An Inquiry into the Transformation of the PR Roles' Concept
Journal
Corporate Communications
ISSN
1356-3289
ISSN-Digital
1758-6046
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2015-01-22
Author(s)
Abstract
Purpose
Recent years have seen resurgent interest in professionalism in public relations, with several initiatives to enquire about the state of the communication profession and its part in organizational strategy. This article discusses the findings of a quantitative investigation into the work roles of European communication professionals. In particular, our research investigates different professional roles, as developed in previous roles research, while taking a particular look at managerial role enactment.
Design/methodology/approach
We report the findings of an explorative study among 551 European communication professionals. The measures are used in this study are closely aligned with previous roles research, but modernized. We analyzed the data with factor analysis and structural equation modeling.
Findings
We unfold four distinct contemporary managerial tasks ("diagnosis", "coaching", "liaison" and "execution"), extending previous research rooted in distinguishing these managerial tasks from more technical ones. As a result we show that (1) managerial role enactment is predominately determined by education and work experience, with a diminishing gender gap when it comes to performing managerial tasks alone, and (2) that these roles just partly relate to salary but highly relate to job satisfaction, particularly when it comes to taking part in management decision making (tasks that require responsibility, accountability, job diversity and also an analytical, strategic mindset).
Originality/value
The results of our study point to the further transformation of the PR Roles' concept, turning a more execution oriented job profile into a more managerial and strategically oriented profession.
Recent years have seen resurgent interest in professionalism in public relations, with several initiatives to enquire about the state of the communication profession and its part in organizational strategy. This article discusses the findings of a quantitative investigation into the work roles of European communication professionals. In particular, our research investigates different professional roles, as developed in previous roles research, while taking a particular look at managerial role enactment.
Design/methodology/approach
We report the findings of an explorative study among 551 European communication professionals. The measures are used in this study are closely aligned with previous roles research, but modernized. We analyzed the data with factor analysis and structural equation modeling.
Findings
We unfold four distinct contemporary managerial tasks ("diagnosis", "coaching", "liaison" and "execution"), extending previous research rooted in distinguishing these managerial tasks from more technical ones. As a result we show that (1) managerial role enactment is predominately determined by education and work experience, with a diminishing gender gap when it comes to performing managerial tasks alone, and (2) that these roles just partly relate to salary but highly relate to job satisfaction, particularly when it comes to taking part in management decision making (tasks that require responsibility, accountability, job diversity and also an analytical, strategic mindset).
Originality/value
The results of our study point to the further transformation of the PR Roles' concept, turning a more execution oriented job profile into a more managerial and strategically oriented profession.
Language
English
Keywords
Public Relations
Organizational Communication
PR
Roles
Quantitative Research
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SoM - Business Innovation
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Emerald
Publisher place
Bradford
Volume
20
Number
1
Start page
76
End page
89
Pages
14
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
238007
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
ccij_article.pdf
Size
728.97 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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