Help shape the future of public relations and management
180 down, 820 to go - data collection is a slog. Your contribution to my PhD research project will help shape how our field is recognised.
I first met Dr Jon White in 2013 through the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). He has become a family friend, debating partner and mentor on the future of corporate communications and public relations.
Last week, we caught up over breakfast in London and took a walk around Hampstead Heath. It was a perfect setting to update him on my PhD research project.
The Excellence Study and management recognition
Jon was part of the original team in the 1980s that explored the management role of public relations, led by Dr James Grunig alongside Dr Larissa Grunig, Dr David Dozier, Dr William Ehling and Dr Fred Repper.
Their Excellence Study posed fundamental questions: how do we prove our value as a community of practice, gain influence and work effectively with management?
Jon’s scholarship on the Excellence Study and beyond has directly shaped my own research into the conditions in which public relations is recognised as a management function.
Tracking value through the European Communication Monitor
The scope of these questions has grown alongside the public relations industry. Since 2007, the European Communication Monitor (ECM) has carried them forward on a broader international scale, examining how communicators demonstrate value, gain influence and navigate management expectations.
The latest ECM study, led by Dr Ansgar Zerfass, Dr Aurélie Laborde, Dr Alexander Buhmann, Dr Ángeles Moreno, Dr Stefania Romenti, Dr Ralph Tench and assistant researcher Caroline Siegel, highlighted the challenges of managing communication in geopolitical crises, navigating AI and the need for continuous learning.
Through Jon’s introduction to the BledCom community, I’ve had the privilege of meeting many of the research team, as well as Dr Dejan Verčič, founder of BledCom and an original member of the ECM team.
I’ve also had the opportunity to work with Ralph Tench on Exploring Public Relations and Management Communication. We’re midway through the sixth edition, collaborating with an international community of practitioners and academics. He is also the lead supervisor for my PhD project at Leeds Business School.
My personal research journey
Public relations is inherently social and practical. Throughout my career, I’ve wrestled with the tension between theory and practice, questioning how well theory serves practitioners, while also considering how effectively practitioners can explain their value in terms that management respects.
Jon’s challenge to me has been clear and consistent: do the work, identify the shortcomings of theory and build an evidence-based argument for the value of public relations.
How you can help
More than a decade after we first met, I’ve done the work and I’d welcome your help in testing it.
If you’re an in-house communicator in the UK, please take 10–15 minutes to complete this survey and share it with colleagues.
If you work agency-side or freelance, please pass it on to your clients.
So far, we’ve had 180 completions and gathered more than 12,000 data points. My goal is to reach 1,000 completions by the end of September, before moving on to interviews with practitioners and the leaders and managers of organisations that commission public relations services.
Passing the baton
In research seminars, we often discuss how we stand on the shoulders of others and the humility of sharing spaces with those whose work has shaped our field and is cited in our bibliographies. It is a profoundly human and privileged experience.
Thanks, Jon, for passing the research baton to me. And thank you all for helping to carry it forward into the future.
