Home > Projects > Research Project

Organizational Research
Dr. Linda M. Perry

This project is very similar to the research project you completed in NM3217 but with more elements. It is an exercise in conducting both formative and evaluative research. To plan effective visual communications that help an organisation achieve its strategic communication objectives, public relations managers conduct formative research — that is, research to help plan communication activities and choose objectives. The successful manager also conducts evaluative research — that is, research to determine whether objectives have been met.¹

Your first step is to determine for which organisation you would like to conduct research and produce publications. Be sure to select an organisation for which you can obtain enough information for this and subsequent projects. If you choose the same organisation as the one you chose for NM3217, you must justify your choice, including an explanation of how the materials you produce this term will be different from the ones produced for NM3217. You also must submit electronic copies of those materials.

Your publications must be designed to achieve strategic public relations objectives, not marketing objectives, so make sure you can formulate public relations objectives for your client. Choose one main client and two backups. Your client choices are due on the date announced in the syllabus. If you have not made affirmative contact with your first choice within one week, move on to the next choice on your list.

Once you have made contact with an organization, you will conduct research to obtain enough information to propose, justify, plan and design the prototypes of a 16-page magazine and a website or online publication.

Your research mission is to understand your client, its relationships to its publics, its existing organizational plan, its goals, its culture, its public relations problems, opportunities and goals, and how it uses publications to communicate with its publics. Collect all the information you can.

1. The Report

Use the client's existing publications, including its annual reports and websites for sources, but be very careful not to plagiarize your client's publications! You must rewrite or paraphrase source material, except of course for cogent or compelling direct quotes, which are enclosed in direct quotation marks and attributed in the text.

After you have answered all the questions you can from the publications, then (and only then) interview the person responsible for public relations. Do not shift the burden of the interview to your interviewee by emailing interview questions. Use good judgment in preparing for and setting up the interview. Respect your interviewee's time and be sure to write a note (it can be email) thanking him or her when the interview is completed. Append a copy of your correspondence with your client to your report.

You should utilize at least five sources. One of your sources should be demographic data, and another should be the person with whom you made contact. Carefully cite to your sources throughout the report, using the citation style of your choice, such as footnotes or endnotes, APA, AP, MLA, or Chicago.

Background: Describe the organisation's origins, early history; what the organisation is today, what it does; the relationship of parent and any subsidiaries; numbers and types of key publics, including demographics; geographic areas in which it operates; and any other information important to understanding the organisation. Be sure to get enough information on your organisation's publics, particularly their demographics. You'll need it for subsequent projects. (3-4 pages)

Organisational Philosophy, Goals and Objectives: Describe how the organisation views its role in society, the organisation's basic mission or reason for being, its culture, and its aspirations and goals. (2-3 pages)

Public Relations Policies and Programs: Describe the public relations department in terms of staffing, responsibilities and its relationship to top management. Show that relationship in an organisational chart (example, right). If the organisation does not have a public relations department per se, then explain who performs the function and substitute that position in the chart, etc. Describe any public relations programs under way, those programs' goals, and how those goals relate to the organisation's overall goals and mission. Goals may be inferred. Finally, describe the organisation's publications and how they are used to communicate with its publics. (2-3 pages )

The chart should focus on the department and its line to top management.

Public Relations Opportunity or Problem: Identify at least one public relations problem or opportunity and the key publics most affected or involved. (1 page) You should describe a problem or opportunity that you can address with the publications you willl plan and design. Designing a magazine and website cannot be the opportunity. You must identify an existing problem or opportunity that you can address. If you identify a problem, call it a problem. (Don't call a problem an opportunity.) (1 page)

The report is due in class on the date announced in the syllabus.

Back to top

¹ J. Grunig & T. Hunt, MANAGING PUBLIC RELATIONS (1984).

²L.M. Perry, HOW TO WRITE A COMMUNICATION RESEARCH PAPER (2010).

³I.M. Chattee, personal interview, Feb. 1, 2010.

³Obtaining good quotes, http://www.thisisnotarealsite.com/fauxquotes.htm (retrieved Feb. 3, 2010).

OR

Chattee, I.M., personal interview, Feb. 1, 2010.

Grunig, James E., & Todd Hunt, Managing Public Relations, New York: CBS College Publishing (1984).

Obtaining good quotes, http://www.thisisnotarealsite.com/fauxquotes.htm (retrieved Feb. 3, 2010).

Perry, L.M., How to write a communication research paper, Singapore.: National University of Singapore publication (2010).

Background: (3-4 pages.)

_____ Origins, early history
_____ What the organization is today, what it does
_____ Relationship of parent and any subsidiaries
_____ Numbers, types and demographics of key publics
_____ Geographical areas in which it operates
_____ Other information ______________________.

Organizational Philosophy: (2-3 pages.)

_____ How the organization views its role in society
_____ The organization's basic mission
_____ Organizational culture
_____ Aspirations and goals

Public Relations Policies and Programs: (2-3 pages)

_____ Public relations department and relationship to top management
_____ Organizational chart
_____ Public relations programs under way this year
_____ Goals of public relations programs (may be inferred)
_____ How PR goals relate to organization's goals & mission.
_____ How publications are used to communicate with the
organization’s publics

Public Relations Opportunity or Problem: (1 page)

_____ At least one problem or opportunity identified
_____ Key publics most affected or involved and to be targeted

Back to top