Participants
0000Participants for this study will be PA directors in the armed forces and their commanders. The armed forces for this study includes the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Coast Guard, and Air Force. PA directors are the senior people in the PA offices, and commanders are those who command a unit with PA staff and equipment.
Procedures
0000Data will be collected using two questionnaires, one for PA directors and one for commanders. Questionnaires will be mailed to 25 percent of each service's PA directors and corresponding commanders to attain a stratified sample. Participants will complete the appropriate questionnaire and mail it to the researchers.
Materials
0000Two questionnaires will be used to measure PA directors' perceived integration of PA into a unit's operations and commanders' perceived value of PA toward supporting the unit's overall mission. Each commander survey will be coded to match a PA director survey so that a commander's perceptions can be compared with his/her PA director's perception.
Design
0000The commander questionnaire has three parts that total 56 items (see Appendix A). Part 1, composed of questions 1 through 5, collects demographic information. Part 2, which comprises questions 6 through 38, is designed to measure commanders' value of public affairs personnel and programs. Personnel refers to public affairs officers or directors; programs refer to activities that are part of the three functions of public affairs -- command information, community relations, and media relations. Each questions in part 2 is in the form of a five-point Likert-type rating scale, which ranges from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Questions 6 to 14 pertain to general value of public affairs; questions 15 to 22 pertain to value of the community relations function of public affairs. Questions 23 to 30 pertain to value of media relations, and questions 31 to 38 pertain to value of command information. In part 3, which is questions 39 through 56, open-ended questions are asked to gather qualitative data that will be coded to help determine why commanders value or do not value public affairs personnel and programs.
The PA director questionnaire has two parts that total 39 items (see Appendix B). Part 1 is questions 1 through 7. Part 1 is designed to gather demographic information. Part 2, questions 8 through 39, is in the form of a five-point Likert-type rating scale. Part 2 is designed to measure PA directors' perception of PA integration in their units. Questions 8 to 15 pertain to general integration of public affairs; questions 16 to 23 pertain to integration of the community relations function of public affairs. Questions 24 to 31 pertain to integration of media relations, and questions 32 to 39 pertain to integration of command information.
Analysis
0000This Capstone will look at correlations between commanders' value of public affairs and PA directors' perceived integration of public affairs. The unit of analysis is PAO-rated units.
Correlation of quantitative data. The commander's survey is designed to measure a commander's level of value for public affairs. This includes his perceived value of public affairs personnel and activities (e.g. community relations, command information, and media relations). There are 32 questions that have a value of one to five points each. This means the range for overall value is from 32 to 160.
0000The public affairs officer survey is designed to measure a PAO's perception of the commander's integration of public affairs into the overall unit mission. This includes both the general integration of public affairs and the specific integration of such PA activities as CR, CI, MR. There are 32 questions that have a value of one to five points each. This means the range of overall integration is from 32 to 160. The overall value score will be compared to the overall integration score to see if there is a positive or negative correlation.
Content analysis of qualitative data. Qualitative data will be coded within one of six categories; formal education (EDF), informal education (EDI), personal experience with PA personnel (EXP), personal experience with PA activities (EXA), second-hand knowledge/opinions of PA personnel (EMP), and second-hand knowledge/opinions of PA activities (EMA). All the categories form the 3-E Table, which is designed to determine reasons why commanders have a particular level of value for public affairs. If in coding the qualitative data negative or positive reasons for high or low value of PA are not found on the table as discovered, then the table should be modified.
0000Coding for open-ended questions 39, 41, and 43, which deal with EDF, is determined as follows: If commander's overall comments or key words within the comments indicate satisfaction with formal training and education received concerning PA, then this answer is coded as a positive response and is given a +1 score. If commanders indicate they need or desire or are not satisfied with formal training and education received, it is coded as a negative response and given a score of -1. If commanders do not answer the question or if the response cannot be determined to be positive or negative, it is coded as neutral and given a score of 0.
0000Coding for open-ended questions 40, 42, and 44, which deal with EDI, is determined as follows: If commander's overall comments or key words within the comments indicate satisfaction with informal training and education received concerning PA, then this answer is coded as a positive response and is given a +1 score. If commanders indicate they need or desire or are not satisfied with informal training and education received, it is coded as a negative response and given a score of -1. If commanders do not answer the question or if the response cannot be determined to be positive or negative, it is coded as neutral and given a score of 0.
0000Coding for open-ended questions 45, 47, and 49, which deal with EXP, is determined as follows: If commanders' overall comments or key words within the comments indicate satisfying or positive experiences with or opinions about PA personnel, then this answer is coded as a positive response and is given a +1 score. If commanders indicate they are not satisfied with PA personnel or have had negative experiences with or have negative opinions about PA personnel, it is coded as a negative response and given a score of -1. If commanders do not answer the question or if the response cannot be determined to be positive or negative, it is coded as neutral and given a score of 0.
0000Open-ended questions 46, 48, and 50 deal with EXA. Programs or activities include such things as community relations, command information, and media relations. Coding for these three questions is as follows: If commanders' overall comments or key words within the comments indicate satisfying or positive experiences with or opinions about PA activities, then this answer is coded as a positive response and is given a +1 score. If commanders indicate they are not satisfied with PA activities or have had negative experiences with or have negative opinions about PA activities, it is coded as a negative response and given a score of -1. If commanders' do not answer the question or if the response cannot be determined to be positive or negative, it is coded as neutral and given a score of 0.
0000Open-ended questions 51, 53, and 55 deal with EMP gained indirectly. Indirectly means that the commander does not personally know the PA personnel or was not directly involved with PA personnel in question. Coding for EMP is determined as follows: If commanders' overall comments or key words within the comments indicate positive second-hand knowledge or opinions about PA personnel, then this answer is coded as a positive response and is given a +1 score. If commanders indicate negative second-hand knowledge or opinions about PA personnel, it is coded as a negative response and given a score of -1. If commanders' do not answer the question or if the response cannot be determined to be positive or negative, it is coded as neutral and given a score of 0.
0000Open-ended questions 52, 54, 56 deal with EMA gained indirectly. Indirectly means that the commander was not directly involved in the experience or event the commander has knowledge about. Activities include such things as community relations, command information, and media relations. Coding for EMA is determined as follows: If commanders' overall comments or key words within the comments indicate positive second-hand knowledge or opinions about PA activities, then this answer is coded as a positive response and is given a +1 score. If commanders indicate negative second-hand knowledge or opinions about PA activities, it is coded as a negative response and given a score of -1. If commanders' do not answer the question or if the response cannot be determined to be positive or negative, it is coded as neutral and given a score of 0.
0000After all the data is coded, each category will have a cumulative score ranging from +3 to -3. Categories with a +1 to +3 are reasons why value will be above average or high (85 to 160 on the value scale). Conversely, categories with a -1 or -3 are reasons why value will be below average or low (32 to 75). Categories with a zero do not strongly indicate why commanders have a particular level of value.
0000Reliability and validity. The reliability of the measuring tools should be tested through a measure of internal consistency such as Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. The reliability of validity (e.g. face, construct) should be tested.