Reputation Management

New York London

Routledge is an imprint of the

Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Illustrated by Julie M. Osborn

Reputation

ManageMent

The Key to Successful Public Relations

and Corporate Communication

John Doorley anD helio FreD Garcia

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Routledge

Taylor & Francis Group

270 Madison Avenue

New York, NY 10016

Routledge

Taylor & Francis Group

2 Park Square

Milton Park, Abingdon

Oxon OX14 4RN

© 2007 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97471‑2 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97470‑4 (Hardcover)

International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97471‑4 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97470‑7 (Hardcover)

No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or

other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any informa‑

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identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

http://www.taylorandfrancis.com

and the Routledge Web site at

http://www.routledge‑ny.com

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iii

Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

About the Authors xvii

About the Contributors xix

1 Reputation Management 1

This Chapter Covers 3

Reputational Capital 4

Identity 5

Can Reputation Be Measured? 7

Can Reputation Be Managed? 7

“Intangible Asset” – The Wrong Perspective 8

Comprehensive Reputation Management 8

Confusing Communication with Performance and Behavior 11

The Ten Precepts of Reputation Management 16

Reputation Management 21

2 Ethics and Communication 27

This Chapter Covers 29

Introduction: Why Ethics Matters 30

What is Ethics? 30

Ethics and Organizational Communication 35

Ethics of Communicating 38

Ethics of Running a Business 46

Ethics of Representation 48

Helping Companies Behave Ethically 51

3 Media Relations 67

This Chapter Covers 69

The Case for a Centralized Media Relations Function 69

Organizing the Media Relations Function 72

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iv Reputation Management

Media Relations as a Lightning Rod 73

Moderating Expectations 75

The Journalist and the Spokesperson 76

Fear of the Press 78

The Press’ Right to Know 82

The Press’ Penchant for Bad News 85

The Good News About the Press 87

Press Relations from a Position of Power 88

Success in Media Relations 89

4 New Media 103

By Andrea Coville and Ray Thomas

This Chapter Covers 105

A Different World 105

An Abridged History of New Media 106

New Media and the Consumer Electronics Revolution 107

A Sampling of Today’s New Media Tools 108

Are the New Media Truly Different? 114

Examples of Digital Marketing 116

The Impact of New Media on TV 117

New Media Terms 118

5 Employee Communication 127

By the authors, with significant contributions by Jeff Grimshaw

This Chapter Covers 129

Employee Communication: The Stepchild of Public Relations

and Human Resources 129

Making Progress: Employee Communication Today 131

Employee Communication Drives Organizational Performance 133

The New Role of Employee Communication 138

The Five Traits That Distinguish the Best Employee

Communication Shops 144

6 Government Relations 159

By Ed Ingle

This Chapter Covers 161

What Is Government Relations? 161

Case for a Centralized Government Relations Function 163

Organizing the Government Relations Function 164

Understanding the Key Audiences 166

Setting the Company’s Government Relations Agenda 169

Success and Expectations Management 170

Role of Third-Party Advocacy 170

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Contents

Role of the Lobbying Consultant 173

Role of Political Contributions 175

State and International Government Relations 176

Government Relations Best Practices 179

7 Community Relations 183

This Chapter Covers 185

Hardy’s Relationship-Building Principle # 1: Be Involved. Be

Committed. 186

Hardy’s Relationship-Building Principle # 2: Building

Reputation, One Relationship at a Time, Is Good Business 187

Hardy’s Relationship-Building Principle # 3: Choose the Right

Projects. Be Strategic. 189

Hardy’s Relationship-Building Principle #4: Keep Moving Ahead 194

Hardy’s Relationship-Building Principle # 5: Embrace Diversity 196

Hardy’s Relationship-Building Principle # 6: When Things Go

Wrong, Make Them Right as Fast as You Can 200

8 Investor Relations 207

This Chapter Covers 209

What Is Investor Relations? 210

The Goals and Roles of Investor Relations 211

What Does “Public Company” Mean? 212

A Brief Introduction to the Securities Markets and Investment 213

Securities Analysts: The Crucial Intermediaries 220

Sell-Side Analysts 220

Buy-Side Analysts 222

IR’s Interaction with Analysts 222

IR’s Interaction with Investors 223

The Financial Media 224

IR and Corporate Disclosure 225

Materiality 227

Disclosure 230

9 Global Corporate Communication 239

By Lynn Appelbaum and Gail S. Belmuth

This Chapter Covers 241

The Global Imperative 242

The Global Corporate Communication Role 245

Standardize or Customize? That Is the Question. 246

The Global Communication Network 248

Internal Communication—Worldwide 249

External Communication 252

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vi Reputation Management

Working with Public Relations Agencies 260

Measuring the Success of Global Communication 261

10 Integrated Communication 267

By Tim McMahon

This Chapter Covers 270

Creating Enterprise Value through Powerful Brand Identity 271

Leadership: The Engine of Effective Integrated Communication 274

A Shared Vision Will Replace a Shelf Full of Policy Manuals 276

Culture: The Lever for Transformation 277

Communication Toolbox: The Devices Used to Move People to

Action 279

Marketing and Sales, What Is the Difference? Does It Matter? 282

The Corporate Brand: Differentiating the Company’s Approach

to Business 283

11 Issues Management 299

This Chapter Covers 301

Issues Management Overview 302

Establishing an Issues Management Function 302

Prioritizing Issues 303

Issues Management Planning Process 304

Developing an Issues Management Plan 305

What the Elements of the Issues Management Analysis

and Planning Template Mean 307

12 Crisis Communication 323

This Chapter Covers 326

Introduction 326

What Is a Crisis? 328

Timeliness of Response: The Need for Speed 331

Control the Communication Agenda 335

Dealing with Rumors 337

Controlling Rumors: A Mathematical Formula 343

13 Corporate Responsibility 353

by Anthony P. Ewing

This Chapter Covers 357

Corporate Responsibility 358

Communicating Corporate Responsibility 368

Tools 376

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Contents vii

14 Challenges and Opportunities in Public Relations

and Corporate Communication 383

This Chapter Covers 385

Earning a Seat at the Table: Defining the Professional

Communicator’s Role 385

Historical Perspective: Edward L. Bernays and the Roots

of Applied Anthropology 389

The Future of Public Relations and Corporate Communication 391

Becoming Truly Strategic 400

Notes 409

Index 421

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ix

Preface

Public Relations: The management of communication

between an organization and its publics.

(Hunt and Grunig)1

Corporate and organizational communication: The cen￾tralized management of communication on behalf of the

organization; the function is a critical contributor to an

organization’s reputation—and thereby its competitiveness,

productivity, and financial success.

(Doorley and Garcia)

This book on public relations and corporate and organizational commu￾nication is grounded on the simple premise that everything communicators

do should be respectful of, if not geared toward, the long-term interests of

the organization. Organizations that manage their reputations well benefit

not just in so-called soft, feel-good ways, but in quantifiable, bottom-line

ways as well. Organizations that ignore the reputational effects of their

actions pay the consequences over the long term, as the rash of business

scandals since 2002 has shown. And the consequences range from soft,

embarrassing ones to dissolution of the organization.

This book is unique because:

It covers each of the major disciplines in the field of corporate and

organizational communication, bridging real-world practice with

communication theory and history.

It covers the field from the perspective of reputation management,

and provides a new framework for managing reputation into the

future.

Each chapter was written by someone who has practiced the craft

successfully at a high level.

⇒

⇒

⇒

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 Reputation Management

The authors cite personal experiences, including both successes and

failures.

Each of the chapters includes some history and theory, real￾world, how-to information, and the perspective of a practitioner

other than the chapter’s author. Each chapter concludes with best

practices, resources for further study, and questions for further

discussion.

It is our hope that this book will help advance the practice of public rela￾tions and corporate and organizational communication by helping practi￾tioners and students become more knowledgeable about the history, theory,

and practice of their craft. Ours is not a primer—for example, we do not

show readers how to write a press release. Our book presumes a basic knowl￾edge of communication theory and practice appropriate to professional

communicators, executives, and students at the advanced undergraduate or

graduate levels. There are good basic public relations and communication

texts on the market. What we have tried to produce is a how-to book, based

on solid academic principles and written by leaders from the communi￾cation professions—a book that addresses communication problems and

opportunities in a thoughtful, thoroughgoing, practical way.

This book is a team project. John and Fred have collaborated on the

entire book, and have shared responsibility for drafting individual chapters.

John has taken the lead in drafting the chapters on Reputation Manage￾ment, Employee Communication, Media Relations, and Community Rela￾tions. Fred has taken the lead in drafting the chapters on Communication

Ethics, Investor Relations, Issues Management, Crisis Management, and

Challenges and Opportunities. John wrote the proposal for the book and

secured the agreement with the publisher.

We have also sought the help of several prominent practitioners whose

perspectives and experiences complement ours. These contributions come

in two forms: authorship of individual chapters, and contributions of side￾bars or case studies within chapters.

To keep clear who wrote what, the chapters written by John and Fred

have no author attribution at the beginning of the chapter; each chapter

written by a contributor begins with the contributor’s byline.

Illustrations

We had talked with two illustrators whose work has been prominently pub￾lished in media, including The New Yorker. But we thought it would be

nice to retain a student, and, long story short, we found Julie Osborn, a

graduate student in the Center for Advanced Digital Applications Program

in New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Lucky us! Julie’s work, though Jules Pfeiffer-like, is original, sometimes

⇒

⇒

We have also

sought the help

of several promi￾nent practi￾tioners whose

perspectives

and experiences

complement

ours.

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Preface xi

humorous, always engaging. It was

Julie who conceived Mr. ProCom

and Ms. ProCom. But then the ques￾tion became: which person to use

with which chapter? Being quite the

serious professional communicators

ourselves, we pondered the media

relations challenges, the looming

issues to manage. Should we prepare

a crisis communication contingency

plan? In the end, we decided to have

Ms. ProCom adorn the cover of each of the fourteen chapters. Why? Per￾haps because we have a few more male contributors in our book than female;

perhaps because women communicators now have a population edge in the

PR profession, or perhaps because Fred and John found Ms. ProCom to be

better company. In any case, we show them working together here—team￾work, it is called, which entails picking each other up every now and then.

And if any of this is upsetting to anyone anywhere—well, we simply have

no comment!

Structure of the Book

Chapter 1 includes “The Ten Precepts of Reputation Management,” with

the tenth stipulating that reputation should be managed like any other

asset—that is, in a strategic way. The rest of the chapter includes a new,

copyrighted framework for implementing comprehensive reputation man￾agement. It is remarkable, but very few organizations approach reputation

management in a comprehensive way, as they would any other asset; in fact,

most organizations do not know what their reputations are worth. Corpo￾rate communication professionals should make it their business to under￾stand the value of reputation, and ways to support, enhance, and measure it.

Chapter 1 also includes a discussion of the Pushmi-Pullyu syndrome, whose

schizophrenic tug has been felt by every communication professional.

Chapter 2 focuses on ethics. The subject is up front in the book, right

where it belongs. The ethical practice of communication is neither an oxy￾moron nor an afterthought, but should be an integral part of practicing the

craft. And it has a tangible effect on reputation. Failure to keep ethical issues

always in mind can cause predictable, negative consequences. At New York

University’s Center for Marketing, whose students are working professionals,

Fred used to teach communication ethics in the fall semester and crisis com￾munication in the spring semester. Students invariably wanted to discuss the

same case studies in both semesters; they noticed a meaningful overlap in

companies with ethical challenges and crises. That led some students to note:

Chapter 1 also

includes a dis￾cussion of the

Pushmi-Pullyu

syndrome, whose

schizophrenic tug

has been felt by

every communica￾tion professional.

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xii Reputation Management

“Better pay attention during fall or you’ll be quite busy in the spring.” This

chapter includes general principles of communication ethics, the normative

standards of behavior embodied in the codes of ethics of major professional

organizations, accounts of recent scandals in communication ethics, and two

historical sidebars showing that such ethical issues have been part of profes￾sional communication for many, many years.

Chapters 3–13 are organized according to the corporate and organiza￾tional communication disciplines (for example, media relations, employee

communication, and government relations), or around issues or functions

that protect reputation (such as corporate responsibility, issues manage￾ment, and crisis communication). Each of these chapters begins with a true

anecdote that reflects the essence of the chapter.

Chapter 14 looks ahead, and frames criteria for the successful practice

of public relations and corporate and organizational communication in the

future. It also describes ways to enhance the credibility of the communi￾cation function among senior leaders. It provides a framework for think￾ing strategically about the impact of communication, and on assuring that

all the organizational communication functions are aligned not only with

each other but also with the bigger enterprise.

We hope that students and professional communicators will find the

personal, anecdotal approach an interesting and informative complement

to other books in the field, most of which take a third-person, definitional

approach. This book should also be helpful to people—from managers to

CEOs—who supervise or work with professional communicators. Com￾munication is not rocket science, but it is not easy either, and it can make

or break an organization, perhaps faster than any other function.

Today, those who communicate on behalf of institutions have greater

power than ever before, because communication media are more power￾ful than ever. And professional communicators are under greater pressure

to use their power in the right and responsible way to meet the pressing

requirements of laws and regulations, corporate and organizational gover￾nance, and a more vigilant society. Paradoxically, pressures to compromise

the forthrightness standard are also becoming greater in this increasingly

competitive and fast-paced world.

In order for organizations to build solid, sustainable reputations and

avoid the kinds of scandals that have recently affected so many of them,

organizational communication, like organizational performance, must be

proficient and ethical, because communication and performance are major

components of reputation. An organization must speak to all its constituen￾cies with one voice that is highly trained and true. It is our hope that those

with a stake in corporate and organizational communication, as well as

students and aspiring communicators, will find in this book sound, ethical

Communication

is not rocket sci￾ence, but it is not

easy either, and

it can make or

break an organi￾zation, perhaps

faster than any

other function.

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Preface xiii

communication principles and practices that they can believe in and adhere

to over the long term.

You Say Communications … We Say Communication

This is a stylistic point, of course, but some logic can be brought to the dis￾cussion. Most academics label their disciplines and their courses as singular.

They are professors of communication, and they teach organizational com￾munication, inter-cultural communication, and so on. On the other hand,

practitioners most often use the plural, and they work in departments of

corporate communications, employee communications, and so on.

We’re afraid the academics have it. Communication covers the entire spec￾trum. It is a discipline, like art or language, and is therefore singular. And to

label it and think of it as singular is to help elevate what is too often perceived

as tactical—for example, issuing press releases and publishing newsletters.

Most unabridged dictionaries make only a few exceptions to the use of

communication as singular. They refer to the various means of sending

messages as plural, so that radio, television, telephones, and the Internet are

communications media. And they refer to multiple messages as commu￾nications. In the 1980s, when Fred headed “communications” for a large

investment bank, he was often approached by bankers who wanted to add

a phone extension or install a computer. “Communications” sounds like

the phone company.

This book will go with logic, and the unabridged dictionaries, and use

communication. We will use the plural only in referring to the media, and

to the titles of practitioners and the names of their departments, because

that is how practitioners usually refer to themselves. Everywhere else, it will

be communication.

John Doorley and Helio Fred Garcia

Endnote

1. James E. Grunig, Todd Hunt, Managing Public Relations, 1984, Holt, Rinehart and

Winston, New York, p. 7.

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