Departmental News
Smith Authors Study of Employee Recognition
Ph.D. student Brian Smith is the author of a study published in the Summer 2008 issue of the online, peer-reviewed Public Relations Journal entitled "Creating Recognition for Employee Recognition: A Case Study on Public Relations, Branding, and Marketing."
The integration of public relations, marketing and branding presents critical issues to strategic communication, Smith argues. Whereas organizations seek integration for communication efficiency and effectiveness, scholars argue that to imbue public relations with marketing persuasion would damage the credibility of public relations. Smith's case study explores public relations within a marketing context at the global employee recognition firm, O.C. Tanner. This study reveals an under-examined role of public relations within marketing communication—public relations to create the corporate brand—and demonstrates how public relations, as education, can be integrated into marketing communication without damaging the credibility of public relations. The article concludes that public relations research should focus on the development of public relations as strategic communication, and finds that one potential area for this development is understanding public relations' role in brand management.
Citation: Smith, Brian G., "Creating Recognition for Employee Recognition: A Case Study on Public Relations, Branding, and Marketing," Public Relations Journal 2 (2008): 1-19, available at http://www.prsa.org/prjournal.
