2. • L. A. Grunig, and J. E. Grunig (1996) identified
nine generic principles that, they argued,
could be used to set up global public relations
practices. The authors also suggested that five
environmental variables can be used by public
relations practitioners to design public
relations strategies specific to a given country.
3. The five variables are:
1. Political ideology
2. Economic system (including the level of
development of the country's economy),
3. Degree of activism (the extent of pressure
organizations face from activists),
4. Culture
5. Media system (the nature of the media
environment in a country).
5. • A Theoretical Framework for Global Public
Relations Research and Practice
6. Kaplan and Manners (1972) identified four determinants of
societal culture.
First, technoeconomics refers to the level of economic
development of a society, which invariably influences the
culture of each society. We already discussed this determinant
as the first environmental factor. Technologies such as satellite
communication and the Internet continue to play a role in
shaping cultures in the modern world and have a direct
influence on public relations as well.
Second, social structure is indicative of the social institutions
that define relationships among different members or groups
of a society. Feudal, caste, and class stratifications are
examples of social structure.
7. Third, ideology refers to the values, norms, worldviews,
knowledge, philosophies, and religious principles that the
members of a society espouse. Historically, humans have
fought over religious philosophies, and they continue to
do so. Theocracy is increasingly becoming an issue in
international relations because of its impact on
sociopolitical systems.
Fourth, personality refers to the traits of individuals of a
society based especially on the child-rearing practices of
that society as well as acculturation in school and the
workplace
8. Corporate Culture
The review of societal culture leads us to the next
important step in identifying the linkage between
culture and public relations—identifying the
influence that societal culture has on organizational
culture or corporate culture. Sriramesh, J. E. Grunig,
and Buffington (1992) observed that whereas
corporate culture is influenced by societal culture, it
is also distinct from it.
9. Organizations in the same societal culture have
distinctive corporate personalities, which are
often based on factors such as the charismatic
leadership of the organization, age of the
organization, organizational type, and size
10. Schein (1985) identified three reasons for studying
the culture of organizations. First, corporate culture
is highly visible and can be felt by all observers and
participants. Next, by understanding corporate
culture, one can evaluate organizational
performance and gain knowledge of how people
behave and perceive it. Finally, corporate culture
provides organizational members with a common
frame of reference, a key ingredient of cohesiveness
in organizations.
11. ACTORS IN THE FIELD OF INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC
RELATIONS
It is almost impossible to make a clear distinction
between the nature of international public relations
activities of nation-states, international
social/economic organizations (e.g., the World
Bank, Greenpeace), international political
organizations (e.g., United Nations, NATO, etc. ),
and multinational corporations (MNCs).
12. IMAGES OF NATIONS AND THE INTERNATIONAL
SYSTEM
Therefore, national image can be defined as the
cognitive representation that a person holds about
a given country—a person's beliefs about a nation
and its people. Of special importance to political
action is the benevolence or malevolence imputed
to other nations in images as well as the historical
component of the image. Feelings about a country's
future are important too.
13. Boulding (1969) defined image as “total
cognitive, affective, and evaluative structure of
the behavior unit, or its internal view of itself
and the universe” (p. 423). Whether our
perceptions of the world are real or fictional
does not play a large part in our daily lives. One
behaves as if one's perception of the world were
“true. ” Boulding (1967) localized an image
sphere, which he described as a “world of
literary images” (p. 5).
14. • Verčič, L. Grunig & J. Grunig (1995) proposed
the following generic principles borrowing
from the findings of the “excellence study”
(reported in Dozier, L. Grunig, & J. Grunig,
1995; J. Grunig 1992; and L. Grunig, J. Grunig
& Dozier 2002):
15. 1. Public relations is involved in strategic management.
2. Public relations is empowered by the dominant coalition or by direct
reporting relationship to senior management.
3. The public relations function is an integrated one.
4. Public relations is a managerial function separate from other functions.
5. The public relations unit is headed by a manager rather than a technician.
6. The two-way symmetrical model of public relations is used.
7. A symmetrical system of internal communication is used.
8. Knowledge potential for managerial role and symmetrical public relations.
9. Diversity is embodied in all roles.
10. An organizational context exists for excellence.
