(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
The Emotional Labor Influence on Writing Instructor Performance
as a Factor in the Organization-Public Relationship
Morris Brown Jr., D.P.A.
California State University, Chico
Those who teach college-level writing courses in mass media and English face the daily task of
providing meaningful, sensitive, and helpful feedback to students. Writing instructors face hours
of personal involvement with students through classroom interaction and conferencing. As a
result, these faculty often struggle to balance the roles they play—grammarian, coach, mentor,
and counselor—while attempting to meet not only the expectations of their institutions, but also
the professional training expectations and demands of industry.
Because of their responsibilities in the classroom and their related duties as representatives of
their academic institutions, teaching faculty can be viewed as key players in the organizationpublic
relationship (OPR). Ledingham and Bruning (1998) define OPR as the state that exists
between an organization (the university) and its key publics (faculty, students, parents,
government officials, local businesses, community groups, etc.). OPR is a key aspect of an
organization’s overall public relations strategy to develop “commitment, openness, trust,
involvement, and investment” with its various publics (Ledingham & Bruning, 1998, p. 63).
Public relations is “a planned process to influence public opinion, through sound character and
proper performance, based on mutually satisfactory two-way communication” (Seitel, 2007, p.
4). Ferguson (1984), who initiated interest in the study of public relationships, asserts that the
matter of relationships between an organization and its key publics should be central to the study
of public relations research.
Broom, Casey, and Ritchey (2000) define OPR as being “represented by the patterns of
interaction, transaction, exchange, and linkage between [an] organization and its publics” (p. 18).
Moreover, research by Bruning and Ledingham (2000) found a connection between a public’s
relationship with an organization and that public’s perception of satisfaction with the
organization.
Ledingham (2003) has further developed the relationship perspective by proposing a theory of
relationship management that states “effectively managing organization-public relationships
around common interests and shared goals, over time, results in mutual understanding and
benefit for interacting organizations and publics” (p. 190). This supports the belief that the OPR
is especially important in higher education settings based on the potential for either positive or
negative relationships between an institution and its various publics.
While it is paramount that a good organization-public relationship be established between the
organization and its publics, the emotional well being of employees within that organization
must be considered along with any expectation that employees will make a meaningful
contribution to the organization-public relationship. Research (Ledingham, 1998, 2003;
Ledingham & Bruning, 1998; Broom, Casey & Ritchey, 2000) suggests that the connection
between a public’s relationship with an organization and that public’s perception of satisfaction
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