Linking Organization-Public Relationship Attitudes and Satisfaction Outcomes

Abstract

The management of organization-public relationships traditionally has been the province of public relations within many corporate structures. The practice of public relations, however, long has struggled to gain respectability within many corporate and academic structures, in part because empirical links between public relations activities and organizational outcomes have been established. Although many would agree that the organization-public relationship influences key public member evaluations of satisfaction with the organization, more often than not, that linkage has been inferred rather than demonstrated. The current investigation was an attempt to examine the role that respondent relationship attitudes play in evaluations of satisfaction with a bank, creating a link between relationship attitudes and organizational outcomes. The results suggest that those key public members who identify themselves as being in relationship with the bank likewise have higher satisfaction evaluations. The relationship variables that best predict respondent identification of being in relationship with the bank then were explored, and showed that the personal relationship dimension best predicts respondent self-identification of being in relationship with the bank. The findings from the investigation, the implications that these findings have for public relations practitioners, and the limitations to the current investigation are presented.

Key Words:

• Management
• public relations
• relationship management
• satisfaction