Ethnocentricity in Public Relations

Education and Training: A Critique

Krishnamurthy Sriramesh

Professor of Public Relations

School of Business

Massey University

Wellington, New Zealand

K.Sriramesh@Massey.ac.nz

Overview

Public Relations Art or Science?

Ethnocentricity in PR BoK

Conceptual Framework as remedy

Culture broadly defined

Framework Applied in three projects

The Future for the Framework and

research contributing to a holistic BoK

What is Public Relations?

Nomenclature Problem: PR? Comm. Mgmt? Corporate Comm? Organizational Comm? Public Information? Public Affairs?

PR as Art: Hospitality relations, Celebrity publicists

PR as Science: I see it as PR AND Science! Research - informed public relations (with a holistic perspective including all methodologies and perspectives)

IPR: Science beneath the Art of public relations

Ethnocentricity in the BoK

Body of Knowledge of PR is only about 30 years old

An analysis of 4,141 books and articles on public relations in 1976 found only 63 with ANY research component

Its development has been ethnocentric (albeit slowly changing in recent years)

Culture not mentioned in PRSAs (1988) Body of Knowledge

European BoK only began in 2002

Cultural perspectives key to a holistic BoK

Ethnocentricity in the BoK

Public relations values, ethics, rhetorical theories based mostly on Greek philosophy silence from most other ancient cultures such as China and India that also have rich traditions

PRSA Port of Entry Report

to determine the knowledge and skills needed by practitioners in a technological, multicultural, and global society and then recommend learning outcomes in the new millennium

12 necessary knowledge factors20 necessary skills for public relations

graduates

Ethnocentricity in the BoK

JPRRs special issue titled: Public Relations Values [emphasis added] in the New Millennium.

Co-editors Toth and Pavlik rightly contended: Professions are based on values and a body of knowledge to teach and enhance values.

But essays in issue made only one reference to culture

PR training and teaching are based mostly on Western practice (replication) and knowledge (textbooks translated verbatim)

Languages role in limiting dissemination of knowledge (German scholarship, Latin America)

Globalization has put spotlight on this ethnocentricity

Diffusion of PR agencies

around the world

Disparity in the diffusion of PR

services The diffusion of PR agencies illustrates the

disparity in distribution of at least commercial PR

services

PR profession has mostly followed the money

trail and is absent where it is most needed

Example: wisdom form the work of NGOs and

even govt. PR has not been integrated into the

PR pedagogy adequately

This has hurt the reputation of the profession -

often perceived as spin doctoring

Need holistic framework for practice and

scholarship

Framework Applied

Culture broadly defined

Societal Culture: Diverse languages,

customs, and religions

Hofstedes dimensions of culture (limiting)

Media Culture: Control, Access, Outreach

Political/Legal Culture

Economic System: Level of Development

Activist Culture

Variables interlinked as evident in case

studies

Some Cases

Starbucks in the Forbidden City

Songhua River Chemical Spill

Xiamen Chemical Plant

India: We want computer chips and not potato chips

Coca Cola/Pepsi/KFC

What is the remedy?

Current Studies

Senior PR practitioners activities

USA, UK, Sweden, Singapore,

Underway in Brazil, NZ,

Italy and Kyrgystan to follow...

Australia???

Generic principles of PR in S Korea,

Singapore, with Italy to follow

Customer Service and culture in Singapore

Is there A Global Theory of

Public Relations?

To a large extent, this is still a good

conceptual framework

However that normative framework is yet

to be tested internationally and refined

based on empirical evidence

This is where I see potential for cross-

national collaboration among scholar-

teachers

Is there A Global Theory of

Public Relations?

The ultimate goal should be to have an

empirically tested model of public relations

that has predictive capabilities especially

as professionals enter newer markets

Only when PR professionals can use such

a model to predict how they should conduct public relations in a given region

can we claim that we have a global theory

of public relations

Thank You!!!