international public relations theoretical bases a comparative analysis edited by hugh m. culbertson...

International Public RelationsTHEORETICAL BASES

A Comparative Analysis Edited by

HUGH M. CULBERTSONOhio University

NI CHENUniversity of Toledo

By Meenakshi Upadhyay, Academician, Public Relations

Why study?

• To some, as one practitioner lamented, public relations programs "only sound international if you're on the other side of the ocean" (Anderson, 1989, p. 414).

• To others, the practice crosses borders but merely as a media relations role or an inexpensive way to support marketing, not public relations, objectives ( L. Grunig, 1992).


• Wilcox, Ault, and Agee ( 1992) called it "the planned and organized effort of a company, institution, or government to establish mutually beneficial relations with publics of other nations" (pp. 409-410).


• Grunig (in press) defined it as "a broad perspective that will allow [practitioners] to work in many countries--or to work collaboratively" with people in many nations (p. 7).


• Booth ( 1986) implied that the only true international practitioners are those who "understand how business is done across national borders" and perform in that context (p. 23).


• Relations among publics have become more complex, fragile, and often hostile in recent years due to varied factors ranging from weapons of mass destruction to regional alliances, nationalism, and the Internet.

• The world has become smaller thanks to many of the same factors. And the need for understanding among people of different cultures has grown


• First, a nation's political system and culture do help shape its practice of public relations. Related factors include social stratification, the nature of personal relationships, media credibility, economic development, stage of nation building, emphasis on personal loyalty and harmony, and the presence or absence of elites created in part by colonial rulers


• Second, there appears to be movement throughout the world from one-way to two-way communication--and from emphasizing knowledge and persuasion to relationship building.


• Second, there appears to be movement throughout the world from one-way to two-way communication--and from emphasizing knowledge and persuasion to relationship building.

• However, the latter of these changes, in particular, appears to have been slowed by authoritarian regimes and a tendency to see public relations as an adjunct to marketing and advertising.


Shocking!

• Farinelli ( 1990) explained that "public relations has fewer people with international knowledge and experience than any of the other business sectors such as advertising, financial services, and management consulting. We all service the same clients--but public relations has the worst record of all in keeping pace with international changes" (p. 42).


Some questions which are answered here…

• How have political, economic, and cultural climates of various nations shaped the public relations practiced there?

• What do public relations people around the world do? What roles do they play?


• Have limitations on freedom of communication in some nations had discernible effects on the shaping of public relations just as they have on other communication activities? If so, what have these effects been?


• Societies differ with regard to emphasis placed on respect among interactants and careful, slow building of trust in relationships.

• Also, mass media are more credible and fully developed in some places than in others. Have such differences affected the growth and character of public relations, and how?


• How do nations differ as to how, and how far, they have progressed in the industry's evolution?

• What sorts of people wind up teaching public relations around the world? Do they have educational backgrounds that emphasize communication? Do they have much practical experience? In other words, what are their backgrounds?

• Some nations doubtless rely more heavily than others on educators and practitioners trained in the West. What are the implications of such reliance, and of its absence?


THEORETICAL BASES

• In the United States, at least two theoretical formulations have been proposed to describe and account for the character of public relations.

• First, Broom, Dozier, and their colleagues have identified at least four roles practitioners tend to play:


• Expert prescriber. A practitioner operating in this mode is viewed by top management of the client or organization for which she or he works as an authority on public relations problems and their solutions. Such a practitioner defines and researches problems, develops programs, and takes major responsibility for implementation.


• Communication facilitator. This role involves acting as a liaison, interpreter, and mediator between an organization and its publics, with emphasis on maintaining a continuous flow of two-way communication. A major concern is with removing barriers to information exchange and keeping channels open.


• Problem-solving process facilitator. The point here is to guide managers and the organization through a rational problem-solving process in planning and programming. Practitioners also strive to maintain management involvement in implementation.


• Communication technician. The primary concern here is with proposing and producing public relations materials--writing, editing, designing visual messages, and working with the media. Emphasis is on communication and journalistic skills.


• In a second formulation, Grunig and Hunt (1984, chap. 2) distinguish among four stages in the evolution of public relations in the United States.


• Press-agent/publicity. Here the focus is on publicity and gaining awareness of one's client or employer. Little attention is paid to insuring either accuracy or a favorable reputation.

• Public information. Practitioners in this phase seek to disseminate accurate factual information in some depth so as to gain understanding of the client organization--and why it does what it does.


• Two-way asymmetric. At this stage, unlike with the first two, practitioners and their clients put forth considerable effort to learn about, and listen to, key publics. The listening is done largely to enhance persuasive impact so as to change publics in planned way that meets client needs


• Two-way symmetric. Here the practitioner and client listen carefully to key publics, but not primarily to enhance persuasion. Rather, the symmetric practitioner enters transactions as equal partners with publics, seeking to adjust client behavior and output so as to respect and fulfill public needs. Relationship-building, not persuasion, is the primary goal.


• Research suggests that all four types of public relations are alive and well in various places. All play a role in specific situations. However, Grunig ( 1992) reported substantial evidence that truly excellent public relations emphasizes the two-way models, particularly the symmetric version


PUBLIC RELATIONS IN SPECIFIC COUNTRIES AND

REGIONS • Cultural Differences Matter

• Managers or Technicians?

• Two-Wayness and Symmetry

• Gender-Related Issues

• Education and Training


MODEL FOR ORGANIZING RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC

RELATIONS• The model categorizes interdisciplinary theory into

four main bodies: (1) theories of postmodernism and global society drawn from sociology and other disciplines; (2) cultural theories developed largely by anthropologists; (3) comparative management theories derived from international business scholars; and (4) theories on communication.


• Each category presents implications for international public relations.

• The base of the model displays representative theories in public relations that address these implications.


Global Society Theories

• Scholars in many disciplines have been testing the effects of our increasingly interdependent world on individual societies. These studies often fall within the domain of sociology, but they also have come from such areas as the humanities and international relations

---( Robertson, 1990).


• One theoretical pursuit in this vein is the global village concept espoused by McLuhan ( 1964). Theories of global modernity originated as early as the late 1700s, when Kant investigated the possibilities of a universal morality ( Habermas , 1987).

• Some sociologists argue that global interdependence now is so complete that scholastic emphasis should shift from local societies to global relationships and issues ( Tiryakian, 1986).


• Whether or not full globalization has occurred, there is considerable debate about what it means to interacting societies. Scholars typically split into opposing positions of convergence or divergence.

• Convergence theorists contend that as the world integrates, its societies become increasingly similar. This is reflected in the increased omnipresence of entertainment, fast-food chains, traffic signs, and other symbols of standardization ( Hennessy, 1985).


• Divergence is a reaction to convergence. When external values invade a culture, they create tension between the forces for change and for maintaining the status quo ( Hennessy, 1985).

• Divergence theory argues that the forces for the status quo will prevent a monolithic world ( Featherstone, 1990). Instead, there is a powerful countertrend, a backlash against uniformity, rejection of foreign influences, and assertion of individual culture ( Epley, 1992).


• The effect of globalization and its resulting tug-of-war is turbulence. While societies are achieving more than ever, their citizens are more dissatisfied ( Lesly, 1991).

• Naisbitt ( 1994) predicted that governments will continue to break apart, as evidenced by the upheaval of Communism and the growing political turmoil within many countries.


• Organizations will see an increasing need for small units that can adapt quickly to change. And they will face more hostile and better organized publics ( L. Grunig, 1992).

• This turbulence creates enormous pressure and opportunity for a unit within organizations that can predict change, identify its sources, and build programs to communicate with those sources to minimize potential damage to the organization.


• Public relations units, if well trained in environmental scanning and strategic communication, can fill this critical role.


Cultural Theories

• As Ellingsworth ( 1977) claimed, "the term culture . . . is plagued with denotative ambiguity and diversity of meaning" (p. 101). Sriramesh and White ( 1992) added that even "the people of the culture themselves may not be able to verbalize some of their ideologies" (p. 606). Despite this ambiguity, scholars continue to investigate culture and its influence on interactions ( Tayeb, 1988).


• There are more than 160 scholastic definitions of culture ( Negandhi, 1983). Hofstede ( 1980) called it "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another [and] that influence a human group's response to its environment" (p. 25).


• Adler, Doktor, and Redding ( 1986) identified three determinants of culture: It is shared by all or almost all members of some social group, older members of the group pass it on to younger members, and through morals, laws, or customs, it shapes the group's behaviors or views of the world.


• Even though culture is a nebulous term, its influence on public relations is widely accepted ( Verčič, Grunig, & Grunig, 1993). Hall ( 1959) said, "culture is communication and communication is culture" (p. 191). Communication and public relations also have been viewed as synonymous.


• Sriramesh and White ( 1992) explained that "linkages between culture and communication and culture and public relations are parallel because public relations is primarily a communication activity" (p. 609).


• Starting with early anthropologists, scholars have identified and studied cultural dimensions.

• One landmark was Hofstede (1980) study of managers in 39 nations that catalogued four different ways to differentiate societies: Selfcentered vs. group-centered focus, masculine vs. feminine orientation, power distance between elites and masses in social and work structures, and the extent to which a society embraces or avoids uncertainty.


• Other scholars offered alternate dimensions, which Adler ( 1991) summarized as how cultures perceive the individual (basically good vs. basically evil) and the world (trying to dominate or harmonize with nature); activity (achieving vs. being); time (focus on tradition, on short-term results, or on future obligations); and space (whether personal space is public or private).


• Sriramesh and White ( 1992) examined potential relationships between cultural dimensions and the practice of excellent public relations. They hypothesized that cultures displaying low power distance, authoritarianism, and individualism, but higher levels of interpersonal trust would be most likely to develop excellent public relations programs.


• A question for further study, however, is what influence might public relations practices have on culture?


• In Seven Cultures of Capitalism, Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars ( 1993) sent ominous signals about what cultural differences imply for American organizations. They asserted that economic activity is not based on one form of capitalism, as most Americans presume, but that seven different cultural values influence decisions around the world.


• The aggregate of dimensions predominant in the United States values the individual and business self-interest, quantification, and short-term results. Human relations and broader societal concerns often are ignored in this worldview.


• By contrast, cultural values prevalent in most of Asia, Latin America, and Europe place high priority on community and social relationships. They place "all details and all particulars" into intricate patterns of connectedness (p. 109).


• Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars ( 1993) claimed that the American value set is causing its organizations to lose ground in the emerging global marketplace. They argued that in an environment where people, technologies, and issues are constantly changing, "cultures that put the whole before its parts . . . may now have an advantage" (p. 31).


• To compete, American organizations must embrace what is intrinsic to holistic and communal societies--the human connectedness that increasingly drives global economic activity.


• For public relations, this theory suggests a growing need for experts in relationship building, negotiation, and other communal traits. If practitioners supposedly skilled in communication cannot assume these roles, they will miss an opportunity to help guide future economic and social growth.


• In acculturation theory of anthropology one can see what happens at the point of intercultural contact.

• Specifically, such contact should lead to changes in the previous patterns of individuals, cultures, or both.


• The nature of these changes depends on such variables as the situation (friendly vs. hostile, use of force, etc.), contact processes (order and type of cultural presentation), and the characteristics of those in contact ( Adler & Graham, 1989).


• One body of acculturation literature refers to third-culture individuals who transcend boundaries through global media, transnational education, cultural exchanges, and other means ( Featherstone, 1990).

• These people spend considerable time outside their own culture and, while moving in and out of their native realm, become "agents of change" ( Ellingsworth, 1977, p. 103.) Bovet ( 1994) suggested that some public relations firms are recognizing the importance of building a core of third-culture practitioners.


Comparative Management Theories• The comparative management domain

expands domestic knowledge by comparing the managerial decisions and behaviors from one culture with those of another culture ( Adler, 1983).


• Comparative management theories often support contingency theories. Katz and Kahn ( 1966) determined that effective organizations maintain an open systems perspective, meaning their external environment is as important to them as their internal processes.


• They know that the environment can change quickly, and they create programs to enable adaptation to those changes. This includes a continual process of identifying publics and building relationships with them ( Freeman, 1984). Organizations with this philosophy increase their chances for long-term success ( Grunig & Repper, 1992).


• Contingency theory could be especially useful internationally. Negandhi ( 1983) claimed open-systems management is best for multinational organizations because it responds to the particularly dynamic environment.


• L. Grunig ( 1992) characterized international publics as increasingly hostile, better organized, and more powerful than ever. This is especially important for public relations practitioners. Because of its role in identifying and maintaining relationships with stakeholders, public relations is an ideal function to monitor and deal with these contingencies ( L. Grunig, 1992).


• One debate in comparative management is whether managerial behavior is culture-free or culture-specific. Many scholars assert that behavior is culturefree, meaning entities can operate the same way in any nation and be successful ( Heller, 1988). Hofstede ( 1980), Tayeb ( 1988), and others postulated that culture of origin strongly influences organizational behavior.


• Scholars in the culture-specific camp have identified various organizational structures in the international arena. Adler et al. ( 1986) discussed four: The international structure, in which the headquarters culture dominates every part of the organization;


• The multi-domestic firm, which recognizes cultural differences and maintains highly autonomous operations in each country; the multinational firm, where cultural interaction is desirable and change comes from external forces; and the global firm, which views diversity as essential and desirable.


• Bartlett and Ghoshal ( 1989) correlated structures with cultural variables. Organizations from Japan typically view the world as one market and centralize operations for efficiency. Their management style is group-oriented and consensual.


• The typical European firm provides autonomy to each unit manager because European culture has always valued "family contacts" and given its members the trust needed to thrive on their own.


• American organizations, by contrast, often place their own personnel and management techniques into other countries and demand standardization. This approach reflects the "America knows best" cultural worldview that Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars ( 1993) stated is harmful in international dealings.


• Brinkerhoff and Ingle ( 1989) argued that neither the culture-specific nor culture-free approach is effective alone. They mediated the poles by saying that effective organizations combine culture-specific and culture-free values.


• In the process, they developed generic and specific management variables. Generic variables are overall goals and themes that can be standardized across cultures. The specifics are unique to each culture of operation, and include local communication needs, culturally derived procedures, and so forth.


• The Brinkerhoff-Ingle ( 1989) theory offers promise for international public relations because practitioners also face decisions over what to centralize and what to conduct locally.


• Ovaitt ( 1988) and Traverse-Healy ( 1991) stressed that a solid combination of global and local functions is necessary for an effective international program. Wakefield ( 1994) and Verčič, et al. ( 1993) are developing and testing a global theory that combines generic and specific variables in public relations.


Communication Theories

• The first useful theory could be called "media dependency," which would show how assumptions about communication can change when placed into an international context.


• Since the 1960s, researchers have challenged early theories that the media influence the attitudes and behaviors of their audiences (Lowery & deFleur, 1988). However, in the global arena, there is evidence that the media become increasingly powerful as sources of information.


• Manheim and Albritton ( 1984) theorized that most information about other countries comes from the mass media. In local confines, people can check the "reality" of coverage through their own experiences or contacts. But few people have direct experience by which to judge coverage of other countries.


• Therefore, these authors observed that "images of the actors and events on the international scene will be heavily . . . media dependent" (p. 643). This has at least two effects, of distortion and stereotyping. Media often create their own "reality," which can be quite different from what actually happened. This distortion gives people unrealistic images about other countries and perpetuates biases, which often are negative ( Kunczik, 1990).


• Another line of theory traces the global flow of information. Recent studies indicate that information and entertainment flow one way from Western nations to the developing world ( Martin & Hiebert, 1990).


• An analysis of 29 media systems in seven regions found that news from developed countries was second only to coverage of regional issues ( Sreberny-Mohammadi, 1984).


• American entertainment programs or their imitations are predominant in almost all countries ( Varis, 1984). Bagdikian ( 1989) claimed that the global media are owned by a few conglomerates who form a "powerful troika" with multinational manufacturers and advertising agencies to spread cultural, political, and economic ideologies around the world.


• Researchers in this domain divide into theories of modernization or dependency. Modernization theorists believe the influx of mass media into developing nations improves their economies and provides higher standards of living ( Sinclair , 1990).


• Western technologies also are seen as "democratizing the world" ( Hiebert, 1992, p. 118). In contrast, dependency theorists, comprised mostly of scholars in developing nations, view foreign media as tools for continuing imperialism and economic domination ( Sinclair, 1990).


• Regardless of which theory is accurate, the global media have helped to integrate publics and issues worldwide ( Hiebert, 1992). Interest groups are using the media to create issues and achieve their goals ( Pires, 1989).


• They stage events such as protests, boycotts, and even violent demonstrations ( Grunig & Repper, 1992). Media cover these dramatic events, which ensures an audience for activist ideologies. As a result, interest groups are influencing the opinions of policy makers around the world ( Hiebert, 1992).


• These media effects should concern international public relations practitioners because the images they form create problems for multinational enterprises. Perhaps the images have helped foster the hostilities directed at multinational organizations in various countries.


• International practitioners must come to understand the factors underlying these resentments and respond to the affected groups before dissatisfactions arise ( L. Grunig, 1992).


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