Are We Practicing What We Preach? Perspectives on Public Relations Evaluation from Practitioners

The Public Relations Society of America and the Institute for Public Relations have entire sections of their organizational websites dedicated to public relations evaluation and measurement. Additionally, there are books and articles that discuss measurement techniques, what to measure, why measurement is important, and who should conduct evaluation measurement. Notwithstanding this attention, there is no clear understanding about 1) whether strategic plans developed by practitioners are actually being measured for effectiveness or 2) what practitioners think about conducting quantitative and qualitative evaluation. Questions remain about who is driving this activity-- management or practitioners? The purpose of this study was to explore what factors may influence the inclusion of measurement as a function of public relations and why it is occurring in some places and not in others. This project looked at current measurement and evaluation practices; perceived attitude toward the need to measure by the practitioners’ organizations; and the practitioners’ perspective on measurement. Results suggest that those (including senior management) involved with strategic planning value PR measurement. Organizations that communicate the strategic nature of their PR and communications facilitate a climate of performance assessment and by implication greater accountability. This was evident in the differences between government and “for profit” organizations. There were no differences in types of measurement tools used and gender was not a factor