ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a behind-the-scenes review of the Excellence Study, the single most influential study of the practice of public relations and communication management. Dozier and Williams provide a personalized and subjective review of the interplay of personalities and organizational cultures as this massive research project unfolded between 1985 and 2002, and argue that James Grunig's leadership was essential to the successful execution of the project. In addition, Dozier and Williams identify a number of challenges that James Grunig had to overcome, in order to shepherd the three-nation collection of survey data, the conduct of 25 follow-up case studies, and the publication of three widely cited books.
