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Public relations (PR) education has not kept pace with the rapid globalisation that has occurred since 1992. The existing PR body of knowledge, and PR curricula around the world, have a US bias. In order to prepare PR students in various parts of the world to become effective multicultural professionals it is essential for experiences and perspectives from other continents to be integrated into PR education. The complexities of societal factors such as culture, political systems and media systems make Asia a challenging place to conduct strategic PR. It is time for educators to integrate experiences from other continents into the PR body of knowledge, thereby building PR curricula that contribute to training truly multicultural PR professionals.

Research is recognised as an essential part of planning and evaluation in most areas of marketing and corporate communication, including advertising, direct marketing and, increasingly, public relations and corporate communication disciplines such as employee communication and community relations. Understanding of audience interests, awareness, perceptions and information needs is critical to strategic planning of communication campaigns. Secondly, identification and quantification of changes in awareness, perception and, ultimately, behaviour is necessary to evaluate objectively the effectiveness of communication (ie the outcomes or results). Nowhere is research more important than in multicultural and cross‐cultural communication. International relations began with human migrations and trade and reach new levels today with globalisation, corporations, organisations and governments increasingly seeking to create consistencies and shared values across divergent cultural groups. They seek to create consistencies and shared values in relation to products (eg Coca‐Cola, IBM, McDonalds), policies (eg trade agreements) and in popular culture such as films, television programmes and news media. Social rules and shared values, ie the culture of communities, affect organisations seeking to communicate multiculturally and cross‐culturally at two levels. First, the “home” culture of the organisation wishing to communicate shapes policies, plans and products that are produced. Secondly, the cultures of audiences inform and substantially shape their interpretation and use of information. Often, multicultural and cross‐cultural communication is a case of “Chinese whispers” on an international scale. What one says or shows is frequently not what others hear or see. Studies cited in this paper show that culture is a vitally important factor in communication. Yet, companies and even governments attempt communication with little understanding of audiences which they wish to reach and with which they wish to build relationships and understanding. This paper examines cultural considerations specifically in the field of public relations and corporate communication in the Asia Pacific region which is comprised of a diverse range of cultures and has been identified as the largest market in the world. Thus, it is increasingly a focal point of global communication campaigns.

It is a necessity in a dynamic business like communication management to relook at “ethics”, in light of the difficult times experienced by businesses and PR professionals, particularly in the Asia Pacific. To better understand ethics as applied in the industry, it could be helpful to classify the ethical issues that surround PR practitioners. The ten defined categories are personal, professional, political, cultural, racial/religious, trade/business, social, legal, financial and environmental. It is also possible to argue that “issues management” can be seen to also involve “ethics management”. Communications professionals should devote even more of their time and attention to this and raise professional standards in the process.

Purpose – Libraries have been experiencing relentless change and uncertainty in their environment. The literature on corporate communications, strategic management and planning, marketing and public relations more recently, has been recommending using communications as a strategy to coherently and proactively handle and foresee change. Planning and using an overall communications strategy will bring integrity and adherence to the library's goals and direction while reducing the discomfort of change. This selected bibliography is a quick starting point for understanding the significance of an overall communication strategy and its use for managing conflicts and changes in the library's environment strategically. Design/methodology/approach – This article covers books and articles from mid‐1980s to 2004, published around the world. The sources are listed alphabetically by author and then chronologically for different sources by the same author, providing brief but useful information about the content covered for each source. Findings – This bibliography illustrates a variety of research from corporate communications, strategic planning, communications management, marketing and public relations literature that emphasize the role of communication in strategic management. Research limitations/implications – It records a comprehensive list of publications covering international perspectives as well as publications about communication strategy. Practical implications – This selected bibliography is primarily intended for librarians, library planners, managers or administrators, but is also relevant to corporate and business professionals, planners and administrators. Further, it would also be a useful resource for students, faculty and researchers of communication. Originality/value – This bibliography presents a much needed resource list for gathering insights into the strategic role of communication for organizations such as the library that are in a state of constant change.

China’s open‐market reform and rapid economic growth have generated a tremendous surge in activity and market investment by multinational corporations (MNCs). By 2000, 400 of the 500 most famous MNCs had invested in China. One distinctive feature of China’ s business environment, its authoritarian political system, requires MNCs to practise strategic public affairs to interact constantly with the different levels of Chinese government, respond to the policies and further influence business policy formation. This paper proposes a conceptual model of MNC‐government bargaining that is composed of international political economy, dependency theory and agency theory. It then examines (1) the international and domestic influences on MNC‐government bargaining in China and (2) the strategies MNCs employed to influence Chinese laws for foreign business in their interests. A case study of the Chinese ban on direct selling operations in 1998 and Amway’s strategies to remove the ban is presented. Results suggest that effective public affairs should engage in the following activities: (1) issues management, (2) constantly and systematically analysing the MNC’s bargaining power with the host government, (3) selecting public affairs strategies based on the analysis of MNC‐government bargaining, (4) exercising relationship management, and (5) being ethical in its practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices and outlooks of public relations (PR) and corporate communication practitioners in six countries of South East Asia, through the eyes of practitioners themselves.

The paper draws on the findings of a doctoral research project comprising an online questionnaire sent to 100 active PR and corporate communication practitioners in six countries of South East Asia, attracting 30 responses; and a subsequent series of 14 semi-structured, in-depth face-to-face interviews. While taking some account of a range of theories in formulating questions, the research is primarily inductive in nature, seeking to reveal self-perceptions of the working worlds, worldviews, values and concerns of practitioners themselves.

The project confirms, in the South East Asian context, hypotheses previously advanced by researchers including Sriramesh (2004), Sriramesh and Vercic (2001), Bardhan (2011) and others which assert that distinctive worldviews and local and regional cultures can be significant considerations in understanding the ways that communication strategies are developed and applied in different geographical locations. Going further, the research confirms that local practitioners see other environmental variables including differences in infrastructure, the composition of local languages and a range of other factors which go beyond “attitudes” and “values” as having important impacts as well, and therefore being worthy of more detailed attention by international communication planners and scholars.

The research has implications for practitioners seeking to develop effective communication strategies in South East Asian environments. For scholars, the research has implications for better understanding of the significance of a range of environmental variables which may impact the effectiveness of professional practice in the region but which as yet may not be sufficiently recognised by existing theory and case studies. The project has a small sample size, with respondents drawn primarily from the membership of two English-speaking international professional associations. All research was also conducted in English. It may therefore not be fully representative of all practitioners across the region.

The findings draw attention to ways that communication strategies might be more successfully developed and applied in particular Association of South East Asian Nations countries, and how professional practice in this region can help to better inform the development of more inclusive, comprehensive and critical “international” PR theory, curriculum and pedagogy.

The research has social implications in regard to promoting better understanding of the outlooks and influences upon a group of professional people who arguably enjoy disproportionate influence upon the communities and societies in which they operate, by virtue of the work they undertake to explain, persuade and build relationships on behalf of other influential parties.

This is the first research project providing extensive first-hand simultaneous insights into the working worlds and personal outlooks of a broad cross-section of corporate communication practitioners across a number of major countries of South East Asia, embracing a comprehensive range of discussion topics.

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 to begin a conversation about historicising the public relations (PR) curriculum in universities.

The paper discusses PR history and historiography to identify the underlying ideological and methodological influences. It considers scholarship on PR education, and the inclusion or, more often, the exclusion of history except where it serves to reinforce a narrative of steady, and apparently unproblematic, professional development. The paper reviews the presentation of history in textbooks and discusses the authors' experiences of teaching PR history. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the inclusion of history in the PR curriculum offers an important critical intervention in PR education.

The PR curriculum tends to meet industry expectations around practice and skills in order to develop students as future practitioners. But this paper argues that a more historical and historiographical understanding of PR can develop in students important skills in research, analysis and interpretation. It can also introduce students to working with ambiguity and alternate perspectives. Foregrounding new histories and challenging existing histories introduce students to richer and more complex understandings of PR. It also introduces students to epistemology and ethics, and therefore offers a way to introduce critical thinking into the curriculum.

A more historical understanding of PR develops student skills in research, analysis and interpretation as well as critical thinking.

Organisations are often reluctant to change their corporate cultures even when such change is essential to cope with the changing business environment. This paper analyses the three phases of change management adopted by the multinational company RWE Solutions and describes several steps that organisations can adopt in managing change strategies and establishing new corporate cultures. It is important to formulate and articulate the core statements and the “mission” of the company, making sure that the company’s business model and strategy are comprehensible and communicable to external publics. It is also important for managers to ask whether a gap exists between statements and reality, the real vision and claims of the vision, and assess how any existing chasms can be bridged. Next, assess whether the company’s “emotional presence” is evident in the corporate design, which should match the story of the company and be as close to the self‐image and the goals of the employees and management staff as possible. Finally, managed communication (and public relations) should be a critical component of any corporate strategy.

This paper aims to develop five public relations scales as a substitutions for models/dimensions that were subject to much criticism. Based on this conceptual re‐evaluation of the excellence study, one of the dominant public relations paradigms, the manuscript proposes a measurement approach for the public relations practice.

This is a conceptual paper based on a critical literature review aimed at understanding the errors in the public relations models conceptualization and their empirical tests. Based on this review, new and improved scales of public relations are proposed.

The study developed five scales of public relations as substitutions for models/dimensions. The study proposed a measurement approach for the public relations practice. Finally, the study concluded that further research advancing the excellence scholarship is essential to better understanding the profession of public relations.

This manuscript creates a measurement approach which public relations practitioners can use to plan, monitor, and evaluate public relations campaigns and ongoing programs, as well as to manage knowledge and expertise of public relations practitioners and departments, and the expectations of the dominant coalition toward the public relations unit.

This re‐conceptualization can finally address the criticism of the earlier models and dimensions of public relations, establish a measurement approach for the practice of public relations, as well as provide a tool that can be used by both academic and practitioners in planning, monitoring, evaluating, and managing public relations.