ABSTRACT

The multifaceted roles of public relations are not well-understood in strategic management. Thus, this study reviews strategic management literature and presents empirical evidence on the relevance of public relations to strategic management. Using data collected from public relations practitioners and organizational leaders in the Generally Accepted Practice (GAP) survey conducted by the University of Southern California (USC) and the Excellence Study commissioned by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation, the dynamics between the public relations function and organizational outcomes (i.e., corporate strategic orientation and corporate legitimacy performance) are explored. The findings present new empirical evidence of the contributions that public relations makes to strategic management (i.e., its value), the conditions under which public relations makes more contributions to strategic management (i.e., its empowerment) and the differences between marketing-dominant and public relations-independent communication departments in terms of their focus and effects on organizational outcomes (i.e., its structure). The relevance of the findings to the strategic management role of public relations today is discussed.

摘要

公共关系的多方面作用在战略管理中没有得到很好的理解。因此，本研究回顾了战略管理文献，并提供了关于公共关系与战略管理相关性的经验证据。使用南加州大学 (USC) 进行的普遍接受实践 (GAP) 调查和国际商业传播者协会 (IABC) 研究基金会委托进行的卓越研究中从公共关系从业者和组织领导者那里收集的数据，公共关系功能和组织成果（即企业战略方向和企业合法性绩效）进行了探讨。这些发现为公共关系对战略管理的贡献提供了新的经验证据（即，它的价值），公共关系对战略管理做出更多贡献的条件（即，它的授权）以及营销主导和公共关系独立的传播部门之间在关注和对组织成果的影响方面的差异（即，它的结构体）。讨论了调查结果与当今公共关系战略管理角色的相关性。