Description

Improving educational and professional standards of public relations professionalism: Towards a mixed methods research approach

ZULHAMRI ABDULLAH

Department of Communication, University Putra Malaysia, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

Abstract

Public relations and communication management has been recently recognised as a business management discipline. However, scientific research in a particular discipline needs to be extended theoretically and methodologically in order to make a substantial contribution to the body of knowledge in its fi eld. Does academic research on public relations professionalism utilise a mixed research methods approach? This longitudinal study is aimed at mapping out the analysis of literature on academic research regarding public relations professionalism across the United States, Europe and Asia. The paper begins by outlining the research philosophy and strategy to give an overview of conventional research methods. A proposed mixed research method then is addressed, and finally a discussion is conducted and the implications of study outlined.

Keywords: mixed methods, public relations, professionalism