Breaking public relations' glass ceiling

Da~d

M. D o z i e r

Breaking Public Relations' Glass Ceiling T

he fate of women in organizations--particularly their participation in management decision-making--is inexorably linked to the survival and growth of public relations as a distinct profession. This article suggests that public relations practitioners, especially women practitioners, ought to incorporate program research into daily practice. The use of research not only makes the public relations function more effective; it also provides practitioners entree to strategic decision making at the highest management levels. Program Research is the use of social scientific methods to understand publics and their knowledge, predispositions and behavior toward organizations. Typically, practitioners use such methods as focus group studies and surveys to find out "what's going on" among internal and external publics. Such research is called environmental monitoring or scannhzg. Practitioners also seek to know if public relations programs have achieved their goals and objectives. They use evaluation research to see "what works." Program research is innovative. 1 Few practitioners have formal training in social science methodologies and such cognitive skills are difficult to learn on the jobJ Further, some "'creative artistic" practitioners resist research on aesthetic grounds, feeling that "science" threatens the "art" of public relations? Practitioners who use research to plan, monitor, and evaluate public realtions programs are more likely to be included in management decision making than practitioners who do not use research. ~ There are good theoretical reasons w h y this should be the case, which are considered below. Further, surveys of practitioners indicate that theory is correct. Practitioner research and management decision making go hand in hand. s Women practitioners gain more benefits from using research than do men practitioners. 6 There are good theoretical reasons why this is so, which Dozier is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism, San Diego State University. 6

B r e a k i n g P u b l i c R e l a t i o n s ' Glass C e i l i n g also are considered below. Paradoxically, women are less likely to use research than men. This difference is not inherent in the chromosomes and hormones of practitioners; this difference is the product of gender socialization and stereotypes.

The Female Majority in Contemporary Practice Lest you dismiss this article as only of particular interest to women, consider that public relations is a female-majority occupation. Department of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics) surveys of the labor force show women constitute a clear majority of working practitioners, after hovering at parity during the early 1980s. 7 See Figure 1. Further, if college enrollments in public relations studies provide an indication of future trends, the female majority will continue to growd The shift of public relations from male-majority to female-majority occupation poses challenges for all public relations practitioners and educators. First, gender stereotypes work against the inclusion of public relations practitioners in management decision making. Gender Stereotypes are beliefs many people hold about typical characteristics of men (masculine stereotypes) and women (feminine stereotypes). 9 Stereotypes are generalizations that may not apply to any given man or woman. Because stereotypes are held by so many people--including parents who socialize sons and daughters differently--they can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Boys and girls are rewarded for aspiring to characteristics deemed appropriate for members of their sex. ~~Unfortunately for women and unfortunately for public relations, feminine stereotypes are inconsistent with attributes of good managers. 1~ Feminine stereotypes work in concert with other factors to exclude women from participation in management decision making. These factors taken together create a "'glass ceiling" in organizational hierarchies that block the participation of women practitionersin management decision making. Second, public relations has become hierarchically segregated by sex as it becomes a female-majority occupation. Typically, women in public relations play the technician role predominently whereas men play the manager role predominently. 12 The technician role is consistent with feminine stereotypes and consistent with common views about women's attachment to their work. The manager role, on the other hand, requires attributes stereotypically associated with masculinity and with high levels of attachment to work. 13 Third, the segregation of women in the technician role serves as a powerful predictor of income differences between men and women practitioners.14 Women make less money than men of equal professional experience.~S This is not only true in public relations, but it applies to nearly all occupations in most industrialized nations. ~6A full theoretical understanding of this fact is incomplete. However, in public relations, segregation of women in the technician roles does more to predict income differences than do 7

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A Time-Series Analysis of Women's Share of the Public Relations Labor Force

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years of professional experience, span of employment with present employer, education, and age. 17 Last, but perhaps most important, the exclusion of public relations practitioners (the majority of whom are female) from management decision making paralyzes the practice. Normatively, proactive public relations involves a symmetrical approach.IS Effective public relations requires that practition8

Breaking Public Relations' Glass Ceiling ers counsel senior managers on the management of conflict with publics that affect the organization's survival and growth. Paradoxically, to maintain autonomy and manage interdependence, practitioners change the policies, procedures, and actions of organizations as well as communicate with publics. The public relations function responds dynamically to recognized threats in the environment and guides management to negotiated accomodation with interests of activist or potentially threatening publics. Proactive public relations only can occur when practitioners participate in management decision making. 19 The exclusion of women practitioners from management decision making retards the professional development of the field. Breaking the "glass ceiling" is in the best interest of all practitioners. Understanding Power and Control Encroachment occurs when all practitioners in an organization play the technical role of implementing communication policy decisions made by others. Encroachment is the practice of assigning the top management role in the public relations department to someone from outside public relations. In 1980, Philip Lesly and the Task Force on the Stature and Role of Public Relations identified encroachment as one of the major threats to the profession. 2~Public relations was a male-majority occupation when encroachment was recognized as a threat to the practice. Encroachment is aggravated by feminine stereotypes, which work to keep women practitioners out of the manager role and management decision making. Economic theorists posit that gender discrimination results in inefficient utilization of human resources in organizations. 2~In broad economic terms, such discrimination must fade away as inefficient organizations are displaced by efficient organizations who make effective use of women employees. Along parallel lines, public relations theorists use open systems theory to posit that organizations are optimally efficient when they are matched-in structure and function--to the organization's environment. 22This environmental imperative suggests that practitioners ought to participate in management decision making. ~3 In both cases, macro-level theories fail to account for persistent gender discrimination in salaries and roles and persistent mis-assignment of public relations practitioners to low-level output functions and the use of inappropriate models of public relations practice. 2. Failure of high-level theories to account for these "inappropriate'" outcomes has forced reconsideration of organization theory. Most promising in this regard is the power-control perspective. 2s In this view, organizations are run by dominant coalitions, those people with the power to influence decision outcomes. 26Dominant coalitions are made up of people and organizational units with differing goals and self interests. Although most pay homage to maximizing the organization's effectiveness, what's good for the organization is not necessarily good for all members of the dominant coalition. 9

Public Relations

Review

For example, organizational effectiveness is best served by optimum utilization of human resources, including the participation of women in management decision making. However, members of the dominant coalition consolidate power by keeping the coalition small. Excluding a woman because she is a woman makes no sense from a human resource allocation and organization effectiveness perspective. However, it may make perfect sense for a particular all-male dominant coalition to do so, in order to maintain individual power. Excluding public relations practitioners from management decision making makes no sense from an open systems or environmental imperative perspective. However, such exclusion may make perfect sense to a particular dominant coalition that traditionally has excluded practitioners and continues to do so for the sake of maintaining dominance and power. The power-control perspective posits that organizational effectiveness is usefully viewed as a range of management decisions that "satisfice," rather than an optimal point that maximizes effectiveness. 27Organizations develop structures and processes that are "good e n o u g h " rather than "'optimum." While the organization's overall best interest is served by including women and practitioners in decision making, the best interests of the dominant 9coalition may be better served by their exclusion. Higher-order economic and systems theory suggests that such decisions by dominant coalitions would lead to the eventual ruin of the organization. The power-control perspective suggests that the dominant coalition cannot be wholly unresponsive to its environment or wholly inefficient in its allocation of human resources. However, there is a range of decisions between those that optimize organizational effectiveness and those that cause its collapse. This range is the "wiggle room" within which the dominant coalition makes decisions (political compromises) that permit divergent self interests of members of the dominant coalition to be accomodated. The power-control perspective suggests that both women and practitioners should look at organizations in a new light. First, recognize that organizational decisions are inherently political, designed to accomodate divergent interests of the dominant coalition rather than optimize organizational effectiveness. Second, understand that membership in the dominant coalition, in management decision making, involves the struggle for power, for control over scarce organizational resources. Third, know that authority as defined in an organizational chart is only one source of power. Even people low in the organizational hierarchy (women and practitioners) can have power and can influence management decision making. ~ Program Research as a Power Tool

The power-control perspective suggests that controlling scarce resources is one avenue to power and participation in the dominant coalition. 29Scientific scanning of the organization's environment is one such scarce resource, especially w h e n such research offers intelligence on the views and potential 10

B r e a k i n g P u b l i c Relations' Glass Ceiling actions of threatening publics. Such information on publics is useful to strategic decision making. The power-control perspective suggests that program research provides power to practitioners who use it. What do studies of practitioners show about research and participation in management decision making? A 1985 survey of Public Relations Society of America and International Assodation of Business Communicators shows that environmental scanning and manager role playing are related to participation in management decision making. 3~Two types of scanning were identified: scientific scanning and informal scanning. Scientific scanning includes the use of formal studies tracking public reactions to the organization, surveys of key publics, the use of public opinion research agencies, public relations audits, demographic research data, and research specialists. Informal scanning includes the use of informal phone calls to target publics, talks with field personnel, depth interviews with publics, call-backs to people attending special events, review of mailed complaints to the organization, and tracking public opinion trends through the mass media. Both types of scanning were tested with manager and technician role playing. As hypothesized, both scientific and informal scanning were positively correlated with manger role playing. Neither correlated with technician role playing. Both scientific and informal scanning were positively correlated with participation in management decision making. However, scientific scanning scores were nearly twice as powerful predicting practitioner participation in decision making than were informal scanning scores (21 percent explained variance vs. 13 percent explained variance, respectively).31 Is the relation between scanning and management decision making spurious, simply a product of scanning's mutual association with the manager role and participation in management decision making? This question is important to women in public relations, because women are largely segregated in the technician role. If scanning provides entree to management decision making, independent of playing the manager role predominently, then scanning becomes a powerful tool for women seeking to break out of technician role segregation, to break through the "glass ceiling.'" To answer the question, the correlations between scanning and participation in management decision making were tested, controlling for manager role scores. The resulting partial correlations were positive and statistically significant. Scientific scanning was much more powerful (13 percent of explained variance) in explaining participation in de~ision making than was iriformal scanning (8 percent of explained variance in management decisionmaking) .32 Further analysis revealed different patterns of participation in decision making among male and female practitioners. Among male practitioners, the most powerful predictor of participation in management decision making was his manager role score. Nearly 35 percent of the variance in male participation in decision making was determined by manager role scores. Scientific scanning scores accounted for only 14 percent of the variance in 111_

Public Relations Review male decision-making participation, while informal scanning accounted for about 13 percent of variance. 33 Among female practitioners, scientific scanning activities were much more important predictors of participation in management decision making. Although manager role scores for female practitioners accounted for about 30 percent of the variance in their decision-making participation, scientific scanning scores accounted for about 29 percent of female participation in decision making. Informal scanning accounted for only 14 percent of variance in female participation. 34 Scientific scanning techniques are more important to female practitioners than male practitioners. The stereotypic manager possesses stereotypic masculine characteristics. 3s Not surprisingly, male practitioners are easier for (male) members of the dominant coalition to accept in decision-making meetings. Male practitioners, groomed for the manager role through mentoting and "informal assistant" status, don't need scientific scanning as much as do female practitioners, although it helps. ~ Women, on the other hand, are segregated in the technician role. Their predominant enduring organizational role does not provide entree to the dominant coalition. Therefore, w o m e n practitioners w h o control scarce resources, w h o are the organization's experts on "'what's going o n out there," are more successful in management decision-making participation than w o m e n practitioners w h o do not scan. Consistent with the notion of scarce resources, w o m e n find relatively sophisticated scientific scanning more valuable to participation than the more common informal scanning.

Enabling Tomorrow's Practitioner Given that scientific scanning techniques are so valuable to w o m e n practitioners, h o w do men and w o m e n compare in their use of scientific scanning techniques? Women were significantly less likely to use scientific scanning techniques than men. Women practitioners averaged 3.18 on a sevenpoint, "never" to "always" scale measuring scientific scanning activities. Men practitioners averaged 3.65 on the same scale, a significant difference (F = 7.38; d.f. = 1, 257; p = .007). 3: Whereas scientifc scanning activities are more hnportant for w o m e n in public relations to do, they are less likely to do it. Gender differences in the use of scientific scanniIig techniques are likely to shrink as public relations education includes coursework in social scientific research methods. The report of the 1987 Commission on Undergraduate Public Relations Education recommends a course in "'public relations research for planning and evaluation" as part of core studies in public relations. At San Diego State University, such a public relations research course has been required of all undergraduates since 1980. More than 500 students (75 percent women) have completed the course over the last 15 semesters. No differences in course performance have been detected in

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Breaking Public Relations' Glass Ceiling m e n a n d w o m e n s t u d e n t s . F u r t h e r , s t u d e n t s excelling in the c o u r s e (A s t u d e n t s ) h a v e b e e n d i s p r o p o r t i o n a t e l y f e m a l e (90 percent). S u c h p r e p a r a t i o n e n a b l e s f u t u r e p r a c t i t i o n e r s - - a n d especially w o m e n p r a c t i t i o n e r s - - t o c o n t r o l scarce r e s o u r c e s critical to p a r t i c i p a t i o n in the d o m i n a n t coalition. C o u p l e d w i t h a p l a n n e d , p r o a c t i v e a p p r o a c h to the practice of public relations, s u c h skills are at the c u t t i n g e d g e of the e m e r g e n c e of public relations as a true p r o f e s s i o n . N o t coincidentially, s u c h skills enable w o m e n p r a c t i t i o n e r s of the f u t u r e to b r e a k t h r o u g h the " g l a s s ceiling."

References ~David M. Dozier, "Program evaluation and roles of practitioners," Public Relations Review 10(2), Summer, 1984, 13-21. See also David M. Dozier, "The diffusion of evaluation methods among public relations practitioners." Paper presented to the Public Relations Division, Association for Education in Journalism, East Lansing, Mich., Aug. 9, 1981. 2Only recently has social science research methods coursework been recommended as core curriculum in public relations education. See William P. Ehling and Betsy Plank, The design for undergraduate public relations education: Report of the 1987 Commission on Undergraduate Education (New York: Public Relations Society of America, 1987). ~Fhis tension between the science and art of public relations is apparent in the belief systems of "creative artistic" practitioners in a Q-methodological study. Thes e "creative artistic" beliefs were most pronounced among practitioners playing the technician role. See David M. Dozier and Michael J. Gottesman, "'Subjective dimensions of organizational roles among public relations practitioners." Paper presented to the Public Relations Division, Association for Education in Journalism, Athens, Ohio, July 7, 1982. ~Glen M. Broom and David Iv[. Dozier, "Determinants and consequences of public relations roles." Paper presented to the Public Relations Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communciation, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 5, 1985. SDavid M. Dozier, "The environmental scanning function of public relations practitioners and participation in management decision making." Paper presented to the Public Relations Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Norman, OMa., Aug. 5, 1986; David M. Dozier, "Gender, environmental scanning, and participation in management decision making." Paper presented to the Public Relations Interest Group, International Communication Association, Montreal, Canada, May 23, 1987. ~Dozier (1988, p. 21). ~hese figures are provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, which conducts ongoing comprehensive surveys of the U.S. labor force. These figures are reported in Employment and Earnings, Household Data Annual Averages, in the January issue each year. Data appear in the table labeled "Employed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex and Race." 8Annual surveys of college and university journalism programs indicate that about 70 percent of public relations majors are women (1985-1987 average). See Paul V. Peterson, "Journalism and mass comm enrollment leveled off in '87," Journalism Educator 34(1), Spring, 1988, 5. 9For a review of research on masculine and feminine stereotypes and factors causing them, see Gary N. Powell, Women and men in management (Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1988), pp. 43-69. x~ (1988, pp. 55-61). UJust as masculine and feminine stereotypes are perpetuated through family, schools and mass media, so too are stereotypes about "good" managers. These stereotypes, however, developed when ranks of management were almost exclusively male. Therefore, masculine stereotypes and managerial stereotypes were Co-mingled. Research on managers suggests that effective managers utilize both stereotypic masculine and stereotypic feminine behavior in response to specific management situations. See Powell (1988, pp. 141-174).

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Public Relations Review lrl'his finding was first reported by Glen M. Broom, "A comparison of sex roles in public relations," Public Relations Review 8(3), Fall, 1982, 17-22. 13William A. Kahn and Kaye Crosby, "Discriminating between attitudes and discriminatory behaviors: Change and stasis," in L. Larwood, A. H. Stromberg & B. A. Gutek (eds.), Women and work: An annual review, Vol. 1 (Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1988), pp. 215238. "David M. Dozier, Sharon Chapo, and Brad Sullivan, "Sex and the bottom line: Income differences between women and men in public relations." Paper presented to the Public Relations Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Corvallis, Ore., Aug. 7, 1983. See also Linda L. Childers, Larissa A. Grunig, and David M. Do~ier, "Gender differences in public relations and communciation management," in J. E. Grunig (ed.), Excellence in public relations and communication management (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, in press). 15Dozier, Chapo, and Sullivan (1983). For recent confirmation of these same findings, see Victor Russell, "'Salary survey," Public Relations Journal 44(6), June, 1988, p. 30. 16SeeJune O'Neill, "Role differentiation and the gender gap in wage rates," in Larwood et al. (1988, pp. 50-75). ~ZDozier, Chapo, and Sullivan (1983, pp. 19-22). ~SFor a discussion of symmetrical public relations, see James E. Grunig, David M. Dozier, William P. Ehling, Larissa A. Grunig, Fred C. Repper, and Jon White, "Communication, public relations and effective organizations: An overview," in J. E. Grunig (ed.), Excellence in public relations and communication management (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, in press). See also James E. Grunig and Todd Hunt, Managing public relations (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984), pp. 27--46. 19For a discussion of the open systems view of public relations, see Scott M. Cutlip, Alien H. Center, and Glen M. Broom, Effective public relations, 6th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1985), pp. 183-198. 2~ Lesly, "The stature and role of public relations," Public Relations Jounra137(1), January, 1981, p. 15. 2JJanice F. Madden, "The persistence of pay differentials," in Lanvood et al. (1988, pp. 76--114). =Glen M. Broom, "Public relations roles and Systems theory: Functionalist and historicist casual models"; James E. Grunig and Larissa S. Grunig, "Application of general systems theory to public relations: Review of a program of research." Papers presented to the Public Relations Interest Group, International Communication Association, Chicago, IL, May 24, 1986. =See Cuflip, Center and Broom (1985, pp. 187-188). 2~Grunig and Grunig (1986). ZSFora review of organization research related to the power-control perspective, see Stephen P. Robbins, Organization theory: Structure, design, and applications, 2nd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987), pp. 149-203. 26Robbins (1987, p. 182). Z'Robbins (1987, p. 178). ~Robbins (1987, pp. 189-192). ~Robbins (1987, p. 189). ~~ (1986, p. 19). 3'Dozier (1986). 32Dozier (1986). ~Dozier (1987, p. 18). UDozier (1987, p. 20). ~Powell (1988, pp. 144-150). 36Dozier (1987, p. 18). 3:'Dozier (1987, p. 16).

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