PROFILE 2000 A SURVEY OF THE PROFESSION.

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PROFILE 2000 A SURVEY OF THE PROFESSION.

PART I: OVERVIEW

IABC/PRSA joint study most comprehensive ever done

FOR THE FIRST TIME, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), in cooperation with the IABC Research Foundation, joined forces to create a study of important factors affecting professionals in communication and public relations. Their benchmark collaborative effort reflects job satisfaction, work-place trends, salary and compensation, and roles and responsibilities of their combined membership of nearly 40,000 professionals worldwide,

Previously, each of the organizations conducted its own periodic survey: IABC's covered a broad expanse of communication issues; PRSA's focused primarily on compensation matters.

The combined effort reflects a balanced perspective of the mix of internal and external roles in the profession. Respondents are identified as being from the U.S., Canada, or outside the U.S. and Canada (OUSCA). Findings presented in this publication reflect a composite of both IABC and PRSA respondents. Results are not broken out to reflect the individual organizations. All figures in the report are expressed in U.S. dollars. Where comparisons are made of 1999 data to past surveys, those references are to either the 1997 IABC survey or the 1996 PRSA survey.

METHOD

Data were collected through both web and paper surveys. Independent research supplier Burke Marketing Research, Ohio, randomly sampled 8,000 members from IABC and 8,000 from PRSA for a total of 16,000 members. Respondents were asked to submit all figures confidentially, expressed in U.s. dollars.

Data Collection Process

* When possible, Burke sent an e-mail to members inviting them to participate in the survey. The e-mails included a URL for Burke's web site plus a member-specific password that was required to access the survey. This password ensured that only members could complete the survey; it also prevented them from completing more than one.

* Following the e-mail invitation, a paper survey was sent to a portion of members who did not have, an e-mail address or whose e-mail invitation bounced back as undeliverable.

* Data from the web surveys were stored directly in Burke's database. The completed paper surveys were mailed back to Burke for processing.

* Burke initially scanned the paper surveys to collect "closed-ended" data. The "open-ended" comments were edited and typed into Burke's data collection system. These comments were then coded for analysis.

Notes on Data Representations

* In tables, columns that do not add to 100 percent may be because of multiple reponses to...

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