Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.47960/2712-0457.2026.1.8.7
MEANING MANAGEMENT THEORY IN PUBLIC RELATIONS
Zoran Tomić
; Sveučilište u Mostaru, Mostar, Bosna i Hercegovina
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* Dopisni autor.
Sažetak
This paper develops Meaning Management Theory in Public Relations (MMT-PR) as a middle-range theory. It explains public relations as an institutionalized organizational capability for coordinating interpretations amid interpretive plurality. In contemporary communication environments, there is digital fragmentation of publics, competing narratives, and accelerated circulation of meanings. Organizational actions no longer possess stable and predetermined meanings. Instead, meaning emerges through social interpretation processes. MMT-PR sees public relations not as a technical communication function, but as an organizational mechanism of interpretive coordination. It links internal sensemaking with external sensegiving processes. The theory places organizational meaning, management capability, and the meaning manager at its core. The meaning manager is the key actor for coordinating interpretive processes between the organization and its publics. The theory specifies contextual conditions, core constructs, generative mechanisms, structural relationships, and empirically testable propositions. The theory assumes that organizations with an institutionalized capability for meaning management engage in coherent, ethically inclusive interpretive practices. These practices increase the likelihood of interpretive stability. Interpretive stability serves as an intervening mechanism, strengthening legitimacy, trust, and reputational resilience. The theory also stresses that meaning management is not about controlling meaning. Instead, it is about responsibly managing the conditions for interpretation, with ethical inclusiveness as a prerequisite for sustainable legitimacy. This paper advances public relations theory by making interpretation central to organizational management and by refining the concept of the meaning manager into a comprehensive model of meaning management.
Ključne riječi
meaning management theory; public relations; organizational meaning; meaning management; interpretive stability; meaning manager; organizational legitimacy; reputational resilience.
Hrčak ID:
352207
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.6.2026.
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