Browsing by Author "Kuyucu, Melike Aktas"

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Citation - WoS: 1
Educating Future Public Relations Professionals: a Socially Oriented Approach
(Marmara Univ, Fac Communication, 2024) Bicakci, A. banu; Kuyucu, Melike Aktas; Aktaş, Melike
The view that organizational goals and priorities in the field of public relations should be balanced with a social orientation is increasingly gaining ground in both professional practices and academic approaches and how the future of public relations should be structured within this framework is being discussed. The impacts, results, benefits, and values produced by public relations approaches and practices in the social context are important as the building blocks that shape the future. This study, which aims to question the future of public relations education with a socially oriented approach, examines the outputs of the international project titled "The Future of Public Relations/Communication and their Social Impact" on education, which is one of the three focal points of the project, with a particular focus on T & uuml;rkiye. This study, in which data was collected in four stages with the Delphi method, aimed to reveal expert opinions on the necessities, importance, and how a public relations education can be structured on the axis of social impact, benefit, and value; and to share the views of academics and practitioners in order to provide insights for the future of education in the field. While questioning the structure, context, and content required for an ideal public relations education to expand public relations practices with social functions, roles, and responsibilities as well as organisational ones in the future, the participants' evaluations on the current state of public relations education and training were also consulted.
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.