Fritz Cropp

Getting past platitudes: Factors limiting accommodation in public relations

Prevailing thought in academia holds that the ideal model of public relations is two‐way symmetrical. In this model, communication flows both ways between an organisation and a public while both are prepared to change their own behaviour. The result is posited as the most professional, ethical and effective practice. Contingency theory offers qualifications and reservations of excellence theory. One qualification is that dialogue between an organisation and a public may not be allowed for a number of reasons, such as legal constraints or moral convictions against compromising with a public. To build the contingency theory from the ground up, top practitioners are interviewed to learn whether six such proscriptive factors ring true in their experience. The implications of the findings for practitioners, educators and those interested in theories that help define professional practice in public relations are discussed.

Building Relationships with Portal Users

ABSTRACT Motivation for Web portal use is an important factor in the continued growth of e-commerce. Particularly for Web portals, motivation may be intertwined with various dimensions of a relationship that is cultivated between the portal and users. Specifically, the four motivation factors (feature, personalization, familiarity, and searching) are highly correlated to trust and satisfaction. Greater loyalty was found for AOL than for other portals, with no significant differences in relationship with Web users among the free Web portals such as Yahoo. Heavy web users and early adopters were more likely to use personalized Web portals and enjoy communicating with others through the Internet. Because a long relationship with Web portals is one motivation to use them, the highly correlated motivation factors found in this study are important to building strong relationships with Web users. These findings have implications for marketers and public relations practitioners.

Corporate crisis planning: tensions, issues, and contradictions

Purpose – Crisis planning, which symbolizes an organizations crisis preparedness and often conceptualized at the corporate headquarters, is increasingly decentralized to regional centers of global companies. These centers, in turn, synchronize their crisis master plans with its national units for expeditious management of localized crises. The purpose of this paper is to capture the decision‐making processes that practitioners at a regional center faced as they nurtured their master plan from conception to implementation.Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative method is used. This is a case study of a Fortune 500 company with plants in every continent. The company has four regional centers, and the center under study oversees more than 20 national units or countries.Findings – This study found a deep divide in attitude, expectation, and style between what practitioners and the dominant coalition regarded as necessary and sufficient measures in crisis planning.Research limitations/implications – Res...

Impossible Odds: Contributions of Legal Counsel and Public Relations Practitioners in a Hostile bid for Conrail Inc. by Norfolk Southern Corporation

The contingency theory of accommodation in public relations advances the role of public relations beyond its publicity and media relations roots to a crucial place in conflict management. In advancing the theory, Cameron and his colleagues have identified a matrix of variables that might affect an organizations stance toward an individual public. Contingency theory offers a more complex and realistic portrayal of changing public relations activity along a continuum from pure advocacy to pure accommodation of a given public at a given time. Further, proscriptive variables (e.g., legal factors, regulatory agencies) add parsimony to the theory by establishing ground rules that affect a stance toward a public at a given time. The following case study, an in-depth analysis of Norfolk Southerns hostile takeover of Conrail, illustrates the dynamism of conflict management in public relations as well as the proscriptions on how an organization handles conflicts.

Mythic Battles: Examining the Lawyer-Public Relations Counselor Dynamic

Long considered adversarial, relationships between public relations practitioners and lawyers were analyzed via Q methodology and depth interviews. Subjective attitudes were measured regarding strategies in dealing with the public in times of organizational crisis and how the individuals viewed their professional counterparts. Analysis employed concepts central to coorientation theory. Lawyers more accurately projected the public relations response than vice versa. Relationships seem to be all-important, and the proverbial law-public relations conflict may have taken on nearly mythic proportions.

The role of media in the process of socialization to American politics among international students

Mass media have been considered a powerful agent of political socialization, affecting political attitudes and behaviors of voters and non-voters. This study employed a survey of international students in the US to investigate the effects of print, television and online news on political socialization during the 2008 US presidential race. Results indicated that newspaper and television news use significantly predicted internal political efficacy and intentions to participate in American politics. Media ‘nationality’, motivation to apply for permanent residence and duration of stay in the US were explored for possible moderation of media effects on political socialization. The findings are discussed within the framework of media effects on political socialization in host and home countries.