Another interesting aspect of the survey was the wide variance of answers to some of the questions.  In certain cases there was as much as a seven point range in the responses.  This suggested there may be a difference in how certain services view the perception of their leaders.  It could be postulated that certain services have a better understanding of how to utilize their public affairs assets.  If this true, further research may be necessary in order to determine what those branches of the services are doing correctly, and incorporate the information into a possible long-term solution. 

      This led the researchers to conclude that any further data gathering should be separated by the individual services in order to avoid the possibility of conflicting viewpoints.

Pilot study weaknesses
     The pilot study is a convenience sample of public affairs practitioners in the Department of Defense Joint Communications Course.  Although it is representative of all of the services, it is not generalizeable across the public affairs community because the course is not representative of the public affairs population.  Because the course features some of the premier public affairs practitioners in the field, many of the respondents may have a more favorable view of their career and the PA career field. 

     In addition, a small sample was used which also makes it less representative of the population.  The pilot study did not ask for subjects to disclose their service, this is also a weakness because there may be obvious discrepancies between the way the services treat public affairs.  This research created the framework for the design of the second stage. 

Introduction

Literature Review

Stage 1

Stage 2

Participants

Experiment

Materials/Design

Analysis

  Limitations

Projected Results

  Discussion

  References