The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations is the University of Alabama\u2019s PR school, focused allegedly bettering the PR industry. Every two years (I don\u2019t know why) they put out a report card on the PR Industry\u2019s performance (read: a very big survey), which then invariably causes PR people to get mad at anything even remotely critical.\u00a0This year\u2019s report card\u00a0gives communication leaders a C+, which caused the whiny babies at PRDaily\u00a0to have a very civilized tantrum, questioning the co-author of the study and professor emeritus at the University of Alabama Dr. Bruce Berger about why all the grades aren\u2019t A+, and how he could be so mean.<\/p>\n
The study is good because A) it annoyed PR Daily, and B) it actually presents things based on a survey without attempting to make the PR people feel better. The study highlights the basics of what every PR person who hasn\u2019t succeeded in their industry by not getting fired for 10 years \u2013 that the top leaders are very engaged with their jobs \u2013 the top crop of leaders are very engaged, as they have reached the point in their jobs where they can take the credit but outsource the work, and those below them are becoming increasingly less satisfied.<\/p>\n \u201cEngaged employees give greater discretionary effort, work with passion and feel strongly connected with their organization. Not engaged employees do the minimum, just enough to get by. They show up, go through the motions, but bring no energy or passion to the workplace. Actively disengaged employees can harm or weaken their organization. They act out their unhappiness or resentment on the job and adversely influence others\u2014they can undercut organizational programs and goals.\u201d<\/p>\n The Plank Center Report Card, 2019<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This absolutely sounds like 95% of PR people I\u2019ve met in their first five years.<\/p>\n PR Daily also called out a particularly damning part of the report \u2013 that women aren\u2019t involved enough in strategic thinking and decision-making \u2013 and immediately decided to move on to ask why scores in general aren\u2019t improving:<\/p>\n Women\u2019s perceptions of shared power in decision-making, two-way communication, and the valuing of their opinions differed significantly as reflected in trust in the organization, culture and engagement issues. Women said they want more involvement in strategic decision-making, they want their opinions to count for more, and they want a communication system that places greater emphasis on two-way communication.<\/p>\n The Plank Center Report Card, 2019<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Maybe it\u2019s because the PR industry has a massive issue with sexism! Quartz\u00a0wrote a great piece in 2016\u00a0about how women dominate the PR industry, but the men are leading the agencies. I realize I\u2019m a white man that runs a PR firm, talking about a problem about men running PR firms \u2013 the truth is, there is an ongoing issue of how women are treated extremely poorly in PR, and a large part of it goes to PR\u2019s total inability to critique itself. Just take a look at PRWeek\u2019s awesome 2017 panel of men, at a conference about women in PR,\u00a0where Lord of Castle Greyskull himself Richard Edelman said that women should \u201cspeak up more loudly,\u201d\u00a0two months after\u00a0Edelman themselves put out a blog about combating casual sexism. There is a power imbalance. It must be discussed and challenged.<\/p>\n Funnily enough, Dr. Berger actually said:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cEgo is what gets in the way,\u201d says Berger. \u201cThere are some leaders who do not want to hear complaints and do not want to hear criticism.\u201d The second-most-common barrier to self-reflection was time.<\/em><\/p>\n PRDaily, \u201cWhy are they all being so mean to us in their report cards :(\u201d October 2019<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n PRDaily then proceeded to move on from any kind of consideration of this subject and simply continues to say exactly what was said to them. I mean, it\u2019s not like one of, if not\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0most popular PR website should have any kind of self-reflection? Right?<\/p>\n I mean, the fact that PRDaily can publish the following with a straight face is almost admirably<\/p>\n Why aren\u2019t the scores improving?<\/strong> Again, Berger cites the difficulty in transitioning from recognizing you have a problem to doing something about it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The piece, which features a moody-looking woman holding up a test graded \u201cC\u201d (guess they couldn\u2019t photoshop it to C+, but whatever), which is exactly what you should expect from PR people \u2013 a deep, childish sigh that someone would dare attack them.<\/p>\n As an industry, we should be\u00a0extremely worried<\/em>\u00a0that one of the easiest jobs in the world has dwindling engagement numbers. Maybe it\u2019s because we\u2019ve created a culture of pumping up our own work, and tolerated decades of managers that believe management is \u201cI will make you do my work and then I will take credit for it.\u201d Satisfaction is declining year over year \u2013 men are nearly 9%\u00a0more satisfied than women by their job<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 and nearly half of all PR people in non-leadership roles are neutral or dissatisfied with their jobs.<\/p>\n The industry\u2019s lack of reaction to this report \u2013 created by an actual school of PR founded in the name of someone who actually did work at their job (which I understand is an affront to all that middle management in PR stands for) \u2013 is proof that it\u2019ll get swept under the rug again. Great stuff, everyone!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations is the University of Alabama\u2019s PR school, focused allegedly bettering the PR … <\/p>\n