Management by Objectives: Authentic Assessment
in a Public Relations Practicum
Lisa T. Fall, APR
Georgia Southern University
Department of Communications Arts
Landrum Box 8091
Statesboro, GA 30460
(912) 681-5138
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
AEJMC - PR Division, Teaching Paper
Running Head: Teaching PR Management
Abstract
Incorporation of management principles in the classroom can
motivate
students to successfully complete project work.
Combining the primary management functions (planning and
decision making, organizing, leading and controlling) and the
R-A-C-E formula (research, action planning, communication and
evaluation) can increase the application of critical thinking
skills in the
classroom. Further, authentic assessment and
management by objectives can provide educators with techniques to
measure the success of the project work.
Management by Objectives: Authentic Assessment
in a Public Relations Practicum
Educators are constantly searching for fresh, new ways to encourage
students enrolled in undergraduate public relations programs to take
the
theories and principles they've learned from lectures and textbooks
and apply them to
"real world" situations. So case study analyses, what if situations,
even actual client
work is incorporated into the curriculum. But these activities
alone can't provide
students with the necessary exercises to strengthen their critical
thinking, strategic
planning, decision making and analytical skills.
The Public Relations Society of America's Official Statement on
Public
Relations defines public relations as a management function. This
statement further
defines some of the important tasks public relations encompasses,
ranging from
anticipating, analyzing, and interpreting public opinion and issues;
counseling management
at all levels; researching, conducting, and evaluating programs of
action and
communication; to planning and implementing an organization's
efforts to influence change;
setting goals and objectives; and planning, budgeting, training
staff and managing
resources (Wilcox & Agee 7). So it seems only natural that these
management concepts
should be incorporated into undergraduate public relations course
curricula.
However, rather than just implementing the primary management
functions
(planning and decision making, organizing, leading, controlling) or
the
R-A-C-E formula (research, action planning, communication, and
evaluation), a
holistic approach is taken. Principles and tasks illustrated in
this research range from
the traditional strategic program planning procedures to more
specific event management
issues such as vendor relations, committee
coordination, set up and catering, decorating, zero-based budgeting
and
deadline scheduling.
Over the years, the roles of public relations technicians and
managers have
emerged. While the communication manager conceptualizes and directs
public relations
programs, the communication technician carries out technical
services such as writing,
editing, photographing, and producing publications (Gruning 18).
Undergraduate public
relations education should attempt to strike a balance between
teaching skills that will
benefit the future technician and the manager.
Teaching public relations in the traditional communications context
or
converting it into a business school-based framework has been an
issue for several
decades. The Spring 1989 issue of Public Relations Review devoted
its contents to the
discussion of public relations education. In this issue, a
descriptive research study
conducted by Van Slyke Turk (38) examined the perceptions and
opinions of public relations
practitioners regarding how important they thought various
managerial skills and
orientation are for the success of organizations and of the
specialists who work in those
organizations. Oral communication, written communication, and
planning and organizing
ranked, respectively, as the top three categories regarding general
leadership skills.
When asked to rank-order the importance of specific management
skills being taught in a
public relations curriculum, planning and organizing, problem
solving and decision making,
goal setting and prioritizing, and time management ranked,
respectively, as the top four
categories. Turk's research reinforces the need to incorporate
analytical, budgeting,
planning and problem solving skills in public relations courses.
In the same issue of Public Relations Review David Ferguson, Betsy
Anne Plank
and Pat Jackson participated in a question and answer interview
conducted by Jim VanLeuven
which focused on the state of Public Relations education. When
asked what, if any,
management skills should be taught within the public relations
curriculum and which should
be taught in business school classes, Plank stated that writing for
public relations
should be thought of as a business and management skill because it
involves research,
analysis, getting ideas on paper and being sensitive to audiences
(7). She added that
novice practitioners should also be familiar with budgets and the
ability to manage
people. Jackson said students need to acquire three kinds of
management orientations:
finance, management theory and organizational behavior (7).
Ferguson said he would not
expect undergraduates majoring in public relations to have more than
a small amount of
management skills, particularly if they are focusing on media
relations and creative
skills (7). However, he said that was not true for those students
who wish become
consultants.
In the Spring 1994 issue of Public Relations Review, Kinnick and
Cameron's
research, which was conducted among 59 U.S. colleges and
universities offering public
relations sequences, postulated that management topics are only
given cursory treatment in
most public relations programs. The study lead to three general
recommendations: 1) PR
Management needs to be taught to undergraduates 2) PR management
courses need to emphasize
specific management techniques and skills and 3) instructors need to
make clear to
students the consequences of failing to develop management skills
(83).
The articles cited above signify that a well-rounded public
relations
management course must provide students with opportunities to
practice strategic
decision-making as well as the more technical managerial skills.
"The best analytical and
decision-making skills are of little practical value without a
nuts-and-bolts knowledge of
basic techniques for accounting, budgeting, scheduling, and
monitoring program
implementation," said Kinnick and Cameron (83).
METHODOLOGY
During the winter 1996 term the Communication Arts Department at
Georgia
Southern University (GSU) decided to experiment with teaching
methods during a newly
designed class, PR Event Management. The course evolved as a result
of research conducted
by three of the department's faculty members. These colleagues
conducted a content
analysis by examining student internship mid-term reports to find
out the kinds of
projects students were responsible for completing during their
internships. Event
management ranked second among a list of 47 tasks. Event set-up
ranked 15th.
Thus, PR Event Management was designed in order to respond to a need
in the
Public Relations curriculum. Twenty-three students enrolled in the
class. But the
pedagogy was handled in a different manner than the traditional
lecture and test-taking
format. Therefore, the procedure was somewhat experimental in
nature. The students were
responsible for planning a
campus-wide special event in order to raise funds for two clients,
the Public
Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) - GSU Chapter and the
Communication Arts
Department. The event, "Leap of Fate," was similar to bachelor and
bachelorette bids
conducted throughout the 1980s. The students' assignment was to
incorporate management
principles into the well-known public relations strategic planning
process (research,
action planning, communication and evaluation) while coordinating
the special event via
their class.
A new kind of evaluation technique, authentic assessment, is
evolving on
campuses across the country (Hunt). This tool examines student
performance based on
worthy intellectual tasks and measures how well students
successfully complete "real
world" projects being assigned in the classroom. In some cases,
like the PR Event
Management courses, students become employees and the classroom is
transformed into an
office setting. However, instead of just being evaluated by their
instructor, the
students are also evaluated by external audiences such as their
peers, clients and
practitioners in the specified field.
Methods for evaluating the PR Event Management class combined
authentic
assessment with traditional evaluation tools. Five methods were
used to measure the
effectiveness of the class's successfulness, including: 1)event
objectives established by
the students in relation to the actual results, termed "Management
by Objectives"; 2)
evaluations and follow-up reports submitted by the students who
enrolled in the PR Event
Management course;
3)evaluations submitted by the participants who attended the special
event
conducted by the students; 4) peer evaluations submitted by the
Southeast District
executive board members of Public Relations Student Society of
America during a regional
competition; and 5) a focus group interview among the students in
the class.
Before the students could develop event objectives, they conducted
pre-campaign research to determine the specifics of the event,
including a background and
situational analysis, statement of problem/opportunity, and
identification of key target
audiences. All of this information was included in the event
proposal which was reviewed
and approved by the Judicial Board and Academic Administration at
Georgia Southern
University. They then moved into the planning aspect of the event,
which included
establishing goals and objectives, strategies, tactics and
determining key publics. The
objectives included determining attendance, revenue and expenses,
and media coverage.
Second, the students enrolled in the PR Event Management class were
responsible for evaluating the class at the end of the term like
they do every quarter.
Areas of evaluation included specific techniques practiced by the
instructor as well as
the overall content and format of the class. In addition to filling
in the standardized
form, students had an opportunity to make arbitrary comments. Many
of these comments are
included in the data. Additionally, many students made comments in
their transmittal le
tters which were included in their updated event reports. After
these reports were
assigned a grade, they were given to the client, PRSSA, so the data
can be used in the
future.
Third, the students designed evaluations which were distributed
among event
participants. These evaluations included a five-point scale to
critique various facets of
the event, ranging from the diversity of date packages to
decorations of the ballroom and
professionalism of the event coordinators.
Fourth, GSU's PRSSA Chapter submitted the "Leap of Fate" proposal
for regional
competition among 25 other PRSSA chapters throughout the Southeast
District. The chapter
won first place for Most Outstanding Special Event/Program at the
1996 PRSSA Southeast
District Conference in Atlanta. Judging criteria included
implementation of various
public relations strategies, principles, and tactics; utilization of
volunteers;
creativity; organization; and overall design of the program.
Finally, a focus group interview was conducted. Seven students from
the PR
Event Management class participated in the interview. Questions
focused specifically on
the format and structure of how the class was conducted as opposed
to how the event was
designed. (Note: Upon termination of the event, the students were
responsible for writing
an in-depth follow-up report which was submitted to PRSSA so the
organization could
determine what needed to be done to refine the event.)
FINDINGS
The success of the objectives, mostly quantitative in nature, was
easy to
determine. Students projected a crowd of 500 attendees; 325
attended the event. However,
approximately 400 tickets were sold. Therefore, when calculating in
the 75 "no shows,"
the event fell short by only 20%
(100 people) of its projected numbers. Media placement also was
successful.
The students earned feature story coverage in all of the newspapers
which received their
press release, including the community paper and both campus papers.
They received telev
ision coverage on the ABC affiliate and were represented on three
different occasions on a
campus radio station talk show.
As for the budget, students broke down their figures into two
categories:
revenue and expenses. These calculations were realistic in nature.
In reference to the
revenue, the students raised $53 over their projections. Regarding
expenses, they spent
$2.77 more than they had budgeted. The
students were pleased to report that they netted $1721 ($51 more
than they had
anticipated) on a zero-based budget with no working capital to get
them started.
The second method, student evaluations and follow-up reports,
unveiled many
reoccurring themes. First, students believed the overall
employer/employee and
employee/client relationship and office setting of the class worked
well. They also liked
being put into committees and knowing they would be held accountable
for all the duties
pertaining to their specific committee areas.
Another finding indicated that the students liked having to turn in
weekly
progress reports which were disseminated among the other committees.
They cited two
reasons: First, they respected the fact that they had to be held
accountable each and
every week for tasks they were responsible for completing. Second,
sharing what they were
doing via these reports enhanced
the communication among the 23 students. This mechanism also
curtailed the
overlapping of projects and aided in the overall continuity of the
group.
Finally, the students repeatedly expressed how much they enjoyed
being able to
apply management principles they learned in their introductory
public relations courses,
they had read about in case studies, and they had incorporated into
the design of their
campaigns in other classes. Many referred to these elements as
"real world" principles,
strategies, and tactics. These components included creating
budgets; establishing project
timelines and deadlines; and developing business relationships with
vendors,
administrators, and the media.
Participant evaluations represented the third method. Eighty
participants
filled out the forms. The comments from the evaluations indicated
that the students liked
the mystery date extravaganza and the silent auction activities the
most. The top
suggestions included more music, more silent auction items, and less
time having the
bachelors and bachelorettes on stage. Participants were also asked
to critique five
facets of the event via a 5-point scale (1=poor and 5=excellent).
These elements included
the silent auction, the mystery date extravaganza, the
professionalism of the staff and
volunteers, overall organization of the event, and equal student
body representation of
mystery date participants. See table below on next page.
Event Elements
Mean Score
Silent Auction
4.43
Mystery Date Extravaganza
4.67
Professionalism of Staff
4.75
Overall Organization of Event
4.66
Equal Representation of Student Body
4.26
The fourth method entailed peer evaluations by PRSSA's Southeast
District executive board members. Winning the competition indicated that the
event was worthy of commendation. This peer judging exposed students to yet
another "real world" evaluation technique. Further, the judges served as
another set of outside critics who objectively focused on pointing out the
positive points of the project. Their points-of-view offered another evaluation
perspective because they were judging the event based only on the written
materials and print collaterals submitted for the competition as opposed to the
peer evaluators who actually attended the event and placed more emphasis on
performance.
The fifth method used to measure the effectiveness of applying
management principles in the classroom was a focus group interview. The seven
students who participated offered valuable constructive criticism regarding the
structure and format of the class. Four questions were asked:
1. What worked effectively regarding the organizational
structure and format of the class? Why?
2. What didn't work effectively? Why?
3. What motivated you to succeed?
4. What public relations management principles were
evident during the planning of your special event?
Question #1 revealed an array of answers. Overall, the students
reported that they liked the design of the employer/employee and employee/client
relationships that were immediately established, the requirement of weekly
individual and committee progress reports, the implementation of crisis planning
"what if" exercises, the focus on the actual planning and event results versus
textbook test-taking exercises, the opportunity to engage in hands-on management
activities, and the democracy of the group's culture which
allowed everyone in the class to have a say in the various aspects
of the event planning procedures.
Question #2 uncovered some problems that occurred during the
planning of the event. One issue the students addressed is that they wished
they had been more involved in the development of the initial event proposal
which was reviewed by the university's Judicial Board. Unfortunately, due to
time constraints because the class only had 10 weeks to plan, implement, and
evaluate the event, this was not possible. However, the students said they were
glad they were able to offer information that was included in the revised
proposal, which was approved by the Judicial Board.
Another issue many of the students commented on both during the
focus group and in their class evaluations was that there were too many people
with "strong" personalities in the class who tried to take over the entire
event. One student stated: "There were too many leaders and not enough
followers." Others said the size of the class caused chaos; they preferred
18-20 to the 23 enrolled in the class.
Some students complained that deadlines weren't met. However, they
then quickly pointed out that this was a "real world" problem and that the
"slackers" helped them develop ways to handle these situations when they arise.
A final issue the students discussed revolved around the time and day the class
was offered. They agreed that only meeting on Mondays and Wednesdays created a
gap because the students didn't collectively meet again for five days. This
window between Wednesday and Monday could have potentially caused communication
and planning problems. However, the students said they curtailed the problem by
proactively communicating with each other and the instructor via the telephone
and during separate mini-planning meetings.
Question #3 uncovered some very interesting findings. In most
classes, the predominate motivator is the end-of-term student grade. According
to this focus group, that was not the case in the PR Event Management class.
Students reported six different reasons why they were motivated. First, they
explained that the success of the event and its end result was the most
important motivating factor. Second, they all agreed that being able to achieve
industry experience in a classroom setting was a definite motivator.
Additionally, the students discussed how being responsible for an entire
campus-wide fundraiser motivated them to succeed because their reputation was at
stake among their peers, professors and administrators throughout the
university. In fact, the fourth point they made was that the initial challenge
from the Administration (i.e., having these superiors tell them they couldn't
host the event for "political reasons") challenged them to want to do
it even more -- and to produce an even more successful event. "We
just didn't want to quit. So we set certain standards and we set them high,"
one student commented.
Other students said they liked the closeness they established during
this class due to the nature of its structure. They were able to develop
close-knit friendships with other students in the class. They reported that
this closeness isn't usually established in a traditional lecture and
test-taking class. It should also be noted that of the 23 students enrolled in
this course, 11 students, nearly half of the class, had perfect attendance.
Another 6 only missed one class and the remaining 6 missed only two classes over
a 10-week period. Other than a statement that said students were allowed to
take up to four absences, there were no penalties or stipulations regarding the
attendance policy indicated in the syllabus. Increased attendance supports the
premise that students were highly motivated to participate in the class
assignment.
Finally, answers from this interview divulged that the students were
motivated by the management principles themselves. Specifically, students said
they were motivated because they realized that through the successful
coordination of this event, they were actually acquiring these critical
management principles which included strategic planning, networking, total
quality management, empowerment, synergy, and leadership. All 23 students
commented, whether it be during the focus group interview, in their evaluations
or in
their follow-up reports, that the hands-on, "real world" management
experience was integral to motivating them to learn and to succeed in this
class.
ANALYSIS
The data has revealed three outcomes. First, this research
demonstrated that motivational factors, which are a key part of the leading
management function, played a prevalent role in encouraging students to apply
public relations theories, principles, strategies and tactics. Therefore, their
critical thinking skills were enhanced.
The term "motivation" originates from the Latin word movere, which
means "to move." The basic motivation model incorporates the concepts of needs,
drives, goals and rewards. There are two schools of motivational theories:
content and process. Content theories focus on what energizes, arouses, or
starts behavior whereas the process theories focus on why people are motivated
(Szilagyi & Wallace 89). Results from the data discussed above clearly
indicates that the students enrolled in the PR Event Management class were
motivated by two factors: 1) the end result -- or the goal -- which is the same
motivator postulated by process theories 2) and the opportunity to utilize "real
world" management principles. The students in this class demonstrated that they
were motivated by these two elements rather than by earning good grades, a
traditional student motivator.
Edwin Locke's goal theory, which describes the relationship between
conscious goals and task performance, postulates that an employee's conscious
goals influence his or her work behavior. Further, individual motivation and
performance are improved if the employee knows clearly, and is challenged by,
what needs to be done (Szilagyi & Wallace 142). This was apparent in the PR
Event Management class. The students agreed that producing a successful event
was far more important than earning an "A" or having "comp time" awarded to them
time at the end of the quarter to compensate for the hours they put in to the
project outside of the classroom.
Second, authentic assessment stimulated students to do well and
produce a quality program. Knowing they were being critiqued not only by their
instructor but also by their peers, other professors and campus administrators
inspired them to do the best they could and to produce the finest event of which
they were capable.
Finally, it was evident that the management principles themselves
motivated students to learn -- and to produce a successful event. The most
prevalent management concepts cited by the students were strategic planning,
networking, total quality management, empowerment, synergy, and leadership.
CONCLUSION
Combining basic management principles with public relations
communication management principles in a project-based public relations course
can enhance students' levels of motivation and, in turn, may increase the
productivity and quality of their work. Additionally, by encouraging students
to utilize these management principles, students demonstrate higher order
critical thinking skills which will serve them well upon graduation, regardless
of the career they pursue.
Public relations practitioners and educators continue to boast that
public relations is a management function. Therefore, colleges and
universities must continue their search to find resourceful and creative ways to
incorporate management principles into the public relations curriculum. As the
millennium approaches, managing information will become increasingly more
technological for tomorrow's public relations practitioner. It is up to
educators to work collaboratively with industry professionals to provide
students with the essential tools to become effective managers.
This study represents only one instance of academic assessment via
project work. The area of authentic assessment research in higher education --
especially in public relations -- is virtually untapped. As with any study,
repetition can help to validate or disprove its results. Future studies on
project-based classes will allow for more refining and restructuring.
Fine-tuning these management classes provides a win-win situation for everyone:
the instructors matriculate students who possess the necessary tools to succeed;
students enter the workforce with communication as well as technician management
skills; and the industry continues to flourish with proactive PR professionals
who are able to serve the organizations they represent.
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Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1993.
Grunig, James. "Teaching Public Relations in the Future." Public
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Debate Program." Paper Presentation. Speech Communication
Association at Annual Meeting, Miami, Fla., 1993. Online. ERIC.
Kinnick, Katherine and Cameron, Glen. "Teaching Public Relations
Management: The Current State of the Art." Public Relations Review. Spring
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Szilagyi, Andrew and Wallace, Marc. Organizational Behavior and
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VanLeuven, Jim. "Practitioners Talk About the State of PR Education."
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