Public Relations programs begin and end with research.

As this basic communication planning model demonstrates, public relations programs depend upon research for planning, monitoring and evaluating communication programs. (For an extended discussion of the current state-of-the-practice, please visit this entry in my blog.)

These are examples of research services I provide to my clients.

Secondary Studies

Secondary research involves examining the literature or other information sources such as news media reports or an organization's Twitter streams to answer specific questions.

Example: I have conducted news media analyses, for several clients, to answer specific management questions about relationships with certain media and reporters. For example, to convince one CEO who believed the leading industry-publication to be biased against the company, content analysis of media reports demonstrated that while the publication was rigidly unbiased in its reporting, "negative" material about the company was contained almost exclusively in the quoted commentary of equity analysts. This led to a program to improve analyst -- not media -- relationships.

Example: For a major bank planning a corporate re-engineering project, I answered key questions, through reviews of primary studies, such as: "What role does trust of management play in employee support of the company? How is support demonstrated by employees? What are the factors that contribute to job satisfaction? How is it measured? What are the behavioral components of "trust" and what specific management actions can be taken to improve trust and credibility?"

A communication program-planning workshop

This is an all-day, facilitated program to develop full-scale communication programs in issue-driven and urgent circumstances. (See the workshop description for details about this program.)

Example: A large healthcare company convened leaders of its industry from around the United States to plan the industry's collective response, through its professional association, to pending legislative and regulatory threats. The workshop resulted in engaging a professional search firm to identify a Washington-based PR/lobbying firm and a multi-million investment in a public affairs program to avert the threats.

Benchmark studies of best practices

Traditional benchmark studies of best practices combine primary-research techniques, such as in-depth interviews, site visits and surveys, and secondary-research techniques such as aliterature reviews.

Example: As part of its ongoing public accountability program, the hospital Association of Pennsylvania commissioned a study, Building Relationships with Community Opinion Leaders: Why, Who and How. The report drew on an annotated bibliography produced by a noted public relations academic and researcher, a self-administered survey of "benchmark partners" who were identified by prominent authors and other experts as representative of current "best practices," and in-depth interviews with CEOs and other senior officers of 13 member hospitals. The study was distributed to all of the member hospitals.

Example: A healthcare system commissioned a study, Best Practices: Organizing a Public Affairs Function as part of an effort to reorganize its in-house functions to place greater emphasis upon building relationships with legislators and regulators at the state and federal levels. The study report was based on in-depth interviews with the senior government relations officers of eight major health systems.

In-Depth Initerview-Based Reports

For a major urban university's school of business, I conducted an interview study among major employers in the school's region to determine employers' needs, expectations and reactions regarding a proposed change of the school's MBA program from "generic" to industry-specific.

Best practices white papers and issue briefings

Best practices research is often entirely based on secondary-research techniques, chiefly reviews of existing research and scholarship on a particular subject, and produced as a white paper.

Example: A major financial institution engaged us to consult with the executive steering committee that was responsible for conducting a re-engineering of a major subsidiary company. One product of this assignment was white paper about Best Practices in Employee Communication, which focused on preparing the steering committee for the challenges they would face in terms of employee morale and productivty when the re-engineering was completed.

Example: A large healthcare system commissioned a white paper, Hospital Price Transparency, to demonstrate current trends and impending legislations and regulation that is driving the need for healtghcare systems to provide comparative pricing information about their services.

Example: I conducted, analyzed, reported and presented best practices benchmark studies for a major bank (the use of technology in corporate communications functions) and a major industrial chemical manufaturer (the structure and organization of chemical company public affairs operations.)

Employee Opinion Polls

I have designed, conducted, reported and presented the results of full-scale employee surveys for three major corporations.

Public opinion polls

Public opinion polls employ scientific sampling methods to accurately portray the opinions of an entire population based on a selected sample of the population within a specified margin of error.

Example: A large healthcare system engaged me to conduct a poll that would measure the success of certain marketing programs and to learn more about factors leading to the selection of hospitals. The study was based on 2,847, 14-minute in-depth telephone interviews with adult residents, 35 years of age or older, living in five specific georaphic areas. The sample screened-out journalists, hospital employees or volunteers, physicians and hospital directors and trustees.

Example: I Conducted an "overnight" survey of 800 18+adults and 150 community leaders in a targeted state to guide the communication planning process for an acquisition bid made by a company after another takeover offer was already in play.

The Relationship Check-Up©

A Relationship Check-Up© is a proprietary method I developed for assessing the state of an organization's relationships with key internal and external constituent groups, whose expectations must be met to win their support for the goals and objectives of the organization.

Examples: I have conducted six Community Relationship Check-Ups for four teaching hospitals. The process involved in-depth interviews with community leaders, senior staff, physicians and board members; a series of employee focus groups; and audits of the institution's publications, advertising, collateral materials and publicity activities. I've also conducted "mini" Check-Ups with specialized audiences such as physicians and equity analysts for several clients.