Global Public Relations
Please find here:
- An excerpt from the Spring 2001 "Strategist" magazine (the Journal of the Public Relations Society of America); and
- An Arthur W. Page Society Global Workshop Presentation
The critical complexities facing corporate communications in a more competitive global business arena - relate to both internal and external communications.
STRATEGIST
Spring 2001 - Special Global Issue
International Corporate Ethics and the
Challenges to Public Relations
(This is an excerpt from the journal of the Public Relations Society of America. For the full article please contact Voglcom@gmail.com)
By Frank Vogl
Never before has globalization been under such widespread attack. Corporate reputations are at stake. Activist groups - environmentalists, human rights lobbies, trade unions, investor organizations and consumers – challenge corporate ethics. Some of these groups impact the U.S. Congress when it comes to granting the President new trade negotiating authority and they influence international treaties on investment.
What do corporate PR leaders need to do as the anti-globalization movement gathers momentum and as the social behavior of global firms comes under mounting scrutiny?
I believe corporate PR departments must fundamentally review their priorities. New approaches need to be driven by an integrated combination of the following 10 programs:
- Create a management team and organizational system within the PR department that is global in approach and in experience. This can spearhead a comprehensive agenda of actions designed to create aglobal leadership image of the corporation as a socially responsibleinternational citizen.
- Build corporate information. The PR department dare not beparochial by just confining itself to U.S. operations and treatinginternational operations as the province of overseas corporatemanagers and contracted foreign PR agencies. The PR department at HQ needs to be constantly aware of the corporation's expandingglobal operations, including its joint ventures, sub-contracted overseas production partners, its foreign sales agents and its other businessalliances. It has no choice but to be excellently informed, because the threats to a U.S. corporation's reputation with respect to all of itsstakeholders – including its shareholders, consumers, employees,suppliers and partners – are increasingly likely to come from actionsand developments in the corporation's foreign operations.
- Internal communications. The PR department needs to be at thefore in global internal communications on the corporation's code ofconduct. Working with the corporate ethics office and generalcounsel, PR needs to ensure pro-active internal communications tosee that all employees understand the corporation's code of ethics, are trained in the local adaptation of the code, and are implementing it. (The PR team needs to be engaged in developing the code if thecorporation does not have one in place today that is sufficiently in tune with global issues).
- Know the issues. The agenda of corporate global socialresponsibility issues is expanding and, as it does so, so thecorporation becomes vulnerable to more and more critics. The PRdepartment is uniquely placed to be the intelligence center in thecorporation's headquarters on the growing list of issues from newglobal anti-corruption actions, to initiatives aimed at setting globallabor standards.
- Know the organizations that are influencing public opinion today on globalization and the international roles of corporations. The PRdepartment is also uniquely placed to be the "eyes and ears" for top corporate management on the full range of groups around the globethat can threaten the corporation's reputation. The PR departmentshould seek to build dialogues with the key NGOs at a global leveland in countries where their corporation has major interests, whilekeeping tabs on many other players.
- Create an internal reporting system to top management thatprovides consistent topical information on the issues and the pressure groups to ensure that the CEO is never surprised by new externalcriticisms about corporate global operations.
- Set a goal (working with others in corporate leadership) of defining key measurable objectives of globally responsible social and ethicalperformance for the corporation relative to each of the issue areas.
- Develop a plan public reporting that demonstrates how thecorporation is performing internationally relative to the key areas ofthe corporate code of conduct and the critical global corporatecitizenship issues.
- Formulate strategies for active participation in key internationalconferences on corporate social responsibility and for corporatesponsorship of new initiatives on key issues by respectednot-for-profit organizations. Within this area the PR department needs to focus on corporate philanthropy, ensuring that it has internationaldimensions and relates to some of the key social responsibility areas.
- Ensure that all PR people representing the corporation worldwide, either fully on-staff or at contracted PR agencies, are of the highestpersonal integrity. They need to be individuals who are publiclycredible in their sincere passion and belief that the corporation can be a continuing power for economic and social development in everycommunity in which it operates.
Challenging as this agenda is, it can also be highly satisfying. The substance of the issues alone can be a stimulating intellectual endeavor. More profoundly, as the United Nations has noted, the societal boundaries for multinational corporations in the twenty-first century will be the global community, which demands a responsibility by corporations to contribute to social, humanitarian, environmental and economic development. Corporate PR executives can, and should, help their enterprises strive for the highest levels of good global corporate citizenship – the rewards of helping to build a better global community are surely worth the effort.
The following paper is presented in summary form and it has served as the basis of numerous articles and presentations over the last three years. The full paper, which has subsequently been published by the Arthur W. Page Society, was presented in 1996.
ARTHUR W. PAGE SOCIETY
1996 Spring Seminar, New York, March 27-28, 1996
"Public Relations Leadership in 2001: Greater Importance, Greater Competition"
(Summary)
The Golden Workshop
"Expectations of the Chief Corporate Public Relations Officer In 2001"
By Frank Vogl
The purpose of The Golden Workshop paper is to describe and analyze a critical issue facing professionals in corporate public relations. While the focus of this paper is on the prospective roles and management approaches of the corporate PR chief, it embraces issues related to the roles of PR agencies. The Arthur W. Page Society today is fortunate to count among its members many leaders of corporate public relations, as well as many individuals in PR agencies who have held leading corporate posts and who today deal daily with major corporations. Inevitably, in-house PR chiefs and agency PR practitioners may have differences of view on some of the leading questions raised in this paper - if the contrasting opinions can come to the fore in The Golden Workshop discussions, then the benefits to the PR profession as a whole could be substantial. This paper seeks to set the stage for such discussions.
> THE CEO, EXPECTATIONS AND PRESSURES ON CORPORATIONS
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