Chief executives (CEOs) and other senior managers do not seem to be satisfied with the performance of their corporate communication managers/practitioners. Perceptions are that practitioners fail to assume broad decision making roles in organisations. They seem to be unable to see the big picture or understand the key issues in their industry -- their thinking is tactical, rather than strategic. Practitioners are focused on their own activities and media, on the achievement of communication goals and objectives -- without necessarily linking them to business goals. There appears to be a lack of understanding between top management and the corporate communication function on the latter's role in the strategic management process. This situation might be the result of a lack of strategic management and strategic communication knowledge and skills amongst corporate communication managers, possibly caused by insufficient training in these areas (Groenewald 1998a). The research objectives addressed by this study are the following: Firstly, to conceptualise a strategic role for the corporate communication practitioner at the top management level of the organisation (the role of the PR strategist). This is done by investigating the strategic management literature to determine whether a need exists at the top management level to play a strategic role. The behavioural activities of such a role were identified both from the public relations and the strategic management literature. Secondly, to conceptualise corporate communication strategy as an activity of a corporate communication practitioner in the role of the PR manager, a strategic role at the functional or meso level of the organisation. Furthermore, to differentiate a corporate communication strategy from a communication plan. Thirdly, to hypothesise a model for developing corporate communication strategyand thereafter to implement, evaluate and improve the model by assessing and comparing the corporate communication strategy projects of third year corporate communication students at the University of Pretoria, as partners in the action research process. The research approach selected is qualitative research -- an exploratory design is employed in achieving the first three objectives by means of a literature investigation. A confirmatory design is used for the implementation, evaluation and improvement of the model through the methodology of action research. In implementing, evaluating and revising the hypothesised model, this study moves away from the traditional teacher-centred approach in the classroom to a situation where students are involved in a research inquiry to build theory. At the same time, the participant community (non-profit organisations in this case) is exposed to strategic communication knowledge. They are involved in a process whereby they become active participants (together with the students and the lecturer/researcher) in developing corporate communication strategy for their organisations. The results are twofold: firstly, staff members of the non-profit organisation (as well as the students) acquire strategic communication skills; and secondly, the researcher investigates a new area of interest, builds theory, and facilitates a learning process for students whereby they obtain experience and knowledge that is applicable to practice. In conceptualising both a new role for the corporate communication practitioner at the top management level (the role of the PR strategist), and proposing corporate communication strategy as the link between the communication plan and the corporate strategy, an attempt is made to provide possible solutions to important problems in practice. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2000. / gm2013 / Communication Management / Unrestricted

Title: Possibilities of sponsorship activation during motorsports event Objectives: The aim of this thesis is to create model projects of sponsorship activation during motorsports event. Methods: Model projects of sponsorship activation were processed on the basis of structured interviews with managers of sponsoring companies, on the case study of researches of motorsport and on the basis of the analysis of secondary data from documents referring to motorsport. Results: Results of researches provided basis data for creation of the model projects of sponsorship activation for sponsoring companies of rally. These basis date are: conditions for sponsorship in rally, characteristics of sponsoring companies, sponsorship offers, channels for sponsorship, target groups and goals of sponsoring companies. Model projects were processed on existing strategies for sponsorship activation. Keywords: Rally, marketing and communications goals of companies, sponsorship, advertising.

本文研究者採取合作原則與符擔性理論的觀點，以在台灣特有的徵兵制度下形成的「站崗的女人」版面為田野，探究其使用者面對衝突事件時採取高度合作溝通行為的原因，其中特別關注在使用者最後決定採取高度合作溝通行為之前，她們如何思考自己與環境（社群／介面）以及她們與其他社群成員的關係。研究發現，「站崗的女人」版成員面對衝突時，並不尋求長足的討論並推衍出結論以解決該衝突凸顯的問題，而是採取情感取向的方式，求急切、快速地平息衝突；採取此溝通模式的過程中，她們透過文章與推文的文字感知到社群的溫馨氛圍，並修正自身的溝通方式，集體追求在短時間內平抑衝突以確保個人層次與社群層次溝通目的的存續。本研究並且發現，在她們的思考過程中，人際的因素比介面的物理因素影響其溝通行為更甚。 / This research aimed at taking an affordance perspective on the collective cooperative communication behavior of members of the GFonGuard discussion board amid conflicts in one of Taiwan’s most popular bulletin board systems (BBS). The researcher was most interested in the reasons behind the conflict tackling mode of members of the GFonGuard – an online community whose spaciotemporal peculiarity results from Taiwan’s compulsory military service – and how members of the community deliberate over their relations with the community/text-only medium and with other participants of the communication while deciding on how to tackle conflicts. The research found that members of the community sought to immediately quell the conflicts instead of seeking a lengthy discussion and a final resolution to the problems the conflicts highlighted. Throughout the deliberation process, the members perceived an amicable atmosphere via the choice of words and tone of articles on the discussion board. They modified their own communication style and pursued immediate appeasement of conflicts in an attempt to ensure the survival of their communication goals on the individual and community levels. The research also found that they were more concerned about “interpersonal” factors than about “medium” factors during their deliberation.

When judging interpersonal aggression, witnesses are usually expected to rationally consider, based on the evidence they have, what another reasonable person could (or should) have thought, known and done. However their analysis may be affected by judgment biases and personal motivations. These evaluative and retrospective biases, as well as the ascription of blame, are the main interests of this research. More specifically, we investigated the consequences of witnesses being prone to the hindsight bias, which is a common bias that gives individuals the feeling that they would have been able to predict past events, what in fact, is not the case. This process may have important effects on the victim, who “should have known” that an aggression would happen to him/her. In this dissertation, we examine the moderators of this bias and the role of the communication context in which it develops. We hypothesized that the communication context might affect the perspective that is taken on the event of interpersonal aggression and the perceived distance towards it. Also, we expected that the hindsight bias and victim blame would be decreased when reducing the psychological distance towards the event (i.e. perceived temporal distance and perceived proximity with the victim’s fate). In a same vein, we expected that the aggressor would be more derogated in this condition. The first four studies were designed to investigate the role of communication goals about the aggression. Asking participants to describe how (vs. why) the aggression happened was expected to diminish the perceived distance. The following study (study 5) examined whether reporting the event in the passive voice (vs. active voice) would have a similar effect. The four last studies investigated how the time of presenting the event (before vs. after its antecedents) would influence the perception of distance towards the events and the judgments. We expected that knowing the outcome initially might reduce the perceived distance with the events. Results of the first five studies confirmed the main hypotheses: the communication context that focused on the “how” of the event or that presented it in the passive voice reduced the perceived distance and diminished the predictability of the aggression and victim derogation. It also increases the derogation of the aggressor. In addition, the latter studies revealed that learning about the outcome right away leads to reduced derogation of the perpetrator and increased derogation of the victim, even when reducing the perceived distance with the event. Overall, this research suggests that the communication context in which the hindsight bias emerges, as well as the perceived distance with the negative event, are important factors when examining the retrospective reasoning and judgments of witnesses.<p><p><p><p><p>Lorsque les témoins jugent une agression interpersonnelle, il est généralement attendu d’eux qu’ils considèrent rationnellement ce qu’une personne raisonnable aurait pu penser, savoir et faire dans pareille situation, et ce en se fondant uniquement sur les preuves qui leur sont fournies. Il n’en reste pas moins que leur analyse sera toutefois tronquée par des biais de jugement et des motivations personnelles. C’est pourquoi la détermination du blâme et l’influence des déformations rétrospectives et évaluatives sont au cœur de cette recherche. Ainsi, nous investiguons plus particulièrement le biais de rétrospection, à savoir l’erreur commune qui laisse à l’individu penser qu’il est en mesure de prévoir n’importe quel événement, alors qu’en réalité, il n’en est rien. Une telle erreur peut cependant avoir de graves conséquences pour la victime dès lors que les témoins sont amenés à croire qu’elle aurait « dû » prévoir ce qui allait survenir. Dans cette thèse, nous envisageons également les modérateurs de ce biais, dont le rôle du contexte communicationnel. Nous avons, dès lors, fait l’hypothèse que le contexte communicationnel pourrait affecter l’angle sous lequel les témoins considèrent l’événement et la distance perçue par rapport à celui-ci. Ce faisant, nous pensions que le biais de rétrospection et le blâme de la victime seraient réduits lorsque le contexte diminuait la distance perçue vis-à-vis de l’événement (en l’occurrence, la distance temporelle et la proximité perçue avec le sort de la victime). De même, il était attendu que l’agresseur soit davantage blâmé dans pareille condition. Les quatre premières études s’intéressaient donc au rôle des buts poursuivis lors de la communication à propos de l’agression, afin d’envisager en quoi décrire comment (vs. pourquoi) l’agression s’était produite aidait à réduire la distance perçue. Une cinquième étude nous a ensuite permis de considérer si la voix passive (versus active) avait aussi un effet similaire. Quant aux quatre dernières études, elles avaient pour objectif d’investiguer dans quelle mesure l’ordre de présentation des informations (connaître la fin avant, vs. après les antécédents) pouvait avoir également une incidence sur la prise de distance par rapport à l’événement et aux jugements. Plus précisément, nous faisions l’hypothèse que connaître l’événement en premier lieu (avant ses antécédents) facilitait la réduction de la distance perçue. Les résultats obtenus dans les cinq premières recherches semblaient confirmer nos hypothèses :Un contexte communicationnel qui réduisait la distance psychologique perçue par rapport à l’événement pouvait non seulement diminuer le biais de rétrospection et le blâme de la victime, mais augmenter aussi le blâme de l’agresseur. Toutefois, les dernières recherches ont semblé démontrer, a contrario, que connaître l’agression en premier lieu pouvait réduire le blâme de l’agresseur et augmenter celui de la victime, alors même que la distance perçue avec les événements était réduite. In fine, ce travail suggère donc que le contexte communicationnel, dans lequel le biais émerge, et la prise de distance face à l’événement négatif sont autant de pistes qu’il faudrait creuser à l’avenir pour mieux comprendre le raisonnement et les jugements rétrospectifs des témoins. / Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished