In search of communication excellence: Public relations’ value, empowerment, and structure in strategic management

ABSTRACT

The multifaceted roles of public relations are not well-understood in strategic management. Thus, this study reviews strategic management literature and presents empirical evidence on the relevance of public relations to strategic management. Using data collected from public relations practitioners and organizational leaders in the Generally Accepted Practice (GAP) survey conducted by the University of Southern California (USC) and the Excellence Study commissioned by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation, the dynamics between the public relations function and organizational outcomes (i.e., corporate strategic orientation and corporate legitimacy performance) are explored. The findings present new empirical evidence of the contributions that public relations makes to strategic management (i.e., its value), the conditions under which public relations makes more contributions to strategic management (i.e., its empowerment) and the differences between marketing-dominant and public relations-independent communication departments in terms of their focus and effects on organizational outcomes (i.e., its structure). The relevance of the findings to the strategic management role of public relations today is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Empowerment
• marketing
• public relations
• strategic management
• structure
• value

Acknowledgments

The CEO/Senior Manager dataset used in this research was provided by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Tam

Lisa Tam is a Lecturer in Advertising and Public Relations at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Business School. Her primary research interests are public relations, integrated communications and construct development and measurement.

Jeong-Nam Kim

Jeong-Nam Kim is the Gaylord Family Endowed Chair of Strategic Communication at the University of Oklahoma. Kim founded the Debiasing and Lay Informatics (DaLI) lab and investigates “public behavior” and its implications for social dynamics from a communication perspective. He has theorized on people’s communicative actions in individual life and in response to social problems. He applies theories, such as his Situational Theory of Problem Solving, to the fields of public relations, strategic communication, health communication, public diplomacy, corporate and government communication.

James E. Grunig

James E. Grunig is Professor Emeritus of Communication at the University of Maryland. His research, over more than 50 years, has included communication and development, publics, public relations behavior of organizations, public relations and strategic management, excellence in public relations, organization-public relationships, reputation, employee communication, ethics and responsibility, and science communication.

Jeffrey A. Hall

Jeffrey A. Hall (PhD University of Southern California) is a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas.  His work focuses on the intersection of interpersonal communication and digital media.

Jerry Swerling

Jerry Swerling is Professor Emeritus and Director of Public Relations Studies (Retired) at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.