Purpose – As the public relations industry seeks professional status and a more meaningful role in the strategic management of organisations, survey evidence suggests reluctance among practitioners to embrace theoretical frameworks and to study other management disciplines. The purpose of this...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that academics should have an intimate understanding of the practical problems facing the corporate communication/public relations profession. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses how good theory should guide research towards...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine three perspectives on autonomy: communication management or public relations autonomy, autonomy in management theory, and the autonomy of moral philosophy. Design/methodology/approach – These arguments for autonomy are combined and studied to...

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the opinions of newsletter editors in the Sierra Club in an effort to understand the roles an editor and newsletter content play in building relationships in an activist setting. There are two goals: to examine editorial decision making in an activist...

Purpose – This study sets out to understand the extent to which public relations practitioners use dissent tactics in the face of organizational unethical decisions, and to examine how organizational environment facilitates such dissent. Design/methodology/approach – A web‐based survey was...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the “green communication” of Exxon, Chevron and BP with a view to studying how they assert environmental values. Design/methodology/approach – From a linguist's perspective, the paper examines how the climate change controversy has...

This paper describes how BP and BP Oil, its marketing and refining business, moved internal communication from being a soft option to being a strategic imperative to help turn the then ailing business around, with spectacular results. Recognition of the crucial bond between leadership and...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of public relations, conceptualized as a strategic management function, in foreign policy making, and implementation. This research study emphasizes the relational perspective and seeks to examine its applicability to the practice...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role ingredient branding (IB) plays in shaping the strategic communications created by public relations/corporate communication departments of large organizations when managing crises. Design/methodology/approach – Starting from a...

Purpose – This paper aims to assess other leaders’ perceptions of the importance and contribution of communication to organizational success and the abilities of their communication executives to contribute to strategic decision making. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative approach...