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- Public Relations Associations as Trustworthy Partners. The APCE case studyPublication . Pereira, Sandra Cristina Martins; Diogo, CatarinaThe purpose of this article is to present an ongoing study that seeks to know in what manner the affiliate members of the Portuguese Association for Corporate Communication (APCE) trust in the organization to defend their interests and to stimulate a rigorous path for the profession. Because there is a poor associative tradition in Portugal and many associations always struggled with lack of human resources and financing support, people normally did not take the associative work too serious. The associations would survive mostly with the help of a few strong headed volunteers that believed in their mission. But during the last decades both civic and professional associations have made an effort to assure a more formal structure with full-time and specialized employees which allow them to have a more active role in the society and with its affiliates. This is the case of APCE. So it would be great to find out what affiliate members now think of APCE and its commitment in establishing Corporate Communication and Public Relations as a critical success factor for companies. Despite being an autonomous non-profit driven entity, independent and active for almost 30 years, APCE has overcome a lot of obstacles and has undergone many restructurings that resulted from the rethinking of its mission. But one of its most difficult challenges over the years has been the capacity of gaining trust from practitioners and academics in the aptitude of APCE to represent them in their professional and research area. APCE board of directors is now interested in promoting a certification process for public relations, communication managers and strategists in Portugal. For several years it has struggled with a lack of recognition of both the value and competences of these practitioners. The ambition for an accreditation or certification of some kind is a long time expectation of many professionals and academics. So the main question is: Do affiliate members trust APCE to lead a process of certification or accreditation of PR in Portugal?
- Communication and corporate citizenship in a VUCA world: an empirical researchPublication . Eiró-Gomes, Mafalda; Raposo, Ana Luísa Canelas Rasquilho; Simão, JoãoIntroduction and Purpose of the study: In our contemporaneity that many designate under the acronym VUCA (volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous) it is urgent to rethink, paraphrasing Woot (2013, 2016), "in the face of the force of things", the responsibility of the human being. It does not seem enough to search for a new political paradigm, but it seems that we all need a new way of life. More than the notion of mission or vision, it is the notion of purpose that guides organizational practices and performances, and position them in global ecosystems as partners with other companies or entities from other sectors. Companies today must regain values that have been lost for a few decades and that lead them to assume their role as citizens in communities, with their rights and duties, as each and every one of us. It's precisely in this sense that this research was constructed. Assuming a constitutive interpretation of the concept of "communication" that enables us to understand it as belonging to the realm of any organization, as well as avoiding any instrumental vision of the concept of "Corporate Social Responsibility" (CSR), related to the merely instrumental role attributed to some notions as those of sustainability or accountability. In Portugal, The GRACE Association congregates 158 organisations from both the private and non governmental sectors, that are specially interested in the above mentioned questions. In this research authors tried to figure out not only if the concepts of "social responsible enterprise", "corporate social responsibility", "corporate social investment" and "corporate citizenship" were used by the GRACE associates, but also how they were used and what they meant for each one of those specific organizations. Literature Review: The decision authors took, from a theoretical point of view, to design the research based on the concept of "Corporate Citizenship" is intentional. This notion emerged in recent years as rescuing some of the ideas prevailing in Western societies before the neoliberal turn of the last decades of the 20th century (Woot, 2004, 2013). In the perspective of the first publisher of The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, a journal published quarterly in the UK., "true corporate citizenship involves much more than what has traditionally been called CSR" (Waddoc, 2003: 3). To paraphrase Pattern, in a theoretical framework that we can call an "ethics of duty," a clearly modern paradigm, to act well is still, in the end, to act in our best interest. Do these organisations act according to these idea? What do they consider as belonging to the realm of CSR? What is the role of strategic communications in these processes (Hallahan et al., 2007)? Methodology: From a theoretical point of view the research belongs to the realm of an interpretative paradigm of investigation. Interviews (according an open scrypt) that met all requirements both from the point of view of ethical issues (eg. issues of informed consent) and from the point of view of research validity (triangulation) were performed and recorded. Although the theme is not at all consensual, it was decided to maintain the phase related to the collection of data (information) separated from the phase of its analysis. Although with some contamination it is hoped that somehow preserving the interviewers from being overly influenced by previous respondents during subsequent interviews. The interviews were transcribed in full. It is intended with transcription (unlike for example what would be expected if the option were the one of the paraphrase or the summary) to preserve the sense of the speaker, that is to say, the transcription allows not to make interpretations previous to the analysis, thus maintaining a greater proximity to the original data. A qualitative content analysis was afterwards performed (Berger, 2014). Some of the limitations that are intrinsic to this type of analyses are also assumed (Seidman, 2013), and they are related to a certain amount of perspectivism that is due to the fact that the "facts" are somehow always mediated by the experience itself. Results and Conclusions: If some consensus were found, they dealt with the idea that almost all the organizations consider social work as belonging to their practices and a major issue in their work and none of them seem to have major policies in what we may refer as questions concerning governance and work-life balance policies. Major differences appear when confronting national and international organizations, as well according to activities sectors, in aspects related to the questions of quality, safety and environment. Questions of ethics and transparency aren't focused as often as we might have expected. Some sectors specifically in the area of services offered some of the most unexpected results in terms of the economic investments put in the area of CSR. At this moment, authors are still gathering the last results notably in what concerns CSR and government financial incentives.
- Multidisciplinarity in internal communication and the challenges aheadPublication . Araújo, Milena; Miranda, SandraPurpose Considering the impact internal communication has on the performance of organizations, studies about internal communication are revisited in order to generate a deeper understanding about the disciplines that shape the topic and the main trends influencing both the academic and professional fields. Approach departing from a communicational background, we integrate dispersed contributions from disciplines such as organizational communication, to the literature on internal communication. Findings The significant role played by internal communication is supported by scholars with different theoretical backgrounds. Despite the clear differences between disciplines, the defense of a strategized internal communication and a focus on the employee is widely accepted. Practical and social implications Both scholars and practitioners will need to keep adapting to a reality where: internal communication practices are not only managerial but dependent on the inputs of the employees, the ability to listen and collect feedback is sacred, and internal communication plans are expected to be strategically implemented and measured. Originality/Value By showing the plurality of disciples that influence internal communication, a strategized multidisciplinary focus on the topic is encouraged.
- In science we trust? Reputation as leverage to engagement with sciencePublication . Eiró-Gomes, Mafalda; Moreira, VanessaIntroduction and purpose of the study If one does understand Public Relations in science as the strategic function responsible for managing the trust portfolio of the scientific endeavour (Borchelt & Nielsen, 2014), it seems only natural that engagement with science should be at the forefront of scientific and technological organisations communication strategies. Aiming to be more a conceptual article than an empirical one, the work to be presented started however from a reflexion upon a quite precise organization and the challenges it faces in order to build and rebuild, not only its reputation, but also the reputation of the scientific endeavour. Literature review Trust in science seems to have been quivered in the recent years as we observe growing beliefs in affirmations that are contrary to scientific consensus and fuelled by phenomena such as fake newsor post-truth. This growth in scepticism towards science should be a concern for scientific and technological organisations not only from a standpoint of survival – because support to and trust in their scientific developments ultimately allows them to keep carrying their activities – but perhaps more importantly, trust in their activity will have effects in the levels of engagement in society with scientifically supported knowledge. Considering the innate uncertainty of science, questions such as transparency or consensus (cf. Osman, Heath & Löfsted, 2017, Chinn, Lane & Hart, 2018) are not without importance to the development of communication strategies that aim to increase engagement with science. If the evolution of science and technology is the main goal of scientific and technological organizations it is expected that they take part in the public debates those raise. It is in the public space of these debates that science communication must strive to inform the decision making process by establishing relations based on trust - from trustworthy organizations - that can help raise the understanding of the scientific uncertainty and controversies that sometimes it raises (Fischhoff, 2013). Methodology From a methodological point of view and all along an extensive literature review an exploratory case study was constructed (Yin, 2003). If the purpose of a case study is to allow a description of the phenomena in their context in this special case, an exploratory one, it was meant precisely to help the researchers to understand the better way to develop a further examination, both at a theoretical, as well as at an empirical level, of the connections between the concept or trust, trust in science together with trust in scientific and technological institutions, and the communication strategies of those institutions. Case Studies are increasingly a method used in research processes where a biunivocal relationship is sought between practice and theory, and especially in the area of Public Relations (Corporate Communications). Its usefulness has been defended both as an instrument for reflection within organizations and as material for analysis in academia (Eiró-Gomes and Duarte, 2008). Interviews were promoted with different key actors and met all requirements both from the point of view of ethical issues (eg. issues of informed consent) and from the point of view of research validity (triangulation). The interviews were recorded and transcribed in full. It is intended with transcription (unlike for example what would be expected if the option were the one of the paraphrase or the summary) to preserve the sense of the speaker, that is to say, the transcription allows not to make interpretations previous to the analysis, thus maintaining a greater proximity to the original data. Beyond the interviews data were collected through documentary analysis of available material on the internet as well as public records from the institution. Afterwards authors proceeded to a qualitative content analysis (Berger, 2014). Results and conclusions Trust is an attitude that we have towards people to whom we hope will be trustworthy, where trustworthiness is a property, not an attitude. Trust and trustworthiness are therefore distinct although, ideally, those whom we trust will be trustworthy, and those who are trustworthy will be trusted. It is in this relation that we claim for scientific and technological organizations the responsibility of striving towards higher levels of support and engagement with science. Practical and social implications With the work developed here we hope to contribute to a broader reflexion on the role of science communication in scientific and technological organizations and to the widespread support of a strategic assumption of communication in these organizations.
- A responsabilidade social e as missões do ensino superior politécnicoPublication . Cavaleiro Rodrigues, JoséA responsabilidade social pode constituir um atributo especial do ensino superior público e das suas escolas, enquanto instituições dedicadas à formação científica, técnica e pessoal dos futuros profissionais e do relevo das funções que desempenharão na sociedade portuguesa
- Personal and organizational reputation, a matter of trust!Publication . Miranda, Sandra; Mourão, Rita MonteiroThe study of personal reputation only recently gained space and visibility in the field of organizational studies. For this, much progress has been made in organizational reputation, which structurally similar in genesis, provides the guidelines and identifies similar processes on how organizational actors develop and use individual reputation to have influence and maximize their effectiveness (Tsui, 1984; Ferris, Blass, Douglas, Kolodinsky and Treadway 2003). Following the challenges of literature, the main objective of this research is to understand how personal reputation influences organizational reputation, predicting the mediating effect of the organizational trust.