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This paper summarises the findings arising from a series of extended qualitative interviews with 14 CEOs and chairmen from leading UK corporations and international organisations. The purpose of the interviews was to try to establish the value that CEOs attach to public relations, and to get a sense of how they would assess its value and contribution to overall business and organisational performance. The study also tried to determine the role CEOs play in reputation management. The findings conclude that CEOs do not expect or look for a simple return on investment (ROI) for public relations expenditure; that public relations is used regularly to enhance and protect reputation; that public relations has become mission critical for businesses and the management of reputation; that CEOs themselves take overall responsibility for the management of corporate reputation; that the CEO's personal reputation is closely linked to that of the corporation; that CEOs' profiles and the media demands made of them have never been higher; that public relations can influence organisational strategy; and that high calibre people working in public relations are highly sought after and valued by CEOs. There are many lessons and implications for public relations practitioners.

Reputational risk is now considered the single greatest threat to businesses today. Most companies, however, are still not managing this risk appropriately. This paper argues that following the recommendations of the Turnbull Report into boardroom responsibility for risk management and accountability for intangible assets such as reputation, and the Higgs Review of corporate governance recommending a more active and independent role for non‐executive directors (NEDs), NEDs should be appointed as reputation guardians for the corporation – in much the same way as they now sit on audit, nomination and remuneration committees. This recommendation is given added weight by the proposed implementation of the Operating and Financial Review (OFR) in 2004, which, inter alia, seeks to embed reputational enhancement and protection in corporate reporting. NEDs will need a powerful strategic management tool (stakeholder audits) to ensure that they can perform this task properly. They will also need the support of an experienced communications function which will be critical in conducting, interpreting and advising on appropriate courses of action arising from the stakeholder audit.

The purpose of this paper is to present an emergent conceptual framework for examining virtual communities.

Established theories and models of community, social networks, information exchange, and information sharing behaviours are explored with the goal of determining their usefulness in conceptualising virtual communities.

Explored theories and models are inter‐related and expanded to form a tiered conceptual framework for examining virtual communities. This framework also acknowledges the affective contexts in which virtual communities operate.

The presented conceptual framework may inform information professionals tasked with creating, maintaining, and improving corporate, educational, research, and other information systems. It may also be of use to researchers who seek to build theory that attempts to explain phenomena observable in virtual communities.

In contrast to models and frameworks which focus on analysing individual components and attributes of virtual communities, the presented framework provides a holistic starting point for understanding inter‐related structural, cognitive, behavioural and affective dimensions of online communities

Outlines the service provided by Opportunity Youth, a unique personal development and health and social awareness programme delivered to 16‐18‐year‐olds undergoing youth training in four community workshops in North and West Belfast, Northern Ireland. Opportunity Youth employs peer educators alongside professional health workers to provide a formal programme on social skills, relationships, sex education and alcohol/drugs awareness in parallel with an informal counselling and advice service. It provides a universally accepted and user‐friendly service for marginalized youth, offering, in most circumstances, a “one‐stop‐shop” within the context of youth training. The model is a flexible one and could be transferred to any context, but particularly where young people provide a captive audience, for example in schools and colleges. Suggests that health education for young people, by young people, supported and facilitated by professionals with health promotion experience, provides a new direction in health education for young people.

Sainsbury's have expanded the Company's Retail Training Scheme to its stores throughout the country. Launched in June last year as a pilot scheme in the south and east, it is designed to act as a bridge between school and work, helping 16/17 year‐olds to make this often difficult transition and at the same time offering them full pay and full employee status. John Adshead, Sainsbury's Director of Personnel, commented:

Since June 1995, the library automation company Fretwell‐Downing (FD) has been collaborating with a group of Further Education (FE) colleges on a project to explore the use of online distance learning techniques and how these might best be applied by this sector. Working under the name of the LE Club (Learning Environment Club), this initiative sits at the intersection of the administration, authoring, mediation, delivery, learning and tracking processes and as such raises a host of strategic, technological, political and implementation issues. Through integrating elements from previous (and ongoing) EU funded projects such as DALI (Document and Libraries Integration), RENAISSANCE (Integration of High Performance Services for Interactive Vocational Training for European Regeneration) and ICW (Integrated Co‐operative Workspace), together with components from FD's Library Automation package, OLIB, FD is in the process of defining an application framework for the Learning Environment. This paper reviews issues in delivering distance learning while outlining the specific architecture and methodologies employed in the LE project. The implications of such initiatives on libraries and library systems and the changing ‘learning environments’ in which they exist are also briefly considered.

This paper is concerned with what should happen after design-led events have been held to promote co-decision-making, between professionals and local stakeholders, in collaborative planning of the built environment. Rather than being standalone, such events form one single step in a multi-stage collaborative planning process. What comes before and after them has to be acknowledged as important to their effective contribution to collaborative planning. This paper aims to make a case for giving more attention to the post-event stages of collaborative planning, to ensure that the involvement of the public produces real and tangible benefits.

Content analysis of both academic and grey literatures was undertaken to examine emerging advice on how to conduct decision-making, the implementation of outputs and the delivery of desired outcomes, after design-led events. A critical review of the post-event decision-making and delivery activities is offered, which aims to add to the current academic literature on the deployment of design-led events. An attempt is made to sketch out the characteristics of post-event stages, drawn from the literature and collated specific examples of collaborative planning investigated in Scotland.

Three key factors are identified as affecting the successful implementation of decisions reached at design-led events: (1) a shared follow-on plan, (2) an agreed action programme for delivering this and (3) a properly constituted and resourced delivery vehicle that can monitor and evaluate progress. A research agenda to address questions raised but left unanswered is suggested dealing with how the decision-making and delivery activities following design-led events in collaborative planning might be improved.

A research agenda to address questions raised but left unanswered is suggested dealing with how the decision-making and delivery activities following design-led events in collaborative planning might be improved.

Reference is often made to the concept of groupthink in books on organizational behaviour intended primarily for students of management. Yet the few examples of its occurrence that are adduced are by now rather archaic or rely on the original case researched by Janis. This paper seeks to remedy this deficiency by considering two recent cases of possible groupthink in British corporate management at BA and Marks & Spencer. A notable feature of groupthink was that it tended to take place in conditions of concurrence‐seeking. In conditions that might induce such behaviour, senior management of both BA and Marks & Spencer announced globalization strategies in the early 1990s. Taking its cue from a previous study of groupthink by McCauley, the main body of the paper uses content analysis of press reports on management at BA and Marks & Spencer in the 1990s to suggest that groupthink was present, causing blocked management communications and leading to the fall in reputation and stock market valuation of these two companies.

The influence of all stakeholder groups on the values, beliefs, policies, decisions and management of organisations is on the rise and here to stay. This paper examines the factors driving stakeholder power, and draws on a number of recent examples and the lessons learned. It proposes steps that organisations can take to manage the communication needs of stakeholders. Prioritising the challenges and balancing and integrating the corporate response are the main themes.