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To cite this article: James E. Grunig & Larissa A. Grunig (2000): Public Relations in
Strategic Management and Strategic Management of Public Relations: theory and evidence
from the IABC Excellence project, Journalism Studies, 1:2, 303-321
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616700050028271
ABSTRACT This article establishes the case for public relations as a critical component of an
organizations strategic management processes and of the subsequent strategic management of
public relations in an effective organization. The article begins with an elaboration of a theory of
the value of strategic management in public relations. Qualitative and quantitative results of the
IABC Research Foundations Excellence project, presented next, conrmed the importance of
strategic public relations in helping make organizations effective. The involvement of public
relations in strategic management consistently was the best predictor of excellent public
relations in the 323 organizations studied. Both CEOs and communication managers in organizations with excellent public relations departments believed the function contributes more to
organizational effectiveness than did those with less-excellent departments. However, the
research also showed that strategic management means different things to different practitioners of the eld and that most public relations departments do not practice public relations
strategically. Interviewees in effective public relations operations explained the value of their
work primarily in building relationships with strategic publics.
KEY WORDS: Excellence, Public Relations, Strategic Management
ISSN 1461-670X Print/ISSN 1469-9699 Online/00/020303-19 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd
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305
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312
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Contribution to Strategic
Management
Our research about the value of public
relations served mostly to develop evidence related to the research teams
conceptualization of the contribution of
public relations to organizational effectiveness. These estimates of value
were most useful when we could correlate them with the characteristics of
excellent public relations. For this article, the relationship between public relations
involvement
in
strategic
management and the estimated value
of public relations were most relevant.
Four questions in two of the three
questionnaires asked CEOs and heads
of public relations units to describe the
extent to which public relations contributes to four strategic functions: strategic planning, response to major
social issues, major initiatives such as
acquisitions or new products and programs and routine operations such as
employee communication or media relations.
For the overall sample, we found that
public relations units most often contribute to routine operations and in response to major social issues. They
are less likely to participate in major
initiatives and, especially, in strategic
planning. We also asked what public
relations units do to contribute to strategic management when they are involved
in
the
process.
(The
departments not involved in strategic
planning did not respond to these
questions.) The responses showed that
communication units that participate in
strategic planning most often do so
through informal approaches, contacts
with inuential people outside the organization and judgement based on experience. Public relations less often
315
316
Variable
Low
value
(n 5 38)
Medium
value
(n 5 212)
High
value
(n 5 34)
6.56
8.78
8.24
10.09
8.89
11.95
10.90
12.71
13.04
14.27
14.20
15.17
21.96**
22.57**
30.06**
26.98**
5.05
6.76
6.11
7.74
8.29
9.56
9.12
10.54
11.07
11.88
11.72
14.21
15.86**
15.74**
18.22**
33.18**
8.88
8.89
11.32
11.38
15.55
14.45
32.52**
19.37**
126%
178%
265%
9.36**
14.83 1,**
Contribution to organizational
functions
Strategic planning
Response to major social issues
Major initiatives
Routine operations
Contribution to strategic
management (if any)
Regular research activities
Research for specic questions
Other formal approaches
Informal approaches
Contacts with knowledgeabl e
people outside organization
Judgement based on experience
Other variables
Percentage return on public
relations
Canonical Correlation of
Characteristics of Public Relations
with Value of Communication
The comparisons in Table 1 provide
only a snapshot of the relationship of
public relations participation in strategic management to organizational effectiveness. We went on to conduct
factor analyses of 20 key characteristics of excellent public relations measured in the questionnaires completed
by CEOs, heads of public relations,
and employees. We then performed a
317
Qualitative Observations on
Strategic Management
As in the quantitative phase of the Excellence study, our qualitative inter-
318
Overall
Variate
PR Head/CEO
Variate
0.64
0.39
0.47
0.32
0.51
0.32
0.42
0.58
0.56
0.41
0.24
0.44
0.64
0.42
0.34
2 0.22
0.44
0.38
0.26
2 0.49
2 0.48
2 0.32
0.43
2 0.26
0.39
2 0.26
0.45
2 0.32
0.43
2 0.41
0.11
0.00
0.37
0.38
0.60
0.37
0.41
2 0.56
0.23
2 0.41
0.70**
0.63**
views with CEOs and senior public relations practitioners suggested that the
arena of strategic management may
represent the greatest difference between excellence and mediocrity in
public relations. In the least-excellent
organizations, communication played
virtually no part in strategic decisionmaking. In most organizations that
scored high in overall excellence,
members of the public relations department described their vital role in strategic management.
However, we discovered in our long
interviews that strategic management
and strategic planning both had many
meanings to the people we talked with.
To some, strategic planning is done
strictly on a nancial basis: numberscrunching. As a result, public relations
is out of the planning loop. To others,
strategic management referred almost
exclusively to media relations: representing the company to the press. To
still others, strategic planning was an
integral part of the public relations function, a true contributor to the top management team
For too many of our interviewees,
however, communication did not enter
into the CEOs worldview related to
strategic planning. According to one
top communicator, despite the expertise in his public relations department,
the departments primary function was
reactive: taking care of problems when
they develop.
Nevertheless, even with what one
interviewee considered a presidents
lukewarm support, public affairs could
play a strategic role. He managed
to help set the strategic agenda for
the whole organization, largely because of the backing of his board of
directors.
The director of corporate communications at a chemical company we
studied exemplied those who play an
integral role in overall strategic management. He said he is involved in
319
Conclusion
Both the quantitative and qualitative results of the Excellence study provide
evidence that the conceptualization of
the role of public relations in strategic
management and the strategic management of public relations developed
in this article are practiced by the mostexcellent public relations departments
among the 323 organizations we studied. However, we also found that most
public relations departments do not
practice public relations strategically.
Our data further show that both the
CEOs and the senior public relations
practitioners in the organizations with
excellent public relations departments
believed public relations contributes
more to organizational effectiveness
that did those with less-excellent public
relations departments. In the quantitative phase of the study, respondents
were willing to use the method of
compensating variation to estimate the
rate of return to and value of public
320
More often, they were content to explain the value of public relations in
building relationships.
Notes
1
The exceptions are Post et al. (1982), Gollner (1983) and Marx (1990).
We conceptualized only the strategic management variables in Table 2, but readers familiar with the
Excellence theory will recognize the other variables. All these variables are included in Table 2, in contrast with
Table 1 that contains only the strategic management and value questions, so that readers can compare the
contribution of strategic management to organizational effectiveness with the other public relations variables.
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