A Study on Dialogic Communication, Trust, and Distrust: Testing a Scale for Measuring Organization–Public Dialogic Communication (OPDC)

Abstract

Although there is a wide range of discussion on dialogic communication, or dialogue, in the field of public relations, little research has dealt with the empirical measurement of organization–public dialogue. The primary purpose of this study was to test the proposed scale for measuring organization–public dialogic communication (OPDC). Additionally, this study aimed to demonstrate the link between dialogic communication and trust/distrust between organizations studied and their publics. For the research purpose, two anonymous online surveys were used to collect the data. The participants were American consumers randomly selected from a representative research panel of online survey participants (N = 704). According to the results, the proposed 2-factor, 28-item scale of OPDC was valid and reliable. Also, for further empirical validation, this study found that the proposed scale of OPDC is significantly related to public trust and distrust. Given the scarcity of the empirical research on OPDC, the results of this study can contribute to further research in communication management.