مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

The proliferation of social media, digital content and mobile devices has created a knowledge society of publics who expect constant communication. To meet this demand, corporate PR practitioners are expected to be active on Twitter, LinkedIn and corporate blogs; to respond to media inquiries in time frames that are increasingly becoming shorter; and to create and support corporate narratives that generate news coverage, all while protecting the organization’s brand (Waters, Tindal & Morton, 2011; Zerfass, Schwalbach, Bentele, & Sherzada, 2014). The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) released a modernized definition of PR in 2012 that states, “Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics” (PRSA Staff, 2012). In order to build these mutually beneficial relationships with publics, most corporations and larger companies enlist the support of external PR agencies to help the in-house team handle the demands of the job. As Forbes contributor Cheryl Conner (2013) noted: Some companies do great PR with the help of agencies. Some do great public relations in-house. If an organization does PR well, it hardly matters whether it was accomplished from within or without. But it matters hugely, either way, that they do the job well (forbes.com).

The theory of “doing the job well” in PR is largely evaluated by the quality and success of relationships external to the organization (Ferguson, 1984; Kent & Taylor, 2002; Ledingham, 2003; Bruning, Castle & Schrepfer, 2004; Smith, 2012). Much scholarship focuses on building theories to enhance the PR practitioner’s ability to build mutually beneficial relationships between the organization and its external publics, yetlittle research has explored the internal communication processes that corporate PR practitioners face on a daily basis and how those internal interactions shape the practitioner’s role. External relationship building certainly constitutes a large part of the corporate PR job function. However, practitioners, much like other internal departments such as human relations or purchasing, are also faced with internal stakeholder demands on a daily basis (Jones, 1996; Goebel, Marshal and Locander, 2003). As many corporate communications departments turn to a more integrated communications approach, PR practitioners must establish quality relationships with cross-functional teams in marketing, advertising and product development (Moriarty, 1994; Niemann-Struweg, 2014). Corporate PR practitioners are also tasked with communicating the policies and strategies of the leadership, collaborating with other members of the communications organization, and working with external agency partners to develop cohesive corporate messaging (Gallicano, 2013; Kent & Taylor, 2014; Men, 2015; Zerfass et al., 2014). These dynamics constitute an entirely different realm of relationship management in the PR role that has yet to be fully explored in the literature.

To address this research gap, this study analyzes 11 in-depth interviews with corporate and agency PR practitioners to identify and describe the complicated relationship dynamics that practitioners face in their daily roles and how those dynamics affect their performance. As Conner (2013) noted, the bottom line in PR is to do the job well no matter how it is done. However, this study argues that the way the job is done may be affecting the practitioner’s ability to do the job well.