Global insights: Workplace well-being in communications

Abstract

Public relations professionals are expected to build trust and help organizations navigate complexity. Yet many PR professionals, educators, and academics experience or consider PR work to be undervalued, ethically strained, or disconnected from leadership. This article presents findings from a global Delphi study with nearly 300 participants from 24 countries, suggesting that workplace well-being in public relations depends less on perks and more on alignment with professional PR approaches. The findings show that practitioners thrive when they feel successful, able to act in an ethical way, and connected to leadership. However, they struggle when cut off from management and purpose-relevant decision-making, as well as when professional values clash with commercial priorities.