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When discussing the role of executives in public relations and their involvement in decision making, much research has focused on the dichotomous roles of technician and manager. From this it is concluded that an executive’s input into an organisation’s strategic decision making depends on how they enact the managerial role. This paper asserts that there is more to being an accepted member of the top management team than role enactment. Enacting the managerial role is, in fact, nothing more than performing high‐level technical activities. A new measurement of is managerial competency is strategic thinking. What this is and how it can be measured is then discussed.

Organisations are undergoing dramatic changes as stakeholder groups exert an ever‐increasing influence on the place and responsibilities of organisations in society. Important drivers in this process include the environmental movement, the search for total quality management, the concept of sustainable development, ethics and organisational learning. Because the various stakeholders can view these complex issues quite differently from the organisation, it is important that those working with communications are able to understand the underlying complexities of stakeholder relationships. Work in a number of diverse fields has provided an understanding of the factors involved in developing an effective communications strategy. Stakeholder theory is an important contributor in that it provides a means for uncovering the relevant participants in the process. The authors contend that, as part of this process, the co‐orientation model can provide a unifying framework for identifying the nature of the relationships between stakeholders or actors in a communication process. At the heart of this model lies the notion of “mental models” from the organisational learning literature and the recognition that in order for any communication process to be effective these models must be “oriented” properly. The authors build on research from the organisational learning field to gain a deeper understanding of the processes that influence our perceptions of stakeholder groups. Three specific communication skills are identified that enable the communications manager to engage stakeholders in a meaningful dialogue, and thereby enhance the effectiveness of the organisation’s communication efforts. These communication skills are reflection, inquiry and advocacy.

The purpose of this paper is to understand factors that may stimulate or inhibit communication practitioners when it comes to measurement and evaluation (M&E) of communication initiatives at the outcome level (i.e. impact on stakeholder’s attitudes and behavior or business results).

Based on Ajzen’s (1985) theory of planned behavior (TPB), the authors develop and test a new model to analyze antecedents to M&E behavior (attitude, perceived norms, and behavioral control) and assess how they impact practitioners’ intentions to perform outcome M&E. The model is tested in a standardized online survey (n=371).

Findings show that the TPB model explains a large amount of the variance in practitioners’ intentions to engage in M&E at the outcome level. The model demonstrates that attitude toward outcome M&E and perceived behavioral control, particularly lack of skills, are the two strongest drivers influencing practitioners’ intentions to measure and evaluate outcomes of their communication initiatives. Perceived norms to perform outcome M&E has only a very weak effect on intentions.

The findings highlight the potential of education when it comes to developing M&E capabilities in the practice. They also suggest that the role of normative pressure to perform outcome M&E needs to be better understood in terms of the dynamics of standardization specifically regarding design, implementation, and monitoring of M&E standards.

The study is the first to go beyond the common descriptive focus in studying M&E practices and is the first application of the TPB to understand the factors that drive communication practitioners’ intentions to perform M&E.

The aim of the study was to identify the extent to which social media are perceived by local government communicators as an opportunity to facilitate dialogue with communities, and the barriers that prevent dialogue occurring.

In-depth qualitative interviews were held with 11 communication practitioners and managers from 8 metropolitan and one regional council in South Australia who actively used social media.

Social media are used and valued more for transmission of information and promotion than engaging in dialogue. Limited understanding of social media by risk averse councillors and management, practitioner competencies in interactive technologies, and lack of guidance for meeting mandatory record-keeping through social media were key factors inhibiting its use for dialogue.

The South Australian sample limits generalisability to other locations. However, the findings generally accord with previous, mostly quantitative, studies, and enrich understanding of beliefs and perceptions that limit dialogic use of Web 2.0 technology.

Work needs to be done to align the law, community expectations, and policy guidance for local government in their use of social media communication and data storage. Achievement of the dialogic potential for social media requires an investment in people and training and updating of communication record policies.

This paper broadens discussions about social media and dialogue in organisational communication by focusing on local government and articulating communicator, organisational culture, policy, and legal considerations.

Organizations put their reputations at risk when they misunderstand what their stakeholders expect from them. People expect specific behavior from an organization regarding societal issues or questions, and when an organization ignores or denigrates issues and in the worst case contributes to making conditions worse, stakeholders will react. The purpose of this paper is to propose the PZB model of service quality as a tool that organizations can use to align expectations and perceptions with organizational behavior and communication.

The paper provides two cases of the use of CSR communication as a marketing mechanism to position an entity as environmentally friendly. In both instances, the messages were declared illegal and had to be removed. The PZB model of service and the co‐orientation model are used to illustrate the principles discussed.

The cases illustrate the need for organizations to not only be more aware of the expectations of their stakeholders but also to implement organizational practices that ensure they are abreast of expectations and operate accordingly.

The value of the paper is that it provides organizations with a proven tool that can be used not only for customers but for other stakeholders as well. Its real strength, however, is that it provides guidelines for internally‐ as well as externally oriented behavior and communication.

The paper extends the PZB model to a more stakeholder approach and demonstrates its usefulness when it comes to a deeper understanding of legitimacy by organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the basis of reputation building through a relationship approach in order to demonstrate that quality of relationships is a determinant of reputation.

The research was conducted on three groups of stakeholders from a collection agency (a typical outsourcing firm) over a period of two years. A questionnaire was developed based on the work by public relations researchers on measuring relationship outcomes. Analysis consisted of descriptive statistics with means and standard deviations. A correlation analysis was performed to investigate the possible effects of a number of the questions on reputation.

The findings from the study showed correlations between a number of the statements measuring the relationship outcomes and the firm's perception among its stakeholders. The most important finding in this study was the significant correlation between the firm's treatment of its clients' customers and the impact on the clients' reputation.

While it has been used by researchers in at least three countries without discussion, the questionnaire's Norwegian translation is a challenge. The relationship described in this paper between a debtor and a collection agency is also unusual.

Results indicate that the quality of a firm's stakeholder relationships can impact customer image. For this reason, firms need to allocate resources for corporate marketing strategies across stakeholder groups.

This research adds to previous corporate identity research and provides valuable insight into the dynamics of an outsourcing relationship.

This paper aims to assess other leaders’ perceptions of the importance and contribution of communication to organizational success and the abilities of their communication executives to contribute to strategic decision making.

A quantitative approach was used through a questionnaire sent to 5,000 business leaders in small, medium, and large firms across the country of Norway.

Overall results indicate that communication is viewed as not as important to business success as other management disciplines, but leaders rate communication skills as the most important communication discipline. In general, communication executives must improve their strategic orientation if they are to be engaged in decision processes where more than communication is discussed. There is moderate but significant correlation between strategic orientation and involvement in decision making and being invited to the strategic planning process.

This research was performed in a small country with all the limitations that creates; only a small percentage of the respondents had a unique communication department or head of communication, although there is some evidence this is not unusual. There also might be issues with definitions of terms such as public relations and corporate communication; while they are familiar to communication professionals, they are not so well understood by others.

Hopefully this study will give a greater understanding of the view of communication in organizations and its contribution to organizational success.

This study appears to be one of the first to ask other leaders opinions on communication and communication executives’ role in organizations. Most studies have asked communication executives their opinions on how their leaders view them.