From Relationship Management to Change Empowerment: Shifting Public Relations Theory to Prioritize Publics

ABSTRACT The global upheaval caused by events in 2020 and beyond – from navigating a pandemic to an American reckoning with long-standing issues of race and inequality – has placed the public voice front and center. Public discourse now plays an essential role in shaping organizational policy and practice. This article posits that in response, public relations must take a “next turn” theoretically in a way that prioritizes the public voice. As such, guided by the perspectives of LGBTQIA advocacy leaders in the post-Obergefell (post-marriage-equality) era, this article argues that the field must shift from a focus on relationship management to one on change empowerment. In so doing, it contends that if we are going to truly take a next turn to focus on the public in this post-2020 context, then theoretically we must better-address the influence and process of change – emanating from internal and external forces. This article also contends that while public relations certainly remains a management function, the lessons from 2020 mandate that we question our field’s focus on “managing” relationships and instead investigate how public relations can become a source of empowerment.