Public relations, writing, instructors, management theory, faculty classification Douglas F. Cannon, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Damion Waymer, University of Cincinnati Journal of Public Relations Education - JPRE Vol 2 Issue 2 2016

1. Journal of Public Relations Education
2016, Vol. 2, No. 2, 101-117
Who Teaches Public Relations Writing?
An Analysis of Faculty Status of Public
Relations Writing Instructors
Douglas F. Cannon, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Damion Waymer, University of Cincinnati
Abstract
This exploratory study captures a snapshot of who—by basic faculty clas-
sification—taught public relations writing courses during the 2012-2013
academic year. Results provide evidence that faculty category might
be a constraint that, according to management theory, needs attention
from program administrators. Non-tenure-track faculty members handled
two of every three writing courses on the overall schedule. Differences
were greater at Carnegie doctoral universities; non-tenure faculty mem-
bers taught three writing classes for every one taught by a tenured or
tenure-track instructor. Results add specifics to the body of knowledge
about public relations education and establish basic benchmarks for fu-
ture study.
Keywords: Public relations, writing, instructors, management theory,
faculty classification
Preparing students for the work world is an important part of public relations education.
For decades, practitioners and scholars have said in trade journals, textbooks, and other
publications that writing was the most important skill that applicants needed for entry-level
public relations jobs (e.g., Berry & Cole, 2012; Ellis, 2015). The Encyclopedia of Public
Relations says unequivocally that “writing tops the list” of tasks that practitioners perform
(Carden, 2005, p. 903). Since at least 2010, Public Relations Tactics, a monthly Public Re-
lations Society of America (PRSA) publication, has devoted its February issue to articles
about improving public relations writing.
In 2006, the Commission on Public Relations Education listed writing as the first
of five core competencies that 21st century public relations graduates should demonstrate.
The commission recommended that a public relations writing and production course be
one of five requirements in a public relations curriculum (Turk, 2006). Before a school can
receive a Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter charter, it must
offer the five core courses—including public relations writing and production—recom-
mended by the commission (Public Relations Student Society of America, n.d.).
Despite both the professional and academic emphasis on writing skills, Cole,
Hembroff, and Corner (2009) and Berry, Cole, and Hembroff (2011) found significant
dissatisfaction among public relations employers with the writing abilities of entry-level

2. Vol. 2 (2), 2016 Journal of Public Relations Education 102
employees. Supervisors in the United States and Canada gave recent graduates poor grades
on grammar, spelling, and punctuation; following style guidelines; and organizing ideas.
Employers said new employees were poorly prepared to write fundraising appeals, project
proposals, business letters, and memos. As a result, many supervisors in both countries had
lowered their expectations of what college graduates should be able to do.
In light of the professional emphasis on writing skills—and dissatisfaction with
abilities of public relations graduates—this study looks at one component of how public
relations programs at schools with PRSSA chapters match faculty resources to writing
courses. That component is the faculty category of those who teach the primary skill that
employers say they want in public relations graduates. While faculty status may play no
role in the quality of instruction, the category of faculty member does relate to resource
management. Management theory (Moss, 2005) suggests that the way academic admin-
istrators choose to staff public relations writing classes may indicate how they prioritize
writing instruction and could be one reason that students do not appear to meet entry-level
standards.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This literature review considers three topics: (a) development of public relations
programs at U.S. universities, (b) management theory in relation to public relations, and (c)
theory of constraints in project-management thinking.
Public Relations Programs
Formal public relations instruction in the United States began during the 1920s
in journalism programs at colleges and universities. Josef F. Wright taught the first course,
titled Publicity Methods, at the University of Illinois in 1920. Wright, a former newspaper-
man who had become the school’s publicity director, trained students in ways that honest
publicity men “dished out news” (Cutlip, 1994, p. 220). Frank R. Elliott, publicity director
at the University of Indiana, taught a course titled Publicity on the Bloomington campus in
1922. Edward L. Bernays, author of Crystallizing Public Opinion, taught the first course
titled Public Relations during 1923 and 1924 in the Department of Journalism at New York
University (Cutlip, 1994; Hallahan, 2005; Wright, 2011). Courses in publicity and press
relations soon followed at American University, Stanford University, University of Min-
nesota, University of Oregon, University of Texas, University of Washington, and Wayne
State University (Hallahan, 2005). While Bernays said he was interested in “theory and
an abstract approach to the subject,” other pioneer instructors appeared more focused on
getting stories into newspapers (Cutlip, 1994, p. 220). Although historical sources do not
make specific course content clear, these journalism courses dealt with practical topics and
could be assumed to have involved writing.
After World War II, more U.S. universities, such as Boston, Georgia, Northern
Illinois, Ohio State, and Syracuse, added public relations courses. With the exception of
those at Boston, all early courses were taught in departments, schools, or colleges of jour-
nalism, where writing and reporting were fundamental skills. The majority of U.S. public
relations programs today are still part of journalism and mass communication units. That

3. Cannon and Waymer 103
academic home continues to affect how educators think about public relations skills cours-
es, such as writing (Fedler, Counts, Carey, & Santana, 1998; Wright, 2011).
In the 1970s, speech departments (later renamed communication or communi-
cation studies departments) began adding public relations courses as well (Wright, 2011).
By 1999, almost half the nation’s public relations programs were housed in departments
or schools of communication. These units traced their academic roots to rhetorical studies,
interpersonal communication, and persuasion, not journalism and mass communication
(Turk, 2006). As a result, these programs may not prioritize writing as much as journal-
ism-based programs, but no scholars appear to have investigated that possibility.
Concerns about instructional standards at colleges and universities prompted
PRSA in 1975 to form the Commission on Public Relations Education. It was initially
composed of eight educators and practitioners. They recommended that universities offer
a four-course sequence (12 semester hours) in public relations for majors. One of those
courses was writing. In 1987, the Commission, now up to 25 members from eight commu-
nication industry or educational organizations, recommended a five-course sequence (15
semester hours) for majors. The list again included writing. The commission reaffirmed the
five-course recommendation in 1999 and 2006 (A Port of Entry, 1999; Turk, 2006).
Enrollments in U.S. journalism and mass communication programs have been
slowly declining since 2011, the Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication
Enrollments shows (Becker, Vlad, & Kalpen, 2012; Becker, Vlad, & Simpson, 2013; Beck-
er, Vlad, & Simpson, 2014; Vlad, Becker, & Kazragis, 2011). The 2013 report said:
The vast majority—seven out of ten—of students who are enrolled in journal-
ism and mass communication programs around the country today are not there to
study journalism but to study something else, most prominently advertising and
public relations, and that has been the case for at least twenty-five years. (Becker,
Vlad, & Simpson, 2013, p. 319)
Undergraduate public relations enrollment in 2012 increased by 13.2% nationwide from
2011 while the overall enrollment in journalism and mass communication programs de-
clined 2.9% (Becker, Vlad, & Simpson, 2013). Growing public relations enrollments
should increase demand for public relations writing classes.
Faculty hiring in journalism and mass communication programs has increased an-
nually since 2010 (Becker, Vlad, & Kalpen, 2012; Becker, Vlad, & Simpson, 2013; Beck-
er, Vlad, & Simpson, 2014; Vlad, Becker, & Kazragis, 2011). Communication programs
reported making major curriculum changes between 2009 and 2013 to respond to industry
changes, especially Web-based communication. More than one-third of administrators who
responded to the annual enrollment surveys said they had hired permanent faculty mem-
bers (35.6% in 2010 and 37.8% in 2011) to teach digital media skills. More than half of
administrators had hired adjunct faculty members (55.8% in 2010 and 62.1% in 2011) to
teach basic skills courses. The digital skills course taught most often in journalism and
mass communication programs in 2011 was writing for the Web. It was offered in 92.3%
of programs responding to the survey (Becker, Vlad, & Kalpen, 2012; Vlad, Becker, &
Kazragis, 2011).
Masse and Popovich (2007) learned that full-time faculty members who taught
mass media writing were uncomfortable teaching writing skills for public relations,

4. Vol. 2 (2), 2016 Journal of Public Relations Education 104
advertising, broadcasting, and online writing. In addition, Masse and Popovich uncovered
evidence of systematic resistance to writing curriculum reforms at both accredited and
unaccredited mass communication programs. Writing teachers did not want to learn new
technologies or retrofit their skills to fit emerging communication channels.
Fedler, Counts, Carey, and Santana (1998) found that instructors who taught re-
porting/editing and public relations/advertising had lower percentages of doctorates (66%)
than their faculty colleagues. Furthermore, faculty members who taught writing/editing
conducted less research than those who taught other courses. Nevertheless, these writing
instructors rose through academic ranks at slightly higher rates than other faculty members.
The Commission on Public Relations Education has repeatedly maintained that
public relations educators should have terminal degrees (Port of Entry, 1999; Turk, 2006).
In 2006, the commission said:
A successful academic career increasingly will require a record of scholarly pub-
lication and national and international recognition in the scholarly community.
Without faculty who fit this model, public relations programs won’t be valued be-
cause their faculty will be considered “second-tier.” Thus, while the Commission
believes there is a place in the academy for former practitioners with substantial
and significant experience, those practitioners may be expected to earn their ter-
minal degrees, i.e., their Ph.D.s, as a credential for becoming full-time faculty.
(Turk, 2006, p. 74)
Wright (2011) said that the Commission’s viewpoint had clearly dominated thinking in
many public relations units. Nevertheless, executives at major U.S. public relations agen-
cies have said that many of their best new practitioners graduated from programs in which
faculty members had both academic credentials and professional experience.
Other research indicates, however, that lack of practical experience among faculty
members is not a major problem. Fedler, Counts, Carey, and Santana (1998), for example,
showed that more than half the faculty members (53%) who taught journalism skills cours-
es (including writing) had 11 or more years of professional experience. All instructors who
taught writing listed some professional experience. Masse and Popovich (2007) found that
writing instructors with doctorates averaged about 10 years of professional media-writing
experience.
Nevertheless, Pardun, McKeever, Pressgrove, and McKeever (2015) discovered
that senior mass communication faculty members with doctorates thought that having a
terminal degree was more important for journalism faculty members than having signif-
icant work experience in news. Pardun et al. said schools around the country needed to
consider the relative value of academic and practical experience as they prepared the next
generation of journalism and mass communication graduates.
The authors’ of this article conducted an analysis and found that the Association
for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication website carried 70 ads from Jan-
uary through September 2015 for faculty openings in public relations or strategic com-
munication. Fifty-four were for tenure-track positions. Forty-three of these tenure-track
openings (79.6%) required applicants to have a doctorate before being hired. Ten required
a master’s degree, and one did not include an education requirement. Only 15 of those
tenure-track ads (27.8%) specified that candidates needed the ability to teach writing. Ten

5. Cannon and Waymer 105
of the 15 ads that mentioned writing required candidates to have a doctorate. None of the
16 advertised non-tenure positions required a doctorate. Ten of the 16 ads (62.5%) said that
candidates should be able to teach writing. This limited sample gives evidence that public
relations administrators may expect non-tenure faculty members to teach public relations
writing more often than tenured or tenure-track instructors.
Waymer (2014) discovered that non-tenure instructors accounted for only 24% of
full-time public relations faculty members at Carnegie doctoral universities. At those insti-
tutions non-tenure faculty members taught three public relations writing courses to every
one taught by a tenured or tenure-track faculty member.
The 2013-14 American Association of University Professors (AAUP) salary sur-
vey documented that colleges and universities paid tenured and tenure-track faculty mem-
bers more than non-tenured faculty members. The mean salary for tenured and tenure-track
faculty members (assistant, associate, and full professors) in 2013 was $90,370. The mean
salary for non-tenured faculty members (instructors, lecturers, and those with no rank) was
$57,158 (Curtus & Thornton, 2014). The AAUP website reports that “contingent faculty”
members (full- and part-time non-tenured instructors) now fill 76% of all instructional
appointments at American colleges and universities (American Association of University
Professors, n.d.). AAUP does not provide data by discipline.
Lingwall and Kuehn (2013) discovered in a September 2012 study of 860 com-
munication students from 13 schools that nearly half expressed a need for some remedial
help with writing. In a follow-up study, Kuehn and Lingwall (2015) concluded that many
faculty members appeared to be ignorant about the extent of students’skills deficits. Kuehn
and Lingwall (2015) proposed three steps to improve writing instruction: (a) extensive
one-on-one help from instructors, (b) focused feedback to show students how to improve,
and (c) intensive work on basic spelling, grammar, punctuation, and other writing mechan-
ics.
Management Theory
Management theory includes a range of concepts that describe and predict how
administrators run organizations. Systematic management thinking dates from the late 19th
century. Theories emerged as large industrial organizations called for structures and poli-
cies that enabled effective operations. As public relations matured during the 20th century
and joined the dominant coalition of many organizations, the discipline drew upon assump-
tions and processes rooted in management theory. Managerial thinking guided not only
administration of the public relations function but also contributions by public relations ex-
ecutives to strategic organizational decision-making (White & Dozier, 1992; Moss, 2005).
Today 18% of items on the Examination for Accreditation in Public Relations (APR)—the
second largest area of concentration—ask about knowledge, skills, and abilities related to
leading and managing the public relations function. Decisions about what to assess on the
test were based on industrywide analyses of public relations practice done in 2000, 2010,
and 2015 (Cannon, 2016).
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1911) helped lay the foundation for management the-
ory with his principles of scientific management. These principles, based on time and mo-
tion studies during the 1880s and 1890s, were designed to (a) replace habit and common

6. Vol. 2 (2), 2016 Journal of Public Relations Education 106
sense with systematic study of work to determine the most efficient way to perform specific
tasks, (b) match workers to their jobs in light of individual capabilities and motivations
and then train people to work at maximum efficiency, (c) monitor worker performance to
ensure that employees are using the most efficient work process, and (d) allocate work so
that managers spend time planning and training workers to work efficiently (Taylor, 1911).
One of Taylor’s disciples, Henry L. Gantt, developed a graphic method (Gantt
Chart) to display project schedules and control workflow (Gantt, 1910/1974). Many public
relations practitioners have adopted the technique from project-management literature to
plan and coordinate public relations workflow (Wilson & Ogden, 2015). Practitioners pre-
paring for the APR Examination learn that Gantt Charts are “useful for tracking deadlines
and monitoring a project’s progress as well as for planning and scheduling tasks” (Cannon,
2016, p. 59).
Another of Taylor’s students, Henri Fayol, proposed one of the first general theo-
ries of management in 1917. That theory included six primary management functions and
14 management principles. The functions were forecasting, planning, organizing, com-
manding, coordinating, and controlling. The principles were division of work, authority
and responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination, remu-
neration, centralization, scalar chain, order, equity, stability, initiative, and esprit de corps
(Fayol, 1949).
The project-management body of knowledge builds on the foundation laid by
Taylor, Gantt, and Fayol. Project-management thinking says administrators must identify
and decide how to complete each task necessary for reaching an organization’s objectives.
According to this logic, a critical task for academic administrators would be educating
students. In professional disciplines like public relations, administrators might determine
that training students for industry would be another required task. Project managers—in
addition to deciding what must be done to complete each task—simultaneously control
three elements: resources (people, equipment, and materials), time (production duration
and path), and money (costs, contingencies, and profits). Goals are to turn out a product
that meets customers’ needs and that costs as little as possible to produce (Cicmil & Hodg-
son, 2006; Cunningham, 2012; Koskela & Howell, 2002; Project Management Institute
Standards Committee, 2013). For public relations programs, the corresponding goals are to
prepare graduates for entry-level jobs as cost-effectively as possible.
A 2013 survey of senior public relations executives showed they valued business
acumen and believed public relations educators should put greater emphasis on business
thinking in public relations classes (Ragas, Uysal, & Culp, 2015). These executives would
probably expect to see public relations program administrators use a business approach
to academic management as well. But the literature appears to lack clear evidence of any
dialogue between senior executives and university administrators about how public rela-
tions programs are run. Wright (2011) said educators rarely have meaningful dialogue with
practitioners.
Theory of Constraints
The theory of constraints, a systems-management approach developed in the
1980s, is one project-management theory (Goldratt, 1990). It offers one way to analyze

7. Cannon and Waymer 107
the educational process. This theory assumes that every system, no matter how well it per-
forms, has at least one bottleneck. Informed by the adage that a chain is only as strong as its
weakest link, the theory directs managers to identify and correct that constraint. Managers
follow a three-step process: Identify the constraint, manage the constraint, and evaluate
the resulting performance. Constraints may be physical (inadequate equipment, people, or
space), policy-based (standing operating procedures, ways of working, union contracts, or
overtime rules), paradigm-based (beliefs about how things should work), or market-based
(supply and demand). Because a system can have only one “weakest link,” a process can
have only one constraint at a time. Once the constraint is eliminated, another factor will
become the weakest link and demand attention. By addressing each constraint, managers
constantly improve their operations (Goldratt, 1990; Goldratt & Cox, 2004).
Recent enrollment, curriculum, and faculty-employment trends have presented
potential constraints that may influence how public relations program administrators man-
age resource allocations for public relations writing. Constraints regarding writing could
include students poorly prepared for public relations writing (Kuehn & Lingwall, 2015;
Lingwall & Kuehn, 2013); inadequate classroom space or number of instructors to meet
enrollment demands; faculty members unprepared or unwilling to teach public relations
writing (Masse & Popovich, 2007); limits on faculty teaching loads; inflexible curriculum
requirements; competing priorities for faculty time; or changing writing demands in the
public relations marketplace.
In light of the foregoing trends in public relations education and business thinking
about resource allocation, this study examines if the faculty category of public relations
writing instructors at schools with PRSSA chapters is a constraint that affects how students
are taught to write. This examination explored three research questions:
RQ1: How does the number of public relations writing classes taught by tenured
and tenure-track faculty members at schools with PRSSA chapters compare
to those taught by non-tenured faculty members (instructors, lecturers, and
those with no rank, such as adjuncts and graduate students)?
RQ2: How do faculty assignments to public relations writing classes at PRSSA
schools differ by Carnegie classification of the college or university?
RQ3: Does school location influence faculty assignments to public relations writ-
ing classes?
The first question was intended to explore whether significant differences in facul-
ty assignments existed and could qualify as a constraint. The second question was designed
to see if faculty resource allocation might be a constraint at some schools but not others.
Carnegie doctoral universities, for example, could have more rigid research-focused ten-
ure requirements than master’s colleges and universities or baccalaureate colleges. Those
requirements might come into play in identifying constraints. The third research question
sought to see if the availability of practitioners who might teach writing part time influ-
enced faculty resource allocations. Cities would likely have more public relations practi-
tioners than rural areas. Hence, the pool of part-time labor available to teach public rela-
tions writing might be greater for universities in or near urban areas than for others and
could change the constraint calculation.

8. Vol. 2 (2), 2016 Journal of Public Relations Education 108
METHOD
To gather data for exploring these three research questions, one author analyzed
online course schedules during the 2012-2013 academic year at schools with active PRS-
SA chapters (N = 332) (Public Relations Student Society of America, n.d.a) and recorded
results on an Excel spreadsheet. To be eligible for a chapter charter, each school needed to
(a) be a nationally or regionally accredited four-year institution that offered baccalaureate
degrees and (b) offer five public relations courses that follow Commission on Public Rela-
tions Education recommendations (and include public relations writing) (Public Relations
Student Society of America, n.d.c). Therefore, all schools should teach public relations
writing at least once during the academic year.
The two authors consulted on how to identify courses but did not independently
code the online course schedules of the 332 schools. To be included in the analysis, a
course needed to meet the following criteria: (a) be part of the public relations curriculum,
(b) have both “public relations” and “writing” in the course title, or (c) fulfill a writing
requirement for a public relations degree. For example, Sam Houston State University in
Texas had both Writing for PR andAdvertising andAdvanced Writing for PR andAdvertis-
ing on its schedule. Both courses were included in the analysis. Baylor University allowed
students to meet public relations writing requirements by taking either of two journalism
courses: Beginning Reporting and Writing or Writing for Media Markets. Both were in-
cluded.
Coding included school name, location, number of public relations writing sec-
tions scheduled, faculty status of each instructor (tenured/tenure-track or non-tenured),
and Carnegie classification for the institution. Three general Carnegie groups were used
in this analysis: (a) doctoral universities, (b) master’s colleges and universities, and (c)
baccalaureate colleges (The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education,
n.d.). Campuses within 20 miles of a city with a population of 100,000 or more were con-
sidered urban. The distance was determined by average U.S. commuting times (McKenzie
& Rapino, 2011). Coded data were imported from Excel into Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences to allow t-tests and analysis of variance of means in categories examined
for each research question.
To determine each instructor’s faculty status, the same author who identified
courses matched teacher names to online faculty directories. When instructor names or
ranks did not appear on official directories, the author checked other online sources, such
as LinkedIn, for clues to faculty status.
Schools with more than one incomplete data category were excluded from final
analysis. For example, some schools listed public relations writing courses online without
instructor names. Others listed no courses with public relations writing in the title. For-
ty-one of the 332 schools lacked complete information and were excluded.
RESULTS
The review of online 2012-2013 fall and spring semester schedules generated complete
data for public relations writing courses at 291 of the 332 schools with PRSSA chapters
(121 doctoral universities, 150 master’s colleges and universities, and 20 baccalaureate

9. Cannon and Waymer 109
colleges). The total number of writing sections was 889. Of the 332 institutions in the
analysis, 159 were in urban areas. Another 132 were in rural areas. Not all public relations
programs at schools with PRSSA chapters were in journalism or mass communication
units. Some were related to business, communication studies, or English departments.
RQ1: Faculty Category
Research question one asked how the number of public relations writing classes
taught by tenured and tenure-track faculty members compare to those taught by non-ten-
ured faculty members. Results were expected to help determine if the faculty category of
public relations writing instructors was a constraint that affected how students at schools
with PRSSA chapters were taught to write. Table 1 shows the mean for courses taught by
tenured/tenure-track and non-tenured faculty members. Differences were significant and
do support the idea that faculty category could be a constraint.
Table 1
Comparison of Writing Sections Taught by Tenured/Tenure-track and Non-tenured Instructors
Variable M SD t df p d
Faculty Category -4.317 290 .000 .39
Tenured/tenure-track (N = 321) 1.103 1.3907
Non-tenured (N = 563) 1.935 2.9029
Non-tenured faculty members taught two writing courses on average (M = 1.9)
for every one taught by tenured or tenure-track faculty members (M = 1.1) at schools with
PRSSA chapters during the 2012-13 academic year. That difference is statistically signifi-
cant (p < .001). The d effect size is approximately .4, which is medium, according to Cohen
(1988), and is typical in social science research. Tenured or tenure-track faculty members
were listed as teaching 36% (321) of the 889 writing sections. Non-tenure-track individu-
als were listed as instructors of 64% (568) of the sections. The number of sections at each
school taught by tenured or tenure-track faculty members ranged from 0 to 9. The number
of sections at each school taught by non-tenured faculty members ranged from 0 to 33.
This first test indicates that non-tenured instructors not only taught more writing
sections than tenured and tenure-track faculty members but that the difference was also not
the result of chance. The significant difference in assignments appears to reflect specific
management decisions about faculty resource allocation. While this finding is far from
conclusive, it provides evidence these faculty allocations could be considered a constraint.
RQ2: Carnegie Classification
Research question two considered how a university’s Carnegie classification re-
lated to the number of writing sections taught by tenured/tenure-track and non-tenured fac-
ulty members. Table 2 shows the mean number of public relations writing courses taught
by tenured/tenure-track and non-tenured faculty members at schools in each Carnegie cat-
egory. These results, while still showing evidence that faculty status could be a constraint,

10. Vol. 2 (2), 2016 Journal of Public Relations Education 110
complicate the interpretation. The management issue appears to differ by Carnegie classi-
fication.
Table 2
Means and Standard Deviations Comparing PR Writing Teachers by School Category
Tenured/Tenure-track Non-tenure
Carnegie classification n M SD M SD
Doctoral universities 121 1.008 1.5357 3.099 3.7846
Master’s colleges and universities 150 1.187 1.2973 1.140 1.6790
Baccalaureate colleges 20 1.050 1.1459 .850 1.0894
Total 291 1.103 1.3907 1.935 2.9029
A one-way ANOVA found a significant difference in the mean number of public
relations writing sections taught by non-tenure faculty members compared to tenured and
tenure-track instructors, F(2, 288) = 18.810, p = .000. The Levene’s test of homogeneity
indicated that variance was unequal between the master’s-level and baccalaureate-level
groups. Therefore, a Games-Howell post hoc test was done to assess effect size. Results
showed larger than typical effects, according to Cohen (1988), for differences between
doctoral universities and master’s colleges and universities (p = .000, d = .84) and between
master’s colleges and universities and baccalaureate colleges (p = .000, d = .71).
Results from this second test indicate differences in how institutions in each Car-
negie classification assign public relations writing instructors. At doctoral universities,
non-tenured faculty members teach three public relations writing classes (M = 3.1) for
every one taught by a tenured or tenure-track instructor (M = 1.0). That result is higher than
the overall difference (1.9 vs. 1.1) identified in Table 1. The comparison of means is near-
ly even at master’s-level institutions. At baccalaureate colleges, tenured and tenure-track
instructors are more likely (M = 1.1) than non-tenure faculty members (M = .85) to teach
public relations writing.
This second test suggests that the Carnegie classification of an institution may
relate to whether the faculty category of public relations writing instructors is a constraint
that needs management attention. Doctoral universities appear to require more writing in-
structors than current tenured/tenure-track faculty members can meet. Master’s-level insti-
tutions meet half their demand for writing instructions with tenured and tenure-track faulty
members. Baccalaureate colleges, on the other hand, cover most of their writing-course
requirements with tenured and tenure-track instructors. The need for contingent faculty
members at baccalaureate colleges does not appear to be as strong as at doctoral and mas-
ter’s-level institutions.
RQ3: Location
Research question three examined how urban or rural locations related to whether
tenured and tenure-track faculty members taught public relations writing courses. An inde-
pendent-sample t-test found no differences at the p < .05 level for the two faculty groups at

11. Cannon and Waymer 111
rural or urban schools in any Carnegie classification.
DISCUSSION
This exploratory study captures a snapshot of who taught public relations writing
during the 2012-13 academic year. Results provide evidence that faculty category could
be a constraint on writing instruction at schools with PRSSA chapters—especially doctor-
al universities. Non-tenured faculty members taught two of every three public relations
writing courses on the overall 2012-2013 schedule. At doctoral universities the difference
was greater; non-tenured faculty members taught three public relations writing classes for
every one taught by a tenured or tenure-track instructor.
The limited scope of the research could not show whether the 2012-2013 aca-
demic year was an anomaly or part of a trend. The numbers in this study were consistent,
however, with reports in recent journalism and mass communication enrollment surveys
(Becker, Vlad, & Kalpen, 2012; Becker, Vlad, & Simpson, 2013; Becker, Vlad, & Simp-
son, 2014; Vlad, Becker, & Kazragis, 2011) and job announcements. More than half the
administrators in 2011 and 2012 enrollment reports said they had hired adjunct faculty
members to teach basic digital skills courses. Faculty job announcements for non-tenure
openings specified the ability to teach writing more often than calls for tenure-track posi-
tions did. But the percentage of non-tenured public relations writing instructors was below
the overall percentage (76%) of contingent faculty appointments that AAUP reports at
American universities (American Association of University Professors, n.d.). More re-
search, including a more longitudinal view, is needed to analyze the situation in public
relations programs. Nevertheless, the results in this study could prompt public relations
program administrators—especially at master’s colleges and universities and doctoral uni-
versities—to consider whether the type of instructor assigned to writing classes is a con-
straint that needs to be managed.
The analysis of data in this research used a management lens. This project was
intentionally designed to see if public relations programs were following constraint theory
to match faculty resources to demands of the field (Goldratt, 1990; Goldratt & Cox, 2004;
Moss, 2005; Project Management Institute Standards Committee, 2013). We could have
used other theoretical approaches from higher education or industrial training. We chose
the management approach because senior executives who hire public relations graduates
say they want them to have business acumen (Ragas, Uysal, & Culp, 2015; Wright, 2011).
The APR Examination, grounded in practice analyses done in 2000, 2010, and 2015, lists
business literacy and management aptitude as the second-most important area of knowl-
edge, skills, and abilities that practitioners should master (Cannon, 2016). Scholars have
for many years called public relations a boundary-spanning discipline (Grunig, 1992).
Therefore, we concluded that practitioners who hire public relations graduates might ex-
pect college and university administrators to reflect management thinking as they deter-
mined the best way to educate public relations majors. We wanted to investigate whether
schools with PRSSA chapters would meet that expectation.
The project management body of knowledge provides clear standards for assess-
ing management decisions. Project managers must decide what has to be done to complete

12. Vol. 2 (2), 2016 Journal of Public Relations Education 112
a task and then control the resources, time, and money used to reach that end. Goals are to
turn out a product that meets customers’needs and that costs as little as possible to produce
(Cicmil & Hodgson, 2006; Cunningham, 2012; Koskela & Howell, 2002; Project Manage-
ment Institute Standards Committee, 2013). While public relations educators are not run-
ning factories, they are metaphorically producing products: graduates who fill entry-level
jobs in public relations agencies and corporate communication departments. Therefore,
according to project-management thinking, public relations program administrators could
be expected to make the desires of potential employers a high priority in the educational
process. The way administrators choose to staff public relations writing classes is one indi-
cator of how they prioritize writing instruction.
Feedback from both employers and graduates indicates that they do not think pub-
lic relations educators are producing adequately prepared public relations writers now. For
decades, practitioners have said writing was the top skill applicants needed for entry-level
public relations jobs. Previous research (Berry, Cole, & Hembroff, 2011; Cole, Hembroff,
& Conner, 2009) identified significant dissatisfaction among public relations employers
with the writing abilities of entry-level employees. Lingwall and Kuehn (2013) showed
that communication students themselves expressed a need for remedial help with writing.
Kuehn and Lingwall (2015) found that many faculty members did not recognize how poor
student writing skills were. Project-management literature suggests that public relations
program administrators would identify and address these shortcomings as a constraint.
Administrators should then put systems into place that would prepare graduates who meet
employer expectations as cost-effectively as possible and evaluate outcomes (Project Man-
agement Institute Standards Committee, 2013).
The theory of constraints guided the approach in this research to identifying short-
comings in the educational process. Earlier scholarship had looked at the educational level
and practical experience of faculty members who taught writing (Fedler, Counts, Carey, &
Santana, 1998; Masse & Popovich, 2007; Wright, 2011). But no research appeared to con-
sider how faculty resources were allocated to writing instruction. Ads for faculty openings
indicated that ability to teach writing was not a top consideration for tenure-track positions.
Therefore, this project attempted to determine if the faculty status of those who taught writ-
ing qualified as a constraint that needed attention. If writing were indeed the top priority
of potential employers, management theory would predict that educational administrators
would (a) focus on addressing the issue and (b) assign the best-qualified instructors to
those courses. We assumed that those instructors would be tenured or tenure-track because
AAUP surveys show that schools invest the most money in those faculty members.
Results of this exploratory study did not support our starting assumption and
showed it was too simplistic. Instead, findings identified another constraint: personnel
costs. AAUP figures (Curtus & Thornton, 2014) show that non-tenure instructors make on
average 63% less than tenured and tenure-track faculty members. Using less expensive in-
structors for public relations writing courses, particularly if demand is growing with enroll-
ment, could be seen as wise management—especially in the short term. If non-tenured in-
structors could adequately teach public relations writing, they would be more cost efficient
than tenured and tenure/track instructors. That cost-efficiency would be consistent with
the project management body of knowledge and address the constraint. This study was not

13. Cannon and Waymer 113
designed to assess that constraint. Results simply gave evidence that many programs did
rely on non-tenure instructors to teach public relations writing. A continuing management
issue, however, was that many employers were not satisfied with the writing ability of the
public relations graduates they were hiring. This feedback signaled another constraint that
now needed attention.
Would assigning higher-paid faculty resources to writing classes be a better way
to meet employer demands and counter current negative perceptions of graduates? Earlier
research (Fedler, Counts, Carey, & Santana, 1998) showed that senior faculty members
were present and qualified to teach writing skills courses. Were they unwilling to upgrade
their skills to match changing writing demands in the field (Masse & Popovich, 2007)?
More research is needed to determine why senior instructors are not more frequently as-
signed to public relations writing courses.
The resource-allocation question appears especially important at Carnegie doctor-
al universities. Waymer (2014) discovered that non-tenured instructors accounted for only
24% of full-time public relations faculty members at Carnegie doctoral universities. This
study showed that non-tenured faculty members at doctoral universities taught three public
relations writing courses to every one taught by a tenured or tenure-track faculty member.
If three-quarters of public relations faculty members are in tenured or tenure-track posi-
tions, should more of those human resources be allocated to helping students hone the top
skill that employers want? Future research should explore this question.
Expectations about what candidates for tenure-track public relations faculty po-
sitions should be expected to do could be another constraint. Most ads for tenure-track
candidates in 2015 did not specify that candidates needed the ability to teach writing, but
most ads for non-tenured candidates did. Do public relations program administrators need
to identify and manage this expectation under the theory of constraints as the weakest link
in faculty resource allocations? More research is needed to answer this question.
Data from this study give evidence that Carnegie master’s colleges and universi-
ties and baccalaureate colleges assign non-tenured instructors to writing classes differently
from doctoral universities. That finding complicates the analysis of management think-
ing about constraints. The average number of writing courses taught by tenured and ten-
ure-track instructors at master’s colleges and universities (M = 1.2) is almost the same as
the number taught by non-tenure faculty members (M = 1.1). At baccalaureate colleges, the
mean number of courses taught by tenured/tenure-track faculty members is higher than for
non-tenured instructors (M = 1.05 for tenured/tenure track and M = .85 for non-tenured).
Both findings could be products of differences in program size, scope, and instruction-
al demands. Master’s-level institutions do not have doctoral-level graduate students who
might teach classes. Therefore, these schools might not have as many non-tenured resourc-
es available as doctoral universities to teach writing classes. Baccalaureate colleges are
generally small and do not have graduate programs. These programs not only lack graduate
students who might teach writing, but they also might not have many non-tenured faculty
positions or budgets for hiring adjunct instructors. Data in this study could not address
those possibilities. Future research will need to probe faculty-allocation differences at mas-
ter’s and baccalaureate Carnegie institutions.
Learning that schools with PRSSA chapters rely heavily on non-tenured instruc-

14. Vol. 2 (2), 2016 Journal of Public Relations Education 114
tors to teach most public relations writing classes does not imply any value judgments
about the quality of instruction. This study looked solely at resource allocation by faculty
category. The analysis did not explore how faculty members in each category approached
writing instruction or check for differences in student outcomes. Future research might
interview instructors or compare syllabuses of courses taught by tenured or tenure-track
and non-tenured faculty members to see if their methods or expectations varied. Analysis
of course assessment data might reveal if the faculty status of the instructor was related to
student outcomes.
Some might say that results from this study were not surprising. The authors
agree. Nevertheless, these findings do document the reality for the first time. We have heard
many explanations for the current paradigm:
(a) Writing courses take lots of time to teach and grade. Tenured and tenure-track fac-
ulty members need to use that time for research, a higher priority.
(b) Using higher-paid senior faculty members to teach basic skills courses, especially
at doctoral universities, is too expensive. Tenured and tenure-track faculty mem-
bers are needed more for high-level courses than for skills courses.
(c) Tenured and tenure-track faculty members may not have as much practical writing
experience as non-tenured instructors, who have often worked in public relations
positions for many years. Therefore, tenured and tenure-track faculty members
may not be as qualified to teach writing as non-tenure instructors, or the skills of
tenured and tenure-track instructors might be out of date.
All or none of these explanations may be correct. More research is needed to
determine why public relations program administrators are managing their writing courses
the way this study has found. That information may help confirm if faculty resources are
indeed a constraint that needs to be managed in the process of preparing competent writers
for public relations work.
This study was very limited. It simply took the first step in what could become a
long, complicated analysis of management in public relations education. The examination
of faculty status did not consider faculty rank among tenured and tenure-track instructors
or how many non-tenured instructors were full-time, adjunct, or graduate students. The
study gathered no information on management or operational considerations that might
influence decisions at each institution about who should teach public relations writing.
For example, this analysis did not try to determine if public relations programs outside
mass communication units approached faculty allocations for writing courses differently
from journalism-based programs. Future research should explore faculty rank, gather data
on backgrounds of writing instructors, and include feedback from program administrators
on how they assign people to teach writing courses. Such information could give a more
nuanced picture and provide more helpful information for management decisions.
CONCLUSION
Public relations practitioners and educators have long maintained that writing is an essen-
tial skill for public relations work. The Commission on Public Relations Education recom-
mends a writing course as one of five requirements in every public relations curriculum.

15. Cannon and Waymer 115
Nevertheless, public relations employers have complained for years that public relations
graduates do not come to entry-level jobs with adequate writing abilities.
This exploratory study looked at one small part of the writing education process:
who is teaching the courses. Findings add specifics to the body of knowledge about public
relations education and establish basic benchmarks for future study. Data on personnel
resources used to teach this essential course should help educators better manage the situ-
ation, address complaints from potential employers, and prepare more qualified graduates
for work in public relations.
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