| The purpose of this exploratory study is to determine what perceptions exist between public affairs officers and public administrators in government organizations concerning what role public relations plays within these organizations. Public relations scholarship has found that government organizations historically consider communications useful for disseminating information to their citizenry and the media. Alternatively, research has proven that placing the public relations role within a management-level, strategic communication function helps achieve organizational goals because it considers the public's viewpoint on policy issues and involves its publics in its decision making process.;Leaning heavily upon excellence theory, surveys and in-depth interviews were used to determine the coorientation of seven public administrators, who serve as the dominant coalition within local government organizations and their public affairs officers, who serve as the government organization's management-level public relations practitioner; to determine their level of agreement and accuracy about the role of public relations and its value to the organization; and their agreement and accuracy about the public affairs officers' educational and professional qualifications and the public sector environment's impact on the role within the organizational system.;The results indicate that public administrators view and value the public relations role as that of a communication technician, whereas the public affairs officers view themselves serving in more of a management-level role. The findings also indicate that the participants mutually agreed the person serving in the public relations role does not need a public relations background or management-level education, which could attribute to the lack of professional development among public affairs officers and the value placed on the role within the organization. The positioning of the public affairs officer within management also appears to impact the public affairs officers' level of understanding about their role and its organizational value. The findings reveal the need for a public relations literacy model, which is introduced to demonstrate how both public administrators and public affairs officers can realize the need for the public relations role to operate as a strategic management function within governmental organizations. |
