DEVELOPING AN EVALUATION INSTRUMENT FOR ASSESSING PUBLIC RELATION PRACTITIONER PERFORMANCE IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

This research aims at developing evaluation instruments to measure PR practitioners’ performance in educational institutions. Operationally, the objectives of this study include: (1) developing components, indicators, and instrument items for evaluating PR performance in educational institutions, (2) examining the validity and reliability of the instruments, and (3) investigating the readability of the instruments which has been developed. To achieve this goal, researchers conducted Design and Development research by mixing quantitative and qualitative approaches. The subject of this research, in the first stage namely to design instruments, develop components and indicators, included 10 respondents who were chosen purposively consisting of evaluation experts (2 people), and PR practitioners (8 people). The second stage involved 12 respondents from public relations practitioners intended to reveal the validity and reliability of the instruments. The third stage, to know the readability of the instrument, involved 50 respondents from PR practitioners. The data were collected using Focus Group Discussion technique in the first stage and assessment sheet in the second and third stage. The data analysis technique in the first stage was an interactive analysis of Miles, Huberman, and Saldana (2014). To analyse the validity of the instrument, the researcher employed content validity based on the expert panel assessment, and analysed it with the Aiken V formula. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient criteria with at least 0.7 was applied for reliability test to determine the conformity between the results of the assessment carried out by two assessors (rater). The data analysis technique for examining the feasibility of the instrument viewed from the readability aspect is based on the mean score > 3.4 - 4.2 out of 5 or in the feasible classification, referring to the conversion of quantitative data to qualitative data on a scale of 5. The results of the research were: (1) The components of PR practitioners performance in this research include fostering good relations with the internal public, promoting good relations with the external public, and improving the capacity of public relations practitioners; (2) 26 instruments meet the requirements for validity and reliability, the Aiken V validity coefficient is > 0.69 and the reliability coefficient is α = 0.978> 0.7; (3) The readability of instruments is in a good or appropriate category for use as indicated by the mean score of 3.91 out of 5. The implication of this research includes help ease school leaders, industry leaders, and policymakers to evaluate the performance of PR practitioners.