themselves. Before embarking on any communications activity, therefore, the first step has to be to work with the board to develop a statement of corporate strategic direction. The process of doing so frequently leads not only to a clearer articulation of strategy but also to a renewed focus on the priorities that the strategy demands. Because the board knows precisely what it has to achieve it is more able to concentrate on the issues which really count. This paper deals mainly with the specific example of Whitbread plc. In the early 1990s the company was at the beginning of a major corporate transformation from its origins in braving to becoming a diversified leisure group. To illustrate the degree of change, the percentage of profit derived from brewing has been reduced from over 50 per cent to about 10 per cent in just over a decade, even though the company's beer market share is at its highest level. Beginning with research to establish stakeholder perceptions, this paper traces how corporate values were codified and corporate objectives were written leading to a programme of communication activities designed to secure support for the change process.

To know us is to love us: The public relations campaign to sell a ‘Business-tourist-friendly’ Miami

The corporate public relations campaign of the Miami, Florida, business community and tourism industry to counter negative perceptions of key publics and pro-actively promote a positive image of Miami is explored. The study reviews data from a period of about 10 years from the travel industry, crime statistics, and other public data regarding perceptions of Miami, as well as the public relations campaigns conducted to counter its image. In particular, the study explores and critiques past, present, and planned organizational strategies and responses. Donn Tilson (Ph.D., University of Stirling, Scotland, 1994) is assistant professor and Don W. Stacks (Ph.D., University of Florida, 1978) is professor and director of the advertising and public relations program, School of Communication, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124.

Marketing public relations: conceptual legitimacy or window dressing?

Explores the development of the marketing public relations (MPR) concept examining the arguments advanced concerning MPR’s emergence and legitimacy to be a separate marketing or PR discipline. Some marketing academics suggest that MPR should be incorporated into the marketing discipline whereas the majority of PR academics argue that MPR represents a further attempt by marketeers to “hijack” PR, incorporating it into the promotional mix. Indeed, certain academics claim that MPR may evolve into a new marketing or PR discipline separate from corporate public relations. The research is compared with the findings from a review of pertinent literature. Exploratory findings indicate that what MPR represents is merely a new term for PR applied to marketing promotion. However, the fact that a new label has been applied does not amount to the emergence of a new marketing discipline. MPR would appear to enjoy a growing importance in the expensive world of marketing communication activities.