Public Relations as Dramatistic Organizing

This book examines an important public relations case in great depth over the 6-year period in the 1990s when it was managed: General Motors 1973-1987 C/K pickup trucks, which were alleged to have a defective fuel-system design. Lessons learned from this detailed, deeper examination of public relations offer valuable insights from an active bridging of theory and practice. Such lessons—including managerial decision making, message formation, discourse choices, and strategic planning—should prove meaningful for practitioners and scholars alike because the analysis focuses on implications from the case for the field.

This book applied recent scholarship on public relations and leans on theories of rhetoric, organisations, and linguistics to develop and apply a new, theory-driven method for analysing public relations discourse and deriving a model for the public relations process. The method synthesises the rhetorical theory of Kenneth Burke (the primary theoretical orientation) with the theory of organisations of Karl Weick and applies discourse analysis to discern genres of symbolic action in the organising processes of public relations officials. The result is grounded analysis of an actual, long-term case of public relations with far-reaching implications for the practice and study of public relations.

This book’s other important contributions including defining public relations anew to emphasise, unlike other definitions, the context of symbolic action born of organising behaviour; outlining and pragmatically defining specific public relations discourse genres, which serve as vital reference points; using texts prepared for both internal and external publics; and presenting a unique program for the “dramatistic organising of public relations” that draws on the case study, the author’s experience, and published research.