Minjeong Kang

Biography

Minjeong Kang, Ph. D. (Ph. D in Mass Communication, Syracuse University), is an associate professor and the Ralph Winslow Endowed Professor of The Media School.  Dr. Kang teaches strategic communication courses at the Media School at Indiana University. Her research interests are understanding the concept of public engagement in various stakeholder contexts such as member, employee, and volunteer relations and its positive impacts in eliciting supportive communication and behavioral outcomes. Dr. Kang’s research has received several distinguished recognition and awards from publishing, media, and research institutions nationally and globally. Her research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals in her field, including Communication Research, Corporate Reputation Review, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Public Relations Research, and Public Relations Review. Dr. Kang also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Relations Research.

Research Awards and Grants

• 2024 Summer Research Fellowship, The Media School to develop the change communication model as a process for employee well-being and engagement.
• 2020 Page Scholar,  The Arthur W. Page Center. Page Grant Recipient on Organizational listening for “Breaking Employee Silence: A model of employee silence at individual, organizational, and cultural levels and a proposal of internal organizational listening competency diagnostic tool.
• 2020 Winner, Korea Gallup Outstanding Research Award for “To leave or not to leave: The effects of perceptions of organizational justice on employee turnover intention via employee-organization relationship and employee job engagement” published 2019 in Journal of Public Relations Research.
• Winner, The Highly Commended of the 2018 Emerald Literati Awards for her co-authored publication in Journal of Communication Management, “How symmetrical employee communication leads to employee engagement and positive employee communication behaviors: The mediation of employee-organization relationships”
• Winner, The Ketchum Excellence in Public Relations Research Award (November, 2009), Institute for Public Relations.

Selected Refereed Publications

• Kang, M., Lee, E., Kim, Y., & Yang, S.-U. (2023). A test of a dual model of positive and negative EORs: Dialogic employee communication perceptions related to employee-organization relationships and employee megaphoning intentions. Journal of Public Relations Research, Ahead-of-Print. DOI:10.1080/1062726X.2023.2194025
• Yang, S.-U., Kang, M., Lee, E., & Kim, Y. (2022). The effects of leadership in corporate social advocacy on positive employee outcomes. Journal of Public Relations Research. 34(6). https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2022.2123331
• Kang, M. (2022). Employees’ dissenting voices via testimonials and their impact on corporate hypocrisy perception and reputational damage via narrative transportation. Journal of Public Relations Research, Ahead-of-Print, 1-30. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epub/10.1080/1062726X.2021.2023020
• Kang, M., & Sung, M. J. (2019). To leave or not to leave: The effects of perceptions of organizational justice on employee turnover intention via employee-organization relationship and employee job engagement. Journal of Public Relations Research, 31(5-6), 152-175. DOI: 10.1080/1062726X.2019.1680988
• Kang, M., Kim, J. R., & Cha, H. (2018). From concerned citizens to activists: a case study of 2015 South Korean MERS outbreak and the role of dialogic government communication and citizens’ emotions on public activism. Journal of Public Relations Research. DOI: 10.1080/1062726X.2018.1536980 
• Kang, M. & Park, Y. E. (2017). Exploring trust and distrust as conceptually and empirically distinct constructs: Association with symmetrical communication and public engagement across four pairings of trust and distrust. Journal of Public Relations Research, 29(2-3), 114-135. 
• Kang, M. & Sung, M. J. (2017). How symmetrical employee communication leads to employee engagement and positive employee communication behaviors: The mediation of employee-organization relationships on the link. Journal of Communication Management, 21(1), 82-102.
• Kang, M. (2016). Moderating effects of identification on volunteer engagement: An exploratory study of a faith-based charity organization. Journal of Communication Management, 20(2), 102-117.
• Yang, S.-U., Kang, M., & Cha, H. (2015). A Study on dialogic communication, trust, and distrust: Testing a scale for measuring organization-public dialogic communication. Journal of Public Relations Research, 27(2), 175-192.
• Kang, M. (2014). Understanding public engagement: Conceptualizing and measuring its influence on supportive behavioral intentions. Journal of Public Relations Research, 26(5), 399-416.
• Kang, M. (2013). Effects of the organization-public relational gap between experiential and expected relationship outcomes: Relational gap analysis. Journal of Communication Management, 17(1), 40-55.
• Kang, M. & Yang, S.-U. (2010) Mediation effects of organization-public relationships on public intentions for organizational supports. Journal of Public Relations Research, 22(4), 477-494.
• Kang, M. & Yang, S.-U. (2010). Comparing effects of country reputation and overall corporate reputations of a country on international consumers’ product attitudes and purchase intentions: A case study of South Korea. Corporate Reputation Review, 13(1), 52-62.
• Yang, S.-U., Kang, M., & Johnson, P.  (2010). Effects of narratives, openness to dialogic communication, and credibility on audience engagement in crisis communication through organizational blogs. Communication Research, 37(4), 473-497.
• Yang, S.-U. & Kang, M. (2009). Measuring blog engagement: A four-dimensional scale. Public Relations Review, 35(3), 323-324.

Invited Book Chapters

• Kang, M.(2023). The myth of emotion-focused employee crisis communication? How information-focused employee crisis communication during COVID-19 Pandemic job disruption drives post-pandemic intent-to-perform and intent-to-return in hospitality employees. In N. McCown, L. R. Men, H. Jiang, & H. Shen (Eds) Internal communications and employee engagement: A case study approach (pp.103-118). Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group DOI: 10.4324/9781003195580
• Kang, M. & Moon, B. (2023). Developing organizational employee communication competency diagnostics: Breaking employee silence via organizational climate of listening for dialogic employee communication. In K. R. Place (Ed.) Organizational listening for strategic communication: Building theory and practice. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

Professional Publication

• Kang, M. (2010). Measurement of social media credibility: A study on a measure of blog credibility. A research paper published by Institute for Public Relations.