2012 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

with participants lacking discretion or tact, and Millennials who work for PR agencies are
unlikely to have Internet access challenges (i.e., they could even participate from their phones).
In addition, it was unlikely that someone other than the recruited Millennial agency employees
were answering the questions based on the quality of the content and the coherence of the data,
although this is always a risk with online methods, and every method has drawbacks. In addition,
preliminary research suggests that asynchronous online discussion groups result in less frequent
interaction than face-to-face and online synchronous focus group methods provide; however, the
quality of discourse is just as rich as it is with other methods, as measured by studies that
compared results (Graffigna & Bosio, 2006; Turney & Pocknee, 2005). There was a fair amount
of interaction during this study.
Study Procedures
Participants were asked demographic questions when they registered for the study,
including the year when they were born to confirm that they were Millennials. Next, participants
received log-in information and a confidential name based on a color and number (e.g., Blue5),
which appeared next to all comments, along with an avatar (i.e., an animal or object) of the
participant‘s choice. Each participant received a computer-generated password to log in to the
group. The data were protected by bank-level encryption security. The online discussion groups
were conducted through Focus Forums. This interface involved a discussion board that was
organized by tabs. Participants were required to answer questions in order and were not allowed
to see future questions. They were not able to see anyone‘s answer to a question until they had
responded. Once they had responded, they could read and comment on other people‘s answers,
and they later responded to our follow-up questions.
The asynchronous discussion groups required approximately an hour a day from
participants for three days; some participants reported that they spent 90 minutes a day. Each day
focused on a theme. Due to space constraints, the abundance of communication participants
provided, and the desire to incorporate rich details to achieve quality, this study includes data
from the second day, which was focused on ethics. The first day was focused on organizational
culture.
Recruitment and Demographics
For a prior component of this study (see Gallicano et al., 2012), a survey was conducted
and respondents were invited to participate in a discussion group that would include a $100
incentive. Of the 51 discussion group participants, 40 volunteered from the survey. The survey
recruitment involved an email from PRSA to members with two years of experience or fewer,
and the survey recruitment included solicitation via Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. The remaining
spots were filled through word of mouth by participants who had already signed up, and the last
few spaces were filled by the researchers‘ former students who worked for agencies.
About 78% of the participants were women and about 22% were men. Approximately
75% were Caucasian (29 women and 9 men), 12% were African-American (5 women and 1
man), 8% were Asian (4 women), almost 4% were Latino (2 men), and nearly 2% were
Caucasian-Latino (1 man). All participants were age 27 or younger. Responses were analyzed
through descriptive codes, followed by interpretive codes and pattern codes (see Miles &
Huberman, 1994).
Results
RQ 1: What Ethical Dilemmas Do Millennials Confront in Their PR Agencies?
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