Browsing by Author "Arzuaga-Williams, Monica"

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Public Relations Professionals' Role in Managing Conflict: A Cross-Country Contingency Theory Perspective
(Elsevier Science Inc, 2025) Bicakci, A. Banu; Kuyucu, Melike Aktas; Arzuaga-Williams, Monica; Meintjes, Corne
This comparative study examines how public relations professionals in T & uuml;rkiye, South Africa, and Uruguay approach conflict management, exploring the culturally contingent nature of public relations practice across these diverse settings. Drawing on qualitative data from a Delphi study, the research investigates the reasons public relations practice may lead to conflicts, how professionals frame and justify their conflict management decisions, their stance on the advocacy-accommodation continuum, and their roles and responsibilities via thematic analysis. Findings: reveal that conflicts often arise from communication approaches/structures within organizations and organizational power dynamics. Accordingly, the practitioner's organizational standing and perceived power influence public relations professionals' decisions. In conflicting situations, the organizational stance is often clustered near the accommodation end, emphasizing the social dimension. Key roles of public relations professionals include environmental scanning, stakeholder engagement, and mediation. The study highlights the importance of contingency theory in understanding conflict management in public relations.The findings suggest the absence of universally applicable conflict management rules, emphasizing the necessity for context-specific and flexible approaches. While a stakeholder perspective, social orientation, and accommodation tendencies are evident across the studied countries, public relations professionals face diverse challenges rooted in cultural differences and the distinct conceptualizations and practices of public relations within each country.
Social Impact and Social Value in Public Relations/Communication: An International Analysis for a Conceptual Framework
(Elsevier Science Inc, 2026) Arzuaga-Williams, Monica; Bicakci, A. Banu; Suarez-Monsalve, Ana Maria; Matkeviciene, Renata
This study examines the understandings of social impact and social value by public relations/communication practitioners, educators, and academics in four developing countries: Ecuador, Lithuania, T & uuml;rkiye, and Uruguay. As organizations face increasingly complex challenges, public relations/communication professionals play a critical role in society. However, there remains a lack of clarity regarding the definitions of social impact and social value. This research utilizes open-ended responses to a global Delphi study. In exploring how these concepts are understood, this paper also identifies similarities and differences among them. These discrepancies underscore the need to establish common definitions for social impact and social value to guide public relations/ communication practices, while still allowing for contextual adaptations that ensure integration in different countries. The findings provide evidence associated with the relational approach to social impact. However, this approach is still not fully integrated into public relations/communication practices in the studied countries, particularly its key factor, stakeholder involvement in defining social impact, and the conceptualization of social value from the stakeholders' perspective. This research contributes to the development of public relations/ communication by clarifying how practitioners, academics, and educators in diverse socio-cultural contexts define and apply social impact and social value. It highlights the need for a more stakeholder-centered approach and calls for greater integration of social value frameworks into public relations/communication practice. These insights can inform future research and professional strategies to enhance the role of public relations/communication globally.