This thesis describes how and what Wattana-dharm Thai [Thai culture] has influenced Thai PR practice through the eyes of Thai PR managers and practitioners. It also provides some background information about the evolution of Thai PR practice to link to the current Thai PR practice. The study employs a qualitative paradigm with in-depth interviews as the main method. Documentary sources are mostly used as a supplement. This thesis provides detailed qualitative data describing how Thai public relations (PR) practitioners operate in Thailand both offline and online. The findings highlighted that Wattana-dharm Thai has a strong influence on Thai PR practice. There are eight main Wattana-dharm Thai aspects that influence Thai PR practice: 1) Relationship orientation (relationships in a Thai style including Bunkhun, Pen-Mitr, and Alum aluay relationships); 2) Community-based orientation; 3) Sanook orientation; 4) Hierarchical structure; 5) Buddhist orientation, 6) Monarchy institution respect; 7) Face and eyes in society; and 8) Form over the content. Thai PR practice has an emphasis on Saang Kwaampratabjai [impression building] through Wattana-dharm Thai. For example, historically, Thais accepted westerners because they did Saang Kwaampratabjai by bringing technology and development to the country. Thais have a positive attitude toward westerners because of this history of impression. Thai PR practitioners also try to use Saang Kwaampratabjai influence the public, such as journalists and opinion leaders by offering incentives altruistically (e.g. Namjai, Bunkhun, etc). Thai PR practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based on Buddhism and their respect of the monarchy. Thai PR place an importance on details of public’s personal information to instigate Saang Kwaampratabjai. For online PR, Thai PR use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support Saang Kwaampratabjai. It would appear that ICTs, in part, are used to promote company’s image rather than having any practical use. Hence, the core of Thai PR is how to practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based solely on personal and social relationship. This thesis aims to fill in the gaps in knowledge relating to PR and culture. It will make a contribution to the academic literature on culture and public relations, not only in the West but globally. This will also provide a framework for Thai PR practitioners to improve and develop their work. This thesis examines culture and PR through the lens of Thai terminology and discourse facilitated by a native inside-out view moderated by the distance obtained by leaving my country for a substantial proportion of the period of the study. This distance allowed me to re-consider many taken-for-granted aspects of my own culture, as well as allowing me to take on board other cultural perspectives available in a Western but international university. Thus this thesis is in part autobiographical, product of my research journey that allowed me to engage with a range of fundamental issues central to cross-cultural living such as hierarchy, religion, political and regal institutional frameworks, and gender.

This explorative study is a qualitative assessment of culture as a critical aspect of public relations practice in Puerto Rico. Reviewing definitions of culture, Hofstede's dimensions of cultural values, the Excellence Theory, and international case studies, this study sought to answer the following research questions: What national cultural traits have an impact on the practice of public relations in Puerto Rico? Do Puerto Rican practitioners feel their own cultural characteristics have an impact on their practice of public relations? Does the cultural diversity of Puerto Rico have an impact on public relations practice in that country? Does the country's strong relationship with the U.S. influence public relations practitioners to use Western-based public relations practices? Qualitative data was gathered through unstructured in-depth interviews, using a "culture bag" concept and storyboards to capture the practitioners' perspectives. In addition, quasi-ethnographic records in relation to public relations education, a local newspaper scan, and a website content analysis of public relations agencies were analyzed.The main themes found in the interviews included the political climate, a strong sense of Puerto Rican nationality, with tradition and family as key national cultural elements. National cultural traits identified during the interviews included having a participative, humanitarian and mostly homogeneous public; however, practitioners disagreed on whether these national characteristics truly affected their communications practices. Despite the disagreement of impact, practitioners reported that communications needs were very similar and geared to one overwhelming majority, rather than public-specific communications. Many noted the preferred communication style used emotional appeals targeted to the themes referenced above and viewed events as an ideal tactic for communications. Moreover, the U.S. Moreover, the U.S. influences in public relations education is notable as the university courses are taught in Spanish, but with English-written American textbooks. The theory discussed is mostly U.S. based. In addition, the lack of Puerto Rican authored literature and research is noted, and concern over licensing of practitioners was mentioned. The scan of local newspapers did not reveal many public relations issues. The website content analysis of local public relations agencies showed half of the websites as Puerto Rico specific and the prominent language used as English.

No description available.

M. Tech. Business Administration / Residents of the municipalities of Soshanguve, Mabopane and Winterveld townships in Tshwane have protested over poor municipal service delivery since 2008. Although attempts have been made by the three municipalities to address complaints made by residents, there are dissatisfactions among ordinary residents about poor service delivery. There are few studies conducted in this regard. The study was conducted in an attempt to identify and quantify factors that are known to affect the quality of municipal services in Soshanguve, Mabopane and Winterveld as a means of assessing and finding out if interventions carried out by local governments have resulted in positive outcomes. The key objective of study was to assess the quality of municipal services that are delivered to residents of Soshanguve, Mabopane and Winterveld municipalities with a view to identify the root causes of dissatisfaction and protests made by residents. The study places a particular emphasis on the delivery of water, power and sanitation services to residents living in Soshanguve, Mabopane and Winterveld.

This thesis introduces new theoretical models and concepts in support of strategic thinking about the dynamics and complexities of organisational relationship positioning that could improve public relations education and professional development linked to strategic management careers in international organisations. An exploration of public relations in the United Kingdom and Nigeria illustrates that there is a significant practice mainly concerned with communication that develops strategies and tactics in support of already established strategic organisational goals. Progress with professionalisation of the practice also shows an increasing need and want to operate at senior management levels, although it questions if the academic preparation to do so is adequate. Advances in communication technology and education approaches provide opportunities to better understand complex networks and relationships. The emphasis in this thesis is on strategic planning. Most frequently used tools and approaches are briefly discussed. They are mainly descriptive and often provide snapshots of current situations that can help with formulating a future desired situation. Most of these tools and approaches expand the brainstorming horizon providing opportunities for vertical (deeper) and horizontal (broader) thinking about organisational relationships. This thesis introduces additional models, namely the revised public relations catalyst model and the public relations lava lamp model, and concepts such as organisational personality that could be used to further the strategic thinking about the dynamics of such relationships. The new insights and perspectives on strategic planning presented here stem from qualitative explorative research based on observations and interpretations from applying strategic thinking exercises in seminars at the University of Central Lancashire, and from action research approaches by leading strategic planning and organisational change activities at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) which involved in-depth interviews, workgroup sessions and online questionnaires. Positioning of organisational relationships is an increasingly important function of strategic management in international organisations such as IITA. This is driven by pressure for more engagement, transparency and accountability by public investors and partners related to providing the essential resource base in terms of finance and implementation capacity essential for the organisation’s existence. Improving strategic planning competences relating organisational relationships not only provides opportunities for public relations practitioners to be part of senior management but also is essential for an organisation’s continuity and relevance. It was found that strategic thinking improves by stimulating both vertical and horizontal thinking about initial surface problems. Problem based learning approaches in public relations education should be considered as they can help prepare future practitioners to improve their strategic planning competences. Advances in communication technology have the potential to maintain and improve organisational relationships far beyond current organisational network boundaries and creates opportunities for advancing strategic thinking and planning. Logical framework planning and other problem-based tools can help to identify solutions for a central problem. However, they require the facilitation of planning teams with different personalities that are encouraged to think deeper and wider to ensure that alternative solutions are considered and that enough cause-effect relationships are established for strategic interventions to be successful. The use of the lava lamp metaphor also stimulates strategic thinking about the dynamics of organisational relationships aided by different perspectives that stimulate vertical and horizontal thinking. The concept of organisational personality has potential to identify which organisations would be potential collaborators in finding better solutions and help to understand potential relationship issues better.

No description available.

Abstract Title: An industry with a lacking trust – PR-consultants about their own responsibility and how they can contribute to an increased trust for their profession (En bransch med bristande förtroende – PR-konsulter om sitt eget ansvar och hur de själva kan bidra till ökat branschförtroende) Number of pages: 68 (79 including enclosures) Author: Ebba Göranzon Tutor: Göran Svensson Course: Media and Communication Studies D Period: Spring 2008 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Aim: The aim of this essay is to study the Swedish PR-industry and the distrust that is directed towards it. The starting point is different PR-consultants opinion about their profession and industry. What do they think needs to be done to increase the trust for the industry and what kind of responsibility do they think they have? Method/Material: Together with literature studies, a qualitative method has been used and five in-depth interviews with PR-consultants have been conducted. The persons interviewed all worked with questions concerning lobbying and influencing the public opinion, within Swedish PR-firms. Main Results: The main results show that the PR-consultants pay different attention to the factors of the model, in terms of what can be done for the trust for the industry and profession. They all think they have a responsibility in the trust question and name all sorts of things they could do to improve it. Keywords: Public Relations (PR), lobbying, influencing public opinion, trust

Turizmas – viena perspektyviausių ir stambiausių ekonomikos sričių pasaulyje. Jis apima vidutiniškai 7% bendrųjų investicijų, 11% vartojimo išlaidų, mokestinių pajamų, suteikia 350 mln. darbo vietų, jo dalis pasaulio bendrajame nacionaliniame produkte siekia 6%. Lietuvoje šiai sričiai taip pat suteikiama vis didesnė reikšmė: Lietuvos ūkio (ekonomikos) plėtros iki 2015 metų ilgalaikės strategijos tiksluose numatyta kurti Lietuvos, kaip patrauklios turizmo šalies, įvaizdį, atgaivinti kurortinį turizmą Palangoje, Druskininkuose, Birštone ir kitose vietovėse. Lietuva prognozuoja 2015 m. turizmo sektoriuje sukurti 8% šalies BVP ir gauti iš atvykstamojo turizmo per 17 mlrd. Lt pajamų. Todėl efektyvus turizmo sektoriaus pozicionavimas yra nacionalinės svarbos. Efektyvaus pozicionavimo kriterijų yra daug, tačiau dauguma iš jų remiasi komunikacija ir informacijos sklaida. Vertinant priemonių kompleksiškumą ir profesionalaus požiūrio į šio sektoriaus reprezentavimo svarbą, ryšiai su visuomene pagrįstai laikomi koordinuota ir efektyvia priemone, galinčia įgyvendinti reprezentacinius tikslus. Todėl aktualu bendroje turizmo plėtros strategijoje išanalizuoti ryšių su visuomene galimybes, lemiančias turizmo veiklą. Ryšių su visuomene įtaka turizmo sferai yra mažai tyrinėta. Nors turizmo plėtrai Lietuvoje ir Lietuvos, kaip turizmui patrauklios šalies, įvaizdžio formavimui skiriama vis daugiau dėmesio, tačiau mažai kalbama apie tai, kokią įtaką turizmo sferai gali daryti profesionali ryšių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Tourism is among the most perspective and largest sectors of economics in the world. It covers approximately 7% of total investments, 11% of consumer expenses and payable taxes. Tourism sector creates 350 million new jobs, and it covers 6 % of the gross national product. Tourism receives more and more attention in Lithuania as well: the long-term strategy of the Lithuanian Economy development plan until 2015 seeks to create Lithuanian image that represent Lithuania as a country attractive for tourism, it seeks to recover resort tourism development in Palanga, Druskininkai, Birštonas and in other areas. Lithuanian forecasts to create 8% of the gross national product and receive 17 billion of incomes from the inbound tourism in 2015. For the above, the effective tourism sector presentation has a national importance. Effective presentation has many criteria, however, most of them are based on communication and the spread of information. Taking in mind that these methods are very complex and thus professional approach to them is very important, public relations (PR) are reasonably considered as coordinated and effective method for representational aims. Thus it is very important to analyze the potential and possibilities of PR in the general tourism development strategy. The influence of PR on tourism sector has been fairly analyzed. Although tourism development and Lithuanian image in this sector receives more and more attention, little information is provided about the effect... [to full text]

Ryšiai su visuomene tampa neatsiejama verslo organizacijų dalimi, tačiau ne pelno organizacijoms, kartu ir religinėms, taip pat būtina juos taikyti savo veikloje. Lietuvoje kokybiški ryšiai su visuomene dar neturi gilių tradicijų, ypač paslaugų ir nevyriausybinių organizatorių sektoriuose. Lietuvos Katalikų Bažnyčia sekuliarėjančioje visuomenėje sunkiai atranda ryšį su visuomene. Kokybiška komunikacija yra vienas iš būdų, galinčių išspręsti šią problemą. Pasaulinė Katalikų Bažnyčia jau prieš kelis dešimtmečius suprato komunikacijos svarbą ir ėmėsi formuoti ryšių su visuomene politiką. Tam išleisti keli svarbūs, formuojamos ryšių su visuomene institucijos. Lietuvos Katalikų Bažnyčia dar tik pradeda kuruoti šią sritį, todėl apie aukštus pasiekimus dar anksti kalbėti. Darbe išanalizuotos pagrindines Lietuvos Katalikų Bažnyčios komunikacines veiklas. Analizės rezultatai parodė, kad Lietuvos Katalikų Bažnyčia ryšius su visuomene vykdo dviejuose lygmenyse – nacionaliniame ir parapijos. Tačiau nė vienas iš jų dar nėra deramai kuruojamas. Didžiausia problema yra tai, kad vis dar nesuformuotas nacionalinis pastoracinis komunikacijos planas, todėl ši veikla vykdoma padrikai ir nenuosekliai. Norėdama tapti paveikia šiandieninės visuomenės dalimi Lietuvos Katalikų Bažnyčia turi reorganizuoti dabartines intencijas ir sutelkti dėmesį į jų novatoriškumą ir efektyvumą. / Although communication is a method, which is most widely used by business organizations, public, political and even religious organizations apply it as well. Lithuania still feels the lack of public relations knowledge, especially in service companies or organizations not connected with profit-making. The Catholic Church of Lithuania encounters quite a lot of problems, which might be solved applying the knowledge of communication and public relations. Although Roman Catholic Church has already formed basics of communication policy by announcing several decrees concerning this field, it is still estimated too insufficiently in Lithuania. Therefore, the Catholic Church of Lithuania is starting to realize necessity of communication in today’s secular society. I have carried out the analysis of the public relations activities of the Catholic Church of Lithuania. The results of the analysis showed that there are two main levels of public communication in Lithuania – the national one and the congregational one, but none of them is carried proper. The Catholic Church of Lithuania has to form individual pastoral plan of communication and reorganize existing implements – make them more innovative and effective in order to reach audience and do an impact on it.

The Thesis deals with the question of competitive advantage of the public relations agencies in Lithuania. The aim of the study is to find the factors that influence competitive advantage of the PR agencies in Lithuania. The other major objective of the work is try to identify the reasons of long term successful or unsuccessful performance of participants of analyzed industry. The analysis of literature on subject of CA and personal professional experience of the author of this work influenced a choice of theoretical Resource based view (J. Barney) model as dominating theoretical background of research model. Though the academic thrust of Industrial Organization (I/O) literature is not rejected, but complements the empirical research with analyses of the strategies (generic strategies of M. Porter) of CA within the industry of PR in Lithuania. The public relations industry in Lithuania is relatively very young – less than 2 decades of age. The actual size of public relations industry cannot be estimated as not all of the PR agencies provide their financial results, still, the official size of the industry is of 23 agencies, making overall yearly turnover of around 100 m. Lt (“Verslo žinios“, 2009). The projects funded from the EU structural funds and the turn of the big local companies to towards corporate social responsibility are among the main reasons of growth. The empirical research has opened, that competence of personnel (human capital) and the know-how of the... [to full text] / Magistriniame darbe nagrinėjamas Lietuvos viešųjų ryšių agentūrų konkurencinio pranašumo klausimas. Kitas svarbus darbo tikslas yra pabandyti nustatyti ilguoju laikotarpiu sėkmingo ar nesėkmingo agentūros darbo priežastis. Konkurencinio pranašumo dalyko literatūros analizė ir darbo autoriaus asmeninė profesinė patirtis lėmė Ištekliais paremto požiūrio (Resource based view (J. Barney) naudojimą, kaip tyrimo modelio pagrindą. Tačiau akademinė Industrinės organizacijos (Indutrial Organization (M. Porter) kryptis nėra atmetama, o papildo tyrimo modelį bendrųjų konkurencinio pranašumo strategijų (Generic strategies) analize Lietuvos viešųjų ryšių rinkoje. Apibūdinant Lietuvos ryšių su visuomenę industriją, reikia paminėti, kad ji yra santykinai labai jauna – jaunesnė nei 20 metų. Tikrasis jos dydis taip pat yra sunkiai nustatomas, kadangi ne visos agentūros teikia savo finansinius duomenis „Verslo žinių“ metiniams sąvadams, tačiau, remiantis jais, rinkoje 2008 metais dirbo 23 agentūros, o bendra agentūrų apyvarta sudarė apie 100 mln. Lt. Iš ES struktūrinių fondų finansuojami projektai ir didelių įmonių atsigręžimas į socialinės atsakomybės sritį buvo laikomi rinkos augimo varikliais. Empirinis tyrimas atskleidė, kad personalo kompetencija (žmogiškieji resursai) ir agentūros know-how (žinios) yra pagrindiniai viešųjų ryšių agentūrų konkurencinio pranašumo šaltiniai. Trečiasis pagal svarbą faktorius išsiskyrė tarp didžiųjų ir mažųjų agentūrų. Rinkos lyderiai sėkmės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]