Synopsis of Doctoral thesis on Effects of Power Distance on Personal Influence Model of Public Relations in India

Synopsis of Doctoral thesis

Effects of Power Distance on Personal Influence Model of Public Relations in India:

A case study of Mumbai-based organisations during 2009-11.

Dr Meenakshi Upadhyay

Department of Communication and Journalism

 University of Mumbai

Guide
Prof Dr. Kiran Thakur

 February 2013

For details: upadhyay.meenakshi@gmail.com 

Abstract
The profession of public relations in India has grown post-liberalization. It is practiced using the Personal Influence model of public relations as put forth by K.Sriramesh. Anastasia Lyra, Yi-Hui Huang and Robert Dilenschneider are among others who established the presence of this model in different cultures.  Hierarchy is natural to Indian people and the power distance index by Geert Hofstede puts India on the higher side of the index quotient. The boss-subordinate relationship in Indian organisations has always been unequal due to this cultural influence. How does this inequity influence the way public relations is practiced in India? This is examined in detail through this study also focuses on other hierarchical manifestations like caste and class on the boss-subordinate relationship. It studies the motivation that bosses use to encourage subordinates at work in a public relations department. As culture is an important element of study in this research, regional culture and its influence on the practice of personal influence model of public relations was also probed.


The study is exploratory and descriptive. In depth interviews and questionnaire survey methods were used to conduct the study in the period 2009-2011. A survey of corporate communication managers was conducted in the leading BSE companies of India, who had their offices in Mumbai. In-depth interviews were taken of corporate communication Heads in various sectors of the industry and government. This research concludes that power distance still exists in India. Though there is a change noticed, a trend is now slowly moving to bosses being respected for their qualities and not just being higher in the rank. Caste and class are not influencing the way the boss manages a public relations department. Motivation is given in various ways to encourage the subordinates at work.
This research was expected be useful to academicians, students and professionals in public relations to understand the changing trends and styles in the practice of public relations in India.

Introduction
Public relations practice in India has evolved since the advent of liberalization in 1990. Multinational companies started their offices in India and a need was felt to communicate with the Indian publics. There was a time when public relations departments were unheard of in organisations. Marketing departments managed the public relations function. In crucial decision-making processes public relations practitioners were not to be seen. Even as this research was being conducted, it was observed that certain organisations did not have a separate public relations department. The researcher has done projects in public relations departments in organisations and in public relations agencies and here she could closely observe and experience the working of public relations as a function. The ideation of this research emerged from this working experience. The public relations practitioner is often counseled or ‘told’ by his/her immediate superior to practice public relations with important publics using the personal influence model of public relations (Grunig, Grunig, Sriramesh, Huang, & Lyra, 1995). As a culture in India we look up to authority. This has even been proved by research conducted by Geert Hofstede in the eighties. Sriramesh observed that power distance index rated high in India, according to Hofstede’ study. (Sriramesh K. , 2004). Thus the subordinate does as he/she is told to do. Hierarchy translates in the form of caste and class differences. People working in organisations belong to different regional and cultural differences. These differences could impact their working relationship, especially the relationship of a boss and subordinate. This research examined these aspects to understand if there is any change in the way public relations is practiced in India.

Literature Review
Krishnamurthy Sriramesh reviewed eighteen organisations in Bengaluru in 1991.This study led to the development of the personal influence model of public relations.This model describes how development of significant relationships with strategically placed individuals was considered crucial to public relations in India. The practitioner maintains personal relations with important persons such as members of the media, officers and secretaries of key government departments, airline and railways employees, workers in municipal and tax offices (Sriramesh, 2004). He also identified a technique he called hospitality relations in the personal influence model. Hospitality relations included giving away gifts, hosting dinners and lunches to significant publics, thus keeping channels open in the future to seek favours from them. The overall purpose of hospitality relations was to build a long-term relationship with journalists or other individuals at important decision-making positions. He also studied various public relations activities, which indicated if a strategic two-way communication was followed (Grunig, Grunig, Sriramesh, Huang, & Lyra, 1995).
Sriramesh also adds, that quantitatively the two-way symmetrical, two-way asymmetrical, press agentry, and public information models were practiced in that order. The ethnographic analysis showed that the press agentry and public information models proved excellent indicators of how the sample organizations practiced public relations (Grunig, Grunig, Sriramesh, Huang, & Lyra, 1995).
The "two-way symmetrical" model approach insists that public relations departments use negotiations, bargaining, and strategies that resolve conflicts to bring about mutual changes in the notions, attitudes, and behaviors of both the organization and its publics. (Grunig J. , 1984).
Communication is one of the functions of public relations (Krishnan, n.d.). It has been observed that as society’s culture influences the pattern of communication among members of a society, it will have a direct impact on the public relations practice of organisations as public relations is a communications practice (Sriramesh, 1992). The study of linking culture to public relations began only in the 1990s when K. Sriramesh and Jon White, both respected names in the field of Public Relations, started reviewing literature in this area. Public Relations is a communication activity so culture affects public relations too. Many research scholars such as Linda Smircich, Geert Hofstede and Monir Tayeb have studied various aspects of culture with respect to organisations but the studies of Geert Hofstede are most acclaimed. Hofstede studied 40 different nations to understand the differences in thinking and social action existing between people in these countries. He came up with different dimensions of culture out of which power distance is one of the dimensions (Hofstede, 1980).The term power distance translates into hierarchy and it manifests in the form of caste, class or organisational hierarchy. It indicates to what extent power inequalities are accepted by people. In India, Sriramesh says that this index rates high as per Hofstede’s study (Sriramesh, 2004). He observed that seniors or the decision makers decided what was best for an organsiation and its publics. This arrived from the fact that they held higher positions in the hierarchy. This helped him postulate that the senior organisational leaders would decide that in the day-to-day public relations affairs, personal influence model should be used (Sriramesh, 2004). The result of power distance is observed when subordinates try to appease  their seniors and respect authority. This was observed by Sriramesh in a study when his respondents said in India people like to be told what to do (Sriramesh, 1996).
India has people belonging to different morphological, genetic, cultural, and linguistic differences. Though much of this variability is natural to the region, still quite a large segment is a result of immigration into India during historical times (Majumdar, 1998) This diversity is always a challenge to public relations practitioners to deseminate messages across India (Culburtson, 1996). A manager in an organisation may dictate to his subordinate on how a work is done or may play the role of a motivator in assisting the subordinate in doing the same work. According to the path-goal theory, a manager motivates his subordinates by helping them decide the right path in accomplishing their goals and organisational goals. This theory further explains that managers will have to take up different leadership behaviours to match the nature and demands of the situation at hand and to help in giving appropriate direction and support to the subordinates (House, 1971). This research examined the relationship between power distance and the practice of personal influence model of public relations, and studied the boss-subordinate relationship and the practice of the model. It explored manifestations of power distance, elements such as caste and class that can affect boss-subordinate relationship in a public relations department. It also probed if subcultures played any role in the way public relations was practiced in India. The researcher looked for various public relations activities in public relations practices.

Research Methodology
Theoretical Framework
The researcher has used different theories of public relations and theories of culture in the thesis.

Research Questions
R1. Is there still a relationship between personal influence model and power distance in managing day-to-day affairs in public relations? If yes how?
R2. Which strategies and techniques do practitioners in India use for building personal influence?
R3. How do public relations practitioners perceive the personal influence model in India and what are the reasons for these perceptions?
R4. Does regional culture have an effect on the practice of personal influence model? If yes, how do practitioners perceive this in their day-to-day working?
R5. Is there any influence of caste on the boss-subordinate relationship in the day-to-day working of the department?
R6. Does class play any role in the way the boss manages his department?
R7. How do bosses motivate their subordinates while managing a public relations department?
R8. What are the different activities in the public relations department?


Utility of the Research
This research could be of use to public relations professionals in PR agencies, corporate houses, government and non-government offices, and to academicians and students in getting a better understanding of the mechanics of this profession. It would throw light upon the operation of public relations as a management profession and how it is affected by culture of its parent country.
It could explain if personal influence model of public relations is the only model being used by public relations professionals or is there another model, which is replacing this form.
This research would help public relations agencies and Corporate Communications professionals in designing better public relations strategies and campaigns.

Aim
To study the relationship between power distance and the practice of personal influence model of public relations in India
Objectives
• To find the presence of Personal Influence Model of public relations in organisations in Mumbai
• To collate methods used to build Personal Influence Model of public relations.
• To study the cultural affects, more specifically the use of Power distance on Personal Influence Model of public relations.
• To examine the effect of caste and class on boss-subordinate relationship.
• To find presence of a subculture in the practice of public relations in India.
• To collate various public relations activities.

Methodology and Methods
This research is descriptive in nature. It is exploratory as it looks for new issues that may affect the variables in the study.
Descriptive research offers information about the current position of an existing situation. It tends to describe, "What exists." This is studied keeping in mind the variables or conditions in that situation (Key, 1997). Descriptive research can be either quantitative or qualitative and can have elements of both the methodologies.
“Descriptive Studies are designed to describe a particular sequence of events or social setting rather than to test theories of causation. Many descriptive studies are qualitative, but survey research is also primarily descriptive in most cases” (Priest, 2010).

Methods
The research uses triangulation to study the problem. Triangulation method uses different methods to study the same problem and these methods can comprise of qualitative and quantitative approaches. This helps in achieving parallel results with different methods, thus giving more confidence in the results (Priest, 2010). It uses in-depth interview and survey to collect data. In-depth interview, also called depth interview, is designed to explore someone’s point of view in detail. Unlike survey interviews that ask as many as possible a short of identical questions, depth interviews are flexible and lengthy; they usually involve fewer respondents (Priest, 2010).
A survey research requires careful planning and execution and the research must take into account a wide variety of decisions and problems.
Sampling and tools of data collection
This researcher used a structured descriptive questionnaire for the survey and conducted this survey amongst PR executives of 22 companies (42% companies responded) from the 100 Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Companies having offices in Mumbai using simple random sampling. BSE is the Bombay stock exchange where stocks of companies based in India are traded. It is recognised under the Securities Contract Regulation Act, 1956. There were 23 responses because there were two respondents from two companies. These companies are leading companies in their respective industries and represent different sectors of the economy. They are amongst the most traded stocks too. The researcher also conducted in-depth interviews with a structured questionnaire. Nine senior respondents from various sectors of the industry and the government were interviewed.
The researcher has used companies from the BSE 100 as samples to ensure leading companies are chosen as samples. As this will bring to light the fact how these listed companies are practicing the personal influence model of public relations and how does power distance, the variable under study, has an effect in the practice. This means that how does hierarchy affect the working of public relations, which is done using the personal influence model in India in these organisations.
Fifty-two companies were chosen as samples from the list of the 100 BSE companies in the year 2009. Out of these companies, 22 have responded with 23 replies. The survey covered both, the subordinates and superiors.
The survey sample was chosen through simple random sampling. “The sampling procedure is known as simple random sampling if every population unit has same chance of being selected in the sample. The sample thus obtained is termed as simple random sample” (Singh & Mangat, 1996).
The interview samples were carefully chosen through convenience and snowball sampling.
“Snowball sampling procedure involved selecting people who are suggested by those who are already selected for the sample.” Convenience sampling amounts to selecting from a sampling frame that is available to study at the time” (Smithson, 2000).
Judging from this researcher’s earlier professional experience while working on projects with organisations, the PR industry in India is not very open in responding to research-related queries from academicians. The convenience and snowball sampling were thus found to be useful methods of non-probability sampling techniques to obtain replies from respondents. These methods have been used in both survey as well as in-depth interview methods.

A pre-test of the questionnaire was carried out to ensure that there were no problems like understanding of questions in the final survey.

Data Processing
The researcher carried out content analysis of the interviews and used IBM SPSS software for analysis of the survey data. This software is a renowned data analytics and data management solution programme.

Scope and Limitation of the Study
This study has a wide scope because public relations as a profession is only eighteen years old after it was given the status of a management function in India. It is a growing profession and the process by which this profession conducts itself can be an interesting study not only in Mumbai but outside it too. As it is a people’s profession and people are bound by cultures, its scope will vary across India. Organisations adapt to newer cultures and ways of communication and this study is an insight into the changing ways of communication.
The limitation of the study is that it was conducted only in Mumbai due to paucity of time and funds. Ideally, study of this nature should be carried out in other centres and regions of India. Yet, the researcher is confident that this study could lead to similar or related studies in other places as well.
Some other limiting factors in the study were getting respondents for the study. It was quite a tough task in convincing the sample for study. This researcher experienced that the public relations industry in India did not encourage research-related studies. This study is limited to well-known organisations, leaders in their sectors and so the findings may appear to be applicable only to the sample. Further study in other organisations in India would probably give more thoughts on the same subject.
The replies of many respondents have been a little restricted in the in-depth interviews. Many respondents asked the researcher not to pen down details, as it would be against the company policy for the respondent to reveal information.
In nutshell the methods used in the present research were:
• The research is both qualitative as well as quantitative and is exploratory and descriptive in nature.
• It has used the questionnaire-survey and in-depth interviews methods to study the phenomenon.

Analysis
The study indicated that 87% respondents had a separate public relations department in their organisations; this suggests that organisations where the respondents were surveyed feel the necessity of having a public relations department in their organisations. These departments have grown over the years and the function of public relations has assumed importance gradually. It appears that the public relations function appears to be evolving in the organisations of the respondents. Many public relations practitioners are part of the decision makers group, but not all feel it helps in being more autonomous. There is a point to be noted that public relations is still an allied function in some organisations, one of them is attached to the marketing function and the other is attached to the communication function. Respondents from most organisations say that they have a well-defined PR strategy in place. Crisis management and media relations were functions that required the public relations practitioner to spring into action more often. Discrimination of social, economical and regional background of employees is absent in the respondent’s organisations. It has been a unanimous view from the respondents that respect has to be earned from subordinates; being higher on the ladder does not make you eligible for respect from subordinates. However, hierarchy is the nature of the structure of all the organisations where the respondents worked. Authority of superiors is easily accepted at workplaces of the respondents as indicated by most. 56.5% of the respondents agree that it is readily accepted.  The senior respondents say that over the years they have come up with different motivation techniques that help in encouraging their subordinates to work better. Giving a free hand at work, giving space, trusting a subordinate, making them feel that they are important to the department are some of the ways that they have adapted. About 47% the respondents say that they have independence in taking decisions on the job. Of them, 13% strongly agree to the statement. At the same time 22 % disagree and 17% are undecided. It indicates that independence is there amongst respondents in some organisations. About 30% respondents feel that subordinates do not unnecessarily try to appease them to catch their attention and that they resent it when it is done to appease for favours.28 % strongly disagree to the statement. Almost equal numbers of respondents either agree or are undecided about the above statement. Almost half the respondents agree and disagree on the statement “You encourage subordinates to offer hospitality to build lasting friendships amongst key-persons”. About 26% respondents agree and 26% disagree to the statement. About 17% respondents strongly agree and 17% strongly disagree. It appears that some respondents encourage their subordinates to offer hospitality to build networking. Also it appears that though the boss encourages hospitality to build lasting friendships amongst key-persons, they are not encouraging the same for seeking favours.
Most respondents say that one has to concentrate on building lasting relationship with journalists, which required one to be patient and probably be hospitable to build a good contact. On the topic of exploitation of regional traits for public relations practice, most respondents feel that common language could be a starting point for conversation but finally in the field of public relations one has to be a professional. They all say it is better to be careful that the tool of ‘the same language’ should not be exploited.
On doing various public relations activities, liaising with the print media is a very important activity as 91% of the respondents are occupied into doing this work. Liaising with the broadcast and online media hold equal importance at both places there are 70 % respondents who do this work. Even managing non-media events is as important as liaising with the broadcast and online media. It appears that networking with the print media is the most important part of public relations activity. A very vital point is that only 39% respondents are keen on striving for feedback from stakeholders. A huge number,
70 % respondents appear not too keen on striving for feedback from stakeholders. It seems that feedback is not considered an important activity in these respondents’ organisations. It appears that research in client’s work is not a very important area 70 % respondents are not engaged into this activity.

Conclusion

Power Distance still exists in India. Organisational hierarchies are respected even in the current times, a very natural thing in our country. Authority of superiors is easily accepted and respected in organisations. Though there is a change noticed, a trend is now slowly moving to bosses being respected for their qualities and not just for being higher in the rank. They have to earn respect from their subordinates. This is a difference observed in previous studies where hierarchies had a very strong hold boss-subordinates relationship. Future boss-subordinates relationships will be more democratic in years to come.

As organisational hierarchies still exist, their influence on the working of day-to-day public relations activities is evident. Power distance does have some influence on the personal influence model of public relations. Some of the respondents, interviewed and surveyed from various well-known organisations in India, do encourage hospitality relations to build lasting friendships amongst important persons. This technique could involve wining and dining, but the end goal is to form effective networking amongst key-individuals and not being done to seek favours. However, this method is not completely absent in all the organisations.

Boss subordinate relationships are still not at equity and there is a tendency for the subordinates to please their superiors. Superiors use emotional as well as materialistic reward to motivate their subordinates, though more of emotional appeal is being used. Bosses do consult the subordinates before taking decision in the department, as the findings indicate. There is independence at work, where it was seen that independence in taking decisions on the job was there but not in the case of taking any policy decisions. There is a sense of conflict between points of views of the bosses and subordinates. The new order is taking a while to step in. Caste and Class discrimination is not an issue which is affects the way the department is being managed by the superiors.

Public Relations as a function too has evolved in the country as is evident from the data that separate public relations departments have come up and the public relations practitioner is slowly getting the credibility due to him/her for a long time. Two very important roles emerge of the PR practitioner: the crisis manager and the media relations manager. Managing the media is very important in India and from the data it is observed that most of the time the PR practitioner is engaged in managing the print media, a very crucial day-to-day activity. Even in the current times, preparing press invites, maintaining press clips and making press dockets is an important public relations activity.

Feedback forms part of two-way communication. Though the organisations have become alert on managing crisis and managing the media a very important activity of feedback from stakeholder is missing. This leads to one-way communication where information from the organisation is only being giving out to the publics.

Research is also an important area, which is not given much of importance too. The respondents do not spend much of their time doing research in the client’s business.
Regional cultures do have an effect on the way public relations activities can be conducted. It increases chances of striking a common chord between the public relations practitioner and the client organisation or the media, though all public relations respondents feel that in the long run it is not professional to exploit regional commonness.

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