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Article
Publication date: 18 June 2021

Liz Yeomans and Sarah Bowman

The paper explores university leaders' employee-focused sensegiving discourse during the COVID-19 health crisis. The aim is to reveal how leadership sensegiving narratives…

1752

Abstract

Purpose

The paper explores university leaders' employee-focused sensegiving discourse during the COVID-19 health crisis. The aim is to reveal how leadership sensegiving narratives construct emotion in the rhetor-audience relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

A social constructionist, sensemaking approach centres on the meaning-making discourse of university leaders. Using rhetorical discourse analysis (RDA), the study analysed 67 emails sent to staff during a three-month period at the start of the global pandemic. RDA helps to reveal how university leaders help employees make sense of changing realities.

Findings

Three core narratives: organisational competence and resilience; empathy, reassurance and recognition; and community and location reveal a multi-layered understanding of leadership sensegiving discourse in which emotion intersects with material and temporal sensemaking dimensions. In supporting a process of organisational identification and belonging, these core narratives help to mitigate audience dissonance driven by the antenarrative of uncertainty.

Research limitations/implications

An interpretivist approach was used to analyse qualitative data from two UK universities. While focused on internal communication, the employee perspective was not examined. Nevertheless, this paper extends the human dimension of internal crisis communication, building on constructionist approaches that are concerned with emotion and sensegiving.

Originality/value

This paper expands the domain of internal crisis communication. It integrates the social construction of emotion and sensemaking with the underexplored material and temporal dimensions in internal crisis communication and applies RDA.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

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Publication date: 25 March 2024

Keren Darmon

The PRCA December 2020 census tells us that, in the United Kingdom, the public relations (PR) industry continues to be predominantly female, with 68% of respondents ticking that…

Abstract

The PRCA December 2020 census tells us that, in the United Kingdom, the public relations (PR) industry continues to be predominantly female, with 68% of respondents ticking that box. It also highlights a ‘gender pay gap’ of 21%, an increase of 7% from March 2020 and states that ‘this can be explained by the fact that the respondents … are largely in senior roles which tend to be more male dominated’ (PRCA, 2020), thus demonstrating a leadership gap as well as a pay one. Both of the leading PR professional membership bodies in the United Kingdom – the PRCA and CIPR – acknowledge the gender pay and leadership gaps, made starker in an industry dominated by women, and have committed to tackle the disparity.

In this chapter, I build on Liz Yeomans' (2020) work, in which she suggests ‘new avenues for researching neoliberalism and postfeminism in PR’ (p. 44) to examine the ‘apparently progressive moves’ (Yeomans', 2020) by women's networking organisations. I analyse website texts from two women-only PR networking organisations – Women in PR and Global Women in PR – to explore the ways in which they construct their function, purpose and role, and to examine their position vis-à-vis the contemporary postfeminist media culture (Gill, 2007). The research takes a feminist, discourse analytic approach and sheds light on the reality of women in PR as constructed by organisations whose stated goal is to: ‘improve equality and diversity across the industry by increasing the number and diversity of women in leadership roles’ (Women in PR, 2022).

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Article
Publication date: 31 December 2000

Liz Yeomans

Writers such as Schön and Argyris have been influential in our understanding of how people and organisations learn. They contend that “real” learning only takes place when we…

1105

Abstract

Writers such as Schön and Argyris have been influential in our understanding of how people and organisations learn. They contend that “real” learning only takes place when we challenge assumptions and the taken‐for‐granted aspects of everyday working life, as well as the values on which these assumptions are based. Further, the ability of learning to learn (or “double‐loop learning” as it is sometimes called) at both an individual and an organisational level is regarded by such writers as the key skill in adapting to a fast‐changing world. With this framework in mind, professional courses such as the Advanced Professional Diploma in Public Relations at Leeds Metropolitan University have incorporated the philosophy of “reflective learning” in assessment. The assessment tool of this type of course is typically a reflective learning assignment where individual learners critically reflect on their own working practice in the light of newly acquired knowledge and skills. The assignment, at least in theory, is not an end in itself but the start of a continuous process of self‐reflection and challenging of assumptions underlying practice in everyday working life. It follows, therefore, that such an approach could have a relevance for innovation in individual working practices. This paper seeks to examine whether reflective learning conducted within an academic setting has a relevance for innovation in public relations. It draws on theories and discussion in the fields of organisational learning; reflective learning and reflective practice; a critical analysis of 25 reflective learning assignments; and six telephone interviews with public relations practitioners who have successfully completed the Advanced Professional Diploma in Public Relations at Leeds Metropolitan University. It is followed by a discussion of the link between their reflective learning and organisational learning, and suggests where innovation is most likely to occur. Finally, implications for academics and practitioners are discussed.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 5 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

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Article
Publication date: 31 July 2007

Liz Yeomans

The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion that, in order to instil and maintain confidence in relationships with clients, journalists and others, PR practitioners in the…

3158

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion that, in order to instil and maintain confidence in relationships with clients, journalists and others, PR practitioners in the UK, and women in particular, are required to develop specific skills in managing emotion. It argues that, in providing a PR service, practitioners are performing the skills of emotional labour.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on three areas of literature: public relations, emotion in organisations, and emotional labour. The concepts of emotional labour are illustrated by extracts drawn from in‐depth interviews with public relations students reflecting on one‐year placement experiences in the UK public relations industry.

Findings

The paper found that the key questions for empirical investigation concern practitioners' feelings of self‐identity, including gender identity in performing professional roles. A feminist paradigm is proposed using social constructionist methodological approaches.

Practical implications

The paper shows that the uncovering of “tacit and uncodified skills” through empirical investigation could have implications for future public relations education and training.

Originality/value

Emotion in public relations is so far unacknowledged and unexplored. This paper represents the first step towards a fuller understanding of how professional relationships are made and understood among PR practitioners, and women in particular.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 20 February 2007

Liz Yeomans

3107

Abstract

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

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Article
Publication date: 6 August 2008

Liz Yeomans

This paper aims to explore the relationship between internal communication and organizational learning from an interpretive perspective.

3060

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the relationship between internal communication and organizational learning from an interpretive perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a review of the internal communication and organizational learning literature, an exploratory phenomenological methodology was designed to capture the “essences” of experiences relating to “communication” and “learning” among employees within a UK healthcare organization with an aspiration of becoming a “learning organization.” Transcripts of interviews were analyzed, coded thematically and the essences of experiences collectively synthesized into one description.

Findings

The paper concludes that internal communication may contribute to the development of organizational learning through sense‐making processes. For the participants in this study, these processes were personal letters and memos, line management interactions and interactions with other colleagues. “Learning” was associated with the acquisition of knowledge through day‐to‐day interactions, self‐development and studying. However, some sense‐making activities designed to engage employees in organizational change were less relevant to participants.

Practical implications

The research highlights the need for internal communication strategies that match meanings to context, based upon research that recognises the social and culturally diverse nature of organizations; the interactions and identities of occupational groups; and how these groups in turn construct and reproduce their social world through discursive practices.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates the relevance of interpretive approaches to corporate communication research that gives prominence to the everyday, subjective experiences, perceptions and feelings of organizational members.

Details

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 13 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-3289

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 6 April 2020

Martina Topić, Maria Joäo Cunha, Amelia Reigstad, Alenka Jelen-Sanchez and Ángeles Moreno

This paper aims to analyse the current literature on women in public relations to establish trends and areas of inquiry in the literature and identify research gaps for future…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyse the current literature on women in public relations to establish trends and areas of inquiry in the literature and identify research gaps for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 223 articles have been empirically analysed using thematic analysis to identify trends in the existing literature. The data has been coded and analysed per decade (1982–1989, 1990–1999, 2000–2009, 2010–2019). The articles have been identified by searching major journals in the field of public relations and communications, as well as snowballing from identified articles.

Findings

The results show that the majority of academic articles have been produced by using lived experiences of women working in the public relations industry and thus reflect the professional situation of female public relations employees. The results show that the position of women has reached a full circle in four decades of research and returned to the discriminatory work environment. Finally, the results show that a liberal feminist perspective has an advantage in the literature since the majority of works have been produced in the United States; however, there is an increase in authors calling for the use of socialist and radical feminism.

Originality/value

The paper provides a comprehensive literature review of works published in the field. The paper takes an empirical approach to the analysis rather than the descriptive one, which helped in identifying major trends in the research and identified a research gap for future inquiries.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 February 2016

Julia Jahansoozi

1000

Abstract

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

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