Using Public Relations Theory to Improve Strategic Practice

My Public Relations Theory professor has asked me to be ready to deliver a keynote to a meeting of chief executives. The title of my speech is "Using Public Relations Theory to Improve Strategic Practice". I have to focus on five main take-aways for effective public relations management that I've recently learned about. Here is my speech:

The field of public relations has grown exponentially during the past few decades, both professionally and academically. It is now understood that PR is a lot more than just the messages organizations wish to communicate outwardly to the public, instead it is the communication discipline that is primarily a strategic organizational function. Following, we will analyze five main findings with regards to effective public relations management, based on academic texts, journals and case studies that have focused on the subject at hand.

To begin with, we have come to realize that for centuries, public relations was thought to be a function and a profession that was centered on corporate fields only, and that its evolution was linear in nature of its emergence, with a starting point of early 1900’s. However, in Removing the Spin: Toward a New Theory of Public Relations History by Margot Opdycke Lamme & Karen Miller Russell, we are introduced to our first main finding, with their argument that there are four areas where Public Relations is found and that its evolution emerged across different times and places. They write that the criteria that is necessary to assess how public relations should be evaluated, must be by strategic intent and human agency. Their study wanted to work towards a new theory of public relations history that removed a typical timeline, and instead examined what scholars have defined as evidence of public relations, as early as the first century. They delve into the motivations and tactics of public relations found within the four sectors of (1) Religion, (2) Education, Non-profit and Reform, (3) Politics and Government, and (4) Business. Lamme and Russell find public relations language in early historiography that points to the “existence” of public relations in all the four sectors mentioned. Starting with the likes of St. Paul, in religion, depending on the time in history, different tactics like audience segmentation, relics, propaganda, church sermons, art commission, pamphlets, use of vernacular and newspaper ads, among many others, have been used with the motivation of spreading religious ideologies. Scholars also identified efforts of persuasion to elicit behavioral and moral changes in nonprofits such as colleges and universities. Since the times of the Greeks, political propaganda has been discovered, with the hopes of increasing political power, pushing agendas and increasing their popularity. President Lincoln himself understood the power of the press and how best to use it to his advantage in being able to extend his influence. And though corporate businesses have been at the cornerstone of public relations history, Lamme and Russell write about identified businesses that have used public relations tactics as early as the 1600s. Along with all those points, their study revealed five prominent themes or motivations that were found across all the times and sectors analyzed: profit, recruitment, legitimacy, agitation, and advocacy. These are all the themes that drive public relations functions. The development over time of public relations, led to the gradual development of the ‘rules of engagement’ for public relations.

Next, let us consider the Excellence Theory for another main finding – the value of public relations lies in organization-public relations. In Furnishing the Edifice: Ongoing Research on Public Relations as a Strategic Management Function by James Grunig, we are introduced to the creation of a comprehensive theoretical structure for public relations. Grunig calls Situational Theory of Publics, Organizational Theory and Symmetrical Model of Public Relations as his “strategic management role of public relations” for research of the theoretical edifice. Situational Theory of Publics, which Grunig worked on in the 1960s, explains that people are more likely to look for information that is significant to decision making situations in their lives, rather than to go through information that reinforces their attitudes. Grunig’s Organizational Theory, in short, is the communication behavior of organizations, where he observed one-way streams of information from the organization to their stakeholders, that was not working, and instead he called for two-way or diachronic communication. In his Symmetrical Model of Public Relations, Grunig recommended that individuals, organizations, and publics should use communications to adapt their behaviors and ideas to those of others, rather than to try to manage how others think and behave. Here he uses academic theories in other fields to develop his symmetrical model, which reminds me of Glen Broom’s An Open-System Approach to Building Theory in Public Relations where he calls for an open system approach to better enhance the theoretical and methodological concepts of public relations. Broom’s purpose of changing public relations research methods from a closed loop systems approach, where guidance was looked for inwardly, and moving to an open system where public relations practitioners would look to the outside, to connect with research in other fields. This therefore would lead to building better theory in PR. This is of great importance because it then allows for the creation of a long-term stream of public relations research, where previously there was not much. That is how an edifice is built. Grunig’s Excellence Theory ultimately called for empowerment of the public relations function, a change in the communicator roles, organization of the communication function and public relations two-way symmetrical model.

The next main finding I will point out refers to inclusion of ethical persuasion in public relations. In Communicating for the good of the state: A post-symmetrical polemic on persuasion in ethical public relations by Lance Porter, who is a critic of Grunig, we are presented with text whose purpose is to re-examine ethical persuasion and to add it to the full process of public relations, by shifting the focus from organizations to audiences. This is how a post-symmetrical theory of public relations would be established. While Porter agrees with Grunig that relationship management is a part of the development needed to have between the public and the organization, he argues that in Grunig giving it a primary focus, he then in turn disregards ethics and meaning. Grunig’s symmetrical ideals had always been considered paradigm, however Porter found value in challenging them and stating that there should be a broader circuit of culture approach. He calls for public relations practitioners to be the social conscience of an organization. He examines the history of rhetoric to proceed with recognizing persuasion as a legitimate practice in public relations, by tracing it all the way back to Plato. Persuasion is inevitable in public relations, even in the simplest form of PR, or even when trying for conflict resolution. Porters point is that practitioners must ethically persuade to advocate the perspective of their organization. By doing this, public relations practitioners will be able to find mutual meaning with their audiences. Porter goes on to argue that now more than ever the science of public relations needs to adjust its views to examine the entire public relations process, which always includes persuasion as one of the most common purposes of real PR practice. Interesting enough, Porter mentions that just as theory evolves, Grunig has also come to an understanding that the public relations community needs to move from some of his earlier theories and adapt, shifting from just advocacy to recognizing that collaboration, is the core value of public relations. With collaboration in mind, I am reminded of Jim Macnamara’s, Organizational listening: Addressing a Major Gap in Public Relations Theory and Practice. He argued a bit deeper on the model of two-way communications, saying that there is no such thing as one-way communication, because that is what a relationship requires – two-way interactions. Macnamara, however, distinguished a gap in interdisciplinary literatures and in public relations texts, where the emphasis is always placed on just one end of communication, the speaking side of the two-way stream. Therefore, his focus lies with having proper effective ethical listening, that recognizes, acknowledges, interprets and constructs meaning, achieves understanding of others, gives considerations and responds.

For the following main finding, we will move on to a medium that has changed the game in public relations – social media and its proper implementation based on established practical theory principles, leads to effective communication management. Social media is another tool that public relations practitioners have in their arsenal, as another means of establishing community relationships. In Brian Smith’s Situated Ideals in Strategic Social Media: Applying Grounded Practical Theory in a Case of Successful Social Media Management, he discusses two primary research topics with regards to social media – practitioner interpretation and communication structure. His case study focuses on the Visit Savannah’s social media presence and determines the importance of control and the opportunity that it presents to build quality relationships. Smith determines that it is of the utmost importance for organizations to find the value of social media, properly manage the uncertainty of its interactivity and be able to meet the strain that it presents on the organization’s resources. Smith’s study calls for scholars to break the method of strategic communication, by “focusing on a participatory approach”. This with the purpose of analyzing the “nature of communicative problems, techniques, and philosophical ideas that guide praxis.” He suggests 3 different ideals with regards to social media management as they pertain to the problem level, the technique level, and the philosophical level. For the problem level, whether the communication problems are case specific or general problems, Smith suggests following “grounded practical theory both “downward” to communication techniques and “upward” to philosophical principles”. With the technical level, Smith advises integrated marketing communication, which he calls an umbrella technique that comes from reliance behaviors and learning actions. And with regards to the philosophical principles, Smith suggests two practitioner philosophies, (1) priority on communicator expertise, and (2) accomplishing strategic objectives through collectivism and integration. All in all, Smith proposes that strategic social media communication can be executed in an integrated environment, minimizing resource limitations through collaboration of its practitioners, and having an organizational focus on learning and expertise in the social media environment. His study also observed similarities found in other studies when in comes to strategic communication in social media, in that it needs a humanizing brand, relationship cultivation and gathering feedback through interaction with audiences. Solidifying that promotional collaborations with social media publics, termed “customer-based brand equity”, is needed to create an effective communication strategy. The approach needs to be adaptable and flexible through a balance of organizational planning and public participation. Also, for there to be an effective use of social media for public relations, there needs to be an understanding of the best practices employed by successful campaigns that demonstrate the trending tactics that Ilhem Allagui and Harris Breslow examined in their text Social Media for Public Relations: Lessons from Four Effective Cases. In Chipotle’s Scarecrow, the Melbourne Metro System’s Dumb Ways to Die, Leo Burnett Lebanon’s No Rights, No Women, and Oreo’s You Can Still Dunk in the Dark campaign, we learn of the four shared common traits of trends used for successful social media campaigns. They all shared a compelling story - whether the story was told directly by the campaign through a video or an adorable character, or indirectly through the stories written and posted by members of their audience, or even by inserting itself into a very opportune story in a moment in time, the art of storytelling is very persuasive, and therefore resonating with audiences. All four campaigns also had a strong open-ended offline presence and allowed for interaction of audiences. Whether using gamification elements, or organizing a peaceful protest, offline engagement is needed for successful social media communication. Another successful strategy on all four campaigns was the use of exciting and vivid graphics and colors, especially when translated to targeting mobile users and their devices. These on-trend strategies are all examples of how social media aides in the formation of innovative strategies and objectives in communication management.

The last finding we will discuss, denotes that organizational legitimacy is closely related to Situational Crisis Communication and how communication gets diffused during times of crisis. To understand this, Shari R. Veil and Kathryn E. Anthony in their study, Exploring public relations challenges in compounding crises: The pariah effect of toxic trailers, examined FEMAs public relations challenges during the formaldehyde travel trailer crisis and analyzed how the Hurricane Katrina crisis hindered the agency’s response efforts. They furthered delved into Timothy Combs definition of a compounding crisis, which is a crisis that happens in close proximity to another crisis, at times not related to the first, before an organization has had the chance to rebuild its legitimacy. They understood that a compounding crisis would innately come with its own set of challenges and therefore suggested that organizational legitimacy decreases whereas stakeholder perceptions and attribution of crisis responsibility increases in this type of crisis. Through their study they were able to find six challenges that FEMA faced through this crisis, among them was having reluctant partners, which led to the new theory coined the Pariah Effect. This is when other organizations that could assist, fail to associate with or aid an organization that is currently facing a crisis. This for the purpose of avoiding any spillover effects on their reputation. In Communicating about infectious disease threats: Insights from public health information officers, by Yan Jin, Lucinda Austin, Santosh Vijaykumar, Hyoyeun Jun, and Glen Nowak, they further examined the challenges associated during a crisis. They did so by using the Risk Amplification through Media Spread or RAMS. The RAMS Framework gives some clarity to media management by defining how communication gets dispersed or spread out. It also recognizes the processes, media influence pathways, and social media roles in risk communication. In the center of the RAMS model is the public health community, and from there, the infectious disease threat information is spread through one (or more) of the four communication channels: face to face, traditional media, online media, and social media. Then, through one or more of those channels the information is distributed to the general public or influences the general public to acquire the information. In contrast to FEMAs example, Barbara Miller Gaither, Lucinda Austin, and Morgan Collins analyzed another organization to understand corporate social advocacy and political activism, in their study, Examining the Case of DICK’s Sporting Goods: Realignment of Stakeholders through Corporate Social Advocacy. DICK’s Sporting Goods showed how a corporation can step forward and be able to communicate on a political or social issue, which is normally something that, though it has always been done (lobbying or financial support), it was usually kept from the public. Their study was able to exemplify and create a distinction between advocacy and activism. This case study also shows how collective action can have a greater outcome by moving an “issue to the forefront of corporate action”.

To summarize, all findings mentioned are important in recognizing how using public relations theory improves strategic practice. It is essential to understand that there are four areas where Public Relations is found and that its evolution emerged across different times and places. Along with that understanding, we have found that the value of public relations lies in organization-public relations and the inclusion of ethical persuasion in public relations. Moreover, the addition of social media and its proper implementation based on established practical theory principles, which leads to effective communication management, is crucial, as is denoting that organizational legitimacy is closely related to Situational Crisis Communication and understanding how communications are diffused. All in all, essential findings for effective public relations management.