ABSTRACT
Since the early 1980s, public relations theory has been guided largely by systems theory. Some scholarly work focuses on public relations as a rhetorical endeavor (e.g., Bostdorff, 1994; Coombs, 1992; Heath, 1988; Vasquez, 1993). However, with the exception of Kuhn’s (1997) structurationist perspective of issues management and Banks’ (1996) social-interpretive approach to multicultural public relations, the predominance of mainstream public relations research is undergirded by a systems perspective. Scholarship in this tradition includes such foundational areas as identification of practitioner roles and functions (e.g., Broom, 1982; Dozier & Broom, 1995; Lauzen, 1994), issues management (e.g., Arrington & Sawaya, 1984; Crable & Vibbert, 1985; Ewing, 1990; Wartick & Rude, 1986), negotiation (e.g., J.Grunig & L.Grunig, 1992; Vasquez, 1996), and identification of publics (e.g., J.Grunig, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1989a, 1992; J.E.Grunig & L.Grunig, 1992; Grunig & Hunt, 1984). However, limitations in common theoretic approaches to public relations scholarship such as systems theory are creating a need to adopt newer, more robust, and broader theoretic perspectives.
