(2021). Editor’s essay: Systemic changes toward an anti-racist academy. Journal of Public Relations Research. Ahead of Print.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was twofold. First, this study sought to validate the conceptualization and operationalization of lacuna publics, conceptulized as knowledge-deficient, extreme pro- and/or anti-issue activists about controversial social issues. Second, this study advanced a typology of disinformation-susceptible publics, classifying individuals into disinformation-immune, disinformation-vulnerable

ABSTRACT This study explores the confluence of moral reasoning and strategic framing in public relations tactics to address cultural variations in national policy debates. While much scholarly attention has been paid to the ways in which news media both represent and misrepresent U.S. Muslims through the ways stories are framed, much less work has been devoted to Muslim self-framing in public discourse

(2020). Editor’s Essay: Resilience and Perseverance. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 32, No. 5-6, pp. 155-159.

ABSTRACT This study explores the impact of organization–public relationships (OPRs) and issue-related situational factors on publics’ intention to participate in CSR campaigns, based on relationship management theory and the situational theory of problem-solving (STOPS). We surveyed 698 respondents living in the United States about two CSR campaigns, one focused on girls’ empowerment and one on deforestation

ABSTRACT This article introduces the theory of the corporate responsibility to race (CRR). It holds that corporations should communicate in ways that advocate for racial justice, attempt to improve race relations, and support achieving a more equitable and harmonious society. Corporations have this responsibility to race because they have historically perpetuated and profited from racial oppression

(2020). Editor’s essay: Acknowledge our past. Change our future. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 32, No. 3-4, pp. 93-97.

ABSTRACT Resilience is an ongoing sensemaking process that relies on communicative interactions – including those that occur between stakeholders and organizations – in order to understand and respond to a given adversity. Resilience communication is enacted through discursive processes that align with the tenets of fully functioning society theory (FFS). In order to integrate these two theoretical

ABSTRACT This study proposes a theoretical model that provides a segmentation method of publics based on their cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses toward corporate social advocacy (CSA). As one of the initial efforts in building a theory of CSA in public relations scholarship, the model segments consumers based on three outcome variables – boycott intention, purchase intention, and corporate

ABSTRACT Drawing on insights from the corporate ability (CA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations framework, the associative network theory (ANT) of memory, and crisis communication literature on the CA-CSR crisis typology, this study examines the impact of CSR crises on stakeholders’ responses via the underlying mechanism of the spillover from CSR onto CA associations. Using the

ABSTRACT Although the relational approach has been a focus in many published public relations studies, the dynamic and longitudinal aspects of relationships deserve more exploration. Through explicating and examining the concept of contingent organization-public relationship (COPR) in two empirical studies, this article investigates relationships between corporations and activist publics, and provides

Serving as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Relations Research has felt at times like diamond-mining (minus the child labor). Few manuscripts arrive as polished gems ready to be typeset int...

ABSTRACT This study investigates consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes after service failure encounters with companies with which they have previously established good relationships. It indicates that conformity with or violation of relationship norms guides consumers’ decision making, and that their subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes further depend on the severity of the service

There is a growing body of literature concerning the social construction of crisis. This study aimed to clarify inconsistencies regarding the social constructionist perspective by examining how the...

Based on the identity framework (social identity theory and self-categorization theory), this study proposes an identity-based approach to organization-public relationships. A pilot study and a 3 (...

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore the positive outcomes of organizational resilience to see how resilient employees can support an organization by adapting to and initiating changes during the recovery process following a crisis. This study focuses on organizational resilience generated by employees, as a resilient system, through their psychological ability and positive communication

ABSTRACT This study examined the convergence of activism and intersectionality to understand how communicators create messages about social justice issues using social media. This is particularly relevant for public relations today, as digital activism almost ubiquitously involves bringing together conflicting publics who are active and social media-savvy, meanwhile maintaining an organizational brand/mission

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to compare the agenda-building influence of President Trump and CEOs in communicating about a number of political and social issues. Through a content analysis of the president’s (N = 63) and business leaders’ (N = 234) information subsidies and news coverage (N = 270), evidence was found repeatedly supporting the president’s first, second, and third levels of

ABSTRACT This study sought to understand the lived experiences of employees by taking a co-creational approach to examine how employees make meaning of employee engagement. Phenomenological interviews (n = 32) revealed that engagement starts with dialogue supported by active listening. Formal internal communication emerged from the data as a contributor to meaning-making, but not to the extent the

ABSTRACT Public relations has a critical role in addressing culture difference and enhancing research outreach. An analysis of practice, education and research in Middle East provides an exemplar of the need to move the discipline’s scholarship from global isolation to cultural inclusivity. A review of current scholarship in the discipline's journals documents the preeminence of “Western” theory. Research

ABSTRACT This study examined the effects of perceptions of organizational justice on the quality of relationships between employees and organizations, employee job engagement, and subsequent effects on employee turnover intention. Drawing from two complementary approaches (relationship management and human resources management perspectives), the current study proposed a model of employee turnover intention

ABSTRACT This study aimed to examine the applicability of the Excellence principles in Kuwait, generating insights into factors that affect the practice of strategic public relations management across corporate, governmental and nonprofit organizations. The findings, based on 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Kuwaiti public relations practitioners, revealed that the public relations profession

(2019). Public relations in the Middle East: an editorial introduction. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 31, Special Issue on Public Relations in the Middle East, pp. 71-83.

ABSTRACT While research on dialogue has been flourishing over the past few decades, critics contend that this scholarship often misses the core philosophical idea of dialogue, focusing instead on the absence or presence of dialogic principles in various organizational settings. This study has both empirical and methodological objectives: a) to solve a built-in lacuna in on-going dialogue research that

(2019). Editor’s essay: committing to community. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 31, No. 1-2, pp. 1-4.

ABSTRACT This study expands the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) with rumor theory to examine the influence of online rumors on attribution of organizational crisis responsibility and attitude toward organization during a period of crisis uncertainty. Controlling for crisis issue involvement, findings from a three-group with control online experiment (N = 366) revealed that people tend

ABSTRACT By grounding public relations praxis in Aristotelian ethos, practitioners can function as liaison officers with balanced perspectives, capable of co-creating meaning with both client organizations and their publics between whom experts are hired to facilitate mutually beneficial relationships. This approach locates persuasion at the nexus of speaker ethos in the public relations process. It

ABSTRACT Engagement has emerged as an important concept in public relations scholarship. Yet a theoretically informed model with a clear and coherent explication of the construct is still lacking. By situating our study in the internal organizational context, we provided an updated conceptualization and operationalization of employee engagement, proposing a strategy-engagement-behavior three-step employee

ABSTRACT This research reported and expanded on a 6-year citation study of published scholarly research in public relations that occurred between 2010 and 2015. This analysis built on the work of Pasadeos and his collaborators, who examined the literature’s most-cited works from the 2000s and 1990s, respectively, and studied the field’s research network. Moreover, this study expanded the scope of coverage

(2018). Editor’s essay: From anxiety to action. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 30, No. 5-6, pp. 179-183.

ABSTRACT Drawing from image repair theory and situational crisis communication theory, this study advances crisis communication theory by analyzing nearly 800 public relations professionals’ perceptions of 15 image repair strategies. A national sample of US public relations professionals evaluated communication strategies for their effectiveness and preference for use in three crisis scenarios (accidents

ABSTRACT This study proposed a conceptual model of organization-public relationships (OPRs) that draws distinctions between the distal (enduring individual, organizational, and environmental factors) and proximal (situational individual and organizational behaviors and interactions) antecedents that precede and influence OPR perceptions. Using an online survey of 514 adults residing in the United States

ABSTRACT This study investigated the cognitive-affective-behavioral sequence of public activism by examining the role of citizens’ perception of government dialogic communication during a national pandemic crisis. Through a case study of the 2015 Middle-East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea, the results of a survey of 400 South Korean citizens showed that distrust in government and

(2018). Editor’s essay: Identity and/in/of public relations. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 30, Themed Issue on Identity and Public Relations, pp. 129-133.

ABSTRACT A historical case study of how United States Public Health Service (USPHS) officials used public relations in an active attempt to construct meanings within cultural contexts both illuminates and extends the cultural-economic model (CEM) of public relations, which is based on the circuit of culture. The case shows how the CEM would benefit from exploring why practitioners act as they do, as

ABSTRACT This article suggests that agreement on a paradigm focus for public relations scholarship would greatly enhance the probability of productive theory development. The author argues, influenced by Thomas Kuhn, that until those who call themselves public relations scholars come to agreement on the focus of public relations research and theory development, there may be much activity we call research

ABSTRACT Within digital landscapes, public relations research suggests organizations and publics do not always operate in ways that scholars originally predict. Fitting with the theme of this special issue, this article challenges consensus-driven orientations of dialogue, embracing the postmodern concept of dissensus and critically contesting the dialogic promise of digital communication through a

ABSTRACT Taking a network perspective, this study uses a series of bibliometric analyses to systematically examine public relations scholarship on dialogue and digital dialogic communication. We examine the knowledge construction and invisible college networks to identify the prominent scholars and publications that inform current thinking in this area of scholarship. Our analyses of 157 journal articles

ABSTRACT This study expands the conceptual framework of dialogic communication on social media by incorporating a social dimension via social presence. Through a content analysis, we explored how dialogic internet principles and social presence strategies were implemented in top social CEOs’ Facebook posts to generate public engagement outcomes. Results showed that top social CEOs used a variety of

ABSTRACT This study aims to advance our understanding of the implicit relationship between dialogic communication and corporate social performance (CSP). The study builds and tests a theoretical model that conceptually links the dialogic theory framework with the concept of CSP in management. Using the KLD CSP dataset, the study constructed a sample of S&P 500 petro-chemical companies (N = 106) with

(2018). Notes on a dialogue: twenty years of digital dialogic communication research in public relations. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 30, Digital Dialogic Public Relations, pp. 59-64.

ABSTRACT Immigrant professionals (IPs) compose important internal publics in U.S. organizations. This study examined the processes of intercultural identity development through IPs’ stress, adaptation, and intercultural communication competence, as well as the outcomes of such identity development. Twenty-three interviews with Indian IPs in a major southern cosmopolitan area in the United States revealed

(2018). Acknowledgments. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 30, No. 1-2, pp. 57-58.

(2018). Editor’s essay: Thoughts on theory. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 30, No. 1-2, pp. 1-4.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to analyze peer-reviewed research that applied principles of dialogic communication to organizational websites, blogs, and social media. We identified 79 relevant studies and found that 83% reported the results of a content analysis. Only 25% of studies presented a theoretical implication; 75% discussed practical implications. Future research must distinguish

ABSTRACT This article presents an historical overview of queer activism and inquiry, advocating for queer theorizing in public relations, and outlining future directions for theory building. It proposes making public relations theory queer (challenging the heterosexist foundations and presumptions that constitute theory in public relations) and queering public relations theory (challenging the discomfort

(2017). EOV Editorial Board. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 29, No. 6, pp. 311-311.

(2017). Editor’s essay: Language in research. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 29, No. 6, pp. 255-258.

ABSTRACT Political public relations and public diplomacy both focus on managing communication to build and maintain relationships for a political purpose. Public diplomacy focuses on foreign publics and involves governments and organizations seeking to build relationships internationally. This study explored relationship cultivation, i.e., the process of initiating, nurturing positive, and recovering

(2017). Editor’s Essay: Political Tolerance Versus Tolerant Politics. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 29, Political Public Relations, pp. 195-199.

ABSTRACT This study offers an alternative conceptual framework for an integrated understanding of public relations practice globally. It investigates the relationships between political, economic, and media constructs and relationship management in public relations by building upon an environmental framework for understanding public relations. Based on a survey of public relations practitioners in

ABSTRACT This study explored how and why a halo effect occurred during a food-related crisis in South Korea. The research questions were framed using situational crisis communication theory. A qualitative research method involving 16 in-depth interviews revealed that the good performance history of the company involved in the crisis caused people to attribute less responsibility to the organization

ABSTRACT This national online survey (N = 493) examined the political organization-public relationship (POPR) that voters perceived with their own political party and their opposing political party, as well as voters’ assessment of the credibility of candidates running for president during the primary season of the 2016 election. Results indicated that although credibility assessment of one’s own party’s

ABSTRACT Twitter provides women politicians with a platform for practising political public relations and the opportunity to circumvent traditional barriers to their visibility. To explore how young women use Twitter to frame themselves during election campaigns, this study undertook a thematic analysis of tweets sent by politicians Nikki Kaye and Jacinda Ardern during New Zealand’s 2014 general election

(2017). Editor’s essay: Relationship matters. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 137-140.

ABSTRACT As fake news continues to abound on the Internet, the need for theorizing on the impact of misinformation on individuals’ perceptions of various social issues is dire. Using the issue of vaccine negativity in the United States, this study proposes the idea of lacuna individuals as issue-specific active publics holding negative attitudes and having deficient issue-specific knowledge. Results

ABSTRACT This article investigated the consumer response mechanism in a service failure context. A service failure response model was introduced that incorporated emotive antecedents, a mediation process, and 4 behavioral outcomes. Data were collected via an online survey (N = 371) and further analyzed using the structural equation modeling approach. The results confirmed the service failure response

ABSTRACT This study examined the distinct exigency of a compounding crisis, a crisis that occurs in close succession to another (potentially unrelated) crisis before an organization has had the opportunity to rebuild legitimacy. Specifically, we identified the public relations challenges faced by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency during the formaldehyde travel trailer crisis and examined how

(2017). Editor’s essay: Change and resistance. Journal of Public Relations Research: Vol. 29, No. 2-3, pp. 69-72.

ABSTRACT Existing relationship research has interpreted low trust as being equivalent to high distrust and high trust as the evidence of low distrust, which has failed to capture the full scope of the functions of trust and distrust in organization–public relationships. Recent research in this area suggests that trust and distrust might simultaneously exist during relational interactions and might