Public Relations Leadership in Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

corporate social responsibility, leadership, public relations, sustainability,

One Vision, Different Paths: An Investigation of Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives in Europe

“…To capture the variety of initiatives designed and implemented by European corporations, and in line with existing categorizations of CSR actions (Lantos, 2001;Venn, development of products and services, organizational and business processes, and philanthropy-oriented CSR initiatives that relate to charity and community involvement practices and activities. To better reflect the content of the pool of initiatives, we added another category of internal initiatives, related to addressing the challenges in making employees aware of CSR.…”

Effective Public Relations Leadership in Organizational Change: A Study of Multinationals in Mainland China

“…Building upon and extending the extant public relations leadership research (e.g., Aldoory & Toth, 2004;Benn et al, 2010;Choi & Choi, 2009;Hwang, 2012;Jin, 2010;Meng et al, 2012;Sweetser & Kelleher, 2011;Werder & Holtzhausen, 2009), this study reinforced the importance of examining emotion management as a key public relations dimension. Facing drastic organizational changes, public relations departments can train middle management to diagnose employees' emotions, create empathy, guide employees to neutralize their negative emotions, and facilitate the implementation of changes.…”

“…Although little research has distinguished how public relations as an organizational function and public relations professionals as strategic communication managers play their respective leadership roles (e.g., Aldoory & Toth, 2004;Benn et al, 2010;Choi & Choi, 2009;Jin, 2010;Lee & Cheng, 2010;Meng et al, 2012;Shin et al, 2011;Sweetser & Kelleher, 2011), some scholars did suggest the significance of studying both rather than exclusively examining public relations leadership in general (e.g., Dozier, 1992;Dozier & Broom, 2006;Werder & Holtzhausen, 2009).…”

Strategic Social Media Management and Public Relations Leadership: Insights from Industry Leaders

“…Literature on public relations leadership (e.g., Benn et al, 2010;Berger et al, 2007;Choi & Choi, 2009;Hwang & Cameron, 2008;Jin, 2010;Meng et al, 2011Meng et al, , 2012Shin et al, 2011;Werder & Holtzhausen, 2009 has also suggested another potential linkage between social media use and public relations leadership. Namely, the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of public relations leaders' efforts to gain organization-wide leadership via social media management depends on three key areas: (1) how much the top leader in the organization (e.g., CEO) values the public relations function and involves the public relations leader in key decisionmaking; (2) how much other departmental leaders in the organization (e.g., heads of human resources or legal departments) value the public relations function and invite the public relations leader into discussion, information sharing, and decision making; and, (3) the number and quality of resources (e.g., budget and staffing) given to the public relations function (Grunig et al, 2002).…”

“…Drawing upon the existing leadership literature in public relations (e.g., Benn, Todd, & Pendleton, 2010;Berger, Reber, & Heyman, 2007;Choi & Choi, 2009;Hwang & Cameron, 2008;Jin, 2010;Meng, Berger, Gower, & Heyman, 2012;Meng, Berger, & Heyman, 2011;Shin, Heath, & Lee, 2011;Werder & Holtzhausen, 2009, the present study linked social media use to public relations leadership by focusing on the impact of social media use on the managerial or leadership functions of public relations leaders (see Wright & Hinson, 2011). Based on in-depth interviews with 43 senior public relations directors, executives, or managers working in various industries, this study took a pioneering step to examine what impact social media have had on public relations leaders' leadership functions such as planning and implementing strategic public relations programs, internal and external communication, issues management, and crisis communication (see Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier, 2002).…”