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Communication technicians are engaged in electronic public relations activities such as producing e‐mail newsletters, setting up teleconferences, creating Web pages, and generating electronic press releases. This paper explores how and why communication managers should use computer‐based technology and new media. The concept of cyberbridging is introduced, whereby communication managers can use electronic communication technologies (eg, the Internet, WWW and on‐line databases) to conduct environmental scanning and informal and evaluation research. Through cyberbridging activities, communication managers gain power, connect with the dominant coalition, and have input to an organisation's broader decision‐making processes. The linkages with the dominant coalition and improved relationships with key publics result in greater organisational effectiveness.

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.

This study combines survey research with case study analysis to explore the implications of culture and gender for governmental public affairs. The data base, developed for the IABC Research Foundation's Excellence project, establishes that participative culture is most conducive to effective public relations. Governmental agencies in the USA, Canada and the UK tend to be less participatory than two of the other three types of organisation studied: corporation and non‐profit. Women in the agency analysed in greater depth, a state lottery, formed the majority of the public affairs staff, yet encountered the ubiquitous glass ceiling in their attempts to ascend front the technical to the managerial role. Public relations in general in governmental agencies exhibits remarkably more similarity than difference across organisational types and among the three countries studied. Any factor, such as authoritarian culture or gender discrimination, that limits the effectiveness of the communication function is particularly significant there, however, given the size and scope of governmental public affairs.

Explores the resurgence of interest in public relations as relationship building; and the three‐stage model that has been developed to research this. Concludes that the present chaotic environment requires public relations professionals to assume the responsibility of identifying the organization’s most strategic publics as part of the management process.

The 15‐year study of excellence in public relations and communication management in the USA, the UK and Canada produced an explanation of the value of PR to an organisation and a set of theoretical principles describing how the communication function should be organised, structured and practised in an organisation. These principles provide a theoretical benchmark for auditing the quality of a PR unit. This paper identifies the implications of these principles for PR education at the undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education levels and for management education in MBA programmes. The excellence study suggests, first, that all PR education must instil in students the view that PR is a strategic managerial function rather than a technical support function for other managerial functions. Undergraduate programmes should continue to develop superior communication skills in their students, but they must frame these technical skills in principles of strategic management, research and ethics and social responsibility. Postgraduate and continuing education programmes should focus on strategic management and research skills and educate future managers to be ethics officers in the organisation. MBA programmes should include a unit on PR in a subject area such as strategic management, public affairs or corporate social responsibility to prepare them to work with PR professionals when they become senior executives. PR education at all of these levels and in both communication and MBA programmes should educate students to practise PR globally.

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.

Public relations professionals frequently maintain that public relations is different in governmental organisations than in corporations, associations and not‐for‐profit organisations. Textbooks commonly include separate chapters on government public relations; and some universities in the USA teach separate courses on government communication programmes. Most public relations theorists, however, have not constructed separate theories of public relations for government. In this paper, the authors theorise that the principles of public relations for government are the same as for other types of organisation, but that the specific conditions to which the principles must be applied are different. Research has shown, however, that governmental organisations are more likely than other organisations to practice a public information model of public relations and less likely to engage in two‐way communication. The authors suggest theoretically that governmental organisations, especially in the USA, are more likely to practice one‐way, information‐based communication programmes because of a pluralistic view of government. In countries where government is based more on a societal corporatist view, organisations are more likely to practice strategic, two‐way communication. This paper analyses the information policies of Canada and Norway as examples. It concludes with the proposition that strategic, symmetrical public relations requires an agency to view its relationship with publics from a societal corporatist perspective rather than from a pluralistic perspective.

The time is right for renewed and updated attention to the relationship between public relations (PR) and human resources (HR) departments in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. For too long, conflict between the two practice areas has obscured opportunities for collaboration which benefits organizations and stakeholders. This chapter offers theoretical underpinnings for examining an interdepartmental, cross-unit working relationship between HR and PR – and advances a vision for why it is needed now.

This is a general review of the German concepts and provisions for the self‐regulation of PR practitioners. They differ from the various systems published so far in this Journal (Vol. 8 No.1, 2003). The purpose of the paper is a contribution to the actual debate about the most appropriate approach to tackle ethical problems of the guild.

The paper first describes the structure and the procedures of the German PR Council, outlining a number of peculiarities: this body censures not only members of the supporting associations but non‐members and non‐PR professionals as well; it acts publicly; it pronounces and publishes verdicts and rebukes, and it issues specific rules of conduct in the case of uncertainties. Consequently the paper deals with the methods of conceiving codes and guidelines. It explains the differences which German practitioners discern between ethical and quality provisions. Within this context it discusses the German reservations with regard to some of the proposals of the newly formulated “Global Protocol on Ethics in Public Relations”.

This proposition induces a discussion about the ethical principles which guide the Council's endeavours. The paper proposes a shift in the moral assessment of the four Grunig models from dialogue to information activities as the prime moral challenges. As a result of these findings the paper states the Council's legitimacy.

Finally, the paper reports the various reactions of those who have been rebuked. It gives an evaluation of the Council's influence on the practice of PR in Germany based on new surveys and facts. The German experiences with the enforcement of codes are summarised as an ongoing process of self‐assurance of the PR guild and its public esteem.

A survey of 463 students examined how they perceive their relationship with the University of Florida. Overall, students described the relationship as one characterised by trust and satisfaction and they tended to feel more neutral about control mutuality, commitment and an exchange relationship. Items measuring a communal relationship were the weakest relationship indicators. Data from interviews with nine administrators further validated the relationship outcomes measured in the survey.