This study examined whether Australian public relations and communication practitioners enact an organizational conscience role through their involvement in the organizational value-setting process. Thirty communication practitioners from 26 large organizations in Melbourne and Sydney were interviewed between May 2004 and May 2005 to ascertain and discuss their involvement in organizational value setting. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews to gather data and then applying a multiple perspective approach in its thematic data analysis, the research found that most respondents were involved in organizational value setting albeit at different stages of the process. In analysing the nature of the respondent's involvement in the process along with individual and organizational factors, three roles emerged namely, the agent of critical conscience, the agent of concertive control, and the agent of corporate compliance. However the results suggest that most respond ents enacted primarily the concertive control and corporate compliance agency roles. The study also found that the predominant managerial/functionalist perspective constrains practitioners from enacting the conscience leadership role. In exploring the practitioners' ability to influence organizational members, findings support recent studies that membership in the dominant coalition does not necessarily give public relations/communication practitioners power and influence. Rather, direct access to the CEO, expertise, performance and personality were found to be the key ingredients to the individual communication practitioners' organizational influence. Findings also reveal that public relations/communication practitioners preferred to participate but not drive the organizational value-setting process. In using a multiple perspective approach to study public relations roles, this study provides empirical basis for identifying potential leadership roles for public relations/communication practitioners and for suggesting an extension of the manager-technician role typology. The study calls for public relations/communication practitioners to enact a critical conscience agent role as part of finding a meaningful, ethical and socially responsible practice. This study proposes that critical thought and dialectical inquiry be embedded within the public relations/communication practitioner's role and public relations education.

Public relations is one of the fastest growing majors chosen by college students throughout the United States, and most of these students are women. This thesis attempts to define the important role that women play in the practice of public relations and to determine why female students choose this major as their desired field of study more often then men. There is a need for such a study because in 1996 women accounted for only 37 percent of managers in marketing, advertising, and public relations, although they comprised 62 percent of all public relations specialists in this country. This research study seeks to outline the arguments for and against gender diversity efforts, within public relations practice, and to examine the motivations female college students may have for entering such a tumultuous field. To accomplish this purpose, this study will also borrow from established research in academic interest and career development in general.

This study attempts to identify how public relations are practiced in local governments. Traditional literature has stated that the public information model of public relations is the model of public relations practiced in local governments. This study also attempts to determine which roles are most common for lead communicators in municipal organizations governments. Based on Internet survey research methods, research findings indicated that while most practitioners stated they practiced a two-way communications model, they had the most expertise in the public information and press agentry models. The researcher also found that the role most often held by the highest ranking communicator was that of public relations manager, although they stated there was the most expertise in their department to do the things typical of public relations technicians. Low total population and response rates prevent confident generalization of the results of this study to the entire local government communicator population. The research contributes to the field of public relations in local government.