What Communication Professionals Tell Us Regarding Dominant Coalition Access and Gaining Membership

Abstract

Public relations literature emphasizes gaining membership in the dominant coalition. However, we know little about the ways that successful practitioners have garnered dominant coalition membership. By combining 32 interviews with public relations executives, four focus groups, and open-ended responses on a larger survey of communicators, this study sought to uncover patterns explaining routes to the dominant coalition. Routes found include organizational crisis, ethical dilemma, credibility gained over time, issues high on the media agenda, and leadership. The positive and negative aspects of each route are discussed and an ethical analysis of findings is offered.

Keywords:

• Dominant Coalition
• Crisis Management
• Ethics
• Reputation Management
• Adviser

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Robert L. Heath, Laura Stafford, and three anonymous reviewers for their assistance. This paper was a “Top 3 Paper” presented at the annual meeting of the International Public Relations Research conference, Miami, 2008. Funding for this research was provided by the International Association of Business Communicators Research Foundation, Hewlett-Packard, and ROI Communications.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shannon A. Bowen

Shannon A. Bowen is an Associate Professor at Syracuse University in the Public Relations Department of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications