Literature meeting 7: Public affairs and governmental communication
lecture notes:
learning goals
- What is public affairs?
- Public affairs strategies: bridging vs. buffering
- Government mediatization as a meta-process
- Reputation management in the public sector
Buffering: example lobbying, it wants to change an influence. they want the external (stakewatchers)
to adapt. It is a lobbyist’s job to represent their client’s or stakeholders interests and educate
lawmakers and their staff about the effect any proposed legislation or regulation will have on the
people the lobbyist represents. Lobbying is a legitimate and necessary part of our democratic
political process. Public officials cannot make fair and informed decisions without considering
information from a broad range of interested parties.
Trust in lobbyists of parliament > mainly sufficiently.
Meznar, M.B., & Nigh, D. (1995) Buffer or Bridge? Environmental and organizational determinants
of public affairs activities in American firms. Academy of Management Journal, 38(4), 975-996.
perspective: it is imperative that firms understand and adequately address the interests of social and
political constituents.
Public affairs: The organizational function responsible for maintaining legitimacy by managing the
interface between an organization and its socio political environment.
Legitimacy (license to operate) vs. reputation
there are negative and positive sides.
Buffering: a firm is trying either to insulate itself from external interference or to actively influence
its environment through such means as contributions to political action committees, lobbying, and
advocacy advertising. (protect from the external environment - resists or control environmental
change)
Bridging: the firm actively tries to meet and exceed regulatory requirements in its industry or that it
attempts to quickly identify changing social expectations in order to promote organizational
conformance to those expectations. ( internal adapting to change external circumstances)
they are NOT mutually exclusive!
The firm’s need to be open to its environment, at least open enough to secure inputs and dispose of
outputs, and yet to be closed enough to its environment to maintain the integrity of its technological
core, leads it to establish organizational components designed to protect the technical core from
environmental influences. > An analogues phenomenon is expected to occur: increased threats to
,the technical core leads to buffering AND increased uncertainty in the sociopolitical environment
leads to increased bridging
H1a: Environmental uncertainty is positively associated with public affairs buffering.
(because adapting becomes increasingly difficult and costly)
H1b: Environmental uncertainty is positively associated with public affairs bridging.
(to adapt more quickly, to attempt to maintain a fit with changing expectations in their environment)
H2a: Organizational size is positively associated with public affairs buffering.
(the less powerful the organization, the less it will be able to resist social pressure or control)
H2b: Organizational size is negatively associated with public affairs bridging.
(powerful organizations are more able to resist pressure and control, so they would prefer buffering
instead of bridging.)
H3a: Resource importance is positively associated with public affairs buffering.
(A firm providing a vital good or service that cannot be easily replaced is in powerful position relative
to social and political stakeholders > would be better able to resist pressure)
H3b: Resource importance is negatively associated with public affairs bridging.
(legitimacy would not be based on the importance of the product or service they provide, would be
more prone to rely on adaptation to social pressure)
H4a: Visibility is positively associated with public affairs bridging.
(organizations avoiding the public eye are less likely to be subjected to social pressures and have less
immediate need to adapt their behavior)
H4b: Visibility is positively associated with public affairs buffering.
(Large visible firms facing external social pressure often engage in advocacy advertising and public
relations campaigns to alter social expectations or alter the public’s perception of their activities.)
H4c: Size is positively associated with visibility.
(The larger a firm becomes, the more likely it is to catch the public’s eye)
,Enterprise strategy
1. the degree to which the firm;s top management emphasizes collaboration with external
groups.
2. the degree to which it has a philosophy of being a pioneer or leader in meeting social
expectations.
H5a: A collaborative, pioneering enterprise strategy is positively associated with public affairs
bridging.
(be more willing to make internal changes (adapt and bridge) in making compromises)
H5a: A collaborative, pioneering enterprise strategy is negatively associated with public affairs
buffering.
Results:
- Size as a dimension of power is more important than the resources in predicting buffering.
- Organizational power predicts a firm’s buffering activities but does not explain bridging.
- Visibility was not supported! It is likely that positive visibility will lead to different public
affairs activities than negative visibility.
- 5a was supported, 5b not.
Thus,
- Resource dependence theory seems to provide a useful framework for what promotes
buffering behavior. (not bridging, because forced to adapt)
- Powerful firms engage in more buffering than less powerful firms; yet power does not affect
whether a firm will bridge more or less.
- a firm’s top management plays a crucial role in determining corporate actions toward social
and political stakeholders.
- buffering and bridging are not at opposite ends of a continuum.
Wæraas, A., & Byrkjeflot, H. (2012). Public sector organizations and reputation management: Five
problems. International Public Management Journal, 15(2), 186-206.
Goal: reputation management in the public sector. > The inherently political nature of public
organizations constrains their reputation management strategies. > draw attention to 5 problems.
Legitimation versus reputation management?
Public organizations are not as “complete” as their private sector counterparts because they lack the
autonomy necessary to operate as independent organizational actors.
“Force of law”
Growing importance of reputation in the public sector
- Legitimacy
Reputation management: the overall estimation in which a company is held by its constituents.
It is a mental and abstract perception of an organization - an intangible asset - with an emphasis of
controlling it. managing those perceptions that form an organization’s reputation.
, Organizational recipe for reputation management: a step-wise approach that involves bridging the
gap between a desired and an actual image of the organization.
1. Formulation of strategy: process of discovery: an assessment of the current identity is
necessary in order to define an idealized vision of how the organization should be perceived
in the future. It should result in a reputation platform that defines the organization’s essence
and serves as the basis for all reputation management efforts.
a. Politics problem: contextual factors related to the political nature of public
organizations impose constraints on the degrees of freedom.
b. Consistency problem: the challenges of creating consistency in the reputation
platform are rarely addressed.
2. Self-presentation: developing a program: to deliver messages and promises either in the
form of verbal descriptions of organizational identity, or logos and graphical profiles, that
give the organization a unified voice and convey what can be expected of the organization. -
closing the gap between identity and reputation.
a. charisma problem: difficulties creating emotional appeal.
b. uniqueness problem
3. Measurement of audience perceptions: may form the basis for a new evaluation of the
current situation that in turn can be used to readjust the strategy, identify critical audiences,
and enable more effective reputation-building initiatives.
a. excellence problem: most public organization struggle to acquire an excellent
reputation due to limitations in the way in which they operate.
The importance of context > the intended effects and benefits should not automatically be expected
following the adoption of reputation management. (can be expected to differ from those normally
encountered by private sector organizations)
Five problems of public sector
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