global discussion. local perspectives.
Back in September, Heather Yaxley launched a fascinating and heated debate on the role of PR under the fairly tame title “A radical view of PR“. One thread of the debate centred on whether the PR professional should be representing external views to management or simply representing the organization’s position. I would like to revisit the topic by introducing research from two other fields: visual perception and evolutionary biology.
Last week I participated to an exclusive and ‘secret’ summit of CCO’s from 15 major global corporations during which they discussed some of the major challenges facing their increasingly relevant organizational function assisted by a handful of ‘sparring partners’ from academia, ngo’s and consultants. I will mention no names nor location as per agreement, but will instead relate a few of the primary issues and how they were discussed. No intention here to ‘scoop’ anyone,...
The Canadian Public Relations Society is holding its next annual conference, On The Edge, in Vancouver, British Columbia, from June 7 to 9, 2009. Its website is already up and running. It’s good to see that CPRS is making use of some interactive (i.e., social media) tools for this conference iteration, including a twitter account and online poll. (The current question is: Which professional development workshop stream is most useful to you?) Promised in January...
“….Notwithstanding these examples there is growing recognition of increasing differences between opinion and behaviour in society today. If we are to be really successful in the use of social marketing in changing individual behaviour, we need to rethink traditional theories about how we use communications and marketing to achieve social objectives. We need to refocus on society. This need is emphasised by an increasingly fluid, mobile, society; an increasingly divergent set of public opinions on...
In a recent exchange on this here blog Catherine Arrow wrote: … Somebody, somewhere has to hit the coalface first, and… (this) is the job of associations, so their members can chip away and follow through with the leadership, back up and support of the big guys….. our current situation has been apparent and evident for some time …. and … no preventative action has been taken.…..So, perhaps…… there should be a recognition and admission...
I submit that the paradigm of generic principles and specific applications and the practice of stakeholder relationship management constitute an effective integrated framework of reference for our professional community, capable of allowing our practice to fully benefit (or at the very least, suffer less) from this economic crisis, which will be with us for some years to come. Allow me to dwell on this statement, and explain the why and the how.
Bear with me and please visit www.lucasossellaeditore.it . Mind you, the sound is in Italian so it might be better to move quickly along the few minutes to get a grasp of what the contents, but more importantly the format, are like. Basically these few minutes are an excerpt of a good twelve hours (!) of videobook (3 dvd’s of four hours each) to which Joao Duarte referred to in his post here a few...
While there were few remaining doubts in Milano for me that the institutionalization process of the public relations function is ‘a fact of organizational life’, especially after the presentation of the three research reports in the final plenary session, and the rooted impression that in other parts of the world besides Italy, Europe and the United States the process is even more pronounced, even if no figures were presented at the Euprera Congress…the substantial impression...
The recent Euprera congress in Milan advocated insitutionalization of PR as a strategic leadership function, where organisations value communications as a strength in the same way that they respect other expertise among the executive. The impression was that PR practitioners are "lions" being led by "donkeys" who fail to recognise our courage and competence as they task us instead in fighting futile tactical battles. (My analogy being the views towards the British generals of World...
Just when you think an issue is sorted, done, dusted and settled – up it comes again. The issue on my mind today is gender and its impact on public relations. I have attended three different events in roughly as many weeks and at each one, the issue of ‘feminisation of the public relations profession’ has taken centre stage.