ABSTRACT
Strategic communication is an organization’s planned and purposeful communication aimed at achieving its goals. Public relations has been identified as a fundamental element of strategic communication (Hallahan, Holtzhausen, Van Ruler, Vercˇicˇ, & Siramesh, 2007; Holtzhausen, 2008). Hallahan et al. (2007) specified that the field of public relations can play a part in the development of strategic communication by emphasizing developing theory to determine how an organization can “establish and maintain beneficial relationships with key constituencies” (p. 6). In the public relations scholarship, relationship management has been a primary paradigm since Ferguson’s call in 1984 (Ferguson, 1984). This chapter will review the extent to which relationship cultivation strategies are relevant to the field of strategic communication and how this program of research can be applied beyond the publics in the public relations process.
