ARTICLE SUMMARY
| Title: | Perception of Postgraduate Students on Ethical Public Relations Practice in Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria |
| Author(s): | Happiness Chinenye Nworie & Agatha Obiageri Orji-Egwu |
| Abstract: | In every organization, Public Relations serve as vital anchor that keeps its reputation and external relationships afloat. It is a shield that minimizes risk and damage upon progress, initiating robust growth and evolution. The rationale for this study is that every successful public relations activities is guided by certain moral principles and is geared towards ensuring that the communication needs of all key stakeholders are addressed. These obviously include the postgraduate students of Ebonyi State University who constitute a critical component of the university publics. Besides, in building reputation of an organization, it has to start from internal publics. It is against this backdrop that it becomes imperative to assess the practice of ethical public relations as perceived by postgraduate students among the university staff in Ebonyi State University. The objectives were to determine whether Ebonyi State University postgraduate students perceive the level of communication flow between the students and staff is highly commendable; ascertain the level of goodwill elicited from postgraduate students and as well determine the major challenges that confront the postgraduate students. The study was anchored on two-way symmetrical model. Mixed research method was adopted for this study and data were gathered using questionnaire and indepth interview of staff of public relations unit of Ebonyi State University. The population of the study consists of 990 post graduate students in the 9 faculties of the university between 2018 to 2022 academic session. The population comprises 88 PGD, 540 Masters and 362 PhD. A sample of 285 respondents was chosen for the study based on Australian sample size online calculator. The findings of the study revealed that poor communication and inadequate feedback mechanism have posed serious challenge on ethical practice of public relations in Ebonyi State University. It was therefore recommended that in order to build and enhance healthy relationships between the university and her postgraduate students, it is vital to find innovative ways to communicate with the postgraduate students to keep them not only engaged but informed. |
| Keywords: | Perception, Ethical Public Relations, Postgraduate student, Appraisal, University |
Editorial Board
EDITOR-IN CHIEF
Prof. Jonathan E. Aliede
DEPUTY EDITOR-IN CHIEF
Agatha Obiageri Orji-Egwu, Ph.D
MANAGING EDITOR
SÃmon Ugochukwu Nwankwo, Ph.D
EDITORS
Prof. Ifeyinwa Nsude
Prof. Angela Nwanmuo
Prof. Tyotom Keghku
Prof. Muyiwa Poopola
Prof. Nnanyelugo Okoro
Prof L. I. Ogbuoshi
Ruth. Chika Okorie, Ph.D
Adeola Sidikat Oyrleke, Ph.D
Celestine Ukeoma, Ph.D