Scribd
Upload
63 views2 pages

PR in The ER: Managing Internal Organization-Public Relationships in A Hospital Emergency Department

1) The document summarizes a research study that examines the internal public relations of a hospital emergency department. 2) The study aims to understand the antecedents and cultivation strategies for internal relationships, as well as the quality and outcomes of these relationships. 3) It uses a case study approach, combining interviews, focus groups, and observations to understand internal relationships, attitudes, and behaviors at one healthcare organization.

Uploaded by

AnKita Goel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
63 views2 pages

PR in The ER: Managing Internal Organization-Public Relationships in A Hospital Emergency Department

1) The document summarizes a research study that examines the internal public relations of a hospital emergency department. 2) The study aims to understand the antecedents and cultivation strategies for internal relationships, as well as the quality and outcomes of these relationships. 3) It uses a case study approach, combining interviews, focus groups, and observations to understand internal relationships, attitudes, and behaviors at one healthcare organization.

Uploaded by

AnKita Goel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Ankita Goel

MSc IAC

PR in the ER: Managing internal organizationpublic relationships in a hospital


emergency department
Summary
The research questions as developed in the paper are:
RQ1: What are the antecedents of internal OPR development within the ED?
RQ2: Which cultivation strategies are used to manage internal OPR within the ED?
RQ3: What is the quality of the relationships among internal publics and between internal
publics and the dominant coalition, assessed along dimensions of (a) trust, (b) satisfaction, (c)
commitment, and (d) control mutuality?
RQ4: What are the outcomes of internal OPR within the ED?
There is a gap in existing literature, regarding public relations practices within healthcare
organizations and the internal public relations function, which the study aims to fulfil. The
study takes into account two major concepts of relationship management and case study.
Relationship management seems to fit in the criteria well, but limitations of a case study
being undertaken and its application to the context have been discussed further.
Since the researcher identifies that relationships among the themes emerged and were
interpreted through the application of relevant public relations theory for the chosen hospital,
it points out that the measurements were reliable only for the chosen case but not
generalizable. Although the research provides answers to all the research questions but there
seems to be the presence of the research team itself during the site visit which may have
resulted in biased comments expressed by the focus group participants. So, it can be doubted
that the research is valid or not. Yet, this study provides a much-needed glimpse at internal
public relations in a health care setting and that it is a rst step in extending the relationship
management perspective to consider organizational culture as an outcome of internal
organizationpublic relationships, so it can be concluded it is a valid approach. Also, the
author took steps to ensure the validity and reliability of the measures such as: they involved
the research team who conducted eld observations, primarily by shadowing ED staff during
a weeknight shift. Also, the focus groups and interviews were transcribed in full, resulting in
over 14 hours of audio transcribed into more than 125 pages of transcripts.
This investigation utilized a case study approach. This method was effective because it helps
understanding internal relationships, attitudes, and behaviours in an organization (Berg,
1998). This case study combined three qualitative methods: (a) in-depth interviews with
members of the EDs dominant coalition, (b) focus groups with employee publics, and (c)
field observations of the ED.
Although it has to be argued that there are limitations to this approach. The greatest limitation
was the case study methodology. The study was conducted within one health care
organization. If this method would have been replicated in other health care settings or if
there was an extension to the study using quantitative research tools, the findings of this study
could have been more generalizable and would have lend greater support to the theoretical
claims proposed here.

Ankita Goel

MSc IAC

The research uses a purposive sampling, which is a non probability sampling technique.
Participants for the interviews and focus groups were recruited to ensure that all key internal
stakeholders were represented, including administrators, physicians, and nurses. It can be
argued that the purposive sampling approach may have failed to capture the perspectives of
all internal publics. It is suggested that future research may benefit from randomly sampling
hospital employees so that the conclusions that can be generalized to broader groups of health
care providers.

You might also like