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This paper reports research results from a replication of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) ‘Excellence’ study of 30 Slovenian organisations. It has been theorised that the Excellence principles are generic throughout the world but that these principles must be applied differently in different cultures, political and economic systems, stages of development, media systems and levels of activism. Results of this quantitative study showed that the principles of Excellence clustered into an identical index for Slovenia and for the Anglo countries. Differences among the four countries emerged, however, which had implications for specific application of the principles in Slovenia. Slovenian organisations had somewhat lower overall Excellence scores. Public relations departments in Slovenia had less support from the dominant coalition and were involved less in strategic management than in the English‐speaking countries. Slovenian public relations departments reported less knowledge of practising four models of public relations and two roles. However, Slovenian CEOs were somewhat more supportive of symmetrical public relations than their English‐speaking counterparts. Slovenian organisations reported equal levels of activism to the Anglo organisations. However, Slovenian organisations reported a less conducive internal context for Excellence — more authoritarian organisational cultures, more asymmetrical internal communication, and lower levels of individual job satisfaction and satisfaction with the organisation.

Prevailing thought in academia holds that the ideal model of public relations is two‐way symmetrical. In this model, communication flows both ways between an organisation and a public while both are prepared to change their own behaviour. The result is posited as the most professional, ethical and effective practice. Contingency theory offers qualifications and reservations of excellence theory. One qualification is that dialogue between an organisation and a public may not be allowed for a number of reasons, such as legal constraints or moral convictions against compromising with a public. To build the contingency theory from the ground up, top practitioners are interviewed to learn whether six such proscriptive factors ring true in their experience. The implications of the findings for practitioners, educators and those interested in theories that help define professional practice in public relations are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to review the historical development of the models/dimensions of public relations. The extensive criticism of the models and dimensions is provided to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the concept.

The paper is based on a critical literature review to understand the roots of the models, their empirical tests, the modifications applied to the models over time, and finally the proposed shift from models to dimensions of public relations.

The study concludes that the attempt to translate the public relations models into the dimensions failed because of a variety of conceptual and methodological flaws. Yet, the idea of developing dimensions of public relations is a viable and practical step in advancing public relations research; however, such dimensions must be continuous, dichotomous and measurable.

Models of public relations first became a dominant theoretical perspective in public relations only to virtually disappear from the research agenda later. This paper calls the attention back to the models/dimensions to revive the research in this area.

The aim of this paper is the identification of the impacts that innovation and service excellence have upon organisational reputation within public sector organisations in Jordan.

An approach was adopted that was quantitative with a questionnaire designed that was to be self-administrated for the primary data collection. In total, there was distribution of 600 questionnaires from which 556 were retrieved with a high rate of response (92.7%).

Through analysis of the data, several findings were revealed by the study, including that innovation was the factor with the most influence (beta = 0.81) upon organisational reputation within the public sector in Jordan compared to the factor for service excellence (beta = 0.54).

The research has several potential implications for theory and management for those making decisions and policies within public administration such as in relation to enhancement of innovation strategy application for improving the reputations of organisations within the public sector. Furthermore, the paper fills a gap within the theory of organisational reputation and within the literature generally, especially in the context of public administration.

In regard to value and originality of this paper, it can be considered the first of its type for the public sector in Jordan, and perhaps the Arab region as a whole, that has examined the impacts that innovation and service excellence have upon organisational reputation within the context of public administration.

Six Sigma is a well-established powerful business strategy for achieving operational excellence (OPEX). However, previous studies have suggested that the Six Sigma may negatively impact organizational creativity and innovation. The C-K theory is one of the most widely used technique for design reasoning which promotes the creativity and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to integrate the Six Sigma methodology and C-K theory for enhancing innovative capacity of Six Sigma for achieving OPEX.

The paper proposes an integration methodology of C-K theory and Six Sigma using the extant literature. Also, a case study is conducted based on the proposed integration model.

The paper suggests a step-by-step integration methodology for integrating Six Sigma with C-K theory for both (DMAIC and DMADV). The methodology when applied to a live case in mining logistics the results are very encouraging. The solution was cost effective and also technically superior compared to previous solutions.

The paper proposes a step-by-step methodology for the integration of Six Sigma with C-K tools. The methodology is practically applied in a live case. Organizations can use findings from this paper to implement an integration model of Six Sigma with C-K theory.

This is the first paper that proposes an integration methodology of Six Sigma with C-K theory to enhance the innovation capability to achieve the OPEX.

For many years the excellence theory (Grunig, 1992), with its ideal of two-way symmetrical communication, has been the dominant normative framework in public relations (PR). From an affordance perspective, social media seem to side perfectly with this promise of a more balanced power relation between participants in the communication loop. The purpose of this paper is to see if this promise was realized in the context of an internal communication practitioner’s social software use.

The authors used a critical case approach for the organizational ethnography. Therefore, the authors selected an IT company where the formal position of internal communication was being created. In this environment, the authors considered it “least likely” to find the unidirectional model of “push communication.” The authors used the network gatekeeping theory (Barzilai-Nahon, 2008) to study technology usage patterns in the organization.

The analysis indicates that the internal communicator uses social software to interact with other employees. The authors additionally found these tools to affect the gatekeeping role of internal communication, altering the position’s ideological focus through its ability to shape the technological environment.

On a theoretical level, the network gatekeeping theory proved to be useful to study power relations inside organizations. On a practical level, the authors found themselves combining different data sources to grasp the complexity of organizational communication practices.

This research questions the widespread assumption that adoption of social software leads to excellence in PR. Additionally, the use of ethnographic methods in PR has been rare.

This study investigates the quantitative aspect of the various strains of operational excellence (OE) and competitive-potential (CP) in the SME sector. It has five steps, i.e., identifying the key performance constructs of OE and their hypothesized relationship pattern from literature, validating these constructs through factor analysis, formalizing their empirical relationships by structural-equation-modeling (SEM), path analysis of performance constructs with the empirical results, and lastly proposing a framework for OE deployment in SMEs.

Data for the deployment scores of operational excellence procedures (OEPs) were collected through a structured questionnaire survey. Nine hundred participants from a stratified random sample were approached for the survey, and 473 responses were received. Sample stratification was based on Gender, Education, Experience, Position, Department and Industry. Respondents had 5–30 years of experience managing manufacturing operations, holding the manager position and above.

The path analysis of the structural model provides unique insights into OE's practical aspects in SMEs (small and medium enterprises). For example, Contractual-conformance and Process-efficiency play pivotal roles as both have a significant positive impact on CP. Supplier efficacy, Consistency and Product-excellence do not improve CP unless mediated by Contractual-conformance or Process-efficiency.

The study provides important implications for academia, policymakers and managers. The study identifies and validates the operational excellence key performance practices and proposes a framework for manufacturing organizations. SME managers can follow the framework to develop effective operational excellence strategies to help them achieve their organizational goals. Additionally, the study emphasizes the need for continuous culture in SMEs, which will help to support operational excellence deployment. Overall, the implications presented in the study will help SMEs to enhance their competitiveness and operational performance.

The study explores the empirical investigation of the operational excellence deployment in SMEs. The study uses a mixed method approach for research design, including qualitative and quantitative approaches, and uses SEM to test the proposed framework. Validation of OE's six key performance constructs and establishing their empirical relation is an attempt to advance the Operations excellence theory. Unlike large enterprises, SMEs demonstrate an incohesive response to the practices pertaining to Supplier efficacy, Consistency and Product-excellence. This unique response pattern requires special treatment, which is incorporated into the proposed framework.

The purpose of this study is to study the collective effect of leadership, strategic planning and entrepreneurial organizational culture (EOC) on organizational excellence.

Using primary data obtained through a survey questionnaire, hypotheses have been developed for testing. Out of a total of 565 questionnaires, only 355 questionnaires were returned where data were collected from the Dubai police organization. The structural equation modelling (SEM) approach was used to analyse the collected data.

Statistical findings using SEM-partial least square confirmed the full mediating role of strategic planning as a mechanism between leadership and organizational excellence. In addition, the results reported a significant effect of leadership on strategic planning besides its impact on organizational excellence.

Results reported many valuable implications. The outcomes of this study have practical implications that will help managers, decision-makers and practitioners to consider the study’s variables to enhance the overall performance through achieving excellence.

The collective role of leadership, strategic planning, EOC and organizational excellence is studied as one of the most important empirical studies which bring original contribution to the existing body of knowledge.

The purpose of this study is to explore the implications of national and international standards for human resource development (HRD) practice. It focuses on the experiences, perceptions and learning of those involved in the social construction of standards and standardisation processes.

The research is grounded in institutional and organisational excellence theories and adopts a qualitative approach based in social constructivism. Thematic analysis of the data obtained from 13 semi-structured interviews leads to a discussion of awareness of standards, standards adoption including constraints, and impact of standards.

The findings indicate that that there has been a disconnect between the potential impact of British Standards Institute (BSI) HR standards and what has occurred in practice with little awareness of the BSI standards among practitioners.

This paper identifies an absence of institutional isomorphism in the HR arena and highlights the potential for a “standards-practice” gap where HR standards formation processes are perceived as detracting from flexibility and innovativeness in organisational practice.

This study contributes a new perspective of the implications of HR standards formation from the perspective of those involved and further contributes to the wider theorisation of standards in the HRD field.

This paper offers a quick overview of Cameron's contingency theory of conflict management in public relations. It then applies the theory to three cases that occurred during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games that were taken from the policy position papers, notes, diaries and tape recordings of C. Richard Yarbrough, Managing Director‐Communications of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG). The areas analysed include: the moving of preliminary volleyball matches from one venue to another which was forced by conflict between gay activists and local politicians who passed an anti‐gay resolution — a sustained effort at accommodation that shifted to advocacy; conflict between the ACOG board of directors and the media resulting from the disclosure of ACOG executive salaries — a strong advocacy stance that led to compromise; and conflict threatened between ACOG and a minority minister who was disgruntled about an Olympic sponsor — a case of marginality too insignificant to bother with. The cases not only illustrate and support factors in the contingency theory, but highlight the impracticality and inflexibility of two‐way symmetrical or mixed‐motive public relations as models of choice.