This thesis asks the question, how should public relations as a discipline evolve, bearing in mind the cross-frontier impact of new and traditional media and the impact of globalisation, with companies asked to do more and governments able to do less. It argues public relations theory is overly ethnocentric, despite dramatic changes in the communication, political and economic environment and that there is a need to embrace adjacent disciplines such as public diplomacy if it is to become more credible and strategically relevant. Following an interpretative paradigm in the qualitative tradition, data were collected using 56 in-depth interviews of senior practitioners of public relations and diplomacy, largely in two developing and two developed countries. Data were analysed using grounded methods and thematic content analysis, helping illustrate data and ease presentation for the reader. The findings indicated there is a convergence of disciplines and practice, including cross-transfer of diplomats to the private sector and public relations practitioners to government service. They showed that diplomats are engaging in more media relations, commercial activity and broader stakeholder outreach. While public relations practitioners need to add an understanding of international politics and culture to their knowledge of business and communication. However, despite growing opportunities for public relations as a result of new media, advising governments, a broader role for business, complex issues requiring 1. Introduction ii narrative development and more multi-faceted, empowered stakeholders, there are challenges. It has a poor reputation. It is seen as superficial, largely remains in a tactical box and there exists a skills deficit. In particular it requires navigation, negotiation and networking skills to be learned from diplomacy. But this will require a transformation of education and training practices, particularly in developing countries, where public relations is growing fast. This study makes a theoretical contribution by expanding the thinking on the overlap between the two disciplines. They both have to adapt to the new-networked environment, needing to develop relationship and collaborative engagement strategies. In particular public relations needs to possess contextual intelligence and cultural empathy. These themes form the basis on which to further develop public relations theory, which is sorely lacking. A conceptual model has been developed. Further research should be undertaken measuring the quality of relationships with different kinds of stakeholders in different cultures. This research makes a practical contribution by guiding the public relations academy and practice towards a more integrated and balanced education and training template, and developing a ‘best of both’ tool-kit. The symbiosis of the two disciplines indicated by this research and the further integration with public affairs and corporate responsibility should help public relations add value to its theory and practice. This would help it become more credible and strategically relevant for the 21st century global environment.

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This thesis informed by a single case study and adopting a multi-internal stakeholder perspective of a middle-ranked and London-based Business School, constitutes an explanatory investigation of the corporate identity, architecture, identification triad and their antecedents. The dissertation draws on social identity and attribution theories. This doctoral research focuses on a contemporary phenomenon within a real-life context. Based on the multi-disciplinary approach, the research generated four empirical insights; (i) a favourable Business School corporate identity has a commensurate influence on architecture; (ii) a favourable Business School corporate identity has a commensurate influence on stakeholders; (iii) a favourable Business School architecture increases identification with the Business School; and (iv) specifically, a favourable Business School corporate identity impacts on the Business School architecture on five dimensions. This study resulted in the introduction of a validated conceptual framework and the resultant theoretical framework details the corporate identity, architecture and identification dynamic as it pertains to a middle ranking Business School. The research is significant in that although corporate identity, architecture, and identification have been acknowledged as a significant area of research in marketing, corporate identity and design literatures, their relationships have remained vague. Extant studies lack a firm theoretical underpinning. As such, this thesis makes a theoretical contribution to our understanding of the corporate identity, architecture, and identification triad. A survey-based single case study research design marshalling explanatory research involving data collection comprised semi-structured interviews, focus groups and a collection of visual data in the preliminary stage of this research. This along with a review of the literature informed the conceptual framework. The conceptual framework was examined via the insights from 309 questionnaires. Structural equation modelling with AMOS was conducted to again insight into the various influences and relationships in relation to the corporate identity, architecture and identification triad. Most of the hypotheses underpinning the conceptual framework were confirmed apart from 1 which was an unexpected relationship between corporate visual identity and symbolic artifacts/decor and 3 unexpected relationships between the philosophy, mission and value and architecture components. Management implications from this research are as follows: (i) corporate identity should be managed strategically, and should be in alignment with the identity elements (company’s corporate an entity’s visual identity, communication, and philosophy, mission and value); (ii) an entity’s architecture should be managed strategically, and should be in alignment with other visual identity elements (decor and artifacts/symbolic artifacts, spatial layout and functionality/physical structure, and ambient conditions/physical stimuli); (iii) corporate identity/architecture gap should be constantly and carefully managed; (iv) architecture/identification (emotional attachment) gap should be regularly monitored. Moreover, this thesis provides policy/management recommendations to multiple substantive areas in higher education in the UK. In other words, a clear understanding of the dimensions of the relevant concepts can assist managers in policy development to develop a coherent policy for managing favourable corporate identity and architecture which can influence stakeholders’ identification. In addition, the findings of this study may support and shape business policy.

The thesis constructs a new ‘tapestry paradigm’ to offer an original contribution towards understanding of career strategies in public relations. It addresses a lack of academic research into careers within the occupation and sits at the intersection of critical consideration of professionalisation of public relations and emerging theories in the field of career studies. Narrative inquiry from the viewpoint of a visible insider sheds new light on how public relations careers have developed to date, and may develop in future. Whilst not its primary focus, the thesis considers career implications of increased feminisation of the occupation and responds to calls for greater research into the intersection of work and family lives in that context. An historical perspective underpins the thesis by exploring the origins of public relations careers and researching the career experiences of female practitioners during the 1970s and 1980s. Investigation of contemporary career strategies involves a series of twenty-one in-depth, oral interviews with British-based mid-career practitioners using an innovative visual timeline technique. This is supported by bricolage archival research to situate the participants’ experiences in a wider historical and social context. Examination of career development processes and practices is undertaken using a conceptual framework that connects social cognitive and career construction theories. A constructivist philosophy with an interpretive approach is adopted using qualitative methods to understand research participants’ lived experiences. Analysis of the research findings reveals four original theoretical constructs: knotted patterns of mobility; fluidity in career middleness; multi-layered, polyphonic sense making; and a non-linear, kairotic element of time. Construction of a new tapestry paradigm supports the identification of career strategies within public relations as being opportunistic, agentic and rhizomatic. This paradigm confronts the dominant professionalisation perspective within public relations scholarship and practice of an implicit chronological, hierarchical career system predicated on individualistic characteristics and behaviours. It accommodates jurisdictional and definitional challenges to the occupation and enables understanding of individual and collective career experiences within public relations at the micro (individual), meso (organizational/occupational) and macro (societal) levels.

Corporate reputation management - or brand management as it is often referred to - has been widely seen as an activity that can add value for an organization and its stakeholders through the creation of competitive advantage. The observation that many successful organizations also have salient and positive reputations has arguably been the impetus behind the development of various approaches for the understanding and management of this social phenomenon. In this thesis, I argue that many of these extant approaches are of limited use because of their inability to reconcile theoretical insights with empirical observations of practice. Given this shortcoming, I use the ontology of critical realism to draw together a number of concepts from various branches of the social sciences including: the theory of morphogenesis, social exchange theory, naturalistic decision making, and science and technology studies to develop an alternative conceptual framework - which I have termed 'reputational objects' - to reframe our understanding of corporate brands. I then apply the reputational objects framework to empirical data collected from a depth case study of Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) - an organization in the UK higher education sector - to gain insight into the mechanisms and processes that have led to the development of this organization's current reputation. In doing so, I make the following contributions to the knowledge of corporate reputation: 1) a conceptualisation of the nature and composition of an organization's corporate reputation as a heterogeneous entity; 2) an explanation of the dynamic processes through which an organization's corporate reputation develops; 3) a contextualisation of the role of managers in the management of corporate reputation; and 4) an organizational perspective that provides insight into the role of corporate reputation in the relations between the social structures, culture and stakeholders of an organization. I conclude that the findings from this study have implications for disciplinary research in marketing, strategy and organizational theory as well as for the practice and teaching of managers.

This study develops a sociological understanding of public relations work and workers. Its original contribution to knowledge is an account that conjoins personal dispositions and occupations; the person we become, and the work we do. Set in the UK, the analysis re-examines the complexity of practices, relationships and repertoires of behaviour that emerge from this contemporary form of service labour, and the economic and cultural logics that accompany them in a market for skills and persons. The study develops detailed information at the level of the working life in order to explore the subjective dispositions that subjects engage as they work. This emphasises the importance of habituated, embodied and emotional routines in performances of the occupational self, evaluated in part through an auto- ethnographic engagement. These practices take place under a labour market within which occupational performances accrue both symbolic and economic values. Public relations emerges as a limited extemporisation, a dynamic and relational social performance that both enacts and reproduces cultural and economic forms; a style of person doing a style of work. Within a study that is pluralised with regard to analysis and exploratory with regard to method, Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, field and capitals are adopted as an explanatory framework in order to provide 'accounts of the ways that practitioners . , embody their labour, experience it as a competed act, and exchange cultural values for economic ones. The study engages reflexively with the object of study, offering to account for practices and develop experiential and observational knowledge. The conceptual model that emerges is integrative; it offers a relational and dynamic view of the occupation, provides direction for future study, and re-interprets practices in ways in ways that illuminate the long standing question of conduct, in this form of cultural labour.

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Crude oil was discovered in 1956, in Bayelsa State in Nigeria. Expectations were high that this find would deliver socio-economic advancement of the entire Niger Delta region in which it is located. Instead, serious hostilities have arisen based on reactions to an unequal distribution of oil wealth, socio-economic depravation faced by large numbers of the population and gross environmental degradation. In the emerging crisis, government and the oil companies were pitched against communities who are resident in the oil producing areas. Government and the oil companies maintain that they have equitably utilized oil wealth to the benefit of all stakeholders. Those from the oil producing communities claim denial of their rights to land ownership, a pollution free environment, infrastructural development, and any oil related socio-economic dividends. This study explores the Niger Delta conflict through a focus on public relations (PR). It provides new insights into the nature of PR practices of government and oil companies in the region and their consequences for efforts to secure effective conflict resolution. The research draws its explanatory insights from a range of theoretical work in the disciplines of PR, communication, and sociology, built primarily around Excellence Theory which illuminates and advocates the two-way symmetrical model of interaction. Methodologically, the research utilizes stratified random and cluster sampling in conducting a survey of 400 respondents. The project also undertakes focus group research with 30 participants from three selected Niger Delta states. This thesis argues that that the PR of the government and oil companies have been underpinned by outmoded models of PR practice that do not represent the collective interest of the strategic stakeholders in Niger Delta oil wealth. These practices do not support effective peace-building and conflict processes. The explanatory model of this thesis points to a necessary adjustment in government and oil company PR practices in line with a two-way symmetrical theory which takes account of the interests of all Niger Delta oil resource stakeholders on an equitable basis.

This thesis conducts empirical examination of new factors influencing both real activities manipulation and investment efficiency based on the U.S. case, extending the extant literature exploring these issues as in response to the prevalence and the detrimental effects on firms’ future values of these two firm-level real actions. First, the thesis investigates the effect of corporate reputation as an external governance mechanism on real activities manipulation as managerial myopia, finding that there is a significantly negative relationship between corporate reputation ranking as disclosure and both real activities manipulation through sales, overproduction and discretionary expenditures and the two aggregate measures of real actions, and that corporate reputation really matters for the market response to real activities management as myopic behaviour. Second, the thesis examines the impact of media coverage on real activities management, finding that there is significantly negative association between the level of media coverage and both real earnings management through sales, overproduction and discretionary expenditures and the one aggregate measures of real actions; that positive news reduces real activities management through the three ways; and that the greater positive of news tone, the greater degree of reducing real earnings management. Third, the thesis explores how media coverage affects investment efficiency. It finds comprehensive and robust evidence that media coverage improves investment efficiency. Specifically, media coverage reduces information asymmetries, alleviates financial constraints, improves external monitoring, and, by doing so, facilitates project acceptance and abandonment. The effect of media coverage on investment efficiency is more pronounced for firms characterised by more severe information and agency problems, when firms depend on external financing, and when media reports contain original news about corporate fundamentals. These findings suggest that media coverage improves investment efficiency by mitigating information asymmetries and agency problems.

This thesis adds conceptual and practical value to the field of public affairs (PA). It connects scholarship from the fields of competencies, careers and knowledge, with the theory and practice of PA. The review of literature clearly demonstrated that a gap existed. This then provided a basis for a mixed methods study that enabled the creation of a model of contemporary UK PA practice; a PA knowledge architecture that supports practice; a conceptual PA competency typology on which a competency framework can be built; and an illustrative PA competency framework that reflects a twenty-first century profession. The study was guided by a critical realist worldview that suggests reality is complex and to understand any phenomena a broad a set of research instruments is necessary. The study, therefore, integrated qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative study consisted of 31 interviews with PA practitioners and those involved in policy making that allowed the gathering of rich data mirroring the complexity of work and policy construction. A survey of 50 practitioners also informed the study by helping to illuminate relationships and added greater depth. The research also integrated content analysis by reflecting on four competency frameworks against best practice scholarship to provide practical insights. Findings suggest an evolving field that combines both cohesion and diversity that can be integrated into an embryonic professional identity that reflects a broad set of agreed competencies and knowledge. This is shaped by postmodernist trends in identity and knowledge construction rather than that which mirrors the traditional concept of what defines a profession. Limitations relate to its scope: a UK focus. Further studies in different cultural and political settings need to be encouraged and perhaps longitudinal studies developed to look at the longer-term impact of whether a competency approach can lead to improved performance.