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The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyse subjective well-being among public relations (PR) and communication professionals by looking at several factors: employer and employee engagement, work culture and relationships, work–life balance and conflict, job satisfaction, well-being and networking and perceived gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Additionally, we examine and discuss them in the context of perceived organisational support (POS) and management-mediated well-being.

This paper examines several dimensions of well-being in the PR/comms industry in Romania: employer and employee engagement, work culture and relationships, work–life balance and conflict, job satisfaction, well-being and networking and perceived gender discrimination and sexual harassment. 117 adult respondents (male and female, full-time employed and freelancers, professionals from PR, advertising and corporate communications) filled-in a questionnaire developed within the EUPRERA Women in PR Network, which brings together communication and human resource (HR) perspectives.

The study revealed a gap between perceived and practical organisational support related to well-being. While emotional support is acknowledged, actionable support is less present. Gender-specific challenges, such as networking stress and sexual harassment, were more prevalent among women. Age and experience influenced job satisfaction, with mature professionals reporting higher satisfaction but more work encroachment into personal time. The characteristics of the industry, including its feminisation at both executive and managerial levels and the predominance of small businesses as market actors, underscore the need for tailored well-being strategies based on gender and age conditioned by organisational capabilities and resources.

The results can be used by PR and communication managers in Romania to better understand the perception of their employees regarding well-being and to develop organisational support systems.

This is the first study addressing well-being and POS in the PR and communication industries in Romania.

The purpose of this study is to define the communicational profile of unattached diplomats and explore the viability of state-centric concepts such as citizen diplomacy when discussing non-state actors emerging from civil society.

The paper uses a comparative, multiple case design focusing on descriptive case studies (Yin, 2018) that explore the diplomatic endeavours and social biographies of “citizens of the world” acting at a global or local level, not explicitly attached to or explicitly against an official, state agenda: Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg and Bill Gates.

The unattached diplomats have organisational mobility but are attached to the cause they promote, a configuration that fundamentally opposes that of the traditional or organisational diplomat. Looking at individuals from a diplomatic perspective, not as instruments or as targets, but rather as agents with their own agenda, issues and diplomatic capital, the unattached diplomats define their lack of attachment through organisational mobility, adversarial positioning or personal financial autonomy with regard to state diplomatic institutions or for-profit/not-for-profit organisations.

A higher number and diversity of case studies can enable the identification of patterns and standards.

This study introduces and operationalises the concept of unattached diplomats. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to discuss it in the context of another emerging concept, currently insufficiently researched: civil society diplomacy.