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.     

The Role of Knowledge in Resource Allocation to Exploration versus Exploitation in Technologically Oriented Organizations*

Decisions regarding research and development (R&D) activities of an organization greatly affect the fiscal and market outcomes of technologically oriented firms. Yet, the resource allocation choices between these two activities are tied strongly to an organization's technology knowledge. Technological knowledge is itself a resource that the firm can manage to achieve strategic and competitive advantage. In this paper, the authors present a system dynamics view of the decomposition of R&D efforts into explorative and exploitive activities and the resultant knowledge‐specific and performance outcomes from the decision to focus on one type of activity or another. Four factors are shown to affect the relative value of innovative knowledge to the organization: resource availability, exogenous competition, aging of knowledge bases, and adaptive capacity, a firm's ability to adapt to its environment. A variety of long‐ and short‐term strategic issues are discussed in relation to these forces.     

Assessing the Utility of Stochastic Employee Movements

This article illustrates the substantial effects employee movements (i.e., movements due to employee promotions, transfers, and separations) have on the value of a human resource intervention. Two methods for estimating differential employee movements are presented and their resulting utility estimates are contrasted and compared. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of each procedure are discussed as well as the value such information provides to organizational decision makers.     

TIME‐USE AND ACADEMIC PEER EFFECTS IN COLLEGE

This paper examines academic peer effects in college. Unique new data from the Berea Panel Study allow us to focus on a mechanism wherein a student's peers affect her achievement by changing her study effort. Although the potential relevance of this mechanism has been recognized, data limitations have made it difficult to provide direct evidence about its importance. We find that a student's freshman grade point average is affected by the amount her peers studied in high school, suggesting the importance of this mechanism. Using time diary information, we confirm that college study time is actually being affected. (JEL I20, F21, J01)     

Family Functioning and Mental Health of Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Youth in the Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project

Transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGN) youth are at increased risk for adverse mental health outcomes, but better family functioning may be protective. This study describes TGN youth’s mental health and associations with family functioning in a community-based sample. Participants were from 33 families (96 family members) and included 33 TGN youth, ages 13 to 17 years; 48 cisgender (non-transgender) caregivers; and 15 cisgender siblings. Participants completed a survey with measures of family functioning (family communication, family satisfaction) and mental health of TGN youth (suicidality, self-harm, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, resilience). TGN youth reported a high risk of mental health concerns: suicidality (15% to 30%), self-harm (49%), clinically significant depressive symptoms (61%); and moderate self-esteem (M = 27.55, SD = 7.15) and resiliency (M = 3.67, SD = 0.53). In adjusted models, better family functioning from the TGN youth’s perspective was associated with better mental health outcomes among TGN youth (β ranged from ?0.40 to ?0.65 for self-harm, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms, and 0.58 to 0.70 for self-esteem and resiliency). Findings from this study highlight the importance of considering TGN youth’s perspectives on the family to inform interventions to improve family functioning in families with TGN youth.     

Investigating recruitment and completion mode biases in online and door to door electronic surveys

Electronically assisted survey techniques offer several advantages over traditional survey techniques. However, they can also potentially introduce biases, such as coverage biases and measurement error. The current study compares the relative merits of two survey distribution and completion modes: email recruitment with internet completion; and door to door recruitment with either tablet or internet completion. Presentation mode is held constant so that we are able to separate the impacts of recruitment mode and completion mode on responses. Recruitment mode appeared to influence both response rates and which socio-demographic groups were represented. However, the difference between the two recruitment modes was relatively small. Completion mode appeared to have little or no impact on responses although it did influence completion times. The email distributed survey performed better with regard to time costs and the number of respondents obtained. Differences between the two survey modes appeared to be largely due to recruitment method rather than completion mode.     

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.     

Collaboration and conflict between agencies and clients

Public relations agencies are an important part of the public relations industry, but their relations with client organizations are rarely studied. There is more literature and studies in agency-client relations in advertising than in public relations. This paper reviews literature and reports results of an empirical study into perceptions of public relations agencies and their clients on the reasons for their cooperation and sources of conflict between them. Results show that agencies misperceive reasons for which they are hired and the sources of conflict in the relationship. The paper offers several suggestions about how to tackle the problem: notwithstanding rebranding into consultancies and firms, public relations agencies-client relations should be studied as a particular example of a broader family of agency-client relations. Also agencies should study and strategically manage relations with their clients, while being realistic about client organization’s needs – sometimes they just need additional arms and legs.     

Media use predictors of online political efficacy among Internet users in five Arab countries

Informed by research on the uses and gratifications of the Internet for political activity, this study examines predictors of online political efficacy among Internet users in five Arab countries (N?=?4029): Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Qatar, and the U.A.E. As predicted, variables presumed to be associated with political dissidence in Arab countries – unemployment, distrust of mainstream media, young age, and feeling country is on the wrong track – were not positively associated with online political efficacy. Counter to what was hypothesized, however, Internet reliance and social media use were not strongly or consistently associated with online political efficacy in the five countries. Rather, the strongest predictors of efficacy were a belief in news media credibility, print media use (newspapers, magazines, and books), belief in the reliability of online information, and tolerance of free speech online. Findings align with some prior research on predictors of online political efficacy, but not with common presumptions of the role the Internet plays among Arab publics.