Journal Review:135120207121014

Journal Review

Excellence Theory in Public Relations: Past, Present, and Future

By I Made Alit Diatmika Putra

135120207121014

This paper is contained of my review to a journal titled “Excellence Theory in Public Relations: Past, Present, and Future” written by James E. Grunig & Larissa A. Grunig. Generally this journal talking about the development of excellent theory that has evolved into general theory of public relations (PR) as a strategic management function, and many researchers still a research to examine and enhance the strategic role in PR.

At the beginning, writers explain us about IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) as their sponsor on doing research and why they chose the term “excellent” as the name of the integrated collection of middle-ranged theories they used in study and. They don’t want people to get it wrong and perceive it as a superior among other theories. Grunig & Grunig also tell the reader about the overview of this journal on the introduction and it’s clear enough.

The next part they explain about two approaches that commonly used in public relations both in practice and academic world. These are the symbolic interpretive paradigm and the strategic management, or behavioral, paradigm. Scholars and practitioners following the symbolic paradigm generally assume that public relations strive to influence how publics interpret the organization. In contrast, the behavioral, strategic management, paradigm focuses on the participation of public relations executives in strategic decision-making to help manage the behavior of organizations. The writers more focus on strategic management to explain this theory.

In this journal, Grunig & Grunig also explain us the characteristics of an excellent public relations function from the IABC excellence study; (1) empowerment of the public relations function, (2) communicator roles, (3) organization of the communication function and its relationship to other management functions, and the last (4) models of public relations. This part clearly tells us about how this theory can help the role of public relations to be more effective and efficient to reach the organization goal. They also add up some new research to develop these new concepts and to enhance the strategic role of public relations and recommend us to keep doing research in the future to develop these theories to help public relation evolve to be better.

Bibliography

Grunig, J. E., & Grunig, L. A. (2008). Exellence theory in public relations: Past, present, and        future. In A. Zerfass., B. Van Ruler., K. Sriramesh (Eds.), Public relations research: european and international perspectives and innovations (pp. 327-347). Wiesbaden,   Germany: VS Verlag.