Organizational activism undertaken and its ramifications faced by public relations practitioners,examined through the lens of postmodernism

Abstract

In mainstream public relations, the word “activist” has a negative connotation of one who disrupts an organization’s financial well-being. This is because mainstream public relations takes a modernist stance that valorizes the organization’s interests above all else. Postmodern scholars such as Holtzhausen (2012), however, urge public relations practitioners themselves to take an activist stance when confronted with organizational malpractices. Holtzhausen (2012) especially points out new media as tools with which the discursive space between stakeholders and organizations can be democratized. This study will explore the barriers to and the consequences of such activism as faced by public relations practitioners who resisted their employers over malpractices. We will also examine what form their activism took and how these public relations practitioner-activists leveraged the power of new media in their organizational activism.