The excellence theory is a general theory of public relations which was the outcome of a study carried out by J.E Grunig, L.A Grunig and Dozier et al, which lasted 15 years in order to determine the exact characteristics needed in order to ensure there is excellent communication within companies. This study, known as the excellence study, was funded by the International Association of Business Communications (IABC).
The excellence theory bought together various middle range theories including theories of publics, diversity, power, models of pr, roles, employee communication, power, gender, diversity, activism, ethics and social responsibility in order to produce one general theory which focused upon the role of pr in strategic management and the value of relationships with strategic publics to an organisation. Pr excellence is seen to be rooted in stakeholder theory, which defines success of an organization through how it manages the demands of numerous stakeholders and the relationships that surround these. The stakeholder theory helps define one of the main points of the excellence theory which is that organizations need to work and behave in such ways that solve problems as well as satisfying goals of both management and stakeholders. This type of excellence is based within two way symmetrical communication in which, a mutual understanding is found by the organization and its publics as problems are resolved and negotiated therefore creating a strong, long term relationship between the two based on interaction, leading to success. An organisation with excellent pr will also demonstrate factors such as internal communication leading to an increase in employee satisfaction, women being valued as much as men for a strategic role and greater ethnic diversity being evident.
Excellent public relations is managerial, strategic, symmetrical, diverse, ethical and global. But, how many organizations today actually carry out Grunigs theory of excellent pr?
Very good explanation of the theory. The answer to your question at the end would be that i believe not many organizations follow this theory and many are going without excellence due to the amount of unethical behaviour which still occurs
ReplyDeleteIt is down to the organization to be ethical as if they caryr out unethical behaviour then it is them that will suffer in the end, consumers are not going to be loyal to a company they do not trust. I was required to carry out a month of work within a PR organization and i absolutly loved it! I saw no unethical behvaiour there, there was definatly excellent pr evident throughout
ReplyDeleteMany companies that i have worked for, still display unethical behaviour such as gender differences, this still has not been tackled within every sector of businesses, how does this display excellence?
ReplyDeleteProblems such as gender differences are always going to be a problem within society, this problem varies from cultures, however Grunig did not define excellence as being solely dependant upon wether there is an equal amount of women and men within a company. Grunig, for example, stated that excellence means that the pr team should be led by senior management of whom rely upon his two way symmetrical model - creating mutual understandings between all publics and management, taking thoughts into account of all stakeholders, keeping everybody happy and working alongside each other successfully
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