The current study examines the influence of organizational identification and the issue type (economic vs. public issue) on publics’ perception of an organization-related issue within the framework of the situational theory of publics. Among the three independent variables of the situational theory, organizational identification and the issue type had a significant impact on problem recognition and the level of involvement. In terms of the issue type, the economic issue had a higher level of influence on problem recognition and the level of involvement compared to the public issue. Organizational identification had a positive relationship with problem recognition and involvement. Problem recognition, constraint recognition and the level of involvement had a significant influence on the information seeking behavior, whereas only problem recognition and constraint recognition had statistically significant impact on the information processing behavior. The results of the study present that organizational identification is an antecedent of the perception of a specific situation in the context of the situational theory. A more effective and comprehensive method of public segmentation may be developed by elaborating variables that influence publics’ perceptions.