This blog is based on the original study in the Public Relations Journal.One of the things communicators desire is to bring expert skill, value, and insight to our clients. In my work as a military public affairs officer, more than once someone else in uniform said something to the effect of I know how to work a smartphone and take pictures. I could do your job. No doubt many of my colleagues who work as communicators in the civil world have heard similar, misinformed statements. When a time of crisis strikes, those same people look to their communicators for advice on how to navigate troubled waters. Why is that? When it comes to issues in life and business that really matter, we often look to those who possess unique expertise for help. Often, such people are referred to as professionals. But what does this term actually mean? What qualifications differentiate certain lines of work as “professions”? Are those of us who work in organizational or institutional communication considered to be “professionals” at what we do?Through a multi-method exploration using literature review and autoethnography, I defined and applied specific tests of professional standing to civil and military communications. I surveyed recent literature on the topic of military public affairs, civil public relations, military professionalism, and communication professionalism to identify the most accepted professional attributes and how military and civil communicators measure against them.I discovered the attributes most frequently associated with professions and organized them by 10 categories. The fields of public relations and military public affairs both meet two indicators:1.) Full-time, Non-Manual Occupation: work that does not require high levels of physical exertion and is usually performed in an office setting.2.) Operates according to a Body of Theory: communication work is grounded in unique knowledge specific to a specialty practice.Neither field of civil public relations, nor military public affairs met the attribute of being self-policing to a vocational code of ethics. Though both fields have established codes, they are not generally enforced on practitioners through formal means.The analysis was unable to determine whether civil and military communicators qualify under two of the identified attributes of professions.1.) Operates with a High Degree of Autonomy: professions enjoy a wide leeway of operation with minimal supervision from officials outside their respective areas of expertise.2.) Acknowledged by the Public as fulfilling the requirements of a Profession: professions must be granted this standing through a sort of social contract with the public.Results showed different answers for military public affairs and civil public relations on five criteria identified in this study: This topic matters because those of us who work in communication on behalf of others can play a role in building or breaking societal trust. Societies without trust become societies that fail. This is not a topic of mere semantics, but of how practitioners set the culture, perception, and relevance of the work to which they commit a great percentage of lifetime and energy to accomplishing. Communicators hold the tools to fracture, or to build bridges between individual stakeholders, groups, and societies. Those who endeavor to serve society well through the application of their vocational talents are more likely to understand and appreciate the weight and responsibility of their role in representative society than those who do not. Let us be practitioners who take the field to the next level by seeking not only to work well, but to serve well. Chase Spears has served as a military public affairs officer for 20 years and is concluding his time in uniform as a public affairs training advisor. He is a Ph.D. candidate in at Kansas State University and teaches crisis communication as an adjunct professor for Spurgeon College in Kansas City, Missouri. You can connect with him at chase@chasespears.com, and on LinkedIn.The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and are not representative of the official views or policies of the U.S. Army, U.S. Defense Department, nor any other agency or entity public or private. ...

IPR is featuring some of the many female pioneers who have had an impact on the field of public relations in celebration of Women’s History Month.Born in 1914 in Huttig, Arkansas, Daisy Bates endured many hardships in early childhood but would grow up to become an outspoken pioneer in the American civil rights movement.At age 15, Bates met her husband and they eventually moved to Little Rock, Arkansas where they started a newspaper, “The Arkansas Weekly,” which focused on content about the civil rights movement. Bates was heavily involved in the paper as an editor and writer.Bates was elected the President of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1952. She served for many years and remained active in the organization until 1970.After the landmark court case, “Brown v. Board of Education,” which ruled segregation in schools unconstitutional, many Black children were turned away from enrolling in white schools. In 1957, Bates helped the “Little Rock Nine” become the first to attend a previously all-white high school. There was a lengthy battle for the “Little Rock Nine” to integrate into the school and Bates’s house was the headquarters for this mission. She would drive the students to school every day while they fought to be integrated.After her success integrating these students into the school, she continued to advocate for Black rights in the South. Bates moved to Washington, D.C., for a few years to work for the Democratic National Committee on anti-poverty projects for Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. In 1962, She published her memoir, “The Long Shadow of Little Rock,” which won an American Book Award.Bates died in 1999 and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom that year. The state of Arkansas celebrates Daisy Bates Day on the third Monday in February to honor her legacy.ReferencesDaisy BatesBiographyDaisy BatesNational Women’s History Museum ...

IPR is featuring some of the many female pioneers who have had an impact on the field of public relations in celebration of Women’s History Month.Wangari Muta Maathai, Ph.D., was born in Nyeri, Kenya in 1940. In 1964, she obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas, a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966, and then obtained a Ph.D. in 1971 from the University of Nairobi. Dr. Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree.In 1976, while she was serving in the National Council of Women, Dr. Maathai introduced the idea of community-based tree planting. She was driven toward activism by a perceived connection between environmental degradation and poverty and conflict. She founded a broad-based grassroots organization for planting trees in Africa called the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in 1977. She mobilized Kenyans, particularly women, to plant more than 30 million trees, and inspired the United Nations to launch a campaign that has led to the planting of 11 billion trees worldwide. More than 900,000 Kenyan women benefited from her tree-planting campaign by selling seedlings for reforestation. In 2004, Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to “sustainable development, democracy, and peace.” In recognition of her deep commitment to the environment, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General named Dr. Maathai a UN Messenger of Peace in December 2009, with a focus on the environment and climate change. Wangari Maathai died on September 25, 2011, after battling ovarian cancer.ReferencesWangari MaathaiThe Greenbelt MovementWangari Maathai, the woman of trees, diesUnited NationsWangari MaathaiThe Nobel Prize ...

This blog is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center.As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shape the workplace, employees are increasingly seeking telecommuting or hybrid work arrangements. With these changes come new challenges, one of the most pressing of which is managing distractions from family and household members. Business leaders must find a way to motivate and engage employees while also supporting them in their efforts to balance work and home life. In this blog, I discuss the benefits of family-supportive leadership and the role leaders can play in helping employees achieve work-life balance.The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant shift in the way people work, with over 70% of U.S. workers performing some or all of their job duties from home as of late 2020 (Parker et al., 2020). Due to the lack of physical compartmentalization between work and family space, most employees experience blurred work-life boundaries. Distractions from family and other household members have become a major challenge for both employees and employers (Gratton, 2020). It is important to note that family distractions are not limited to married couples or women, but also extend to individuals with children, caregiving responsibilities, and elderly dependents. Both married and unmarried individuals face these challenges, making it a widespread issue that affects a large segment of the workforce.Why should leaders be family-supportive? Leaders should prioritize being family-supportive as it leads to numerous benefits for both employees and the workplace. Our recent research showed that when leaders support employees’ family matters, it leads to an increase in positive emotions, such as happiness, excitement, appreciation, energy, and engagement in remote work. These positive emotions act as psychological resources that help employees maintain a better quality of family life, which in turn spills over to the workplace. The family-to-work enrichment experienced by employees results in better performance at work as they are more active, energetic, and motivated in dealing with different work tasks.It’s crucial to note that family-supportive leaders also foster increased creativity among employees. Employees with leaders who support their family lives have the potential to bring innovative ideas and solutions to their daily work activities. This can be a valuable asset for organizations in adapting to the new working environment, such as implementing virtual conferencing or establishing a remote reporting system. A family-supportive leader creates a positive work environment that allows employees to build strong relationships with their employers. Employees are consequently more driven to carry out their duties and responsibilities within the organization and are more inclined to act in a creative and innovative manner.For leaders to become family-supportive, they can adopt several strategies:Show interest. Leaders should take an active interest in understanding each employee’s unique family situation. They should express their concerns and offer encouragement to employees who struggle with balancing work and family demands. Leaders should also frequently ask about their employees’ family demands and listen when they discuss their family matters.Be flexible. Leaders should be proactive in solving work-life balance problems and acknowledge that employees have family obligations. They should be responsive to requests for flexibility, interpret and discuss family-related policies, and manage work schedules to accommodate family needs.Use empathetic language. Leaders should provide emotional support through empathetic language, making employees feel cared for and comfortable discussing family-related issues. They should demonstrate respect, sympathy, and sensitivity towards family responsibilities, and alleviate any concerns employees may have about negative career consequences. By doing so, leaders can help employees balance work and family life.ReferencesGratton, L. (2020). How to help employees work from home with kids. MIT sloan management review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-help-employeeswork-from-home-with-kids/Lee, Y., & Kim, J. (2022). How Family-Supportive Leadership Communication Enhances the Creativity of Work-From-Home Employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Management Communication Quarterly, 08933189221144997.Parker, K., Horowitz, J. M., & Minkin, R. (2020) How the coronavirus outbreak has-and hasn’t – changed the way Americans work. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/12/09/how-the-coronavirus-outbreak-has-and-hasnt-changed-the-way-americans-work/ Yeunjae Lee, Ph.D., Purdue University is an assistant professor in the Department of Strategic Communication at the University of Miami. Her main research interests include employee communication, internal issue/crisis management, and organizational diversity and justice. ...

This blog is based on the original study in the Public Relations Journal.In early March 2022, within 10 days of each other armed domestic terrorists killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, NY and 19 children and 2 adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, TX. Organizations worldwide scrambled to halt scheduled social media content and decide how or if to offer digital “thoughts and prayers” to those affected by the shootings.But mass shootings are not the only public tragedy organizations have to think about when it comes to their social media content. Man-made disasters (shooting, bombings, riots, etc.), natural disasters (Covid, tornados, floods, etc.), and celebrity deaths (Queen Elizabeth II, Kobe Bryant, Olivia Newton-John, etc.) are a large part of the content that circulates social media platforms and commands the attention and emotions of consumer publics.Strategic Silence or Help in SensemakingJay Baer of Convince & Convert suggests that rule #1 for organization social media comments during public tragedies is to “stay silent during a tragedy,” while Beki Winchel of PR Daily suggests organization responses often appear “tasteless.” Organizations do not want to be perceived as taking advantage of the tragedy for their own gain, an effect that could result in a crisis for the offending organization.However, academic researchers Ulmer and Sellnow (2002) and Hayes, Waddell, and Smudde (2017) provide evidence suggesting organizations have a “moral obligation” to help audiences move forward from these events, should aid audiences during recovery, and assist in making sense of the deaths. Hayes and colleagues suggest this contributes to “collective healing”Social Media MourningThe Social Media Mourning Model (SM3) proposed by Moore, Magee, Gamreklidze, and Kowalewski (2019) served as the basis of this study. It identified three primary ways that individuals use social media for their mourning behaviors. First, one-way communication of the death narrative, showing those in their networks its permissible to talk to them about the death, and using social media features to evade or acknowledge the grief experience on their own terms. Second, two-way communication where information is shared with a larger mourning community, relationships are formed, and grieving becomes a collective experience. Third, immortality communication where the deceased remain continued social actors, mourners can habitually communicate with the deceased (e.g., birthdays, holidays, etc.), and the deceased can be remembered at any time.What Our Organizational Social Media Mourning Research SaysWhile the SM3 proposed individual-level social media mourning behaviors, we wanted to know how that translated to individuals’ expectations of organizations mourning with them, specifically during public tragedy events where large groups of people mourn together on social media sites. To examine this, our research team used a combination of in-depth interviews (n=16) and focus groups (four focus groups with n=52 total participants) with individuals who had used social media to mourn during a man-made or natural disaster. Questions were asked regarding the types of organizational social media mourning posts participants had observed, what they thought of the organizations sponsoring these posts, their perceptions of the intent of the posts, and positive and negative behaviors audiences may take toward different types of posts. Overall, our findings indicated mourning audiences want organizations to use social media in much of the same ways they are during public tragedy events.Key Organizational Social Media Mourning TakeawaysParticipants in this research provided the following suggestions for organizations that wished to take part in social media mourning during public tragedies:1.) Show genuine concern and emotions for the affected audiences in your social media mourning posts.2.) Identify and connect to the tragedy using the same hashtags as the mourning audiences (e.g., RIP).3.) Utilize or create images that are compassionate, empathetic, and tasteful.4.) Connect your organization to tragedy recovery with donations, sponsorships, or volunteer efforts.5.) Commemorate and help make sense of the tragedy in the months and years following.Finally, stay away from any messages that show images of death, promote the organization or its products, or make tragedy recovery efforts part of a strategic plan to improve your organization’s reputation. And if your organization can in any way be construed by mourning audiences as part of the reason behind the public tragedy – do not take part in social media mourning efforts (e.g., NRA offering “thoughts and prayers” following a mass shooting event). In the same vein, do not connect your organizational social media mourning posts to social issues (e.g., use your organization’s “thoughts and prayers” post to discuss gun control).ConclusionOrganizations that fail to connect with audiences using social media to mourn during public tragedies can experience negative effects such as damage to reputation, online protests, or boycotts. Our research shows several ways these effects can be avoided. Overall, organizations that find ways to honor victims and unify social media mourners toward recovery efforts will be successful and well-received by mourning audiences. Ultimately, we strongly suggest organizations establish, in advance of public tragedies, policies regarding how and when they will take part in organizational social media mourning, so they do not violate acceptable norms or instigate an organizational crisis.  ...

IPR is featuring some of the many Black pioneers who have had an impact on the field of public relations in celebration of Black History Month.D. Parke Gibson was born in 1930 in Seattle, Washington. Gibson graduated from City College and also received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from King Memorial College in South Carolina.Gibson began his career as an advertising representative for Interstate Newspapers. In 1956 Gibson became the manager of public relations for Johnson Publishing Co., before joining Sengstacke Publications as promotions director in 1960. Gibson established the first Black-owned PR firm, D. Parke Gibson International, in New York. Among his clients were Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, Miller Brewing Company, and Pan American World Airways.Gibson is also known for his groundbreaking published work on race relations called The Gibson Report, a marketing guide on the Black consumer market.Through his publications and strategic counsel, Gibson was instrumental in getting corporate executives to better understand Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.He also used his publications to point out the economic advantages of corporations developing specific strategies and programs to tap into the influential African-American market. He published “$70 Billion in the Black,” a comprehensive guide to the black consumer market. In 1969, Gibson published “The $30 Billion Negro,” an examination of the strength of the African-American consumer.Gibson made history by paving the way for Black PR professionals and through his insight into the Black consumer market. Gibson died from a heart attack in 1979 at the age of 49.ReferencesCelebrating the Memory of D. Parke GibsonPRsayD. Parke Gibson; Published Guide On the Black Consumer MarketNew York Times ...

Morning Consult examined brand trust across industries globally for 2022.A survey of 2,200 U.S. adults, 1,299 South Korean residents, and 1,000 residents each in Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, and the U.K. was conducted April 8-14, 2022.Key Findings:1.) Household names with local roots helped boost consumer trust.— The No. 1 Most Trusted Brand in 6 of the 10 countries surveyed was established in that country.2.) Small businesses were well-trusted — for the most part.— Across North America and Europe, trust in small businesses was quite high, but there was a sizable trust gap in the Asian countries surveyed.3.) Good value for price and high-quality products/services were crucial for building trust.— International respondents ranked other elements, such as ethical business practices and good customer service, as less important.4.) Poor customer service was a primary driver in breaking trust.— Bad customer service experiences and deteriorating product quality were among the top reasons that global consumers lost trust in brands.Find the original report here. ...

This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center.SummaryScholars have recognized the power of the identity perspective in helping understand employees’ loyalty, motivations, and behaviors. Although organizational identification has received much attention in employee-related investigations, a newer concept, identity fusion, has also recently been examined in organizational contexts. Researchers have proposed the idea of identity fusion as a situation where the self-other barrier is blurred and the group comes to be regarded as functionally equivalent to the personal self, such that the individual’s identity becomes fused with that of the collective or the group. To better understand this construct, the author of the current study examined the antecedents and outcomes of employee-organization identity fusion. Specifically, this study examined how employee-organization identity fusion is related to employees’ perceptions of symmetrical internal communication and the CEO’s authentic leadership and job engagement. Symmetrical internal communication occurs when communicators don’t try to control others’ perceptions but instead communicate honestly and openly.MethodAn online survey was conducted between May and August 2019 and was available to people in the U.S. who were full-time employees at corporations with at least 1,000 employees. Quotas related to gender and ethnicity/race were instituted to ensure that the sample closely resembled the population of the U.S. workforce based. A total of 530 men (53%) and 480 women (47%) comprised the sample. Participant race, length of employment, and seniority were measured, with the majority of participants being white, experienced non-managers between the ages of 35-44 who had been employed between 3-5 years at their company.Key Findings1.) Employees who perceive their leaders to use symmetrical communication tend to see the leaders as more authentic.2.) Symmetrical communication was also tied to increased employee-organization identity fusion.— Consistent internal communication from leadership was critical in cultivating employees’ identity with their organization.3.) Both symmetrical communication and identity fusion were found to have a positive relationship with job engagement.Implications for practiceOrganizations and leaders should 1.) implement changes to their communication style to encourage more back-and-forth symmetrical style communication in order to increase engagement among employees, 2.) understand that CEO perceptions have a strong influence on employee identity and engagement with the organization, and 3.) consider that authentic leadership has value in the workplace and consider strategies to be more genuine and connected to employees.ReferenceKrishna, A. (2022). Employee-Organization Identity Fusion: Connecting Leadership and Symmetrical Internal Communication to Identity-and Engagement-Related Outcomes. International Journal of Business Communication, 23294884221130744.Find the original journal article here. ...

This summary is provided by the IPR Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. McKinsey & Company examined barriers affecting Black Americans in the digital divide.A literature review was conducted in 2022.Key findings include:1.) The digital divide disproportionately affects Black Americans across adoption, computer ownership, and digital skills.— 50% of Black Americans have the necessary digital skills compared to 77% of White Americans.— 62% of Black Americans have access to broadband internet compared to 77% of White Americans.— 69% of Black Americans own a computer compared to 80% of White Americans.2.) Although Black Americans comprise approximately 13% of all workers, they make up only 7% of digital workers.3.) The majority of Black households directly impacted by the digital divide live in areas with available infrastructure but simply can’t afford broadband service.4.) By gaining a better understanding of the barriers affecting Black communities and engaging communities with a range of broadband and digital-equity stakeholders to address those barriers, public- and private-sector leaders can rise to meet this moment.Find the original report here. ...

Deloitte examined the issues employees are facing today and how they contribute value to the workplace.A survey of 10,000 business and HR leaders was conducted as well as interviews with executives.Key Findings:1.) Workers that said they co-created with their employees were 1.8 times more likely to have a highly engaged workforce, 2x more likely to be innovative, and 1.6  times more likely than their peers to anticipate and respond to change effectively.2.) 19% of organizations said they’re very ready for employee data ownership.— Beyond ownership alone, conversations about what is workforce data, the transparency of that data, and the mutual benefits of data-driven insights are on the rise as data is becoming a new “currency.”3.) Worker agency might have previously been seen as a threat, but leading organizations are finding ways to leverage worker motivation and cocreation to drive mutual and elevated benefits.4.) Many organizations are still stuck in old patterns of talent access and management because they’re not giving workers a say in where, how, and for whom they work.Organizations that adapt their strategies and practices to fit the real-world talent pool will gain access to skills and experiences to accelerate growth, innovation, and agility.Find the original report here. ...