Elaborating Public Relations Roles

Abstract

This study investigated the structure of public relations roles. Broom and Smith's role questionnaire was factor analyzed in conjunction with items used in studies of organizational boundary spanning. Eight activity factors were extracted in the analysis. Four primary practitioner roles and one minor role were subsequently identified in a cluster analysis. The clusters refined and elaborated previous PR roles concepts in important ways. Two practitioner types give high priority to technical activities even though they also scored high on managerial and boundary spanning activities. A validation analysis showed that the practitioner groups could be differentiated on relevant criterion variables.