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The purpose of this paper is to compare the perspectives of public relations professionals against those of the general public in Spain with respect to which communications activities and organizational attributes are relevant to the leadership images of organizations, and what are the characteristics of effective leaders.

This study combines data from the European Communication Monitor (ECM) with the results of a representative online survey carried out by the global market research company IPSOS.

Results show that the general public sees TV interviews as well as TV advertising as communication tools with the biggest potential to shape the leadership image of organizations. When it comes to the attributes of effective leaders, communication professionals overestimate the role of an organization’s vision, while the population much more stresses basic attributes like leading by example and admitting mistakes. PR practitioners underestimate customer service and environmental responsibility and tend to favor more abstract attributes like innovation and CSR.

This paper touches only four sections of the ECM 2014/2015. Participant fatigue may have negatively impacted the quality of the data. A large sample of professionals was approached, but a much small number initiated and completed the online survey. The size of the sample of communication professionals makes it difficult to generalize the results. In addition, future research should extend the study to different groups of stakeholders, such as employees, investors, and suppliers.

While organizations face intensive pressure from evaluation by their stakeholders, discrepancies between the expectations of the general public in regard to leadership negatively affects the communicator’s work to position organizations in society, as well as CEOs and top executives as leaders. On this regards, getting closer to what the population expects will help to understand and improve leadership perceptions.

Very little work has been done in Spain regarding to leadership in public relations or public relations professional’s perceptions about leadership. Most research published to date has focused on the leader’s position in the company, participation in management levels, types of responsibilities assumed and their relative influence and leadership style. Even fewer public relations studies have tried to identify the communication activities that are relevant to the leadership image of organizations and compare the perspectives of public relations professionals on leadership against those of the general public. This dearth of knowledge about stakeholder expectations negatively affects the communicator’s work to position organizations and executive leaders in society.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and show how public relations contributed to enhancing the visibility of Croatian non-profit organization Foundation “Croatia for Children” and its activities within its stakeholders, as well as how public relations contributed to the mobilization of target publics in Foundation’s activities.

Using a single case study approach, data were collected over a 12-month period. Quantitative and qualitative media research was applied in order to compare visibility of Foundation in the period before and after the strategic communication campaign.

Strategic communication campaign enhanced the visibility of Foundation “Croatia for Children” in national and local Croatian media and positioned it as the primary instance for children without an adequate parental care and children in need. However, local media devoted more attention comparing to the national media. All children wishes (1,000) were fulfilled by mobilizing the target publics.

The results derived from this case study cannot be generalized since they are based on a single case in one country.

This study can serve as a starting point for another research about the role and importance that public relations have in enhancing the visibility of non-profit organizations.

The results of this study point to the role and importance public relations have in the non-profit sector in order to proactively communicate with all stakeholders in society.

What are the academic experiences of senior professors in the field of public relations (PR) at the Brazilian universities? This chapter proposes the advance of knowledge on the theoretical framework of contemporary liberal feminism by refining the previous theoretical and methodological publications. This theoretical lens prevails in earlier works, with empirical studies grounded in industry and corporate environments – mainly done by researchers from the United Kingdom, North America and Scandinavia, while PR feminist postmodernism appears in European literature – all scarce in Brazil and Global South (Latin America and African nations). Moreover, studies applying female or male PR scholars in university settings are rare in national and international literature. Hence, we gathered data and analysed narratives from seven senior female PR professors from Brazil, using an interpretative qualitative approach. Thus, this chapter about the female PR academic experiences and everyday practices highlights the starting point for an onto-epistemological discussion to understand the liberal feminist educational-based context in a Latin American country. Henceforth, two conceptual-practical dimensions – feminist PR competence and feminist PR performance – along with three methodological recommendations are presented for enhancing the contemporary liberal feminism theme as a robust research domain in PR and Strategic Communication agenda.

This paper aims to explore the position of women in the communication management sector in Spain from their own experiences. The study examines female communication and leadership styles, emphasising the cost of leadership in which they are leaders or led.

This study used a qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews with 22 women actively working in top companies and agencies: female communication directors, female employees with a female leader and female employees with a male leader. Data were analysed through thematic analysis.

Results show mixed communication and leadership styles. In addition, the high level of self-demand of female communication managers stands out, making it challenging to achieve a work-life balance and the implementation of successful role models.

Exploring the factors of female leadership remains necessary to understand and make their situation in various industries and positions visible. It also helps remove barriers to leadership, guide organisations in addressing gender discrimination issues and develop mechanisms for the internal promotion of female professionals.

To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first study exploring the leadership and communication styles of women in the Spanish Public Relations (PR) and communication management industries. It also highlights the aspects influencing the cost of leadership.

Listening to and conversing with stakeholders has become a basic requirement for the survival of any organization in a society with insistent demands for transparency and dialogue. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Latin American practitioners are using social media for corporate and networking purposes, and their perceptions about which social media activity is more relevant for organizational stakeholders.

A population of 803 public relations professionals from 18 Latin American countries working on different hierarchical levels, both in communication departments and agencies across the region, were surveyed as part of a larger online survey. For this research, five questions about social media usage have been included in the first edition of the Latin American Communication Monitor (LCM) project.

The study shows that despite the massive incorporation of social media into communication strategies of organizations, Latin American professionals report less intensive use of these collaborative channels than do peers in the Asia-Pacific, but they are in line with colleagues from Europe. Practitioners report a cautious optimism on the success achieved in the social media arena, as well as an insignificant use of these tools for professional networking purposes.

This paper touches only four sections of the LCM 2014/2015. Participant fatigue may have negatively impacted the quality of the data. A large sample of professionals was approached, but a much small number initiated and completed the online survey. This resulted in the lack of representation of some countries in the subcontinent. In the future, greater participation is needed to allow for a more comprehensive comparative analysis.

This research provides a more in-depth look at the current state of public relations practice in Latin America and the use of social media channels to communicate with stakeholders. Even if social media continue to create unprecedented opportunities, social media platforms have not been widely adopted by professionals in the region, probably due to the lack of appropriate structures, cultures and strategies for participative modes of social media communication.

This dearth of knowledge about how PR professionals use social media affects the engagement process, and as a result, the reputation, legitimization, satisfaction with and trust in organizations. Without listening carefully to stakeholder needs, satisfying these needs and establishing a real conversation, organizations will not be able to attain the sought-after engagement that leads to a stable and lasting relation with the public.

Although numerous articles on the situation of public relations in different Latin American countries have been published, this research is first attempt to investigate the use of social media channels in the subcontinent through opinions of a representative sample of professionals.

The paper aims to analyze the contribution of young academics to the field of public relations (PR) and shows which authors exert most influence on them. The study thereby contributes to the assessment of the state of the art of theory building in the field. The authors analyzed the study data against the background of two approaches on progress in the field: Nothhaft et al.’s (2018) idea of strategic communication as an elusive concept and Winkler et al.’s (2021) narrative approach.

The study comprises two parts. First, the authors conducted a survey among participants of the EUPRERA PhD-workshops between 2007 and 2019, asking respondents about their perception of the state of the field. Second, the authors performed a bibliometric (co-)citation analysis of the young scholars’ most important works.

Results indicate that though the field has progressed in terms of quantity and diversified with regard to established paradigms, it has not matured in a sense that it has settled on a generally accepted theoretical underpinning. However, the data show how the dominant paradigms in the field map onto the co-citation networks that emerged out of the works of young scholars. The authors’ findings imply that this new generation might signal their allegiance to a paradigm by citing the works of its emblematic authors.

Unlike most bibliometric studies, this one uses an author-centered approach, thus studying works that matter most to young academics themselves. Not only do the authors thereby contribute to the analysis of the state of theory building in PR research, but also expand the scope in looking at research as a social system, in which young researchers need to position themselves.