Joy

Using strategic communication to improve well-being and organizational success

Ana Tkalac Verčič, Ralph Tench, Sabine Einwiller, Ana Tkalac Verčič, Ralph Tench, Sabine Einwiller

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781800432420
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Development
• Index: Business

This volume explores current research in public relations and communication management, and in particular examines how public relations can have a positive impact on the well being of its publics.
One of the biggest competitive advantages in today's business world are positive and engaged publics, because satisfied participants are at the core of any successful relationship. The success of relationships with publics is mostly based on how people are valued and treated, which in turn affects their self-perceptions and level of performance. Both of these elements are correlated with life happiness. Thus, strategic communication should be used for cultivating a positive environment and for fostering happiness and joy among their publics. This can help improve both organizational success and the well-being of people.
This book will be essential reading for researchers in marketing and communications, as well as practitioners who wish to understand how PR and Communication Management can positively impact the well-being of organizations and the wider community.

PART I

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS

LOVE WINS: A LOVE LENS APPROACH TO CULTIVATION OF ORGANIZATION–STAKEHOLDER RELATIONSHIPS

Mark Badham

ABSTRACT

This chapter adds to emerging research exploring the construct of joy by drawing attention to the value of more loving stakeholder relationships. Relationship management research has focussed attention on the antecedents, outcomes and quality of an organization's relationships with various publics and stakeholders and has examined strategies that can nurture these relationships. However, not much of this research has addressed intimacy and passion in these relationships.

Accordingly, this chapter draws on the theory of brand love developed in relationship marketing research and the theory of love from psychological research to build a theoretical framework of organization–stakeholder love (OSL) that can be applied to organizational relationships with publics and stakeholders. An OSL framework switches emphasis from how organizations can attract stakeholder affection (e.g., love) towards organizations to how organizations can and should love their stakeholders. The proposition put forward in this chapter is that OSL can and should become a driving force behind organizations' interactions with stakeholders, thus contributing to ethical public relations practices.

OSL is important because it has the potential to contribute to addressing public relations' image problems (e.g., relating to terms such as spin and corporate greenwashing); it offers a new love orientation that guides organizations towards a focus on the primacy of stakeholder needs and values, which in turn may shape the way organizations initiate and manage relationships with stakeholders. This chapter concludes with practical ways to implement OSL and a research agenda suggesting ways OSL may open up new research opportunities in public relations.

Keywords: Ethical public relations; intimacy; love; organizational orientation; organization–public relationships (OPRs); organization–stakeholder relationships (OSRs)

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. –1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV)

INTRODUCTION

Addressing the recent and welcome theme of joy in public relations research (e.g., the Euprera 2019 congress theme), this chapter draws attention not only to the foundational construct of relationships in public relations theory and practice but more specifically to the value of closer loving relationships between organizations and their stakeholders. The logic is that positive emotions of joy and love are complementary attributes and desired outcomes of an organization's relationship with stakeholders.

Three decades of research on organization–public relationships (OPRs; Ki & Hon, 2009; Ledingham & Bruning, 1998) and more recent research on organization–stakeholder relationships (OSRs; Slabbert & Barker, 2014) have examined how organizations can build and nurture positive relationships with publics and stakeholders. Extensive research in OPR studies has examined three main aspects of OPRs. First, research has focussed on the antecedents of OPR (Bowen, Hung-Baesecke, & Chen, 2016; Broom, Casey, & Ritchey, 2000; Hon & Grunig, 1999; Huang, 2001), addressing the question of why there is a need, and preconditions required, to establish relationships. Second, research addressed maintenance (Hon & Grunig, 1999) or cultivation strategies (Grunig, 2006) focussing on how to continue quality relationships (i.e., sustainability of relationships). Third, research has examined the outcomes of OPR relationship quality (Grunig & Huang, 2000), including relationship dimensions such as commitment, trust, openness, intimacy and passion (Ledingham & Bruning, 1998).

However, despite this breadth of research, what is still missing in public relations research is a deeper understanding of relationship intimacy. Ki and Shin's (2006) content analysis of OPR studies published between 1985 and 2001 found that only two studies focussed on intimacy as a measurement variable and only one focussed on emotions as a measurement variable. More widely, however, recent public relations studies have begun to examine stakeholder emotions and emotional engagement (Coombs & Holladay, 2015; Lievonen, Luoma-aho, & Bowden, 2018).

This chapter draws on brand love research adopting Sternberg's (1986, 1988) theory of love (Bügel, Verhoef, & Buunk, 2011; Yim, Tse, & Chan, 2008) to develop a theoretical framework of love that can be applied to public relations studies examining organizational relationships with publics and stakeholders. Like stakeholder emotions research in public relations literature, brand love research sheds light on how organizations can attract love-like feelings from stakeholders. An organization–stakeholder love (OSL) framework switches emphasis from how organizations can nurture stakeholder affection (e.g., love) towards organizations to how organizations should first love their stakeholders. The proposition put forward in this chapter is that OSL, which can be adopted and implemented through organizational culture, systems, policies and practices, should become a guiding motive for how organizations interact with stakeholders.

Development of an OSL framework contributes to relationship management research (Ledingham, 2003; Ledingham, Bruning, Thomlison, & Lesko, 1997), particularly to offer a better understanding of intimacy in stakeholder relationships. An OSL framework also has the potential to contribute to more ethical public relations (Botan, 1997; Bowen et al., 2016; Fawkes, 2012). The public relations profession is in dire need of increased attention to ethical practices and principles. Historically, public relations have been perceived as a manipulative and deceptive practice, which has given rise to terms such as spin, fake news and corporate greenwashing. Critics have pointed to its prioritization of organizational benefits over the public good or public interest (Brunner & Smallwood, 2019) and to its focus on image over action. Theory about OSL contributes in some way towards addressing these challenges by offering a new love orientation that may shape the way organizations initiate and manage their relationships with stakeholders. It builds on and extends the stakeholder-centricity paradigm by introducing organizational love into the stakeholder relationship–building process, thus testing organizations' real motives for relationship cultivation strategies.

An organization's orientation or stance towards stakeholders is important because it shapes its relationship with them (Shin, Cheng, Jin, & Cameron, 2005) and guides how it treats them, including how it communicates with them. Public relations studies have explored organizations' orientations towards stakeholders and the effect this has on organizations' behaviours towards stakeholders. As an example, it has been widely argued that an organization's ‘strategic communication’ orientation leads that organization to treat stakeholders as a means to an end, which is understood as a more one-way asymmetrical communication model. A paradigmatic shift towards a more stakeholder-centric orientation complements a two-way symmetrical communication model that influences how organizations behave towards stakeholders. For example, an organization's ‘engagement’ orientation influences its interaction with stakeholders; such an approach ‘guides the process of interactions among groups’ (Taylor & Kent, 2014, p. 384). Kent and Taylor (2002, 2014) argue that ‘dialogic engagement’ is an organizational orientation that contributes to a more ethical approach towards stakeholders; dialogue is considered

…‘more ethical’ because it is based on the principles of honesty, trust, and positive regard for the other rather than simply a conception of the public as a means to an end. (Kent & Taylor, 2002, p. 33)

This chapter is structured as follows. Following the introduction, it conducts a review of brand love studies that draw on Sternberg's theory of love (1986, 1988) and moves on to a review of public relations studies with a focus on intimacy, passion and commitment in organizations' relationships with stakeholders. The third section makes use of the integration of brand love theory and Sternberg's theory of love to develop an OSL framework to be applied in relationship management research specifically and public relations research more broadly. The fourth section leads a theoretical discussion about how a love orientation contributes to ethical organizational relationships with stakeholders. Finally, this chapter concludes with practical implications of how OSL can be implemented within organizations and offers a research agenda suggesting ways an OSL framework may open up a range of research opportunities in public relations.

CONSUMERS' LOVE FOR ORGANIZATIONS

Relationship Marketing Research on Brand Love

To improve our understanding in public relations research of OSR intimacy and passion, this chapter draws on constructs of brand love and interpersonal love explored in relationship marketing research and in psychological research. Early relationship marketing researchers observed how the tactics individuals employ to build and maintain healthy personal relationships could also improve the way organizations strategically instigate and build relationships with their customers, suppliers and even competitors. In her seminal work, Fournier (1998) offered a link between interpersonal relationships and organization–consumer relationships, outlining a framework for characterizing and better understanding the types of relationships consumers form with brands. This gave marketing scholars and practitioners a new perspective with which to view customers and which changed their strategic approach to customers. Today, relationship marketing has become the dominant view in business marketing studies (Möller, 2013).

Due to its links to a relationship metaphor, relationship marketing researchers began to apply the construct of love to explore consumer–organization relationships. Research on brand love has been substantial, particularly since 2005. These studies (e.g., Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006) used the term ‘love’ to label consumers' ‘love-like’ affection for particular brands. The intensity of these love-like affections ranges from liking brand-related objects to an intense emotional attachment with these objects. Although brand love has become a major topic in marketing, no universally accepted definition exists (Albert, Merunka, & Valette-Florence, 2008; Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012).

Both brand love and interpersonal love are an important focus in relationship marketi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Editor
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• PART I STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS
• PART II INTERNAL AND EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION
• PART III JOYFULLY PRACTISING COMMUNICATION
• Index