The relationship between Web site design and organizational responsiveness to stakeholders

The Internet and World Wide Web are emerging as important public relations tools for both profit and non-profit organizations. Little evidence exists, however, about the extent to which new technologies help organizations build relationships with publics. This article examines the relationship between Web site design and organizational responsiveness to stakeholder information needs. Two organizational types with differing levels of resource dependency (general environmental activist and watchdog groups) are examined. Our analysis assesses each organizational type’s general dialogic capacity as well as the responsiveness of the organizations to requests for information. © 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Organizational communicators and scholars have an important stake in the development of the World Wide Web as a relationship-building medium. For organizations, Web sites provide a controlled channel through which they can communicate with stakeholder publics and the media. For stakeholders, Web sites provide publics with a channel through which organizations can be viewed and better understood. The body of scholarship dedicated to studying the Internet and the World Wide Web continues to grow. Recent theorizing suggests that the World Wide Web may facilitate more balanced organization–public relationships1 and increased participation of citizens in community life.2 ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-973-655-7471; fax: +1-973-655-7342. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M.L. Kent), [email protected] (M. Taylor), [email protected] (W.J. White). URL: http://www.montclair.edu/Pages/CommStudies/Kent/Index.htm. 1 Tel.: +1-732-932-7500, ext. 8125. 0363-8111/03/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0363-8111(02)00194-7 64 M.L. Kent et al. / Public Relations Review 29 (2003) 63–77 Public relations research about the Internet and the WWW falls into two broad categories: attitudes and expectations about the Web as an organizational tool, and Web site design characteristics for providing information to publics. Research by Johnson,3 White and Raman,4 Springston,5 and Ha and Pratt6 has reported on practitioner attitudes and expectations about the Internet and the WWW as public relations tools. The general consensus by most public relations practitioners is that the Internet and WWW offer organizations one more tool for responding to publics. Another area of research by Esrock and Leichty,7 and Taylor, Kent, and White8 has reported on the design features of different types of organizations including Fortune 500 organizations and activist organizations. The findings from these research studies suggest that organizations should be strategic in the design of their Web sites to improve responsiveness to stakeholder information needs. It is still very early in our understanding of the relationship between Web site design and the accomplishment of public relations goals. There appears to be a discrepancy between what practitioners believe their Web sites can accomplish in terms of relationship building and how Web site design actually facilitates relationship building. The purpose of this paper is to address both of these issues to better understand how organizational and stakeholder information needs are met by Web site design. Two questions are central to understanding the relationship between Web site design and organizational responsiveness. (1) How adept are organizational Web sites at meeting stakeholder information needs? And (2) what characteristics of Web site design facilitate mutually beneficial interactions? This article explores both of these issues by examining the use of the Web by activist organizations. The first section of this article will briefly discuss activist organizations and their selection in this study. The second section of the article features a discussion of communication theories relevant to organizational–stakeholder relationships. The third section of this article details the hypotheses, methodology, and results of a comparative study of two different types of activist Web sites. The final section of the article provides an analysis of the relationship between Web site design and organizational responsiveness to stakeholder information needs. 1. Activist groups and organizational theories There are many different ways to understand activist organizations. They may be examined based on size, mission, success, or use of public relations strategies. Scholars writing 20 years ago or more categorized activist organizations as either large or small based on their “efficiency,” or ability to take action on behalf of members.9 Olson, for example, suggested that “one purpose that is . . . characteristic of most organizations . . . is the furtherance of the interests of their members”10 Grunig, writing in 1992, suggested that activist groups are inherently harmful to organizations because they force them to expend resources responding to the interests of a minority of citizens.11 As Grunig noted: “Without a thorough understanding of adversarial groups, the organization may be at their mercy.”12 In contrast to Grunig’s claim, however, Olson pointed out that even governments “with all of the [persuasive] emotional resources at its command”13 cannot fund the vital activities of the state. Individuals and organizations (even government organizations) rarely act for the benefit of “the majority.” M.L. Kent et al. / Public Relations Review 29 (2003) 63–77 65 The flaw of early research on activist organizations was the assumption that activist groups are not “organizations” in the same way that “for-profit” organizations are. As Grunig suggested: “Activism, indeed, represents a major problem for organizations. Hostilities between organizations and pressure groups are commonplace and often lead to a marshaling of public opinion against the organization that may, in turn, result in government regulation.”14 Additionally, Olson’s approach equated the media exposure that “small organizations” can readily attract to be synonymous with “effective public relations.” Neither size, nor organizational effectiveness, is sufficient to understand the complexity of activist organizations; both approaches can be improved by considering communication theory. Current theorizing about activist organizations suggests that although they may not function exactly the same way that “for-profit” organizations do,15 their use of public relations is similar. Indeed, Grunig suggests that activist groups can gain from seeking out public relations counsel just as much as corporations.16 The mission of activist groups helps to explain their use of public relations, especially mediated public relations efforts on the Internet and WWW. For the purposes of this study, we will consider two broad categories of activist organizations: membership and watchdog. New technologies such as the Internet and the WWW are helping organizations that are highly resource/membership-dependent to meet the information needs of key stakeholders. Meeting information needs is essential for survival in a competitive marketplace. We believe that Web sites that facilitate interactivity and increased responsiveness to stakeholder information requests are essential for resource-dependent organizations to meet their stakeholder needs. Thus, organizations that rely on members for money and action must provide certain features on their Web site. Design features that serve member publics needs include, but are not limited to, information about how to join, how to contribute money, updated calendars of events, frequently asked questions and answers, downloadable information, and opportunities for members to interact with the organization via the Internet. Watchdog groups, on the other hand, are not as heavily dependent on members for accomplishing their mission and may not need to devote their scarce resources to mediated communication efforts. Rather, watchdog groups may devote their resources to lobbying, advertising, and direct pressure to their targets. This study seeks evidence to support these claims. 1.1. Activist groups as stakeholder-dependent organizations Before dealing with stakeholder theories in mediated communication environments it is first necessary to explain why we have selected “activist” organizations rather than some other type of organization with a strong Web presence. Dozier and Lauzen have urged practitioners and scholars to value alternative perspectives, such as those of activists, to better understand public relations theory and practice.17 Stakeholder theories are one method to understand activist groups. These “membership organizations” must meet the informational needs of their stakeholders, and as Smith and Ferguson18 noted, adapt to changes in the marketplace of ideas. Low stakeholder-dependent organizations are those that see their primary job as being “watchdogs” or “corporate social responsibility groups.” Their main purpose is to pressure other organizations such as corporations and governments and they are not as concerned with motivating individual members. 66 M.L. Kent et al. / Public Relations Review 29 (2003) 63–77 Another approach to understanding activist organizations is through their communication strategies. According to Smith and Ferguson, activist organizations “face some of the same challenges as do other organizations. They strategically use communication to achieve those goals.”19 Activists use public relations in a variety of ways to keep the organization viable and they also use public relations to achieve their missions. The goal of activist organizations is not only to pressure other organizations through strategic public relations, but also, “activist organizations must maintain membership, thrive in what may be called a competitive marketplace of ideas and issues and adjust to changes in their environment.”20 Many activist groups share common general goals such as a cleaner environment, equal rights for oppressed groups, and improved health care. However, the mission of organizations and the level of dependency on their environment to survive varies. The next section of this article addresses the issue of stakeholder theories in mediated environments. 2. Stakeholder theories in mediated communication environments Stakeholder theory posits that there are a variety of strategic publics that can influence an organization.21 Several organizational communication theories help to explain the dynamics of organizational response to stakeholders in general, and organizational responsiveness through the Internet and WWW more specifically. Situational theory, resource dependency theory, and dialogic theory all help explain the complex relationships between activist organizations and publics. Situational theory suggests that external publics exert influence on organizations.22 These stakeholders have specific information needs and enact specific communication behaviors. Stakeholder theory explains how individuals recognize, define and resolve problems and it can be easily applied to Internet mediated organization–public relationships. One of the strengths of Webbed communication currently is its ability to unite publics, or to help individuals recognize that they share interests with others. Traditionally, stakeholder theory has been applied to issues management and crisis communication. However, Cozier and Witmer23 have extended situational theory to the Internet and have formulated a structuration approach to public formation. The major advance in Cozier and Witmer’s theory is that it shifts the focus from publics being organized around organizations and their problems to a realization that publics are formed, and reformed, through mediated communication behaviors. While situational theory tells us how and why publics apply pressure to organizations, it is also important to understand why publics have power over some organizations. Thus, another way to understand the stakeholder is through resource dependency theory. Resource dependency theory holds that organizations vary in their dependence on external publics and their environment. Emerson suggests, for example, “Social relations commonly entail ties of mutual dependence between the parties.”24 According to Pfeffer and Salancik, organizations “depend on their environments. Survival comes when the organization adjusts to, and copes with, its environment.”25 Many public relations researchers implicitly assume a resource dependency model when they theorize about the organization–public relationship. This dependency extends to Internet-mediated relationships. Badaracco, for example, noted that because of new communication technologies “the individual enjoys unprecedented access to M.L. Kent et al. / Public Relations Review 29 (2003) 63–77 67 information and a newfound advantage in the sphere of public influence.”26 Heath detailed how mediated information sharing between members of Greenpeace helped influence the decisions of Shell in the United Kingdom.27 And Coombs showed how small activist Web sites pressured organizations to change their behaviors.28 How can organizations meet the information needs of mediated stakeholders? Dialogic theory provides a set of communication assumptions that links the situational and stakeholder theories discussed above. One of the most ethically-grounded theoretical traditions to emerge in communication is dialogue.29 Pearson was one of the first public relations scholars to use dialogue as a framework to understand relationship building.30 More recently, Grunig,31 and Kent and Taylor32 have offered dialogue as a way to view ethical public relations. Dialogic theory suggests that for organizations to create effective organization–public communication channels, they must be willing to interact with publics in honest and ethical ways. At the most basic level, the presence of activist organizations on the Internet gives them equality in status to corporations. As far as providing for stakeholder information needs, Taylor, Kent, and White found that activist organizations do meet the informational needs of member publics but have yet to facilitate genuine dialogue between organizations and their stakeholders.33 One limitation on the creation of dialogue is interactivity. The concept of interactivity, or responsiveness to stakeholder information needs, is crucial to relationship building and is at the core of this article. Are organizations creating Web sites that allow for interactivity with stakeholders? Or, are organizations merely creating a Web presence to keep up with their competition? The answers to these questions have implications for the development of the Web as a public relations tool. The remainder of this article explores the relationship between Web site design and organizational responsiveness to stakeholder needs. This research builds on past research studies of Web site design34 and quantitatively evaluates the relationship-building functions of Web sites. 3. Hypotheses, methodology, results To further investigate the relationship between activist organization type and the use of the Web for building relationships a replication and extension of Taylor, Kent, and White’s study was conducted.35 Ha and Pratt suggest that “Organizational type plays a role in predicting certain organization’s public relations practices.”36 Taylor, Kent, and White found that activist organizations very in their level of responsiveness based on whether they are “membership interest groups” or “foundation” type activist organizations.37 To further explicate this relationship we tested three hypotheses. Hypothesis 1 posited that: Hypothesis 1. Membership activist organizations will be more responsive than watchdog organizations. As noted above, Web site research often compares the Web sites of different organizations. For instance, Witherspoon38 studied interactivity of top ranked HMO Web sites. Schneider, Frechtling, Edgar, Crawley, and Goldstein examined interactivity in federal health Web sites and public and private health care Web sites.39 Rice, Peterson, and Christine compared the interactivity of government health related Web sites to privately funded Web sites.40 Given 68 M.L. Kent et al. / Public Relations Review 29 (2003) 63–77 that the needs of membership and watchdog organizations vary with their environments and publics, Hypothesis 2 posited that: Hypothesis 2. Membership organizations will employ dialogic principles in their Web site construction to a greater extent than will watchdog organizations. Webbed dialogue represents an application of both mediated communication theory and dialogic theory.41 Activist and watchdog groups, by their missions, must be able to respond to stakeholder information needs. Based on principles of dialogic Web design, Hypothesis 3 posited that: Hypothesis 3. Responsive organizations will employ dialogic principles to a greater extent than will non-responsive organizations. Hypothesis 3 seeks evidence of the relationship between Web site design and organizational responsiveness to stakeholder information seeking behaviors. The methodology is explained below.