Re‐examining the manager’s role in public relations: What management and public relations research teaches us

Abstract

This paper examines critically how the manager’s role in public relations has been conceptualised, comparing how the work of managers has been defined from a public relations and management perspective. Here the paper provides a critical review of the relevant public relations and management literatures, pointing to the relative weaknesses in the public relations literature. The paper concludes by examining a particular case study to illustrate some of the weaknesses in current practitioner role models to conceptualise the weaknesses in the public relations manager’s role.