Carilion Clinic and Excellence: A Case Study Evaluating Excellence in a Clinic-model Structured Health Organization

The aim of this thesis is to explore how public relations contributes to organizational culture at Carilion Clinic, a large health organization based in Roanoke, Va. Using the excellence theory combined with organizational culture perspectives as a lens, the study interviewed Carilion Clinic communications employees to uncover the presence of excellence principles in their public relations. A second part of the study analyzed employee posts on the organization's internal website to identify the congruency of organizational value meaning and manifestation between the organization and its employees. Results from the study found presence of five of the seven excellence principles in Carilion's public relations and that three of the five organizational values are congruent between the organization and its employees. Results suggest that Carilion Clinic's public relations efforts are contributing to organizational culture. Efforts by Carilion's public relations successfully communicate organizational values and foster a participative culture. This case study shows that public relations is beneficial to fostering organizational culture and that excellence principles as developed by the excellence theory can serve as a guide for organizations when implementing and evaluating public relations practices.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Department dc:contributor.department

Communication

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Scheible, Dylan Howard

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Logan, Nneka

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Tedesco, John C.
• Waggenspack, Beth M.

• Excellence theory
• health organizations
• organizational culture
• communications
• public relations
• employee communications
• Carilion Clinic

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:11264

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/77912