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Article
Publication date: 30 July 2021

Gemma Bridge, Johanna Fawkes and Ralph Tench

The purpose of this paper is to explore the pressures to publish facing European public relations (PR) and communication management scholars across career stages.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the pressures to publish facing European public relations (PR) and communication management scholars across career stages.

Design/methodology/approach

The Delphi method was used with PR and communication management scholars at associate professor level or higher across Europe. An online survey was then shared with the wider academic community to gather insights from scholars at different career stages.

Findings

The suitability and status of the journal and the language of the outputs are considered. Academics are caught between the rock of publishing inside the field to support its development and the hard place of being required to publish in high-ranking journals for funding and promotion. Scholars are evaluated regularly, with journal articles being the main unit of assessment. Academics, regardless of career stage, feel under pressure to publish.

Research limitations/implications

The wider survey enabled publishing insights to be gathered from academics across the career spectrum, but it was completed by a small sample. Nevertheless, similar concerns emerged from both methods of data gathering, suggesting a clear agenda for discussion and further research.

Practical implications

PR and communications management is an academic discipline without an accepted list of high-impact journals. This study provides an annotated journal list to aid institutional evaluations, aid scholarly journal publishing decisions and support early career researchers navigating the publishing process.

Originality/value

This adds to the somewhat limited discussion regarding how academics in PR and communication management decide where to publish and provides a resource that can be used by scholars, institutions and funders.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 25 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2020

Martina Topić, Gemma Bridge and Ralph Tench

The purpose of this paper is to explore changes in corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies in food, soft drinks and packaging industries to capture changes in CSR…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore changes in corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies in food, soft drinks and packaging industries to capture changes in CSR implementation given increased environmental activism. The paper takes an exploratory approach in reviewing CSR policy changes to explore to what extent companies change CSR policies with increased environmentalism.

Design/methodology/approach

A comparative website analysis was used to analyse CSR policies of companies in the food, soft drinks and packaging industries in the UK. The companies were selected for the analysis based on their annual turnover and 23 companies were analysed (seven for the soft drinks industry, eight for the food industry and eight for packaging industry). Five interviews were conducted with packaging and retail professionals, and the findings were analysed by using thematic analysis, which captured trends in responses.

Findings

The findings show that companies are implementing and communicating CSR policies heavily focussed on reducing the environmental impact of their work and matching social debates on human rights, with which traditional CSR policies (corporate governance, supporting local communities and consultation with stakeholders) are fading away. Instead, companies have shifted attention towards the gender pay gap, modern slavery and extensive environmentalism. The interviews with packaging professionals and CSR managers from the retail industry show that the packaging industry designs CSR policies in line with requests from supermarkets, which are, in turn, influenced by consumer activism.

Practical implications

This paper shows the circular relationship between media coverage, consumer activism, which comes as a result, and the impact and changes this brings to the industry. To avoid reputation damage, companies should closely follow media debates to pre-empty consumer criticism and activism.

Social implications

The findings show that companies are “mirroring the zeitgast” and going with trends to meet consumer expectations, which brings into question the sincerity of CSR policies and revives the criticism of capitalism and raises a question whether CSR is used by companies as a smokescreen that on the outset makes a difference to the society but keeps status quo intact.

Originality/value

The paper provides an insight into CSR implementation of three industries that faced heavy criticism from campaigners and the general public for their environmental impact. The paper shows how the CSR policy shifted to match this expectation and thus provides a good ground for studying the evolution of CSR using a case study from three selected industries.

Details

Journal of Global Responsibility, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2041-2568

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 May 2023

Angeles Moreno, Cristina Fuentes Lara, Ralph Tench and Stefania Romenti

Governments around the world have shown poor capabilities in responding effectively to the COVID-19 health emergency outbreaks. After the declaration of COVID-19 as an…

Abstract

Purpose

Governments around the world have shown poor capabilities in responding effectively to the COVID-19 health emergency outbreaks. After the declaration of COVID-19 as an international pandemic by the World Health Organization on January 31, 2020, three countries experienced the greatest initial impact in Europe. Sequentially Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK) were hit by the highest numbers of contagion and death in the first few months in Europe. The aim of this paper is to assess how information channels and sources influenced the public’s evaluation of the three government’s communication response strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was conducted between March 14 and April 14, 2020, during the first wave of lockdowns and declarations of States of Emergency in the three countries.

Findings

Findings show particularities for the different countries, but also similarities in response and reactions of the public in the three scenarios. The response strategy of the UK Government was the most untrusted and criticized by citizens. In contrast, the Italian and Spanish Governments, which both chose to respond with the severest restrictions, attracted more support from citizens, especially in Italy, which was the first to close borders and impose lockdowns for the population.

Research limitations/implications

Despite the national differences in the preference of information channels and sources, overall, an empirical relationship between government communication assessment and media use were found in all the scenarios.

Practical implications

This empirical study has theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, findings will add evidence of implications of the Channel Complementary Theory to the field of risk, crisis and emergency communication. The results also provide insights for communication practitioners in the public sector on how forms of information and trust in sources influence the public’s assessment of authorities’ communication.

Originality/value

Implications for theory and empirical research about communication during a health pandemic are identified and discussed.

Highlights

Citizens engage at a high level and synchronize their use of multiple media and platforms in all the three national scenarios.

Stronger criticism is provided by online media, especially social media and online press in the different national contexts.

Results corroborate that factors related to media choice need to be operationalized for risk and crisis communication research.

When public health depends on people understanding the actions they need to take, the possibility of disobedience is highly dependent on trust.

Compared with Spain and the United Kingdom (UK), trust in government institutions in Italy was stronger and could be explained by the higher use of owned media for information-seeking.

Details

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 28 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-3289

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2020

Ansgar Zerfass, Jens Hagelstein and Ralph Tench

Artificial intelligence (AI) might change the communication profession immensely, but the academic discourse is lacking an investigation of the perspective of practitioners on…

3374

Abstract

Purpose

Artificial intelligence (AI) might change the communication profession immensely, but the academic discourse is lacking an investigation of the perspective of practitioners on this. This article addresses this research gap. It offers a literature overview and reports about an empirical study on AI in communications, presenting first insights on how professionals in the field assess the technology.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative cross-national study among 2,689 European communication practitioners investigated four research questions: RQ1 – How much do professionals know about AI and to what extent are they already using AI technologies in their everyday lives? RQ2 – How do professionals rate the impact of AI on communication management? RQ3 – Which challenges do professionals identify for implementing AI in communication management? RQ4 – Which risks do they perceive?

Findings

Communication professionals revealed a limited understanding of AI and expected the technology to impact the profession as a whole more than the way their organisations or themselves work. Lack of individual competencies and organisations struggling with different levels of competency and unclear responsibilities were identified as key challenges and risks.

Research limitations/implications

The results highlight the need for communication managers to educate themselves and their teams about the technology and to identify the implementation of AI as a leadership issue.

Originality/value

The article offers the first cross-national quantitative study on AI in communication management. It presents valuable empirical insights on a trending topic in the discipline, highly relevant for both academics and practitioners.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 May 2020

Audra Diers-Lawson, Kerry Coope and Ralph Tench

The purpose of this paper is to explain and better understand some of the challenges and even contradictions in relationships between CSR and stakeholder attitudes by comparing…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain and better understand some of the challenges and even contradictions in relationships between CSR and stakeholder attitudes by comparing consumer and practitioner perspectives on social responsibility, its role in organisations and its influence on consumer attitudes towards companies. The objective is to understand and evaluate factors influencing the authenticity of social responsibility as a contributor to an organisation’s value proposition.

Design/methodology/approach

Focus groups of consumers and practitioners (N = 39) were asked to explore CSR in a semi-structured discussion. Themes were analysed using a constant comparative method.

Findings

These data suggest that rather than existing on a continuum of authenticity, there are clear paths emerging for CSR efforts to be deemed authentic versus inauthentic that can begin to better explain the often-contradictory findings with regard to consumer attitudes towards CSR and an organisation’s value proposition. Consumer efficacy to influence an organisation and localised CSR emerge as critical determinants for evaluations of CSR as authentic. Further, these data also suggest practitioners may not understand consumer motivations and attitudes about CSR.

Originality/value

These data provide new insights into evaluations of CSR to explain when and why it can fail to meet its objectives. Ultimately, these data produce testable models for authentic (i.e. motivator) and inauthentic (hygiene) consumer judgements about CSR and draw implications for CSR leadership, learning and management.

Details

Journal of Global Responsibility, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2041-2568

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2001

Ralph Tench

Competence in written communication has been described as a fundamental underpinning of contemporary undergraduate education by both educational advisors and agencies. This…

1703

Abstract

Competence in written communication has been described as a fundamental underpinning of contemporary undergraduate education by both educational advisors and agencies. This article focuses on students’ perceptions of their own writing styles and skills. These opinions have been considered in the context of the desires and expectations of practitioners in public relations for high standards of grammar, variety in copywriting style and a high degree of accuracy in writing. Students’ perceptions of the learning environment for this vocational academic discipline also suggest a receptiveness to the integration of alternative pedagogues in the form of information technology.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 43 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2002

Ralph Tench, Johanna Fawkes and Dayan Palihawadana

This paper describes a research project that involved an in‐depth investigation into freelancing in the public relations industry with data collected from both freelancers and…

1609

Abstract

This paper describes a research project that involved an in‐depth investigation into freelancing in the public relations industry with data collected from both freelancers and their employers. The analysis of these data highlighted the complexity of issues for those working in and employing people in this sector of public relations practice. The research project produced data on themes relating to freelance practitioners’ status, skills and experience, but this paper aims to focus specifically on trends and issues for the future. The key findings under this theme are that the freelance sector has grown. A majority of clients claim an increased use of freelancers in the last year and this was linked to a “need for flexibility” and “new business development”. Also the majority of freelancers are happy and do not want to change their employment status and some respondents stated “nothing” would make them return to permanent employment. Freelance public relations appears to be meeting a trend since the early 1990s for companies to “downsize” and “outsource” workers and for employees to seek a work/lifestyle balance. Regarding patterns of work almost half of freelancers claimed to be more productive when freelancing with the key factors being that they have “fewer interruptions” and fewer “unnecessary meetings”. Of relevance to national institutes and debates about professionalisation and reputation, it was interesting that the majority of the sample were not members of a professional body. The research and its findings have implications for human resources managers employing public relations staff, public relations managers and directors who commission freelance practitioners and the freelancers themselves.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Ralph Tench and Brian Jones

This paper aims to posit the central argument that traditional media of old presented a clear, ordered world of communication management for organisations to extol their corporate…

4952

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to posit the central argument that traditional media of old presented a clear, ordered world of communication management for organisations to extol their corporate social responsibility (CSR) credentials. In contrast to this, new Web 2.0 social media is increasingly being used by activists and hactivists to challenge corporate communication CSR messages and does so by highlighting instances and examples of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) (Jones et al., 2009; Tench et al., 2012).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports on research data from the European Communication Monitor, 2010, 2011 and 2012 (www.communicationmonitor.eu/) and draws on work already published in this area (Tench et al., 2009; Verhoeven et al., 2012; Zerfass et al., 2010, 2011) to illustrate the unruly, unregulated Web 2.0 social media communication landscape in Europe. A range of literature is drawn on to provide the theoretical context for an exploration of issues that surround social media.

Findings

In late modernity (Giddens, 1990), communication comes in many guises. Social media is one guise and it has re-shaped as well as transformed the nature of communications and the relationship between organisations and their stakeholders.

Originality/value

Communicating CSR in the Wild West of social media requires diplomatic and political nous, as well as awareness and knowledge of the dangers and pitfalls of CSI. The data reported on in this paper well illustrate the above points and set out scenarios for future development of corporate communication of CSR through and with social media.

Details

Social Responsibility Journal, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-1117

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 February 2015

Ralph Tench and Angeles Moreno

The principle focus of the European Communication Professional Skills and Innovation (ECOPSI) Research project reported in this paper is to develop understanding of the…

1690

Abstract

Purpose

The principle focus of the European Communication Professional Skills and Innovation (ECOPSI) Research project reported in this paper is to develop understanding of the competences held by senior communication practitioners and the contributing knowledge, skills and personal attributes that are relevant to their role. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on 24 months of desk and empirical work by the research team in three core phases: the benchmarking report based on literature reviews in each country region; quantitative data collection from communication practitioners in 42 countries across Europe; qualitative data from 53 interviews across four senior practitioner roles in the six regions of the study’s focus.

Findings

The findings highlight the competencies needed by senior practitioners through the creation of the Communication Role Matrix with critical evaluation of the current contemporary issues faced by the sector.

Research limitations/implications

The authors acknowledge a limitation of the study regarding the selection of the four studied professional roles. ECOPSI has proven a common understanding of theses four studied roles in Europe, but further research on the competencies of diverse roles performed in the profession would need to be explored for a more comprehensive appreciation of the full spectrum of public relations and strategic communication practice.

Practical implications

The paper draws together findings from across Europe and presents a practical interpretation of the project in the form of an online self-diagnostic tool based on an online portal for practitioners to self-complete.

Social implications

The programme improves the professionalism of practitioners across Europe and their ability to work across borders in a European and wider international community of communication practitioners.

Originality/value

This study benchmarks the educational and practice landscape in six key regions of Europe to demonstrate that the elements focusing on skills, knowledge and personal attributes of European communication professionals can be synthesised using competences as the foundational element. The originality is also reflected in the self-diagnostic tool for the project based on an online portal.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 July 2009

Brian Jones, Ryan Bowd and Ralph Tench

Building on the work of Carroll this article attempts to unravel, explore and explain corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a theoretical construct that has implications and…

15153

Abstract

Purpose

Building on the work of Carroll this article attempts to unravel, explore and explain corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a theoretical construct that has implications and consequences for corporate governance in particular, and more generally for the economy, business and society. It aims to extend Carroll's work on definitional constructs by re‐examining some of the theoretical frameworks that underpin, inform and guide CSR.

Design/methodology/approach

Carroll identified different levels, or a pyramid, of CSR and these are outlined and the advantages and disadvantages of a pyramid, levels‐based approach discussed. The main contributions of this article lies is in its exploration of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) as a concept in contrast to CSR. Bowd, Jones and Tench's CSI‐CSR model is described, explained, analysed and used as a conceptual tool to make the theoretical move from a pyramid or level‐based approach to a more dynamic framework of analysis.

Findings

The proposition that CSI is better suited to a shareholder business model and CSR sits more comfortably with a stakeholder business model is examined. It is contested that people often wrongly equate CSR with irresponsible corporate actions. The CSI‐CSR model establishes a theoretical framework around which grounded empirical research can be undertaken, applied and on which it can be reported.

Research limitations/implications

This is a new area of research that addresses a gap in the literature and puts forward innovative theoretical models. Discussing the concept of irresponsibility makes for an interesting theoretical move. It questions the idea that corporations and business per se are always or necessarily socially responsible.

Originality/value

In looking at and developing existing theoretical models, concepts and frameworks and exploring their merits, shortcomings and limitations, the article will be of interest and relevance to the business and academic communities. If there is such a thing as CSR then the implication is that there is such a thing as CSI and it is on this issue that this article seeks to promote and stimulate discussion.

Details

Social Responsibility Journal, vol. 5 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-1117

Keywords

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