Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to characterize commonalities between activists and corporate communicators, who are often perceived as natural antagonists within the context of managing public and community issues.Design/methodology/approach – The focus is on exploring the innovative “rules” developed three decades ago by the Activist Pioneer Saul Alinksy and how his work has close parallels both with modern activism and corporate issue management. The paper cites modern sets of “rules” on both sides of the debate, highlighting common themes, and examines three recent developments which have impacted the nature of the relationship between contending parties.Findings – While communication technology including the internet has helped level the power imbalance between the “haves” and the “have nots,” change within activism – such as growing professionalism, the emergence of formalized stakeholder participation, and a growing acceptance of constructive engagement – has further drawn both parties incre...

Activist “rules” and the convergence with issue management

Issue management evolved from environmental scanning and other precursors to help business organizations recognize and respond proactively to an increasing variety of external issues beyond traditional economic and business-competitive challenges. Some early business scholars and practitioner advocates of issue management perceived an important link to strategic planning but their formative vision remains only partly realized in operational practice. This paper considers and compares the two disciplines, including the almost careless use of the word strategic and the need for a more versatile taxonomy. It then explores reasons why the early promise of integration has gone largely unfulfilled, and suggests ways forward to achieve greater alignment.

Integrating Issue Management and Strategic Planning: Unfulfilled Promise or Future Opportunity?

In a competitive environment in Taiwan, not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) seek to differentiate themselves from other NPOs. ‘Brand’ improves the internal functions and competitiveness of these NPOs; attracts funding to them by making use of public relations (PR) strategies and techniques and expanding the access to public resources; and also conveys a slick corporate image to the public. This research project has adopted a PR perception of leading marketing concepts to look at charity brand strategy. This approach has been taken instead of the more common marketing-oriented perspective. NPOs exist because of their public service or social welfare missions. The best way to increase income is to raise accountability and interactions with the public or corporations through ethical relationship management as part of NPO PR practice. This thesis takes as its subject the Eden Social Welfare Foundation, which was established in 1985 and is one of Taiwan’s top five NPOs. The challenges faced by Eden in presenting itself as a caring, non-partisan organisation in an age of branding, competition and a public sensitive to the ethos of charity is investigated. The purpose of this study is to: (1) explore the role of branding within PR; (2) discuss how media represents NPOs to their stakeholders; (3) investigate co-branding issues in cooperative relationships involving differential power relations; (4) investigate the ethical risk of mission drift, where NPOs charged with a public mission can lose their way by becoming corporatised. In a comprehensive overview of the complexity of NPO PR, branding and power relations in Taiwan, relationship management has been shown to be at the heart of NPO PR. Trust is the critical element that ensures the organisation stays on the right path. This research has found, on one hand, that higher brand value facilitates better communication and involves shifts of power through brand power, media access, social networking and know-how. Co-branding and media coverage are assistant contributors, through framing, in building the charity brand. On the other hand, the study suggests ways to rethink the negotiation of power relations and the social perspectives between the public interest and commerce. Consideration should be given to a monitoring system for NPOs to ensure accountability and visibility that guarantees the public interest. The results also suggest that investment in training and upgrading skills in communication with outsiders is important in Taiwan, as part of NPO PR practice.

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Brand and Public Relations in the Taiwanese Not-for-Profit Sector: A Case Study of the Eden Social Welfare Foundation

Title Irish Times coverage of Irish relief and development nongovernmental organisations, legitimacy and accountability, 1994-2009: analysis and implications for the role of nongovernmental organisations Author(s) Hughes, Marguerite Publication date 2012-02 Original citation Hughes, M. 2012. Irish Times coverage of Irish relief and development nongovernmental organisations, legitimacy and accountability, 19942009: analysis and implications for the role of nongovernmental organisations. DSocSc Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2012, Marguerite Hughes http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Irish Times coverage of Irish relief and development nongovernmental organisations, legitimacy and accountability, 1994-2009: analysis and implications for the role of nongovernmental organisations

Public relations practitioners face many ethical challenges, specifically in issues management (e.g., Bowen & Heath, 2005; J. Grunig & L. Grunig, 1996). By its definition, issues management is concerned with defining issues and problems, manages them through internal and external communication with publics, and often confronts conflicting value systems among publics. Therefore, issues management is on the forefront of ethical decision making in an organization (Heath, 1990).

Ethical Decision Making in Issues Management Within Activist Groups

This paper follows a presentation made at the Public Relations World Festival in Rome on 21st June, 2003 It is based on observation of how the position of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) has changed over time in the representation of public opinion considered as a social consensus around the common good and common interest It discusses the impact of those changes on the position of companies in the public debate, and draws from the growth of intangible assets in companies’ book value

Jean‐Pierre Beaudoin

Papers

Non‐governmental organisations, ethics and corporate public relations