Search

Professional learning is complex and is the result of a mix of experiences made in academic and workplace settings. An interesting step in the learning trajectories of professionals is represented by internship. Interns have to engage in boundary crossing when connecting academic learning with professional practices. An interesting issue to explore concerns the experiences of undergraduate interns when they encounter challenges in workplaces. Drawing upon Dewey's notion of experience to examine internship learning, this article focuses on the role of sociomateriality when neophytes--interns--enter the workplace. Analysing semi-structured interviews with undergraduates (N = 38) performing their internship at the public relations and communication industry where internship is not an established practice, we present three findings. First, materiality of work activity plays a central role in organizing learning for interns at the workplace. Second, interns report networking at the workplace for convergence of work objectives which in turn provides opportunities and constraints for learning about the logic of workplace activities. Finally, interns report balancing between different identities during internship practice in order to direct their participatory efforts within the complex workplace organization. The value of internship learning calls for agency from the learners while considering the implications for the workplace organisations where learning experiences are located. Finally, we bring attention to the role of the workplace supervisors and faculty members in the development of professional learning in such complex professional learning settings.

A unique pedagogical challenge is presented in the form of a concentrated 400-level introductory public relations course that meets for a total of 15 lessons of 2.5 hours each. The instructor details the benefits of active learning in the classroom, as well as how the use of team projects helps bring real-world examples and hands-on experience of public relations research, planning, communication and evaluation into a classroom of upperclassmen and -women who, through this course, are gaining an introduction to a field they may consider for graduate study, internships or future employment. Rationale for the use of such projects are discussed, including benefits of active learning, appealing to the millennial generation, "real-world" application beyond a textbook, enhancing students' autonomy in the classroom, and the importance of working in a team. Each project is outlined in terms of its methodology, aspects of student autonomy, objective and analysis. Conclusions and implications are discussed.

Public relations learning and teaching scholarship has been largely silent, to date, about international study tours as classroom-extending pedagogical initiatives. We address this gap in the literature by discussing two recent international tours built into a Master of Professional Public Relations degree. Melbourne, London and Singapore were the destinations of the first tour, while Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Singapore were the stops on the second. We use autoethnography to give voice to our experiences - including challenges and successes - as the study tour coordinators. We argue that such tours play an important role in helping students appreciate the wider factors that impact diverse public relations practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts the Circuit of Culture (COC) – an interpretive approach to international public relations practice based on its five moments (i.e., regulations, production, representations, consumption and identity) – as a guiding framework to analyze corporate social responsibility discourses of Wilmar, a multinational corporation based in Singapore. Sustainability reports from 2009 to 2019 were first accessed to examine the negotiation dynamics that occur in textual discourse when the company dealt with the talk-action relationship through the Communication as Constitutive of Organization (CCO) approach. These were integrated with the contextual propositions nurtured in the five moments of COC to identify the negotiating mechanisms that Wilmar constructed to make sense of, explain, and justify tensional situations between set commitments and actual performance. This study aims to demonstrate how CCO can complement COC to offer a holistic interpretive approach to understand the situated communication dynamics and discursive construction process of talk-action relationship in an international public relations context. • Provided empirical discourse to illustrate the negotiation dynamics of handling talk-action relationship. • Identified the tension mechanisms to exemplify and interpret interactions between the five moments. • Offered a holistic interpretative CSR framework to suggest how CCO can complement COC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to understand the role of cultural values in influencing public relations practice in Singapore. Given that Singapore exhibits a hybrid of cultures, it purposes to comprehend how multiculturalism is operationalized and to uncover if the values that have a greater influence on organizational communication resemble those in individualistic or collectivistic societies. Using Gudykunst’s (1998) seven dimensions that influence individualism-collectivism on communication as a guide, this study interviewed 20 public relations practitioners in Singapore. Our findings showed that although the patterns expressed is slightly more consistent with those found in collectivistic cultures, it does not resemble collectivism in entirety. Multiculturalism in Singapore displays a blend of certain cultural hybridity, which is aligned with it being a multicultural cosmopolitan city that embodies Western modernity while retaining its Asian values. Our findings further reinforced the idea that public relations professionals need to be multicultural themselves to effectively communicate with culturally diverse stakeholders in today’s globalizing era of multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents representations of the nation by a group of at-risk youth residing in welfare homes. These co-constructions of what it means to live in Singapore and what it means to be a citizen in that country were part of a research project to answer the call by critical political observers in Singapore to expand the space for ideas and perspectives regarding Singapore other than those from the governing elite. Led by a critical culture sensibility for theorising from below, the author spoke with 25 teenagers from troubled backgrounds, and analysed and interpreted the conversations using constructivist grounded theory. Fourteen categories emerged from the corpus, with negotiating becoming the core category articulating all 14 categories, and accounting for the dialectical relations amongst the categories as well as the discontinuities between the categories and the dominant nation building narrative as embodied in the Singapore Story . The core category instantiates the discursive empowerment of the youth. The suggestion is to open up discursive spaces for marginalised voices. Public relations, in its capacity for listening and co-construction, can play a nation building role that goes beyond managing information campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Global models in the theory and practice of public relations tend toward hegemony and simplification. [•] The UK and Singapore are exemplars where hegemony has arguably succeeded and where it needs to be resisted, respectively. [•] Theoretical diversity is required to reflect the complexity of globalization. [•] Epistemological and practical subsidiarity can and should lead the way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: By most accounts, crisis preparedness in organizations globally has been appalling (Burnett, 1998; Pinsdorf, 1991). The situation is no different in Singapore (Wu & Dai, 2001). With crisis expertise often lacking from within organizations, many resort to engaging public relations (PR) agencies to help. This study, which is inspired by Frandsen and Johansen''s (2008) study in Denmark, aims to evaluate the contributions of consultants from PR agencies. Adapting indicators to assess professionalism proposed by Lages and Simkin (2003) and Sallot, Cameron and Lariscy (1997) and integrating them with variables from the contingency theory (Pang, Jin, & Cameron, 2010), this study seeks to examine: (1) the level of expertise of consultants in offering crisis management consultancy; (2) the level of experience of consultants offering crisis management consultancy; and (3) the value and expedience of the consultancy services offered. Findings showed that agencies in Singapore hired consultants based on skills such as writing, speaking and ability to manage the media. For some, lack of direct experience was compensated by in-house training. International agencies appeared to have an advantage over the local agencies by virtue of their access to expertise and knowledge from their international network. However, as the majority of agencies had only managed few crises, it was difficult to assess the value these consultants added. Studies examining consultants in PR agencies are rare. It is hoped this study would trigger research around the world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study investigates public relations practitioner perceptions of intercultural competence i.e. the skills required in an increasingly globalized world. The findings, drawn from analysis of interviews with seventeen practitioners in two cities in Australasia, reveal intercultural competence is perceived as integral to public relations practise, regardless of whether the public relations activity occurs across national borders. Although practitioners value personal attributes such as openness and adaptability, the findings suggests that practitioners require intercultural competence, as procedural knowledge i.e. of specific cultures and as conceptual knowledge i.e. a reflexive and dynamic understanding of culture. More research is needed to understand the relationship between culture and public relations, and industry expectations regarding intercultural competence in an era of globalization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Public relations educators delivering courses to international students find that each cohort of students interprets and understands public relations theory and its application to practice according to their respective cultures. The premise of this paper is to reflect on some of the interpretations and expectations of public relations students enrolled in postgraduate master classes from 2003 to 2007 in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia, at the University of South Australia. The Australian masters' classes include cohorts of international students from diverse cultures. This paper suggests that public relations educators need to adapt their style of delivery and methods of assessment to facilitate optimum engagement of diverse groups of students taking account their varied political, religious and social backgrounds that shape their thinking and perception of public relations theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on public relations in the Singapore bureaucracy. Public relations has been defined as 'an organized effort to communicate information and to modify attitudes and behavior on behalf of a client or a cause.' The concept of public relations, as it is commonly understood today, was first introduced in 1897 in the American Year-book of Railway Literature. Since then, public relations has been systematically developed and refined as a tool of management. The importance of public relations today has never been doubted. Modern organizations have to deal with a large number of public, ranging from their own employees to specific interest groups. In a sense, public relations is primarily concerned with the problems of legitimizing the organization in the environment thereby ensuring that the latter and its objectives would be accepted by the different sets of public or clientele groups. With the growing differentiation of managerial skills required at the decision-making level, policy formulators have increasingly relied on public relations officers to assess clientele responses and demands.