Government-community relationships

Government-community relationships: extending the

relational theory of public relations

John A. Ledingham*

Department of Communication, Capital University, East Main Street, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Received 1 March 2001; received in revised form 23 April 2001; accepted 1 June 2001

Abstract

A study of government-citizen relationships found that public relations can contribute to commu￾nity building. The study also found that the Bruning-Ledingham Relationship Scale is an effective tool

for assessing relationship quality, and for predicting citizen behavior. Moreover, social exchange was

found to serve as a useful concept for explaining human behavior within the broader framework of

relationship management. Further, the study demonstrates the usefulness of the relational perspective

as a paradigm for public relations. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Kruckeberg and Starck contend that community is achieved “when people are aware of

and interested in common ends and regulate their activity in view of those ends” [1]. They

further suggest that “public relations is best defined and practiced as the active attempt to

restore and maintain a sense of community” [2], reinforcing their earlier contention that:

“Only with this goal (community) as a primary objective can public relations become a full

partner in the information and communication milieu that forms the lifeblood of U. S. society

and, to a growing extent, the world” [3].

The notion that public relations can function as a vehicle for accommodating differing

perspectives and reducing conflict is a central construct of Kruckeberg and Starck’s com￾munity perspective. In this perspective, public relations techniques and processes act to

resolve differences within the social system comprised of organizations and the publics with

* Tel.: 11-614-236-6318.

E-mail address: [email protected] (J.A. Ledingham).

Pergamon

Public Relations Review 27 (2001) 285–295

0363-8111/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

PII: S0363-8111(01)00087-X