Public relations and the new institutionalism: In search of a theoretical framework

Abstract

The aim of this conceptual article is to study a possible dual relationship between public relations and the new institutionalism. How can neo-institutional organizational theory contribute to public relations research, including answering the question: How is public relations (corporate communication or strategic communication) institutionalized in private and public organizations? And how, vice versa, can public relations contribute to the neo-institutional study of organizations, including answering the question: How does public relations institutionalize? In the first part of the article, a short up-to-date précis of the new institutionalism is given demonstrating how this theoretical framework within organizational sociology has developed through various stages and in various directions. The focus is on the shift towards a more complex and interactive understanding of how and why organizations adopt institutionalized norms. In the second part of the article, the new interest in rhetorical, discursive and communicative aspects among neo-institutional scholars is discussed with special reference to Lammers’s theory of institutional messages. An outline of a new theory about how public relations institutionalizes is presented. Each of the two parts of the article ends with a set of research questions to be addressed by future cross-disciplinary research in public relations and neo-institutional organizational theory.