Communication

This article extends Heath's (2006) concept of fully functioning society theory (FFS) and argues that public relations can be used as a force to enhance collective social capital in communities. To serve this purpose, however, the effectiveness of an organization to serve its external publics is often dependent on the status and relationships the public relations function has developed within the organization. This paper provides a network analysis of a government agency in Jordan that illustrates the relationship between internal organizational social capital and the potential problems for establishing external relationships with publics. Implications for public relations research methods and theory are also discussed.► The effectiveness of an organization to serve its external publics is often dependent on the status and relationships the public relations function has developed within the organization. ► Public relations requires support from within the organization in order to be efficacious in communicating with the environment. ► Public relations must secure a stable position within an organizational network with access not only to the dominant coalition, but also to the influential resource providers within a network.

This study analyzed 111 e-mail action alerts from three activist groups on opposing ends of the political and religious ideological continuum for examples of Burke's three identification strategies. Findings show the organizations employed identification by antithesis with the greatest frequency, indicating that activist groups most often take a reactionary or confrontational approach to establishing identification with publics.▶The primary identification strategy used by activist groups in their e-mail communications is identification by antithesis. ▶ Activist groups take a reactionary or confrontational approach to establishing identification with publics. ▶ Identification by sympathy and unawareness maintain relationships by controlling in-group commitment and interpretive cohesion.

This study examined activist group websites (N = 300) to determine how activists are engaging in resource mobilization online and provides a benchmark for current mobilization practices by activists. Website features asking visitors to donate, join the organization, and links to other activist groups were most common on the sites. The study positions resource mobilization in terms of online relationships and organizational linkages, argues that resource dependencies drive mobilization efforts and that resource-based relationships with publics may be established in the mobilization process.► The most frequently mobilized tangible resource were found in features that asked website visitors to donate money. ► The most employed intangible features were those that asked visitors to become a member or join the organization. ► Links to other activist groups were the most frequently employed mobilization feature.

Abstract Scholars have analyzed public relations' role in democracy via proxy concepts like the public sphere and civil society. However, some have critiqued the public sphere on grounds of equal access and portrayed civil society as a guise for first-world imperialism. These critiques have implications for the role of public relations in the public sphere and civil society.

Abstract Scholars have argued that public relations can and indeed must be used to improve society. This article builds on the work of Taylor and Doerfel (2005), who advocated for the continued study of civil society through the lens of public relations theory. This study contributes to a normative public relations model of civil society by examining how interorganizational relationships, which may initially be established for purposes of resource exchange, benefit civil society through the creation and maintenance of social capital.

The segmentation of publics is acknowledged to be a central component of effective strategic communication practice. Although most research on segmentation has used Grunig's situational theory of publics—a functional theory created for profit-based organizations—little attention has been paid to the process or thought behind how activist group organizations may segment their own publics.

The power resource management (Heath, 2008; Heath & Palenchar, 2009) and resource mobilization (McCarthy & Zald, 1977) literatures suggest that resource mobilization is a precondition of issues management and interdependent with strategic behavior. This study examined how activist organizations are using their Web sites to marshal the resources necessary to influence the outcome of issues. Activist group Web sites (N¼300) were coded to determine if online resource mobilization features were related to types of activist issues management strategies. Results of multivariate probit regression analyses revealed that particular types of resource mobilization efforts predict certain activist strategies. The study offers implications on how resource mobilization is used to enact issues management strategy and on how activist strategies, issue objectives, and organizational structure are interrelated.

This study examines how Haitians used “information source repertoires” to meet information insufficiencies following the 2010 earthquake. Using survey data gained in Haiti, the study explores which demographic and structural factors predicted the number of sources used and combinations of information sources following the disaster. Analysis of the data revealed two distinct repertoires of information sources: a “traditional” repertoire of radio, TV, church, and word of mouth; and an “elite” repertoire of newspapers, the Internet, short-message-service, billboards, and the national police. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that demographic variables like education were stronger predictors of information repertoires than conditions like living in a refugee camp or having one’s home destroyed. Results also suggested that greater reliance on a traditional repertoire led to decreased information sufficiency. Contrary to previous crisis research, men were found to be more active information seekers than women, suggesting that scholarly knowledge about information seeking and media use after crises in developing nations is limited. Implications for practice are directed at international development and aid organizations.

The public relations literature on social media has focused primarily on how social media platforms can be leveraged to the advantage of organizations for relationship building and so-called dialogue with publics. Yet most research has positioned relationships in social media merely as opportunities for information exchange, perpetuating models of public relations grounded in systems theory that ignore power imbalances. Consequently, this article offers insights from postmodernist theories to first deconstruct existing research and then offer suggestions for future social media scholarship. The article argues that social media scholars have privileged dominant rational models of social engagement. Dissensus and disorder, according to Lyotard, may be as legitimate and more liberatory states of discourse for marginalized publics. Postmodern theories of language games and differential consciousness are also positioned as ways in which social media theory and practice may be advanced. The article thus complicates how relationships are theorized in contemporary scholarship and challenges both scholars and practitioners to rethink approaches to social media practice through a postmodern lens.

Emergency notification systems have become an essential part of campus security since the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting in the United States. This study explored how a public-centred perspective can inform campus-alerting practices. In particular, this study provided depth to two independent variables of the situational theory of publics: constraint recognition and level of involvement. Additionally, this study proposed the development of a subcategorisation of hot-issue publics called transient publics.

This study is aimed at understanding how people edit their own arguments prior to uttering them (Hample, 1984; Hample & Dallinger, 1985a, 1985b). The main categories of editorial criteria are effectiveness, principled objection to type of argument, person-centered issues, and discourse competence standards. Our main purpose here is to begin an account of what sort of person prefers which criteria. Argumentativeness (Infante & Rancer, 1982), verbal aggression (Infante & Wigley, 1986), interpersonal orientation (Swap & Rubin, 1983), and respondent gender are associated with use of editorial criteria. Results point to two different approaches to editing one's own arguments. The task orientation focuses on effectiveness, and is taken by males, and by people high in verbal aggressiveness and low in interpersonal orientation. The relational orientation is taken by females, and by people low in verbal aggressiveness and high in argument avoidance and interpersonal orientation. Justification for using multiple arguments to instantiate each type of argument, and for using multiple situations was also found.

Taking conflict personally (TCP) has been defined as a negative emotional reaction to participating in a conflict. This paper locates the notions of affective climate in general, and TCP in particular, within a Lewinian frame. The theoretical connections among field theory, defensiveness, attributions, and TCP are described. Earlier work has generated a multidimensional scale for measurement of TCP, and has shown the subscales’ associations with argumentativeness, verbal aggressiveness, communication apprehension, own conflict style, superior's conflict style, arguing behaviors, communication competence, and organizational climate. The present investigation responds to some psychometric and conceptual difficulties with the original version of the TCP scales by revising the measurement instrument. This paper proposes items for the measurement of six TCP subscales: direct personalization, persecution feelings, stress reaction, positive relational effects, negative relational effects, and like/dislike valence. The revised scales replicate the leading results from the original validating study, and extend our understanding of TCP's relationship to a conflict's perceived climate.

People use editorial criteria to decide whether to say or to suppress potential arguments. These criteria constitute people's standards as to what effective and appropriate arguments are like, and reflect general interaction goals. A series of empirical investigations has indicated that the standards fall into three classes: those having to do with argument effectiveness, those concerned with personal issues for arguer and target, and those centered on discourse quality. The essay also sketches the affinities certain types of people have for the different criteria.

Dyadic and normative accessibility are hypothesized to correlate positively with three task dimensions: variety, autonomy and identity. The presumed independence of the dyadic and normative accessibility scales is also investigated. Data were collected from 40 middle level managers in a variety of organizations. Results show significant relationships between dyadic accessibility and the characteristics of variety and autonomy. Tasks with high identity plausibly do not require much supervision. Follert's scale for normative accessibility seems to have some serious validity problems, and probably ought to be replaced or newly validated.

Taking conflict personally (TCP) is conceptualized as a negative emotional
personalization of conflict episodes. Here, individuals' TCP levels
were examined in relationship to both their own conflict management
styles and their perceptions of supervisors' conflict management styles.
Results indicate that one's TCP levels are associated with one's own
preferred conflict management style, with supervisor's perceived conflict
style, and with satisfaction with supervisor.