Contingency Theory

The contingency theory of public relations is a theoretical lens to view what public relations is about, as a realistic and nuanced means of managing the conflict that inevitably occurs between organizations and their publics. Contingency theory explicates the conflictual and strategic relationships between an organization and its publics on a continuum from pure advocacy to pure accommodation. Advocacy concerns self-interest of either party while accommodation considers the other party's concern. Contingencies focus on essentially conflictual aspects of organization-public relationships and lead to the strategic management of relationships under complex and changing environments. The theory gives a positive perspective of conflicts [Page 192]and strategies associated with several factors in the public relations discipline and practice.

Led by Glen T. Cameron, numerous scholars have advanced contingency theory through a series of theoretical and empirical public relations studies. The theory has yielded many insights into public relations as a profession and as a social science-based domain of learning, with substantial empirical support for the theory to date. Researchers have conducted interviews, case studies, content analysis, and surveys among public relations professionals by asking what matters most in public relations. Grounded on the empirical studies, scholars have built up the essence of the contingency theory paradigm.

First, contingency theory of public relations takes into account the views of an organization and its publics in organization-public relationships. The term of mixed views not only embraces concepts of advocacy and accommodation of an organization and its public but represents a process rather than a certain static condition. It suggests a punctuated hybrid of advocacy and accommodation on a continuum from pure advocacy to pure accommodation. At a certain point, the organization-public relationship can be almost symmetrical or asymmetrical, but seldom remains static. The organization-public relationship can be best illuminated as a dynamic process at any given time. The focus is on the shifting balance in the organization-public relationships, not on the equilibrium. Public relations professionals may be accommodative of a public in one situation and adversarial in another situation involving the same public. Also, public relations professionals may try to behave symmetrically involving a public, and accordingly, may behave asymmetrically involving another public in the same situation. This is best described as a continuum delineated by advocacy at one end and accommodation on the other.

Contingency theory combines concepts such as conflict and strategy. The conflict is always located in the organization-public relationship because both an organization and its public have different and sometimes conflictual goals, roles, values, rules, processes, and desired outcomes in their relationships. The theory postulates that preferred outcomes can be obtained by strategically managing the conflict in organization-public relationships and suggests a strategic guideline for an optimally beneficial solution for both an organization and its public, and essentially, a possible solution for an organization. When conflicts arise, an organization determines a degree of accommodation or advocacy to serve its strategic purposes. The theory suggests that the primacy of self-interest of an organization and its public is a critical evaluative factor in the organization-public relationship.

Recent work on the contingency theory paradigm addresses the stance along the continuum from accommodation to conflict management strategies illustrated by research on the strategy contingency and its relationship with stance contingency. It supports a more particular theoretical approach of how contingency change in stances leads to strategy change. Contingency theory research in public relations shows an association between the stances and strategies of an organization and its public. The more advocative stances of an organization or its public, the harder tactics such as litigation or contending both an organization and its public will employ.

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