Global Public Relations
2
Introduction
Globalization has been discussed for more than three decades and has changed the way we live and
think. Now it is a part of our everyday life whether we intend it to be or not. Public relations is not an
exception to this change. Globalization has become usual in public relations; no more is it a new topic of
study. As businesses have become globalized, they have forced public relations to face many problems
and opportunities at the same time. Furthermore, for practitioners in public relations firms, globalization
has brought new categories of clients: multinational corporations with active international operations
and clients from outside of the home country. In the same way as people in other industries, public
relations professionals have come to have a network of colleagues and partners from all over the world.
Most major public relations firms have become multinational organizations themselves; they have
worldwide operations as well as international affiliates.
As the concept of globalization has become more general, it has drawn the interest of many scholars
and professionals. The 1990s saw many articles and publications about global or international public
relations. Accepting globalization as an inevitable part of change, both researchers and practitioners
showed interest in and raised questions about its future impact, which in turn raised active discussions
about the most appropriate management of public relations in international settings. No consensus has
yet been reached. Although some researchers have examined the way public relations was practiced in
various countries at an organizational level and many professionals have written articles about “the best
ways” to do it, not many researchers have explored what those international public relations
professionals think and say about the job. Despite the growth of international public relations, a majority
of studies and most literature still focus on descriptive, comparative analyses of public relations
practices in different countries or anecdotal lessons based on authors’ business experiences (Wakefield,
1997). Only a few scholars have sought norms and models for optimization or have discussed principles
of public relations that would be globally applicable (J. Grunig, L. Grunig, Sriramesh, Huang, & Lyra,
1995).
Convention