“The management of communication between an organization and itspublics” by Grunig and Hunt.

“The management function that establishes and maintains mutuallybeneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whomits success or failure depends.”

Public relations is the profitable integration of an organization’s new andcontinuing relationships with stakeholders including customers bymanaging all communications contacts with the organization that createand protect the brand and reputation of the organization

Is a fundamental and defining statement about what effective publicrelations is.

To determine what are the characteristics of excellent communicationsand of the companies that do excellent public relations.

Incorporates a number of middle-range theories of Publicrelations, including theories of publics, public relations and strategicmanagement, models of public relations, evaluation of publicrelations, employee communication, public relationsroles, gender, diversity, power, activism, ethics and socialresponsibility, and global public relation.

Explained the value of public relations to organizations and social basedon social responsibility of managerial decisions and the quality ofrelationships with stakeholder publics.

Eg : For an organization to be effective, must behave in ways that solve theproblems and satisfy the goals of stakeholders as well as of management.

Public relations loses its unique role in strategic management if it isSublimated to marketing or other management functions.

Eg : Sublimation to another function resulted in attention only to thestakeholder category of interest to that function, such as consumers formarketing.

Symmetrical system of internal communication increased employees'satisfaction with their jobs and with the organization. However, internalcommunication generally was not practiced unless organizations had aParticipative rather than authoritarian culture and a decentralized, lessstratified(organic) structure rather than a centralized, stratified(mechanical) structure.

Effect of the growing number of women in public relations and evidencethat women had difficulty entering managerial roles.

Eg : Organizations with excellent public relations valued women as muchas men for the strategic role and developed programs to empower womenthroughout the organization. Emphasis on gender also led to inclusion ofdiversity of race and ethnicity.

Modernism is that its concerns lie not simply with scientific forms ofreason that privilege a foundational epistemology but also with formsof reason grounded in our linguistically mediated sense of being-in-the-world.

A state of emphasis on individuality, of human beings who believe theycould operate purely out of their own will without any outside influences.

Modernism maintains that there is one reality or truth, called a dominatingideology. This one reality is affixed through social science research orpositivism. This approach has been called rational because it valuesobjectivity and believes it possible to avoid values in research. Modernismis associated with linearity or progression passing from one stage to thenext.

Examples from public relations principles that reflect modernist thoughtinclude a focus on goals and objectives or management-by-objectives,breaking down into more and more measurable parts the process throughwhich public relations can achieve such outcomes as behavior change, butalso change in awareness, comprehension, and attitudes.

Holtzhausen provides an overview of postmodernist thought that includesfive characteristics:

An emphasis on individual realities rather than one; an ethicallyresponsible society: accommodation of many diverse ideas andperspectives, including modernism; resistance to positivism; and, aphilosophy of the immediate rather than seeking the ideal state of society.

The first of postmodernism’s stances is the importance of the influence ofhistory, culture, society, class, and gender on the individual.

Example: People from different ethnic, social, class, and genderstandpoints see very different realities. This approach extends to publicsand organizations, viewed by each within specific realities rather than onereality or one dominant ideology, such as patriarchy, democracy orcapitalism.

Second, postmodernist thought calls for an ethically responsible societybecause of our various cultural, class, and ethnic differences. “The ethicallyresponsible society supports science and technology but also emphasizesimagination, sensitivity, emotion, humanity, and an appreciation ofdifferences.”

Third, postmodernism fears dominating ideologies or metanarraviesbecause of their controlling natures.

Example: Public relations, it is assumed in postmodern thinking, has a rolein reinforcing dominating ideologies, whether consciously orunconsciously. Holtzhausen describes postmodernism as “extremelymultifaceted, drawing on all theories that might be applicable to thequestion under scrutiny.”

Fourth, postmodernism resists positivism. Mumby describes positivism asthe discourse of representation and its “correspondence theory” of truththat is most often associated with mainstream social science research.

Fifth, postmodernism focuses on the immediate problem rather than onreaching for some ideal state in society.

Example: Postmodernists see fragmentary and multiple worlds in constantand continuous change. L’Ltang and Pieczka argue that there is not oneoverall standard to be found, particularly in the practice of public relationsor the interests of those on behalf of which public relations operates.

The dominant coalition is the social network of individuals having thegreatest influence on the selection of an organization's goals and strategiesPfeffer & Salancik, 1978; Ansoff, 1983; Pearce & David, 1983; Pearce &DeNisi, 1983; Neilsen & Hayagreeva Rao, 1987; Charan, 1991).

It derives this power from the unequalled, collective, and synergizedinfluence of its members.

These members, in turn, derive their power from their ability to influencethe acquisition and distribution of strategic resources

the term "resources" is used to include not only material, capital, andhuman factors, but also less tangible resources such asprestige, community legitimation, and knowledge

The dominance of the coalition is partially secured by its ability toinstitutionalize its power.

This does not imply that the coalition's strategic directions or membershipare immutable. They may change when new individuals control strategicresources or when new resources become strategic. However, theinstitutionalized nature of dominant coalition power is likely to supportthe status quo (Thompson, 1967; Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978).

A coalition is held together by the members' recognition of some commoninterests (Pfeffer, 1981), and by explicit or implicit agreements about thetype of behavior which should be followed (Pennings, 1981; Pondy &Mitroff, 1979)

Furthermore, the dominant coalition is bound by the fact that theachievement of member goals usually requires interdependent action by thecoalition members (Thompson, 1967)

However, not all of the interests and orientations of dominant coalitionmembers are compatible.

"Side payments" are sometimes made to influential dissident members of thedominant coalition in order to hold the coalition together (Cyert & March,1963).

Example : These side payments are often in the form of commitments topolicies that may be somewhat incompatible with other coalition objectives.Such incomplete rationalization is possible because goals most often receivesequential, rather than holistic attention. Thus, some incompatibility in goalsand strategies is ignored. The conditions under which compatibility isenforced are important and will be explored in a later section.