This research examines credibility in the discourse offered on the corporate Web sites of 60 British, Danish, and Norwegian public relations (PR) agencies. This study's purpose was to see whether the North European PR industry moves in the direction of convergence or divergence in their corporate self-presentations. The authors have done this by unfolding the rhetoric and language of PR agencies Web sites. In this process, this study tried to determine whether the rhetorical strategies they use to achieve credibility show signs across the industry of becoming more focused on the responsibilities, enthusiasm, and caring nature of corporations and less directed at communicating expertise. Thus, the study expected to show whether PR agencies seek to build credibility by way of much the same rhetorical strategies and language, or whether they pursue different strategies in trying to build unique images. In analyzing the data, it is found that PR agencies across the three countries assign similar relative importance to expertise, trustworthiness, and empathy, and interestingly also that they strongly prioritize explaining their expertise at the expense of expressing their empathy for clients. To begin to understand this reluctance toward incorporating empathy in discourse, the authors investigate the linguistic representation of this one central dimension to explain its complexity and to point to the potential of an untapped resource for strategically managing self-presentation in business communication.

ObjectiveTo describe how family members of critically ill patients experienced the COVID‐19 visiting restrictions in Sweden.BackgroundIn Sweden, the response to COVID‐19 was less invasive than in many other countries. However, some visiting restrictions were introduced for intensive care units, with local variations. Although there is a growing body of literature regarding healthcare professionals' and family caregivers' perspectives on visiting restriction policies, there may be inter‐country differences, which remain to be elucidated.DesignThis study has a qualitative descriptive design. Focus group interviews with 14 family members of patients treated for severe COVID‐19 infection were conducted. The interviews took place via digital meetings during the months after the patients' hospital discharge. Qualitative content analysis was used to interpret the interview transcripts. Reporting of the study followed the COREQ checklist.ResultsTwo categories—dealing with uncertainty and being involved at a distance—described family members' experiences of coping with visiting restrictions during the COVID‐19 pandemic. These restrictions were found to reduce family members' ability to cope with the situation. Communication via telephone or video calls to maintain contact was appreciated but could not replace the importance of personal contact.ConclusionsFamily members perceived that the visiting restriction routines in place during the COVID‐19 pandemic negatively influenced their ability to cope with the situation and to achieve realistic expectations of the patients' needs when they returned home.Relevance to Clinical PracticeThis study suggests that, during the COVID‐19 pandemic, the visiting restrictions were experienced negatively by family members and specific family‐centred care guidelines need to be developed for use during crises, including the possibility of regular family visits to the ICU.Patient and Public ContributionNone in the conceptualisation or design of the study.

An additional written agreement between Emerald and BI Norwegian Business School states these rights to BI authors. 2The compassionate organisation: Contesting the rhetoric of goodwill in public sector value statements Abstract Purpose -This paper tests whether organisations in the public domain have embraced a corporate type of discourse, mirroring the private sector's preferred orientation towards expertise, or whether they maintain their traditional discourse of goodwill towards the publics they serve. At a critical time for the public sector with inadequate funding and dominance of New Public Management approaches, will it be more motivated to portray itself as expert and efficient rather than altruistic?Design/methodology/approach -The paper applies a rhetorical framework to provide a detailed analysis of organisational value statements posted on the websites of public and private organisations. The research considers the value priorities of fifty organisations in the UK and Scandinavia in order to gauge the extent of convergence between the two sectors' preferred discourses.Findings -The research shows that the public sector sticks to its guns in maintaining a webtransmitted values discourse which forefronts goodwill towards its clients. It also shows that the public and private sectors take different approaches to goodwill.Originality/value -Strategists and communication specialists are encouraged to contemplate the extent to which their organisation´s projected Web image equate their desired image to avoid alienating important public audiences and reinforce levels of trust. The current framework brings attention to the complex nature of goodwill and may be employed to better balance a discourse of organisational expertise against a discourse of goodwill in planning authentic value statements.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The research aims to draw a detailed picture of how international corporate banks and financial institutions approach image advertising to enhance impressions of their credibility. The purpose of the work is twofold, namely to demonstrate how corporate credibility can be conceptualised and made operational for strategic communication, and how the operational categories are utilised in the planning of recent image advertising campaigns in Europe. Design/methodology/approach -A reconceptualised model of credibility dimensions was first proposed to obtain a collection of operational appeal forms. A corpus of 74 print adverts was then analysed in order to establish how financial marketers use the appeal forms to strengthen their corporate reputations. The patterns of credibility appeals obtained were then linked to the supporting visuals to provide a fuller picture of the industry's current praxis for portraying its expertise, trustworthiness and empathy. Findings -The results reveal an overwhelming focus in both text and images on recounting companies' achievements and competencies at the expense of providing assurance of their integrity, truthfulness or attention to clients' needs. There is also clear evidence that corporate advertising is in fact strongly focussed on communicating credibility with less than 10 percent of discourse and visuals devoted to credibility-free themes and issues.Research limitations/implications -The study takes a production perspective, using discourse and rhetorical analysis to determine how corporate documents are planned and executed. The data do not thus explain how advertising professionals distinguish between credibility appeals or how their target audiences recognise or respond to text and images communicating credibility. Practical implications -The results of the research are intended to bring increased attention to the rhetorical options for managing reputations and their potential effects on corporate credibility discourse.Originality/value -The study demonstrates how dimensions of credibility can be conceptualised at a level relevant both to practitioners and to academic writing courses. Additionally, the application of the credibi...

This article suggests that current research on the use of new digital technologies by the public sector should move beyond its focus on their facility for e-government and e-democracy. It is important to observe that the same technologies can also be a resource for developing public enthusiasm and identification with local authorities by adopting a rhetoric of friendship. The backdrop of the study is the forthcoming Norwegian reform of municipal structure, informed by a similar reform in Denmark in 2006/2007. If Norway, like Denmark, significantly reduces its number of municipalities, the majority of municipalities will undergo significant change and risk losing citizens’ sense of local identity. Each new municipality will need to create meaningful community building to ease the public’s fear of losing their good life. The study examines how municipalities reach out to connect with their publics, and whether they employ emotional and engaging discourse to achieve this. Our data consist of twenty Norwegian and twenty Danish municipal websites.