Measurement and Evaluation

Setting Best Practices in Public Relations Research

There is growing recognition of value of research in developing and evaluating of public relations programs, but much of this value is never realized in the marketplace. There are many possible explanations for this, but the primary one may be very basic: a lack of understanding among practitioners of best practices or fundamental research principles. Michaelson’s presentation at the 2009 International Public Relations Research Conference describes best practices for public relations research in two key areas: research methods, and quality/substance of findings. Each is a guideline to help researchers and public relations ...

Analyzing Corporate Social Responsibility Measurement Parameters

This research aims to create a universally-acceptable sustainability framework to measure corporate performance, which can adapted by any organization irrespective of size and/or country-of-origin. Select corporate social responsibility measurement indexes of The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are analyzed in comparison to the frameworks of the Japanese and Australian Environmental Reporting Guidelines, on the basis of the ‘Triple Bottom-line Approach’ of Economic, Environmental and Social Initiatives.

Scale Development for Measuring Health Consciousness: Re-conceptualization

This study attempts to: 1.) define the concept of health consciousness and identify its major dimensions, 2.) develop a scale for measuring individual health consciousness, and 3.) validate the scale with surveys. The scale will also be widely used to strategically design many health-related campaigns and to understand individual responses to the campaign messages.

Measuring and Evaluating an Intranet Designed to Enhance Employee Communication and Two-Way Communication

The purpose of this research was twofold: 1.) to qualitatively examine how organizations can use intranets to enable employees to communicate with one another and senior management, and 2.) to statistically analyze whether employee interaction with an intranet designed to foster two-way communication positively correlates with employee satisfaction and employee input into the decisions of an organization.

Doing Measurement Right

One Organization’s Experience Creating a Best-In-Class Measurement Program from Scratch

A communications program and system of metrics, ranging from measures of productivity to effectiveness measures was designed and applied in practice. The case study will cover and include discussion of how to integrate sophisticated analysis of earned media, public service announcements, web traffic, social media, public opinion, customer and volunteer feedback, donation information and other relevant data into the measurement program design.

Measuring Excellent Leadership in Public Relations

A Second-Order Factor Model in the Dimension of Self-Dynamics

In this study, the authors defined the construct of “excellent leadership” in public relations and identified multiple dimensions of this construct. To fulfill the purpose of developing reliable and effective measurement, multiple concepts and variables in leadership research and public relations research have been examined and developed into measurement items for each dimension.

How Top Business Communicators Measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of Organization’s Internal Communication Efforts

This paper addressed findings from two research projects related to how top business communicators measure the effectiveness of their organization’s internal communications. Findings suggest that internal communications effectiveness has not been widely assessed despite its avowed importance. At the same time, some aspects of internal communication initiatives (e.g., improved job performance, changed employee behaviors, and concentrated employee engagement) have been given special attention in measurement efforts. Findings from the international survey and the in-depth interviews are discussed and implications for communication professionals are suggested.

The Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles

July 2010

A new declaration of standards and practices to guide measurement and evaluation of public relations was first adopted at the 2nd European Summit on Measurement in Barcelona, Spain, in June 2010 and subsequently updated with input from Summit delegates. The annual Summit is organized by the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and the Institute for Public Relations (IPR). The Barcelona Principles will be the subject of ongoing dialogue as industry professionals seek to apply the standards to the public relations practice.

Measuring Social Media Credibility: A Study on a Measure of Blog Credibility

Individuals now have great expectations about interacting with organizations online, especially using digital and social media. Consequently, public relations and communication professionals are looking for new and more effective ways to enhance these interactions with various publics. The author illustrates how credibility of social media is a key factor impacting public engagement and communication effectiveness in digital and social media. A literature review shows that previous research on the credibility of blogs has reported limited reliability, due partly to the use of credibility measures originally developed to assess credibility of traditional ...