Public relations as relationship management. A relational approach to the study and practice of public relations

In Public Relations as Relationship Management, the editors, Ki, Kim, and Ledingham offer a comprehensive overview of the most recent research on relationship in public relations literature. The central arguments of the book are that relationship matters for the achievement of organizational goals and that public relations can provide important and valuable support in relationship management, beyond image/impression management via communications. This edited book is one of the few books that compiles and discusses the main academic knowledge, theories, and models in organization–public relationship. It targets students, public relations scholars, and practitioners who are interested in relationship management. While the book is a second edition of a title published in 2000 by one of the editors (Ledingham) and Bruning, its contents are far from a simple update of the first edition. The first edition of the book was structured into three thematic sections: Section I presented and discussed the development of theory and status of research within the relational approach; Section II presented some of the possible applications of the relational approach to specific public relations subareas, such as crisis and issue management and employee and global relations; and Section III offered some points of reflection on the implications of the relational approach in public relations. The second edition retains a similar structure with three thematic sections, but it presents an updated review of the evolution of relationship theory based on recent studies (Section I), offers an expansion of organization–public relationship theory (Section II), and discusses the relational approach and its application in light of the important role played by culture, globalization, and new technologies in public relations (Section III). The two editions thus complement each other and should both be read to have a complete understanding of public relations' body of knowledge on relationship.