A study to determine significant variables related to the role of the public relations practitioner at Indiana institutions of higher education

Currently, there are questions over which role, communication manager or communication technician, public relations practitioners at institutions of higher education should perform to best meet the needs of their institutions. To understand the reasonings behind these questions, a better understanding of practitioners in this area of the profession was needed. This study focused on public relations practitioners at institutions of higher education in Indiana. The objectives of this study were to create a demographic profile of these practitioners, determine which role was more prevalent among these practitioners, identify significant variables related to these practitioners' roles, and determine if the findings of previous roles research could be applied to this targeted population.Practitioners at 43 institutions of higher education in Indiana were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning their role and demographic information. Thirty-nine practitioners from this population completed and returned the questionnaires. The typical practitioner among this population was: A Caucasian male, at least 40 years old, making over $60,000 a year.Respondents were divided into two role groups, communication managers and communication technicians, based on their responses to 14 role-related questions on the questionnaire. A t-test analysis found significant differences between the mean role scores of these two groups, meaning that practitioners in this population can fit into one of the two dominant practitioner roles.Further analysis identified significant differences between four of seven variables tested on the two role groups. Significant differences were found between the two groups concerning the variables of size of institution, years of experience, use of formal research, and decision-making responsibility. No significant differences were found between the two groups concerning the variables of gender, level of education, and age.Finally, the dependent variables of use of formal research and decision-making responsibility were each tested through crosstab analyses with the independent, demographic variables of gender, age, size of institution, level of education, and years of experience. These analyses found that only years of experience was significantly related to use of formal research. Meanwhile, gender, age, size of institution, and years of experience were all significantly related to decision-making responsibility. No significant interactions were found between the variables of use of formal research and decision-making responsibility.Department of JournalismThesis (M.A.