Offers a behavioral definition of a public, demonstrates how the definition can be used by public relations practitioners in researching and analyzing their publics, and reports on a formulative study of a suburban hospital that can serve as a model for public relations practitioners who wish to do similar research. (Author/GW)

An experimental seminar in corporate communication at the University of Maryland was designed to (1) develop a set of theoretical concepts useful to the organizational communicator who functions as a mediator between management and labor, (2) utilize a practical methodology for these concepts, and (3) conduct a case study in cooperation with an…

Communication researchers have studied the role of the change agent -- the professional helper who stimulates change at the individual, group, organizational, or community level. Few recognize, however, that the change agent is a member of a formal organization whose norms and values often diverge from those of the clientele system. This paper…