Capabilities of PR professionals for key activities lag: Asia-Pacific study shows theory and practice gaps

A number of studies of the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs), competencies and capabilities of public relations and communication professionals have been carried out in the USA, UK and other countries. However, most have not engaged to any significant extent with literature in the human resource development field which specializes in defining and developing these characteristics. Also, few studies to date have related the KSAs, competencies and capabilities of practitioners to the key activities of public relations and communication management required for the future. This article presents findings and analysis from a regional survey conducted in 22 Asia-Pacific countries in 2017/18 that compared, for the first time, the capabilities of practitioners in relation to activities identified as the most important over the next three years. This data, and comparison with equivalent regional surveys in Europe and Latin America, confirm a gap in capabilities in relation to key communication activities and suggest a gap in theory as well as practice. The findings and conclusions present a challenge for higher education and professional development for public relations and communication management and point to potential future directions in theory building.     

Ethnic identity and the choice to play for a national team: a study of junior elite football players with a migrant background

In German (junior) elite football, there are a comparatively large number of highly talented players with a migrant background. These players were born in Germany and joined the Talent Development Programme of the German Football Association (DFB). Many of these players can decide for which national association they want to play in international games. In media and public discourse, this decision is usually explained by the degree of self-identification with a specific ethnic group. However, this assumption is not empirically evident. Using the example of junior elite players with a Turkish background, this article focuses therefore on the question, which role ethnic identity plays in this decision. Based on social identity theory, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 adolescent elite football players with Turkish background who played for the German and/or the Turkish Football Association. Our findings suggest that – in contrast to media narratives – ethnic identity only plays a marginal role in the decision to play for a national football association.     

Crisis? What crisis?: How European professionals handle crises and crisis communication

A broad study in 43 European countries shows that 70% of communication professionals encounter at least one crisis a year, mostly institutional, related to the performance of the organization or a crisis in management or leadership. Organizational response and image restoration approaches are mainly based on information, sympathy and defense strategies. Traditional media relations and personal communication are the most important instruments used in crisis communication, while social media is used less often. The variation of crisis types, responses and instruments across European regions and types of organization indicate that economic and cultural aspects play a role in defining a crisis and communicating about it.     

European Communication Monitor 2009. An institutionalized view of how public relations and communication management professionals face the economic and media crises in Europe

The European Communication Monitor (ECM) is an extensive longitudinal research project to monitor trends in public relations and communication management and analyze the changing framework for the profession in Europe. The 2009 ECM edition identifies the main characteristics of individual practitioners and the organizations where they work. The aim is to monitor the challenges for communication management in the recession and media crisis; the development of the sub disciplines, instruments and strategic issues; and the influence on management decisions. Additionally ECM 2009 evaluates three specific areas: internal communication, research in communication and interactive communication.     

Parenthood and dynamics of life satisfaction in times of COVID-19

We analyze data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, including a pre-pandemic baseline and seven survey waves between May 2020 and September 2021. Fixed effects panel regression models are run over more than 11,000 individuals, distinguishing among women and men with young children (<5 years), older children (5–15 years), or no children in the household. We hypothesize that declines in life satisfaction during the first lockdown are sharper among parents, whose domestic demands increase, than among the childless. We develop competing hypotheses that parents might be resilient and have higher life satisfaction during the later phases of the pandemic (Adaptation Hypothesis) or that the pandemic stressors accumulate, leading to even lower satisfaction over time (Accumulation Hypothesis). The results only support the Accumulation Hypothesis among mothers. Whereas mothers fared comparatively well during the first lockdown, further pandemic stressors have seemingly exhausted their resilience, leading to stronger declines during the winter 2020/2021 lockdown. Among men with older children and without children, life satisfaction decreased during the first and subsequent lockdowns. Men with young children were the only group with almost unchanged life satisfaction throughout the pandemic.     

Nonparametric monitoring of financial time series by jump-preserving control charts

Since structural changes in a possibly transformed financial time series may contain important information for investors and analysts, we consider the following problem of sequential econometrics. For a given time series we aim at detecting the first change-point where a jump of size a occurs, i.e., the mean changes from, say, m ₀to m ₀+ a and returns to m ₀after a possibly short period s. To address this problem, we study a Shewhart-type control chart based on a sequential version of the sigma filter, which extends kernel smoothers by employing stochastic weights depending on the process history to detect jumps in the data more accurately than classical approaches. We study both theoretical properties and performance issues. Concerning the statistical properties, it is important to know whether the normed delay time of the considered control chart is bounded, at least asymptotically. Extending known results for linear statistics employing deterministic weighting schemes, we establish an upper bound which holds if the memory of the chart tends to infinity. The performance of the proposed control charts is studied by simulations. We confine ourselves to some special models which try to mimic important features of real time series. Our empirical results provide some evidence that jump-preserving weights are preferable under certain circumstances.     

Social Media Newsrooms in public relations: A conceptual framework and corporate practices in three countries

The rise of social media in organizational settings has opened up new horizons for strategic communication. However, there are also drawbacks. Arguably the most important one is increased complexity. Many communication departments use a multitude of platforms ranging from corporate websites, campaign microsites and blogs to services like Facebook and Twitter to communicate with stakeholders. Social Media Newsrooms (SMNRs) have been introduced as instruments to reduce this complexity. The basic idea is straightforward: SMNRs aggregate social media content provided by the organization and/or thematic content about the organization and its key issues from several platforms in one place. Although SMNRs have been used in public relations practice around the world since the concept was first introduced in 2007, empirical evidence is still missing. This paper closes the research gap by (a) introducing SMNRs from a conceptual perspective based on a literature review, (b) exploring opportunities and challenges for strategic communication, (c) researching empirical manifestations and modes of usage by corporations in three major international markets (United States, United Kingdom, and Germany) based on a comprehensive content analysis of the 600 largest companies and 2045 affiliated brands and subsidiaries, and (d) explaining implications for the practice of public relations.     

Public relations and the rise of hypermodern values: Exploring the profession in Europe

This article raises the question of whether European public relations (PR) and communications professionals perceive a cultural transformation in the direction of hypermodernity, and if so, attempts to assess how this influences their organizations and their work. Questions were asked in the European Communication Monitor 2017, an annual survey among communications professionals, and 3387 respondents from 50 European countries filled in the questionnaire. The results indicate that European professionals recognize a cultural transformation in the direction of hyper consumption, hyper modernization and hyper narcissism that influences the communication between their organizations and their stakeholders. A cluster analysis shows that less than half of the respondents perceive a transformation of their organization in the direction of hypermodern characteristics and values. Organizations with post/hypermodern characteristics have superior communications departments compared to modern organizations. Post/hypermodern organizations and excellent communications departments also engage more often in societal debates than other types of organizations and departments.     

European Communication Monitor: Current developments,issues and tendencies of the professional practice of public relations in Europe

The European Communication Monitor (ECM) research explores the current developments for communications disciplines, practices and instruments. It is an extensive research project to monitor trends in communication management, analyse the changing framework for the profession driven by European integration and evaluate specific topics of relevance to public relations practice. Specifically, the 2008 ECM edition is focused on aspects such as: strategy and control, interactive channels, corporate social responsibility, intercultural challenges, influence on management decision making, cooperation with agencies, and future budgets.     

The use and effectiveness of top executive dismissal

We provide a systematic assessment of the empirical evidence on the use and effectiveness of top executive dismissal as a governance and performance improvement mechanism. Our results suggest that poor individual and firm performance significantly increase the likelihood of executive dismissal. A strong power base might help under-performing top executives to extend their tenure in office, but effective ownership and governance structures can provide a counterweight to such entrenchment behaviors. However, our review casts doubt on the effectiveness of top executive dismissal as a means to enhance future firm performance: employing meta-analytical techniques we show that, although the dismissal announcement leads to positive abnormal returns, it has no significant effect on long-term measures of firm performance. On the basis of our findings, we develop a conceptual model of the possible antecedents and consequences of top executive dismissal. We derive implications for boards involved in situations of executive dismissal and for the successors of dismissed executives, and we provide directions for future leadership research on executive dismissal.