PUBLIC RELATIONS CAPABILITY OF PUBLIC RELATIONS STAFF IN RAJAMANGALA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to 1) study public relations capability of public relations staff (PRS) in Rajamangala University of Technology (RMUT) in the whole and in five aspects: news, speech, photography, preparation of publicity materials, and dissemination and publicity activities, 2) to compare public relations capability of PRS according to gender, age, work experience in higher education institutions, work experience in public relations, educational attainment, field of study and work agent, and 3) to compare public relations capability of PRS with a criterion. The samples used were 98 PRS of RMUT in the academic year 2015 selected by stratified random sampling and Neyman allocation. The instrument used to collect data was a Likert-type, five-point rating scale questionnaire of 32 items. The alpha reliability of the questionnaire was 0.915. The statistical methods used to analyze data included frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The hypothesis was tested by t-test for Independent samples and one-way analysis of variance at the 0.05 significant levels. The results showed that:

1. PRS in RMUT had a high level of public relations capability in the whole. When considered in each aspect, the PRS held a high level of public relations capability in the aspects of photography, the preparation of publicity materials, and the dissemination and publicity activities, but a moderate level in the aspects of news and speech.

2. There was no significant difference in public relations capability among PRS in RMUT according to their gender, age, and work experience in higher education institutions, work experience in public relations, educational attainment, and work agent in the whole and in the photography, speech, preparation of publicity materials and dissemination and publicity activities aspects. However, there was a significant difference found on the aspect of news between those who graduated in Communication Arts, Journalism, Mass Communication, and Public Relations fields and the other group that held some other major fields of study.

3. When compared public relations capability of PRS in RMUT with a criterion, there was no significant difference found in the whole. When considered in each aspect, there were two aspects , news and speed found significantly lower than the criterion and there were two espects, photography, dissemination and publicity activities found significantly higher than the criterion while the preparation of publicity materials aspect did not differ from the criterion.