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Exploring the Effectiveness of Social and Digital Media Communications on Organization-Public Relationship Building with Employees

Cumberbatch, Iris E
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3772-6756
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1572457208691

Abstract Details

2019, Ph.D., Antioch University, Leadership and Change.
More than a decade after the emergence of social and digital media, professional communicators increasingly use these channels to interact with a wide array of stakeholders. Simultaneously, public relations (PR) and communications leaders seek to understand whether their efforts to communicate and engage with stakeholders through these channels are effective in establishing and building relationships, as well as to measure “effectiveness” in the new technology-driven communications landscape. With this study, I addressed a gap in the academic research with regard to understanding the effectiveness of social and digital media as a communications tool by assessing employees’ perceptions of their organization with respect to five communication concepts, both in general and based specifically on the company’s social media communications. I assessed the relationship between the employee stakeholder and the organization from two viewpoints: first, from the viewpoint of the employees with whom the organization is communicating, and second, from the viewpoint of the communications professionals who post social and digital media messages on behalf of the organization. The results showed that an intervention to educate employees about the organization’s social and digital media communications did not result in employees’ increased positive perceptions of the organization as a whole or of the organization’s sites with regard to each of the five communications concepts. The increase in employees’ positive perceptions of the organization’s social and digital media sites, which reflected the communication concept “promoting communal relationships,” was significant at p < .10; also, increases for three individual statements that were part of the communications concepts were sufficient for statistical significance. The intervention did result in statistically significant increases in employee use of social and digital media to engage with the organization and in usage of specifically LinkedIn to engage with the organization. The communicators who are responsible for the organization’s social and digital media communications generally held the same perceptions as other employees with regard to how the organization in general and its social media sites specifically fostered the five communication concepts. This dissertation is available in open access at Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/
Mitchell Kusy, PhD (Committee Chair)
Carol Baron, PhD (Committee Member)
Mike Porter, EdD (Committee Member)
210 p.
Communication; Management; Marketing; Mass Communications; Multimedia Communications; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Web Studies
social media; digital media; social media measurement; public relations; PR leadership; communications; communications leadership; corporate communications; communications measurement; organizational communications; organization-public relationships

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cumberbatch, I. E. (2019). Exploring the Effectiveness of Social and Digital Media Communications on Organization-Public Relationship Building with Employees [Doctoral dissertation, Antioch University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1572457208691

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cumberbatch, Iris. Exploring the Effectiveness of Social and Digital Media Communications on Organization-Public Relationship Building with Employees. 2019. Antioch University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1572457208691.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cumberbatch, Iris. "Exploring the Effectiveness of Social and Digital Media Communications on Organization-Public Relationship Building with Employees." Doctoral dissertation, Antioch University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1572457208691

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

antioch1572457208691
648
© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Antioch University and OhioLINK.