PR-Bridge

Here’s a vicious cycle:

– Most business executives never take public relations courses in their schooling

– As such, they equate public relations with publicity or crisis management (or some other limited view)

– Public relations professionals and educators do not a good enough job helping people understand their worth

– Communicators, as a result, are not widely admitted into management’s inner-circle of strategic decision-makers

This vicious circle, along with its more unethical offshoots, such as public relations being perceived as a female profession thus less “strategic,” is the primary reason that Grunig’s so-called “Excellence Theory” has not worked as a foundation for the public relations profession. The theory necessitates that public relations practitioners are accepted into the “dominant coalition,” or in plain English, the group of executive’s that direct an organization’s strategic initiatives.

Here’s an excerpt of my response to a post at PR Conversations:

The whole equation seems pretty simple: if Grunig’s so-called “Excellence Theory” were beneficial to practitioners, then they would have adopted it wholeheartedly over the last two-plus decades.

The communications profession would welcome a magic bullet if one existed…the “Excellence Theory” isn’t it. If it provided the benefits Grunig assumes, then it would be at the front of every communicator’s mind.

Professionals yearn for innovation, just like their colleagues in other professions. For example, look at the business world’s acceptance of innovative management theories (say, for example, Six Sigma) over the last several decades. If it works, adoption is not difficult.

No matter how much individual teaching a professional does within her organization, she is fighting a losing battle, particularly if her colleagues (with business degrees and MBAs) don’t buy into the theory.

So, for 20-plus years, educators have spun their wheels teaching Grunig’s models, while students confront an entirely different world after graduation.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. The so-called “Excellence Theory” is a foundation of sand for public relations. Attempting to build on it is not going to work. Sometimes a poorly designed house simply needs bulldozed.

If professionals and educators really wanted to do something beneficial, they would reject Grunig and begin building a model that enables professionals to do their jobs better and organizations to communicate more effectively.

The most worthy challenge facing the profession, for instance, is determining return on investment (ROI). If the professional and educator communities could come together to find better methods of calculating ROI, then show its value to business leaders, the benefits for the profession would be priceless.

Some of Grunig’s ideas might even play a role in the new model, certainly there will be times when symmetrical communications works best (but could never be the sole means of interacting with audiences). Time, however, has proven that “Excellence” isn’t excellent. After decades, the field needs to move on. The commitment to it is hindering advancement.

[The slide presented above is from a Grunig presentation in Hong Kong, published electronically in the PR Conversations post linked above.]

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 26th, 2009 at 10:57 and is filed under Main Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.