U.S. public relations educators' identification and perception of the discipline

•PR educators’ work calling and organizational identification influence work meaningfulness.•Findings stress the discipline's division on importance of practical experience and research.•A practice orientation leads to a stronger PR calling but not a calling to academia.•Those with theory/research identification have less calling to the PR profession.

In this study of U.S. public relations educators, previous research was confirmed that calling and identification influence work meaningfulness. The research highlights the discipline's division about importance of practical experience and research. Participants with an orientation to practical experience had significant positive correlations with calling, not to identification or meaningfulness. Those with a theory/research orientation had a significant positive correlation with organizational identification and meaningfulness, not with calling. This suggests that a practice orientation leads to a stronger public relations calling but not a calling to academia. Those with theory/research identification have less calling to the public relations profession.