Danny Moss

Public Relations Practitioner Role Enactment at the Senior Management Level Within U.K. Companies

This article presents the findings of an initial investigation into the role that the public relations function plays in some of the leading companies in the United Kingdom. The study sought to uncover the pattern of practitioner role enactment within these companies and, in particular, the extent to which practitioners are involved directly in the formulation and implementation of corporate and business strategies. The study revealed considerable differences in the level of practitioner involvement in strategic decision making, with some practitioners fulfilling primarily technical roles and others enacting a more significant managerial role, advising senior executives on policy issues and assisting in the implementation of strategies. Factors such as the industry and organizational context, management expectations of public relations, and the perceived professional competence of practitioners emerged as important determinants of the level of practitioner involvement in strategic decision making. Drawing on the studys findings, a number of propositions have been advanced that may help to guide future inquiries into practitioner role enactment, particularly at the senior management level within organizations.

What do Communication Managers Do? Defining and Refining the Core Elements of Management in a Public Relations/Corporate Communication Context:

This article presents the findings of the second stage of an international collaborative research program designed to map, explicate, and compare the main elements of the managerial role performed by communication/public relations practitioners working in a range of organizational settings and different cultural contexts. It builds on earlier qualitative research among U.K. and U.S. public relations practitioners designed to uncover the nature of the managerial roles they perform. In this study, a survey distributed to 900 U.K.-based communication practitioners was factor analyzed, revealing a five-factor interpretation, which suggests a more contemporary, empirically based conceptualization of key dimensions of the communication managers role than currently offered by the traditional manager role typology advocated within the existing public relations roles literature.

Rediscovering what PR managers do: Rethinking the measurement of managerial behaviour in the public relations context

This paper explores the nature of managerial work in the public relations context drawing comparisons with the way mainstream management research has defined the main elements and processes of management within organisations. The paper begins with a critical review of the public relations and management literatures relating to managerial work and behaviour, highlighting the distinctively different approaches taken by public relations and management scholars in defining the nature of managerial work and behaviour. The paper goes on to present the findings of a qualitative investigation into the role and work patterns of practitioners occupying senior positions in cross sections of both US and UK organisations. The study identifies a number of common elements in pattern of “managerial” work performed by both UK and US‐based practitioners. The study also reveals the extent to which senior practitioners participate as members of the dominant coalition within their organisations and contribute to strategic decision making. The paper concludes by reflecting on the adequacy of existing definitions and understanding of the managerial dimension of the role played by practitioners within organisations.

Re-examining the manager’s role in public relations: what management and public relations research teaches us

This paper examines critically how the manager’s role in public relations has been conceptualised, comparing how the work of managers has been defined from a public relations and management perspective. Here the paper provides a critical review of the relevant public relations and management literatures, pointing to the relative weaknesses in the public relations literature. The paper concludes by examining a particular case study to illustrate some of the weaknesses in current practitioner role models to conceptualise the weaknesses in the public relations manager’s role.

Communications strategy? Strategy communication? Integrating different perspectives

Discussion of the role of the communications function in the strategic decisionmaking process has been neglected in the strategy literature, which views communications as a primarily tactical function. This contrasts with the communications literature which posits a more overt role for communication (with particular reference to corporate communications and public relations) in the strategy process. This article reviews these two contrasting perspectives on the issue of the strategic potential of the communications function and introduces a conceptual framework which identifies a typology of communications roles under different strategy making process modes is advanced.

Tactical publicity or strategic relationship management? An exploratory investigation of the role of public relations in the UK retail sector

Examines the role of public relations within the UK retail sector and seeks to determine whether retailers use public relations strategically ‐ as a means of managing their relationships with key stakeholder publics ‐ or simply as a tactical publicity function. Identifies, in an exploratory study conducted in four major UK retail organizations indicative of the different types of retail institutions within the UK, the main characteristics of the public relations functions and compares these with those associated with each of the four models of public relations identified by Grunig and Hunt (1984). Looks at the relationship between the marketing and public relations functions, analysing whether public relations operates as an independent function free of control from marketing or whether it operates simply as a sub‐function of marketing. Considers to what extent public relations can be said to play a strategically important role within the UK retail sector. Highlights the considerable diversity in the way in which public relations is practised within the retail organizations studied, and suggests the need for more extensive research to identify the reasons for this diversity in the way the public relations function operates within the UK retail sector.

The forgotten sector: Uncovering the role of public relations in SMEs

While the past two decades have seen marked advances in the development of public relations theory both in the USA and latterly in Europe, very little is known about the use and practice of public relations among small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Theory development in public relations has focused almost exclusively on examining the role of public relations within large corporations, government and public sector organisations and, to a lesser extent, in the voluntary sector. Yet the SME sector is generally acknowledged to represent over 96 per cent of all enterprises operating in both Europe and the USA as well as in most non‐Western economies. This paper reports the results of an exploratory study of public relations practices within SME businesses in the North‐West of England and draws some comparisons with the initial findings of the US IABC Foundation study into public relations practices and needs of small enterprises in the USA.