Social capital dissertation wins prestigious international award

June 10, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Florida dissertation showing organizations that practice effective communication build strong community ties has won a prestigious international award.

The International Communication Association selected Bumsub “Gabriel” Jin’s dissertation for the 2008-09 James E. Grunig and Larissa A. Grunig Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. The dissertation is titled “The Roles of Public Relations and Social Capital for Communal Relationship Building: Enhancing Collaborative Values and Outcomes.”

The ICA’s Public Relations Division will announce the award June 24 during the organization’s annual conference in Singapore.

“The dissertation researched how an organization’s social capital (i.e., communication, social networks, employee trust and inclusion) has impacts on community relationships,” said Jin’s adviser, UF Faculty Senate Chair Mary Ann Ferguson. “The research indicates that an organization’s social capital contributes to both organizational and community development.”

Jin, who received his doctorate from the College of Journalism and Communications in 2009, is an assistant professor at the State University of New York in Oswego.

“Public relations can help make communities better,” Jin said. “My research shows that.”

This is the second time one of Ferguson’s students has won this award, given four times since 2004. Jangyul Robert Kim, an assistant professor at Colorado State University who earned his doctorate from UF in 2006, received it in 2008 for his dissertation, “An Experimental Test of Effects of Message Sidedness, Organizational Trustworthiness, and Goodwill in the Public Discussion in Weblogs.”

“Gabriel is working in a relatively new area of scholarship where he brought together theories from several fields to develop his thesis,” said Ferguson, a public relations professor.