Latin American perspectives on the role of professionals in organizational communication and public relations

The paper presents evidences of the consolidation of organizational communication as a profession in Latin America, and proposes a review of empirical research published on scientific databases about the role of the organizational communication and public relations professional in the region. Different traditions existing in the region and the debate on the name of the professional field, in which the denominations of ‘organizational communication’ and ‘public relations’ prevail, are highlighted. Then, the outstanding consolidation process of that profession in Brazil, achieved by the fact that both market and academia bolstered it, as well as by its early institutionalization, is analyzed. As a result of the review, a classification of the lines of thought on the aforementioned profession that have been most widely disseminated in scientific journals is proposed, and the main researchers and the most empirical research on for each line are shown. It is found that, unlike in European and North American scholarly publishing, in which the performance study of the professional role predominates, in Latin America the concern about the situation of the professional role stands out. Three schools of thought stand out in empirical studies: Research on the profession’s political and social role with studies on its contribution to development and social change; research framed in a strategic view of the profession; and a series of empirical studies that conclude on the influence of the social environment in the practice of the profession in Latin America.