1. Establishing Effective
Communication with External
Stakeholders: The Impact of Training
KELLY C. LOCKHART DODSON
COHORT 11

2. Introduction
My school and school system
were splattered all over the
evening news and all the
newspapers in Middle Tennessee
for something that happened in
a nearby school system.
Accreditation team
recommended that the school
system being studied implement
a system-wide communication
plan. (AdvancED, 2008)

3. Research Questions
Guiding Question:
What is the effect of the designed
system-wide communication plan and
professional development training on
school administrators’ competencies
and attitudes related to communicating
with external stakeholders, especially
the media?

4. Research Questions
 Specific Research Question #1: How does the
designed system-wide communication plan and
professional development impact administrators’
knowledge of communication models and theories,
planning and implementation of a complementary
school-level communication plan, crisis
communication management skills, and media
relations skills.

5. Research Questions
 Specific Research Question #2: How does the
designed system-wide communication plan and
professional development impact administrators’
application of communication models and theories,
planning and implementation of a complementary
school-level communication plan, crisis
communication management skills, and media
relations skills.

6. Research Questions
 Specific Research Question #3: How does the
designed system-wide communication plan and
professional development training impact
administrators’ attitude toward school public
relations initiatives?
 Specific Research Question #4: What impact do
critical incidents with media have on administrators’
attitude toward school public relations initiatives?

7. Review of Professional Literature
 Communicating with external stakeholders,
especially the media, is a standard for school
administrators. (ISSLC, 2008)
 Public perception of public schools is diminishing, as
accountability and market competiveness increases.
(Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup, 2009)
 Public perception and public support of public
schools may increase through building relationships
with external stakeholders, especially the media. (Bagin
& Gallagher, 2001)

8. Review of Professional Literature
 Establishing two-way symmetric communication is
said to build mutual understanding between a
formal organization and its “mass” or external
stakeholders. (Grunig & Hunt, 1984)
 The media is the primary external stakeholder
through which all the rest of internal and external
school and district stakeholders may be reached.
(Pawlas, 1995)

9. Review of Professional Literature
 Public education was once a cornerstone of
American Democracy, allowing it to have a once-
noble brand position. That is no longer the case. (Carr,
2006)
 As with other studies, perceptions of schools vary
depending on the polled person’s relationship to a
public school. Parents of public school children
connect differently with their schools than
Americans who do not have children in school. (Phi Delta
Kappa/Gallup, 2008)

10. Review of Professional Literature
 Perceptions of school quality vary significantly when
Americans consider “their” public schools versus the
public schools depicted in the media.
 The problem is that the majority of people, even on a
local level, do not have a direct connection to the
schools through a child (Bagin & Gallagher, 2001;
http://www.tennessee.gov.tacir/CountyProfile/cheathamprofile.htm).

11. Review of Professional Literature
 Newspapers are becoming more reader-oriented and
market-driven. (McManus, 1994; Underwood and Stamm, 1992; Bagdikian, 1985;
Kwitney, 1990; Reisinger, 1983; Vergobbi, 1992; Briles, 1991; Mauro, 1987; Associated
Press Managing Editors, 1990)
 Market-driven or market-oriented journalism continues to
change the culture of U.S. daily newspaper newsrooms.
(American Journalism Review, 2000)
 A strong market orientation implies that the organization
will “aggressively seek to determine the kinds of
information that readers or viewers say that they want or
need and will provide it.” (Beam, 2000)

12. Review of Professional Literature
 Traditional media are suffering financially. Annual
print and online advertising are off $10 billion from
2006. (Colvin, 2009)
 Newspaper ad revenues have fallen 23% in the last
two years. (Rosenthal, 2009)
 The journalists who are left are Twittering,
blogging and filing updates directly to their news
organizations’ websites, in addition to writing print
stories. (Colvin, 2009)

13. Review of Professional Literature
 In local television, news staffs are being cut at
“unprecedented” rates; revenues fell by 7% in 2008,
an election year, and ratings are flat across the
schedule. (Rosenthal, 2009, p. 3)
 At the same time, the audience migration to the
internet was accelerating. The number of Americans
who regularly go online for news jumped 19% in the
last two years. Web traffic to the top 50 news sites
rose 27% in two years. (Rosenthal, 2009)

14. Review of Professional Literature
 Partly due to cut costs and to make up for lost or
more narrowly focused content and to remain
relevant, news organizations are beginning to join
forces with institutions they once saw as rivals.
(Rosenthal, 2009)
 Newspapers and partnering with television stations,
and newspapers are partnering with online
platforms, such as Yahoo! (Rosenthal, 2009)

15. Review of Professional Literature
 Crisis management research shows the need to
cultivate pre-crisis relationships with stakeholders.
(Birch, 1994; Couretas, 1985; Fearn-Banks, 1996; Seitel, 1983).
 Crisis researcher Coombs (1999a) perhaps says it
best: “A favorable pre-crisis relationship reflects a
favorable organizational relationship. A reputation
is derived from experiences with the organization,
the relationship history with stakeholders.” (p. 51)
Organizations build favorable relationship
histories by meeting and exceeding stakeholder
expectations. (Coombs, 1999b)

16. Review of Professional Literature
 Training is a demonstrated way to increase
knowledge, skills, and abilities, and also the
application of new knowledge, skills, and abilities.
(Tannenbaum & Yukl, 1992; Salas & Cannon-Bowers, 2001)
 Attributes of trainees, including motivation,
attitude, and expectations, can influence training
effectiveness. (Tannenbaum & Yukl, 1992; Wexley & Latham, 1991; Noe, 1986)

17. Review of Professional Literature
 The two studies found regarding school public relations
training did not discuss the impact of the training but the
need for training. (Calvin & Stark, 2003; Graham, 1997)
 Attitude is related to involvement. If one is “involved,”
one is ready or motivated to receive and to respond to
messages, issues, and objects. Attitude is defined also
as increased attentional capacity or as increased
cognitive activation. (Greenwald & Leavitt, 1984; Cameron, 1993)
 Attitude signifies arousal, interest, and motivation.
(Slater in Dillard & Pfau, 2002)
 Attitude can acts as a filter also. (Slater in Dillard & Pfau, 2002)

18. Review of Professional Literature
 Relevance is an antecedent to involvement. (Zaichkowsky,
1986)
 Critical Incident Technique is used by different
training bodies as a reflective tool in leadership
training. In communication training, the type of
communication critical incidents and a leaders’
response to the communication critical incident have
been studied in order to train leaders how to better
respond in future incidents. (Konig & De Jong, 2004)

19. Methodology
 Population= 128 administrators from three suburban
school districts near a large urban district in Tennessee.
 75 administrators made up the population for the
control group. The control group population came from
two of three school districts which do not have a
designated full-time public relations professional.
 43 administrators from the county with the smallest
Average Daily Membership made up the population for
the experimental group. They, too, serve a school district
without a designated full-time public relations
professional.

20. Methodology
 Sample=For the control group, the sample included
willing administrators who took the pre- and posttest. 44
administrators from two school suburban school districts
comprised the control group sample.
 For the experimental group, the sample included 30
school administrators from the same suburban school
district who took the pre- and posttest and also
participated in one of two identical one-half day, three-
hour professional development training sessions.
 Radomization was not required because the population
for both groups is below 100.

21. Methodology
 Data gathering began with a review of literature.
 The researcher obtained permission to conduct a study in
the three suburban school systems and permission to
conduct research with human subjects by Trevecca’s
Institutional Review Board in summer 2009.
 The researcher consulted an array of professionals in
order to design training materials, the system-wide
strategic communication plan, and the pretest/posttest.
This process began in summer 2008 and continued for
one year.
 The pretest/posttest was pilot tested in fall 2009.

22. Methodology
 Pretest responses were collected from the control and
experimental groups starting in January 2010. Survey
Monkey, mail surveys, and in-person visits were utilized
to gather test responses.
 In May 2010, the designed intervention was conducted
for the experimental group. Directly after the seminar,
posttest data was gathered from the experimental group.
 Starting in early May and continuing through June 2010,
posttest results from the control group were amassed via
Survey Monkey, mail surveys, and in-person visits.
 Starting in late May 2010, the researcher interviewed five
participants of the study using the Critical Incident
Technique in order to answer Research Question #4.

23. Methodology
 Instrument
The pretest/posttest was created by the researcher
based on a compilation of published communication
tests. 58 multiple choice questions gauged
knowledge and application (Research Questions 1
and 2.)
Attitude (Research Question 3) was assessed using the
Personal Involvement Inventory, a semantic
differential scale that is well published.
The Critical Incident Technique was used to answer
Research Question 4.

24. Findings/Conclusions
 Research Question #1: A multiple regression was run to
investigate the relationship and predictive ability of two
variables (School System and Pre Communication Knowledge)
on administrators’ communication knowledge posttest scores.
The overall model was significant, F (2, 50) = 72.66, p < .001,
showing that the two variables can significantly predict
posttest knowledge scores. The R2 = .74, which indicated that
74% of the variability in the posttest scores could be attributed
to these two variables. Additionally, both of the individual
predictors showed a significant relationship to the dependent
variable (School System: b = 8.019, t = 6.5, p < .001; and Pre
Communication Knowledge: b = .809, t = 10.1, p < .001.) The
regression coefficient indicates that the experimental group
scored 8.02 points better than the control group on the
posttest while accounting for the pretest.

25. Findings/Conclusions
 Research Question #2: In order to discover the relationship and
predictive ability of two variables (School System and Pre
Communication Application) on administrators’ communication
application posttest scores, a multiple regression was run. The R
was .820 and was significant, F (2, 50) = 51.43, p < .001,
illustrating that posttest application scores are significantly
predicted by the two variables. The R2 = .67 which indicates that
67% of the variability in the posttest scores could be accounted for
by these two variables. Also, both of the individual predictors
showed a significant relationship to the dependent variable (School
System: b = 4.072, t = 7.37, p < .001; and Pre Communication
Application: b = .705, t = 7.71, p < .001.) While accounting for the
pretest, the regression coefficient denotes that the experimental
group scored 4.07 points better than the control group on the
posttest.

26. Findings/Conclusions
 Research Question #3: Multiple regression was used to
explore the relationship and predictive ability of two variables
(School System and Pre Personal Involvement) on
administrators’ personal involvement posttest scores. The R
was .771 and was significant, F (2, 49) = 35.85, p < .001,
showing that this combination of variables can significantly
predict personal involvement posttest scores. Additionally, R2
= .59, showing that 59% of the variability in the posttest scores
for involvement can be accounted for by these two variables.
Both of the individual predictors showed a significant
relationship to the dependent variable (School System: b =
7.106, t = 3.35, p < .01; and Pre Personal Involvement: b =
.583, t = 8.04, p < .001). What the regression coefficient
shows is that the experimental group scored 7.106 points
better than the control group on the posttest while accounting
for the pretest.

27. Findings/Conclusions
 Research Question #4: Administrators’ attitudes toward
school public relations initiatives, as measured by the
Personal Involvement Inventory, were compared with their
responses to question #92 regarding an unpleasant incident
with the media as a school administrator. The result was
significant. Administrators who said they experienced an
unpleasant incident with the media as an administrator
scored significantly “less involved” or had a poorer attitude
toward school public relations initiatives than administrators
who had not experienced an unpleasant incident, t (71) =
2.009, p < .05. Administrators’ scores on the knowledge and
application portions of the pre/posttest were not significantly
related to an unpleasant incident with the media as a school
administrator, however, when statistically analyzed using an
independent samples t test.

28. Findings/Conclusions
 Research Question #4: The researcher also
interviewed five administrators who participated in the
study. Responses were recorded verbatim. Content
analysis was performed to organize data for further
explanation. Two of the critical incidents with the media
were deemed negative. The remaining three critical
incidents with the media were deemed positive. 20 of 31
negative words or phrases came from the two critical
incidents deemed negative. 25 of 36 positive words or
phrases came from the three critical incidents deemed
positive. Positive words included: “relationship,”
“proactive,” “positive,” “trust,” and “very pleased.”

29. Findings/Conclusions
 Other findings: In response to Question #91 on the
pretest/posttest, “Did you receive college instruction
about communicating with the media as part of your
schooling for your current job title?,” 30
experimental and 44 control group participants
responded. 16.6% of the experimental group
responded “yes”; whereas, 16 participants, or 36.3%,
of the control group responded affirmatively. The
majority of the study participants had not received
college instruction about communicating with the
media (N=53 or 71.6%).

30. Findings/Conclusions
 An independent samples t test was run between the
respondents’ answer to Question #91 and the pretest
scores on all three sections of the pretest (knowledge,
application, and attitude). Study participants who
received college instruction on communicating with
the media indicated significantly more involvement
or better attitudes toward school public relations
initiatives on the pretest, t (71) =-2.102, p < .05.
College instruction did not significantly impact
knowledge or application scores.

31. Discussion
 Significant posttest data supported the positive
impact of training materials and professional
development training on knowledge and application
of skills needed to communication with external
stakeholders, especially the media, and also
administrators’ attitudes toward school public
relations initiatives.
 Pretest attitudes toward school public relations
initiatives were also significantly impacted by
previous college-level instruction and upon
“unpleasant” critical incidents with media.

32. Discussion
 The findings are in keeping with previous research on training
which show that learning and transfer will occur only when
trainees have both the ability and volition to acquire and
apply new skills. (Tannenbaum & Yukl, 1992; Wexley & Latham, 1991; Noe, 1986)
 The researcher recommends the following:
1. College-level communication courses for administrators as
part of their school administration licensure programs
2. Communication training on individual school system level
3. Further utilization of Critical Incident Technique in order
for school administrators to reflect fully on incidents with
the media.
4. Further use of the Personal Involvement Inventory in
educational settings
5. Further study of school public relations, especially within
the area of relationship building