Communicating legitimacy through portrayals of successful aging: An examination of Pulte homes’ online communication strategies

Abstract

The aging population has created implications for many industries, especially in terms of establishing legitimacy among stakeholders. One industry that has been affected by the shifting demographics is homebuilding. Older adults must consider future housing needs that allow for successful aging. However, the current inventory of houses and neighborhoods are not necessarily built to suit this population. Pulte Homes, a national homebuilding company, has a line of active adult communities under the name Del Webb. To understand how Pulte communicates legitimacy for this housing product, I completed a qualitative content analysis of the Del Webb section of the organizational website that integrates the tenets of the Communication Ecology Model of Successful Aging (CEMSA) with five discursive strategies for establishing legitimacy. In doing so, I found that Pulte constructed an idealized portrayal of age/aging by emphasizing the need to (1) plan for future needs, (2) express optimism about aging, (3) resist age-based stereotypes, and (4) minimize the role of communication technology. Based on these findings, Pulte’s discourse ultimately positions Del Webb as a utopia for older adults/space that facilitates ‘successful’ aging and raises questions about the transparency of this organizational discourse.

Keywords

Aging-in-place communication model of successful aging legitimacy qualitative content analysis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

AARP (2014) Livable communities, baby boomer facts and figures. Available at: https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/info-2014/livable-communities-facts-and-figures.html (accessed 01 March 2018).

Anderson

(2018) Merging risk and financial communication: Understanding how Prudential creates and resolves the retirement risk. Public Relations Inquiry 7(1): 63–82.

Bachman

Ingenhoff

(2016) Legitimacy through CSR disclosures? The advantage outweighs the disadvantages. Public Relations Review 42(3): 386–394.

Bernays

(1947) The engineering of consent. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 250(1): 113–120.

Bernays

(1955) The Engineering of Consent. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

Blechman

(2008) An unattractive wrinkle in housing: Fast-growing retirement communities legally practice age discrimination. Available at: http://andrewblechman.blogspot.com/2008/07/los-angeles-times-op-ed.html (accessed 01 March 2018).

Bortree

(2009) The impact of green initiatives on environmental legitimacy and admiration of the organization. Public Relations Review 35(2): 133–135.

Boyd

(2000) Actional legitimation: No crisis necessary. Journal of Public Relations Research 12(4): 341–353.

Boyd

(2009) 756*: The legitimacy of a baseball number. In: Heath

Toth

Waymer

(eds) Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations II. New York: Routledge, pp.154–169.

10.

Boyatzis

(1998) Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

11.

Braun

Clarke

(2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2): 77–101.

12.

Capriotti

(2007) Chemical risk communication through the Internet in Spain. Public Relations Review 33(3): 326–329.

13.

Clair

Anderson

(2013) Portrayals of the poor on the cusp of capitalism: Promotional materials in the case of Heifer International. Management Communication Quarterly 27(4): 537–567.

14.

Crabtree

Miller

(1999) A template approach to text analysis: Developing and using codebooks. In: Crabtree

Miller

(eds) Doing Qualitative Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp.163–177.

15.

Davey

Nana

de Joux

, et al. (2004) Accommodation Options for Older People in Aotearoa/new Zealand. Wellington, New Zealand: NZ Institute for Research on Ageing/Business & Economic Research Ltd, for Centre for Housing Research Aotearoa/New Zealand.

16.

Epstein

Votaw

(1978) Legitimacy. In Epstein

Votaw

(eds) Rationality, legitimacy, responsibility: Search for new directions in business and society. Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear Tires, pp.69–82.

17.

Fereday

Muir-Cochrane

(2006) Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Research 5(1): 80–92.

18.

Fortune (2017) Fortune 500. Available at: http://fortune.com/fortune500/list/ (accessed 01 March 2018).

19.

Fowler

Gasiorek

Giles

(2015) The role of communication in aging well: Introducing the communicative ecology model of successful aging. Communication Monographs 82(4): 431–457.

20.

Heath

(2006) Onward into more fog: Thoughts on public relations research directions. Journal of Public Relations Research 18(2): 93–114.

21.

Heath

(2009) Introduction. In Heath

Toth

Waymer

(eds) Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations II. New York: Routledge, pp.1–12.

22.

Hsieh

H-F

Shannon

(2005) Three approaches to qualitative content analysis: Qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research 15, 1277–1288. doi:10.1177/1049732305276687.

23.

Hummert

Garstka

Shaner

, et al. (1994) Stereotypes of the elderly held by young, middle-aged, and elderly adults. Journal of Gerontology 49(5): 240–249.

24.

Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (2016) Housing America’s Older Adults. Available at: http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/jchs.harvard.edu/files/harvard_jchs_state_of_the_nations_housing_2017_chap1.pdf (accessed 01 March 2018).

25.

Bartlett

(2014) Managing impressions during institutional change—The role of organizational accounts in legitimacy. Public Relations Inquiry 3(3): 341–360.

26.

Long

(2016) Managing legitimacy crisis for state-owned non-profit organization: A case study of the Red Cross Society of China. Public Relations Review 42(2): 372–374.

27.

Merkelsen

(2013) Legitimacy and reputation in the institutional field of food safety: A public relations case study. Public Relations Inquiry 2(2): 243–265.

28.

Metzler

(2001) The centrality of organizational legitimacy to public relations practice. In: Heath

(ed) Handbook of Public Relations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp.321–334.

29.

NAHB (2007) The age-qualified active adult housing market. Available at: http://www.nahbclassic.org/generic.aspxgenericContentID=80711&fromGSA=1 (accessed 01 March 2018).

30.

Nowell

Norris

White

, et al. (2017) Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 16(1): 1–13.

31.

Nussbaum

Ohs

(2009) Aging and applied communication research. In: Frey

Cissna

(eds) Routledge Handbook of Applied Communication Research. New York: Routledge, pp.429–452.

32.

Olick

(2014) Homebuilder’s New Sweet Spot: The 55-Plus Crowd. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/17/home-builders-new-sweet-spot-the-55-plus-crowd.html (accessed 01 March 2018).

33.

Ouwehand

de Ridder

DTD

Bensing

(2007) A review of successful aging models: Proposing proactive coping as an important additional strategy. Clinical Psychology Review 27(8): 873–884.

34.

Pecchioni

Wright

Nussbaum

(2005) Life-span Communication. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

35.

Pew Research (2010) Baby Boomers Retire. Available at: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2010/12/29/baby-boomers-retire/ (accessed 01 March 2018).

36.

Pulte (2017a) Annual Report. Available at: http://www.pultegroupinc.com/investors/investor-overview/default.aspx (accessed 01 March 2018).

37.

Pulte (2017b) History. Available at: http://www.pultegroupinc.com/about-us/pultegroup-history/default.aspx (accessed 01 March 2018).

38.

Remund

(2015) The golden years: Addressing the challenges of an aging population. Public Relations Tactics. Available at: http://apps.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/10896/1103/The_Golden_Years_Addressing_the_Challenges_of_an_A#.Wq14qb3wZhA (accessed 01 March 2018).

39.

Seeger

(1986) The Challenger tragedy and search for legitimacy. Central States Speech Journal 37(3): 147–157.

40.

Stokes

Atkin -Sayre

(2018) PETA, rhetorical fracture, and the power of digital activism. Public Relations Inquiry 7(2): 149–170.

41.

Suchman

(1995) Managing legitimacy: strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review 20(3): 571–610.

42.

Tracy

(2013) Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

43.

U.S. Census Bureau (2010a) The 2010 census. Available at: https://www.census.gov/2010census/ (accessed 01 March 2018).

44.

U.S. Census Bureau (2010b) The Next Four Decades: The Older Population in the United States: 2010 To 2050 . Available at: https://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p25-1138.pdf (accessed 01 March 2018).

45.

Vaara

Tierni

Laurila

(2006) Pulp and paper fiction: On the discursive legitimation of global industrial restructuring. Organizational Studies 27(6): 789–810.

46.

Veil

(2007) Mayhem in the Magic City: Rebuilding legitimacy in a communication train wreck. Public Relations Review 33(3): 337–339.

47.

Waymer

Heath

(2014) Organisational legitimacy: The overlooked yet all-important foundation of OPR research. PRism 11(2): 1–10.

48.

Wiles

Leibing

Guberman

, et al. (2012) The meaning of ‘aging in place’ to older people. Gerontologist 52(3): 357–366.

49.

Yin

(1994) Case Study Research: Design and Methods (2nd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.