journal of

COMMUNICATION
Journal of Communication ISSN 0021-9916

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Conversational Voice, Communicated

Commitment, and Public Relations
Outcomes in Interactive Online
Communication
Tom Kelleher
School of Communications, University of Hawai’i, Honolulu, HI 96822

Organizations face unique challenges in communicating interactively online with pub-

lics that comprise dauntingly large numbers of individuals. This online survey exam-
ined the perceptions of people who had experienced interactive communication with
a large consumer-tech-industry company via organizational blogs. Those reporting the
greatest exposure to the blogs in this study were more likely to perceive the organization
as communicating with a conversational voice. Conversational human voice and commu-
nicated relational commitment (relational maintenance strategies) correlated positively
with trust, satisfaction, commitment, and control mutuality (relational outcomes). Build-
ing on prior research, this survey supports a model of distributed public relations—one in
which key outcomes of public relations are fostered by a wide range of people communi-
cating interactively while representing an organization.

doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01410.x

Public relations scholars have heralded the Internet for its potential as a tool for
dialogue and two-way communication. If public relations is about mutually bene-
ficial relationships between organizations and publics, then the Internet holds tre-
mendous promise for improving the communication that is an essential part of
developing and sustaining such relationships when organizations and publics both
have access to online media (Wright, 1998, 2001). As Internet technologies emerged
on the horizons of public relations scholarship in the 1990s and early 2000s many
theorists and researchers were turning their attention to relational outcomes as
important goals for public relations work, emphasizing the role of organizational
and public behaviors while acknowledging the importance of communication in
building and maintaining organization-public relationships (Ledingham, 2003).
Many early studies of the Internet and public relations focused on the way large,
for-profit companies were using the Web by analyzing the content of their Web

Corresponding author: Tom Kelleher; e-mail: tkell@hawaii.edu

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T. Kelleher Conversational Voice Online

pages (Esrock & Leichty, 1998, 1999, 2000). Others looked at how companies, gov-
ernment organizations, and academic institutions were using the Web for media
relations (Callison, 2003; Duke, 2002; Hachigian & Hallahan, 2003). A concurrent
trend in public relations scholarship was to examine the implications of the Internet
for activists and nonprofit groups (Coombs, 1998; Heath, 1998; Kent, Taylor, &
White, 2003; Taylor, Kent, & White, 2001). The latter group of scholars highlighted
the Internet’s potential to ‘‘level the playing field,’’ serve as a ‘‘potential equalizer,’’
and ‘‘democratize’’ debates in the issues management process (Coombs, 1998, p. 289;
Heath, 1998, p. 276).
The purpose of this study is to continue to examine qualities of interactive online
communication and how they may relate to measures of relational outcomes. Spe-
cifically, this study seeks empirical evidence of whether and how communication
styles typical in interactive, participatory media such as blogs might help organiza-
tions and publics realize the potential of the Internet to achieve relational outcomes
that are important to all kinds of organizations and publics. These outcomes include
trust, satisfaction, commitment, and control mutuality.

Literature review
Relationships and interactivity
Ferguson (1984) recommended that pubic relations scholars turn their attention to
the relationships between organizations and their publics as theoretical foci. Some
13 years later, Broom, Casey, and Ritchey (1997) underscored the importance of
looking at properties of communication in understanding organization-public rela-
tionships and the relational outcomes that follow. Hallahan (2003) suggested that
interactivity is a key factor in the relational processes that lead to relational outcomes
online. Sundar, Kalyanaraman, and Brown (2003) explicated the term ‘‘interactivity’’
and found two general ways to look at it: functional interactivity and contingency
interactivity. This study examines contingency interactivity as a key concept in
understanding how relationships are formed and maintained online. Explicating
contingency interactivity as a construct of interest in public relations is aided by
first discussing functional interactivity.
Functional interactivity
This concept focuses on the features of media. According to Sundar et al. (2003),
a functional view of interactivity ‘‘is basically an interface’s capacity for conducting
a dialogue or information exchange between users and the interface’’ (p. 33).
One group of public relations scholars (Kent & Taylor, 1998; Kent et al., 2003;
Taylor et al., 2001) has suggested that the relational potential of Web-based com-
munication in public relations can be observed in the design features of Web pages.
For example, sites with user surveys and polls, and sites that offer users an oppor-
tunity to send the Web site-hosting organizations responses to issue-based informa-
tion are said to be facilitating a ‘dialogic loop.’ Likewise, the presence of event

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Conversational Voice Online T. Kelleher

calendars, downloadable information, and news items posted in the 30 days prior to
observation are used as indicators that the organization hosting the site is encour-
aging dialogue by encouraging visitors to return to the Web site. Tallying Web site
features is a measure of functional interactivity.
Recognizing the gap between these indicators of dialogic potential and their Buber-
based, Habermasian definition of dialogue as ‘‘the negotiated exchange of ideas and
opinion’’ and ‘‘the process of open and negotiated discussion,’’ these researchers sought
correlations between how ‘‘dialogically oriented an organization ‘appears’’’ and how
likely the organization is to respond to stakeholder information-seeking behaviors
(Kent & Taylor, 1998, p. 325; Kent et al., 2003, p. 72). Results were mixed. Taylor
et al. (2001) and Kent et al. (2003) found that organizations scoring higher in three of
six of their dialogic communication indices were more likely to respond to an e-mail
request. Any response within 2 weeks to a researcher-generated e-mail request was
treated as ‘‘an actual dialogic response’’ and considered ‘‘a more accurate measure of an
organization’s dialogic potential’’ than the tally of Web site features used to build the
indices (Taylor et al., 2001, p. 275). Yet Taylor et al. also reported that organizations
scoring higher on the ‘dialogic-loop’ index actually were less likely to respond to e-mail
requests. The dialogic loop index comprised four items including the opportunity for
user response, the opportunity to vote on issues, surveys allowing visitors to voice
opinions, and the availability of regular information to be delivered by mail or e-mail.
Taylor et al. (2001) suggested two possible explanations for this finding: 1) an
emphasis on style over substance in Web design, and 2) that larger, more sophisti-
cated organizations tend to be more bureaucratic and less able to respond effectively
to cues from the environment. The latter explanation, referred to as the threat
rigidity hypothesis, is attributed to Staw, Sandelands, and Dutton (1981).
Seltzer (2005) analyzed the content of 50 environmental blogs and compared
those to the Web sites analyzed by Taylor et al. (2001) and Kent et al. (2003). Blogs
scored higher on indices of ‘‘ease of interface,’’ ‘‘usefulness to media,’’ and ‘‘conser-
vation of visitors.’’ In terms of responsiveness, some 60% of e-mail inquiries sent to
bloggers were answered as opposed to the 29% rate found for responsiveness in
previous studies with ‘‘traditional Web sites’’ (Seltzer, 2005, p. 15).
With functional interactivity, the connection between ‘‘the degree to which these
functions are used and the extent to which they actually serve the dialog or discourse
function do not appear to be part of the concept’s definition’’ (Sundar et al., 2003,
p. 33). Sundar et al. added that functional interactivity ‘‘seems to be based more on
promoting an appearance of interactivity and does not adequately specify the out-
comes of interactive communication’’ (p. 34). They recommended the construct of
contingency interactivity to better represent the ideas of a ‘‘looping mechanism’’ and
dialogue (p. 34). Therefore, the present study focuses on contingency interactivity.
Contingency interactivity
Communication researchers describe contingency interactivity as ‘‘a process involv-
ing users, media, and messages’’ in which ‘‘communication roles need to be

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T. Kelleher Conversational Voice Online

interchangeable for full interactivity to occur’’ (Sundar et al., 2003, pp. 34–35).
Contingency in this line of research and theory means that messages in an interactive
process of communication are contingent upon previous messages. The more that
one person’s response to another depends on the content of the previous exchanges
between the two, and the more ‘‘intertwined and cumulative,’’ the more fully inter-
active the process is said to be (Rafaeli, 1988; Walther, Gay & Hancock, 2005,
p. 641). This concept of contingency interactivity is consistent with Hallahan’s
(2003) discussion of verbal interactivity. Hallahan (2003) cited Roehm and Haugtvedt
(1999) to describe verbal interactivity as ‘‘a higher-order form of interactivity that
requires users to compose their own ideas in writing (or speech) and possibly engage
in verbal dialogue’’ (p. 23). Pavlik has characterized the concept as ‘‘reciprocal influ-
ence’’ (Pavlik, 1996, p. 135; cited by Sundar et al., 2003; Walther et al., 2005).
Communicating with publics who are increasingly geographically and culturally
dispersed as part of a relationship-building process means thinking of public rela-
tions as a communicative activity that entails ‘‘stimulating feelings such as connect-
edness, involvement, appreciation, and meaningfulness’’ (Galloway, 2005, p. 573).
Facilitating contingency interactivity may be a key strategy in online communication
leading to positive relational outcomes. Bruning, Dials, and Shirka (2008) proposed
that dialogue entails more than just the exchange of information, but ‘‘that the
organization engage the public during communication’’ and that it is essential to
explore ‘‘techniques for personalizing organization-public interactions’’ (p. 5).
As a practical matter, large organizations, be they nonprofits, activist groups,
government agencies, NGOs, or corporations, face unique challenges in communi-
cating ‘interactively’ online with publics that comprise dauntingly large numbers of
individuals. These publics may be internal or external. Though Staw et al. (1981)
mainly were concerned with an entity’s crises and threats, the idea that overly
bureaucratic ‘‘restrictions in information and control’’ are part of the problem in
how large organizations handle communications with large numbers of individuals
who make up their publics does seem plausible (p. 519). Excessively rigid bureau-
cratic behavior may indeed ‘‘hinder adaptation to new environmental conditions’’
(Staw et al., 1981, p. 519). While automated functions such as those used in the
‘‘dialogic loop’’ index are relatively easy to implement, even in bureaucratic systems,
the dynamic touch cited by Galloway (2005) and the engaged dialogue espoused by
Bruning et al. (2008) pose greater challenges.

Relational maintenance strategies

Communicated relational commitment
In trying to identify the strategies for success in relationships, public relations
researchers have turned to interpersonal communication literature. Hon and Grunig
(1999) referred to Stafford and Canary’s (1991) taxonomy of relational maintenance
strategies to identify several ‘‘process indicators’’ that ‘‘can be applied to maintaining
symmetrical public relationships, or those that benefit both the organization and

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Conversational Voice Online T. Kelleher

publics’’ (Hon and Grunig, 1999, pp. 13–14). These strategies include access, posi-
tivity, openness, assurances, networking, and sharing of tasks. Kelleher and Miller
(2006) extended the study of these strategies to online communication to experiment
with the differences between blogs and more traditional online public relations
material. Kelleher and Miller conducted a factor analysis on items they reasoned
might affect relational outcomes to a greater degree with blogs. They identified
communicated relational commitment as a key factor that accounted for both assur-
ances and openness in their study. As discussed by Hon and Grunig, assurances are
when people in an organization make an effort to assure publics their concerns are
legitimate. This strategy also might involve attempts to demonstrate they (as mem-
bers of an organization) are committed to maintaining the relationship. Openness is
when people in an organization freely discuss the nature of the organization, includ-
ing their own thoughts and ideas about the organization and its operations.
The index for communicated relational commitment includes items adapted
from prior measures of both assurances and openness. The combined communicated
relational commitment index used by Kelleher and Miller (2006) included six Likert-
type items: [the organization] demonstrates they are committed to the relationship,
communicates desire to build a relationship, stresses commitment, implies the rela-
tionship has a future, emphasizes the quality of the relationship, and directly dis-
cusses the nature of the organization. Communicated relational commitment
correlated positively and significantly with the relational outcomes of trust, satisfac-
tion, commitment, and control mutuality, but it did not differ between blog and
nonblog conditions.
Communicated relational commitment indicates—from the perspectives of pub-
lics—a type of content of communication in which members of an organization
work to express their commitment to building and maintaining a relationship.

Conversational human voice

According to Searls and Weinberger (2000) one of the most important characteristics
of online communication is the human voice of the people who form the
organization.
By acknowledging that, inevitably, many people speak for a particular company
in many different ways, the company can address one of the most important
and difficult questions: How can a large company have conversations with
hundreds of millions of real people? (Searls & Weinberger, 2000, p. 110)
The question echoes the challenges of dynamic touch and engaged dialogue for
organizations communicating with large publics, and the answer is worth exploring.
Searls and Weinberger (2000) suggested that by allowing multiple voices from within
an organization to get involved in online communication with publics, organizations
can communicate more effectively and adapt more efficiently. For example, by post-
ing FAQs and discussion forums that offer archived versions of real (i.e., based on
contingency interactivity) exchanges between an organization and its publics, an

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T. Kelleher Conversational Voice Online

organization will allow other people to cull answers to their questions from ‘‘real
interactions’’ that already have occurred (2000, p. 110).
As participatory media, blogs appear to be especially well-suited as forums for
what Sundar et al. (2003) would call contingency interactivity, as highlighted in
Gurak, Antonijevic, Johnson, Ratliff, and Reyman’s (2004) definition: ‘‘At this point
in their development, blogs are best described as web sites that are updated fre-
quently, most often with links to other sites and commentary on the other sites’
content’’ (Gurak et al., 2004). Starting with Gurak et al.’s definition, Kuhn (2005)
reviewed ethics scholarship relevant to media and virtual environments. He then
conducted a survey of bloggers to identify values and duties recognized by bloggers
in late 2004 and early 2005. Kuhn’s results underscore how blog culture at the time
favored contingency interactivity and human voices. ‘‘Blogging is interactive . This
interactivity mimics one-to-one communication and thus functions to ‘humanize’
blogs’’ (Kuhn, 2005, pp. 19–20).
Popular literature and initial experimental data suggest that blogs carry an advan-
tage over more traditional corporate Web pages in communicating with a conversa-
tional human voice. Kelleher and Miller’s (2006) index for conversational human
voice included items such as ‘‘[the organization] invites people to conversation,’’ ‘‘uses
conversation-style communication,’’ and ‘‘tries to be interesting’’(p. 413).
Sweetser and Metzgar (2007) conducted an experiment to examine the impact of
blogs on relationships during organizational crises. Replicating Kelleher and Miller’s
(2006) factor analysis of a public’s perception of relational maintenance strategies,
Sweetser and Metzgar found that conversational human voice and communicated
relational commitment were the top two factors in explaining variance in relational
maintenance strategies. Conversational human voice was communicated better in
organizational blogs than personal blogs, but both types of blogs were more effective
than control conditions in lowering in participants’ perceptions of the severity of an
organizational crisis.
Conversational human voice describes an engaging and natural style of organi-
zational communication as perceived by an organization’s publics based on inter-
actions between individuals in the organization and individuals in publics.
Relational outcomes
Kelleher and Miller (2006) found that both communicated relational commitment
and conversational human voice correlated positively with key relational outcomes
from the perspectives of an organization’s publics. These relational outcomes,
adapted from Hon and Grunig’s (1999) PR Relationship Measurement Scale, were
trust, satisfaction, control mutuality, and commitment. As Hallahan (2003) put it,
‘‘beyond interactivity, online communications must be designed in ways that people
find usable, trustworthy, and satisfying.’’ (p. 33).
Trust, satisfaction, commitment, and control mutuality have been conceptually
defined, operationally defined, tested, and discussed extensively as key variables in
the study of organization-public relationships in recent public relations scholarship

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Conversational Voice Online T. Kelleher

(Hon & Grunig, 1999; Huang, 2001; Jahansoozi, 2007; Kelleher & Miller, 2006; Ki &
Hon, 2007; O’Neil, 2007; Yang, 2007). Each of these four variables is briefly defined
here as proposed by Hon and Grunig (1999), who built on the work of Huang (1997
1999) and Canary & Stafford (1992) to adapt operational definitions from the study
of interpersonal relationships to the context of organization-public relationships.
Relationships between these four variables and other constructs of central concern to
public relations are then discussed as they have been reported in recent empirical
research.
Trust
Hon and Grunig (1999) defined trust as ‘‘One party’s level of confidence in and
willingness to open oneself to the other party’’(p. 19). This definition of trust is based
on three dimensions: integrity (they treat people fairly and justly), dependability
(they keep promises), and competence (this organization can do what it says it will
do). Exploring this definition of trust in a qualitative study of a postcrisis relation-
ship between a petroleum group and a local community in Alberta, Canada,
Jahansoozi (2007) found that trust could be established by ‘‘numerous small actions’’
that show publics that an organization is ‘‘keeping its word’’ and ‘‘walking the
talk’’(p. 403).
Satisfaction
Satisfaction is defined as ‘‘The extent to which each party feels favorably toward the
other because positive expectations about the relationship are reinforced’’ (Hon &
Grunig, 1999, p. 20). Satisfaction is largely based on the degree to which the benefits
received from a relationship seem right relative to the costs (e.g., I am happy with
this organization; we both benefit from the relationship). Huang (2001) noted that
satisfaction has long been a central factor in interpersonal relationship assessment.
Control mutuality
This is ‘‘the degree to which parties agree on who has the rightful power to influence
one another’’ (Hon & Grunig, 1999, p. 19). This does not imply perfect balance.
Rather people see their relationships with organizations as dynamic and negotiable
(Ki & Hon, 2007). For example, ‘‘this organization and people like me are attentive
to what each other say’’ and ‘‘this organization believes the opinions of people like
me are legitimate’’ (Hon & Grunig, 1999, p. 29).
Commitment
Commitment is ‘‘the extent to which each party believes and feels that the relation-
ship is worth spending energy to maintain and promote’’ (Hon & Grunig, 1999,
p. 20). It includes dimensions of continuance (this organization wants to maintain
a relationship with me) and affect (we have a long-lasting bond).

Observed correlates of relational outcomes

In a study of donors to a nonprofit organization, trust, satisfaction, and commitment
were all found to correlate with the number of years donors had provided financial

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T. Kelleher Conversational Voice Online

support to the organization (O’Neil, 2007). ‘‘Happiness to donate in the future’’ and
‘‘happiness to recommend to others’’ were positively associated with all four of the
relational outcomes defined above (O’Neil, 2007, p. 101).
Ki and Hon (2007) proposed a structural equation model in which relational
outcomes lead to positive attitudes, which in turn lead to behavioral intentions. They
found that college students’ trust and satisfaction in particular led to favorable
attitudes toward their university, which led to behavioral intention as predicted.
Likewise, Yang (2007) used structural equation modeling to study organizational-
public relationships, but he combined the four relational outcomes into one construct.
He studied the organizational reputations of four large organizations (Samsung, Sony,
Korean Red Cross, and Korea Football Association) as perceived by a quota sample of
South Koreans ranging in age from their 20s through their 40s. The structural path
from self-reported ‘‘active communication behaviors’’ with the four organizations and
the combined construct of relational outcomes was significant, as was the relationship
between relational outcomes and favorable perceptions of the four organizations’
reputations.
In a study of employees of Korean corporations, H-S. Kim (2007) found orga-
nizational justice to be an important mediator between organizational communica-
tion style (asymmetrical, symmetrical), organizational structure, and relational
outcomes. Kim (2007) concluded that relational outcomes benefit when organiza-
tions ‘‘develop fair organizational systems’’ in which they treat internal publics justly
and give them ‘‘an opportunity to have voice or input into the management process’’
(p. 191). When organizational members communicate speak with an authentic voice,
the relational benefits appear to apply to relationships with internal publics as well as
external publics.
In a 2 x 2 experiment, Jo and Kim (2003) differentiated between text-based and
multimedia Web sites, and between interactive and noninteractive Web sites. Their
concept of interactivity was based on the idea that the communication was perceived
by publics as being ‘‘reciprocal,’’ which is in line with the concept of contingency
interactivity. Jo and Kim found such interactivity to have a moderate main effect on
perceived relational commitment.

Hypotheses and research question

Whereas prior research on online public relations has used content analysis to
explore connections between functional characteristics of Web sites and the potential
for dialogic communication online, this study will examine individuals’ perceptions
of an organization’s relational maintenance strategies and their assessments of the
relational outcomes.
Communicated relational commitment is and has been a standard strategy for
public relations via traditional media, but newer participatory media afford greater
contingency interactivity to better accommodate conversations between individuals
in organizations and publics. Although blogs can be used for communicated rela-
tional commitment, blogs have been found to carry a distinct advantage in allowing

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organizations to communicate conversationally via many individual voices (Kelleher &

Miller, 2006). This study proposes that when organizational bloggers and publics
have been actively engaged in online conversations (i.e., contingency interactivity)
the relational outcomes will correlate positively with both communicated relational
commitment and conversational human voice, and that conversational human voice
will account for significant variance in these outcomes in addition to communicated
relational commitment.
This study tests the following hypotheses:
Hypotheses 1–4. Among those who have commented on an organization’s blogs,
perception of the organization’s conversational human voice is positively correlated
with (H1) trust, (H2) satisfaction, (H3) commitment, and (H4) control mutuality.
Hypotheses 5–8. After accounting for perception of communicated relational
commitment, perception of conversational human voice will predict significant
additional variance in (H5) trust, (H6) satisfaction, (H7) commitment, and (H8)
control mutuality.

Method
Survey procedure
In early 2006, a process was designed to find people who had experienced some level
of online interaction with an organization in a natural setting. The process started
with a reverse-chronological list of entries on blogs.msdn.com. The site is hosted by
Microsoft and includes a list of summaries of most-recently updated blogs that is
maintained in real-time. These blogs meet the criteria for ‘‘organizational blogs’’ as
defined by Kelleher and Miller (2006). Microsoft was chosen solely for the magnitude
of its online presence at the time, including hundreds of organizational bloggers and
allowing a sample large enough to run statistical analyses. Blogs posted at the site
were reviewed, and blog entries that included response comments from people other
than the original bloggers were examined further to see if the commenters had made
public their contact information. This process continued until a sampling frame of
500 commenters was achieved. By the act of responding to MSDN blogs, this group
was deemed to have had some interaction with Microsoft blogs. Of the 500 with
publicly available contact information, 179 provided e-mail addresses and 321
offered Web contact forms.
The first round of e-mail invitations to participate in the survey was sent on
February 13, 2006, with a follow-up on Friday, February 17. The vast majority of data
was collected by February 27, with only four responses coming in during the first
week of March. Given the unique nature of online surveys, data relevant to response
rate are reported here to most closely adhere to the standards of reporting advanced
by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (2000). Of the 500 e-mail
invitations sent, approximately 48 were undeliverable, 4 people refused directly,
29 completed the first page without completing the entire questionnaire, 128

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T. Kelleher Conversational Voice Online

completed the surveys, and approximately 291 did not respond (or it is unknown if
the invitation reached them). The most conservative estimate of completion rate is
25.6% (128/500). Though for many analyses, closer to 30% of those assumed to have
received the invitation to participate provided usable data.

Sample
Although a request to Microsoft for direct contact with a list of Microsoft bloggers
for survey purposes was denied, 50 (31.8%) of the commenters identified themselves
as having worked for Microsoft. Consistent with the design of the sampling method,
all respondents reported reading ‘‘blogs by people who work for Microsoft’’ at least
once in the month prior to the study. Of 157 respondents, 103 (65.6%) reported
reading the blogs more than 30 times in the month prior, 28 (17.8%) reported
reading the blogs 11-29 times, 10 (6.4%) said they read the blogs 6-10 times, 12
(7.6%) said 2-5 times, and only 4 people (2.5%) said they had only read Microsoft
blogs once in the past month.

Operational definitions
Conversational human voice and communicated relational commitment are the two
primary predictor variables. The online questionnaire included 17 Likert-type items
asking participants to respond to a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly
agree) for each item as it applied to respondents’ perceptions of Microsoft’s rela-
tional maintenance strategies as an organization. These 17 items included 11 items
measuring conversational human voice, and six items for communicated relational
commitment. The 11 items for conversational voice are: Microsoft . invites people
to conversation; is open to dialogue; uses conversation-style communication; tries to
communicate in a human voice; tries to be interesting in communication; uses
a sense of humor in communication; provides links to competitors; attempts to
make communication enjoyable; would admit a mistake; provides prompt feedback
addressing criticism with a direct, but uncritical manner; and treats me and others as
human.
The six items for communicated relational commitment are: Microsoft .
attempts to demonstrate they are committed to maintaining the relationship; com-
municates the organization’s desire to continue to maintain and/or build a relation-
ship with me and others; stresses commitment to me and others; implies that our
relationship has a future/is a long-term commitment; directly discusses the nature of
the organization; and emphasizes the quality of our relationship.
The 17 items were part of a 25-item set that was presented in unique random
order to each respondent with Sawtooth
survey software. To confirm the validity of
the indices, a principal-axis factor analysis with varimax rotation seeking two factors
was run on the 17 items in SPSS
. The resulting two-factor solution showed 12 items
loading with greater factor scores on the first factor (factor scores ranging from .50
to .77) and 5 items loading with greater scores on the second factor (factor scores
ranging from .66 to .82). The first factor, which included all 11 conversational

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Conversational Voice Online T. Kelleher

human voice items, accounted for 48.2% of the variance, while the second factor,
which included five of the six communicated relational commitment items,
accounted for an additional 8.3% of the variance.1
To test for reliability, a Chronbach alpha was computed for the 11 conversational
human voice items. It yielded .92. The five communicated relational commitment
items yielded a Chronbach alpha of .90.
Conversational human voice is operationally defined in this study as the mean
score (on a 1–7 response scale) of the 11 questionnaire items adapted from prior
research. Likewise, communicated relational commitment is operationalized as the
mean score (on a 1–7 response scale) of the five questionnaire items tested in prior
research that loaded on to the second factor in this study. Because conversational
human voice and communicated relational commitment were found to correlate
rather strongly with each other (r = .63, p , .001), collinearity tests were run. The
variance inflation factor (VIF) for the two independent variables was 1.57 and the
tolerance value was .64. Though this evidence certainly indicates a strong relation-
ship between the two relational maintenance strategies, the measures of collinearity
suggest that hierarchical multiple regression with the two constructs as separate
independent variables can yield meaningful results, especially when taken together
with results from the factor analysis in this study and findings in previous studies
that show the discriminant validity of the two.
Cronbach’s alphas also were also calculated for the items measuring relational
outcomes in this study based on the previous literature cited above to test for reliabil-
ity. These included six trust items (} = .87), five satisfaction items (} = .89), four
commitment items (} = .89), and four control mutuality items (} = .79). Responses
were averaged for each set of items to operationally define each relational outcome.

Findings
Hypotheses
Hierarchical regression analyses and bivariate correlations were conducted to test the
hypotheses. As shown in Tables 1 and 2, communicated relational commitment
correlated positively and significantly with all four relational outcomes and served
as a predictor of a significant amount of variance in each of the four relational
outcomes. Hypotheses 1–4 were supported.
Conversational human voice also correlated positively and significantly with the
four relational outcomes investigated in this study (see Table 1). Hierarchical regres-
sion analyses showed that models including both independent variables (communi-
cated relational commitment and conversational human voice) offered significantly
better explanation for the variance in trust, satisfaction, and control mutuality than
models using only communicated relational commitment (see Table 2). Hypothesis
5, Hypothesis 6, and Hypothesis 8 were supported.
In the hierarchical regression analysis of commitment as an independent vari-
able, with p , .05 used as a criterion for inclusion of a second step in the analysis, the

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Table 1 Bivariate Correlations Between Relational Strategies and Relational Outcomes

Control
Trust Satisfaction Commitment Mutuality
(n = 128)
Communicated relational .70* .70* .76* .73*
commitment
Conversational human voice .66* .62* .54* .71*
Note: All variables measured with means from indices of 7-point Likert-type response scales:
communicated relational commitment (5 items), conversational human voice (11 items),
trust (6 items), satisfaction (5 items), commitment (4 items), and control mutuality (4 items).
*p , .001.

Table 2 Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Variables Predicting Relational

Outcomes (N = 128)
Variable B SE B b R2 DR2
Variables predicting trust
Step 1
Communicated relational commitment .44 .37 .48 .49*
Step 2
Conversational human voice .38 .08 .37 .58* .09*
Variables predicting satisfaction
Step 1
Communicated relational commitment .51 .08 .51 .49*
Step 2
Conversational human voice .35 .08 .31 .55* .06*
Variables predicting commitment
Step 1
Communicated relational commitment .86 .07 .76 .58*
Variables predicting control mutuality
Step 1
Communicated relational commitment .50 .07 .48 .53*
Step 2
Conversational human voice .48 .08 .42 .65* .11*
Note: All variables measured with means from indices of 7-point Likert-type response scales:
communicated relational commitment (5 items), conversational human voice (11 items),
trust (6 items), satisfaction (5 items), commitment (4 items), and control mutuality (4 items).
To test if conversational human voice accounted for significant variance in relational
outcomes in addition to communicated relational commitment, communicated relational
commitment was entered first in the hierarchical regression analysis, with p , .05 used as the
criterion for entering conversational human voice as the second step.
*p , .001.

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Conversational Voice Online T. Kelleher

model including both predictor variables did not account for a significantly greater
amount of variance in commitment than a model using only communicated rela-
tional commitment as a single predictor variable. Hypothesis 7 was not supported.

Additional analyses
Because the distribution of responses to the question, ‘‘How many times have you
read blogs by people who work at Microsoft in the past month?’’ was heavily
skewed (i.e., 103 of 157 responded ‘‘more than 30 times’’), the sample was split
into two groups for further analysis. Daily blog readers were defined as those who
reported reading blogs more than 30 times in the month prior to the survey. Daily
blog readers differed from less frequent blog readers significantly on only one
variable of the six discussed above. Daily blog readers for whom valid conversa-
tional human voice scores were available perceived the organization as com-
municating with more of conversational human voice (M = 5.24, SD = 1.05)
than those who read the blogs less often (M = 4.87, SD = 1.00), t (140) = 2.04,
p , .05 (two-tailed).

Discussion
Relational maintenance strategies (conversational human voice, communicated rela-
tional commitment), as perceived by people who had experienced at least some
minimum level of contingency interactivity with bloggers representing an organiza-
tion, correlated positively and significantly with relational outcomes (trust, satisfac-
tion, commitment, control mutuality). With the exception of commitment as
a public relations outcome, which was primarily correlated with communicated
relational commitment, both independent variables measured in this study appear
to make unique contributions to dependent variables that are important to com-
munication practitioners and theorists alike.
In continuing to develop conceptual measures for relational maintenance strat-
egies that apply well to participatory media, the current study extends our under-
standing of online communication beyond prior efforts in the public relations
literature that focused more on functional features of Web sites than on perceived
characteristics of the actual relationship between members of an organization and its
key publics.
Of course, this survey study does not offer proof of the causes of relational
outcomes studied, but it does corroborate experimental data that show that orga-
nizational blogs can have an advantage in conveying a conversational human
voice. At the point in time when surveys were completed, those with the greatest
exposure to MSDN blogs were more likely to perceive Microsoft as communicat-
ing with a conversational voice, and those perceiving Microsoft to communicate
with higher levels of this conversational voice were more likely to report higher
levels of trust, satisfaction, and control mutuality in their relationship with the
organization.

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T. Kelleher Conversational Voice Online

Limitations and directions for future research

This study was designed to compensate for limitations in prior research, includ-
ing studying a sample of people known to have experienced at least a minimum
level of contingency interactivity with an organization represented by a relatively
large number of organizational bloggers. But further replication is still necessary
to build confidence in the two main propositions. The two propositions requir-
ing further testing are: 1) participatory online media like blogs are more likely to
convey a conversational human voice, and 2) as a relational maintenance strat-
egy, an authentic conversational human voice leads to favorable relational out-
comes such as trust, satisfaction, and control mutuality. To continue to examine
the implications of participatory media such as blogs, wikis, and their emerging
3-D and multimedia counterparts, a broader sample of public relations/organi-
zational communication tactics should be examined. A sample representing
a diverse population of organizations would allow researchers to see if more
authentic communication styles are indeed more common in participatory media
when those forums are hosted by nontech-industry organizations. Software
developers have unique views on knowledge sharing in general, and these views
likely influence their assessment of online communication styles. Organizational
norms and policies also affect communication behavior in online environments,
as the threat rigidity hypothesis suggests. More bureaucratic organizations may
be less likely to encourage employees to participate in such candid online
conversations.
Though not really a ‘dual’ approach to measuring relationships, the sample
in this study did include some past and current employees of Microsoft. The
overlap of internal and external publics in this sample underscores how the
nature of organizational blogs further blurs the lines between internal and exter-
nal communication and between organizational communication and public rela-
tions. Do these bloggers intend their work to serve the functions of public
relations?
The current study supports a model of distributed public relations—one in
which key outcomes of public relations are fostered by a wide range of people
communicating interactively while representing an organization (Kelleher, 2007).
Yet these people probably do not think of themselves as public relations people.
Whether this phenomenon generalizes to other contexts is especially important to
consider as communication theorists and practitioners work to understand the
implications of demassification for everyday communication.

Note
1 The one communicated relational commitment item that loaded more on Factor 1 was
‘‘attempts to demonstrate they are committed to maintaining the relationship.’’ The
item was dropped from later analyses.

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Conversational Voice Online T. Kelleher

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La Voz en Conversación, el Compromiso Comunicado, y los Resultados de las
Relaciones Públicas en la Comunicación Interactiva Online

Tom Kelleher
University of Hawaii

Resumen
Las organizaciones confrontan desafíos únicos al comunicarse en forma interactiva
con públicos compuestos por un gran y desalentador número de individuos. Esta
encuesta online examinó las percepciones que la gente tuvo de su experiencia de
comunicación interactiva con una compañía grande de consumo tecnológico
industrial a través de sus blogs organizacionales. En este estudio, aquellos que
reportaron mayor exposición a estos blogs percibieron con mayor probabilidad a la
organización como si comunicara su voz en conversación. La voz en la
conversación humana y el compromiso de relación comunicado (las estrategias de
mantenimiento de relación) fueron positivamente correlacionados con la confianza,
la satisfacción, el compromiso, y el control mutuo (resultados relacionales).
Basados en investigaciones previas, esta encuesta apoya el modelo de las
relaciones publicas distribuido– uno en el que los resultados claves de las
relaciones públicas son fomentados a través de una gran variedad de personas
comunicándose interactivamente mientras representan una organización.
 在线互动交流中的会话语音、所传达的承诺和公共关系结果

Tom Kelleher

夏威夷大学

摘要

各个组织在与公众进行网上互动时都会遇到独特的挑战：因为公众由

数目惊人的个体所组成。本研究网上调查了曾通过博客和一家消费者

-科技-产业公司进行网上互动的用户对该公司的看法。在本研究中，

接触博客最多的用户更可能认为该组织是用会话语音和他们交流。真

人会话声音及所传达的关系性承诺（关系维持战略）与信任、满意、

承诺和控制互利（关系性后果）成正比。基于先前的研究，本研究支

持了分布式公共关系的模式。在这个模式中，各式各样的人在网上互

动同时又代表某个组织，这会促进公共关系的关键性后果。
 상호 행위적 온라인 커뮤니케이션에서의 대화적 목소리, 대화된 약속,

그리고 PR결과들에 관한 연구

Tom Kelleher
University of Hawaii

요약

조직들은 굉장히 많은 개인들로 구성되는 대중들과 온라인으로 대화를

해야한다는 매우 독특한 도전에 직면하고 있다. 본 온라인 설문조사는

조직적 블러그를 통해 대규모의 소비자-기술-회사와 상호 대화를 경험한

사람들의 인지에 관한 연구이다. 본 연구에서 이러한 블러그에 가장 큰

정도로 노출된 사람들은 해당 조직과 대화적인 목소리로 커뮤니케이션을

추구할 가능성이 높은 것으로 나타났다. 대화적 인간 목소리와 대화적

상대적 확약도( 상대적 유지 전략)는 신뢰도, 만족도, 위임, 그리고

통제상호의존도 (상대적 결과들)과 보다 긍정적인 상호관계를 보여주고

있다. 기존의 연구에 기초하여, 본 설문조사는 분산적인 PR모델—

여론관계의 주요 결과들이 조직을 대표하면서 상호적으로 대화하는

사람들에 의해 더욱 조장된다는—을 지지하고 있다.