Korn Ferry explored how corporate leaders in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) have evolved during the COVID-19 crisis.Interviews were conducted with over 70 CEOs from across the APAC region from Sept. 2021 – July 2022.Key Findings:1.) The most common themes from the conversations with CEOs were about:— Making bold decisions quickly— Communicating more often and with more honesty— Leading with humility and empathy2.) 23% of the CEOs talked about how their mindset and view of the world evolved during the COVID-19 outbreak, with some leaders stating they took the time to ask themselves fundamental existential questions.3.) Of the 41 CEOs who spoke about leading through the pandemic, 17% explicitly stated that they have expanded their leadership repertoire during the crisis.4.) Of the 53 CEOs who discussed lessons from the pandemic, nearly 23% spoke about digital transformation—one of the most significant changes seen by companies during the pandemic.— Companies lagging in enhancing their digital profile soon found themselves scrambling to operate in a digital-only world.Find the original report here. ...

This summary is provided by the IPR ESG and Purpose Research Library.Deloitte examined how organizations and the global economy can continue to grow while reaching climate goals and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.A survey of 2,016 CxOs (C-level executives) was conducted by KS&R Inc. and Deloitte from Sept. – Oct. 2022.Key findings include:1.) 61% of C-level executives said climate change would have a “high” or “very high” impact on their organization’s strategy and operations over the next three years.2.) 75% as CxOs said their organizations had increased their sustainability investments over the past year, nearly 20% of whom said they’ve increased investments significantly.3.) More than half of CxOs said employee activism on climate matters has led their organizations to increase sustainability actions over the last year—24% of which said it led to a significant increase.4.) While companies are taking action, it is less likely they are implementing actions that demonstrate they have embedded climate considerations into their cultures to effect meaningful transformations.— Only 29% of CxOs said they believe the private sector is “very” serious about addressing climate change.Find the original report here. ...

This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center based on the original study.Dr. DaJung Woo and colleagues examined how remote workers communicate with one another to navigate uncertainty in the workplace. This is particularly relevant considering COVID-19 and the increasing rise of remote employees who may not have pre-established relationships that were forged in person before beginning their remote tenure. This type of newcomer socialization occurs so employees can learn more about their role in the organization and accrue organizational knowledge, especially in light of organizational turbulence or unknowns. The authors sought to explore how newcomers engage in information-seeking behaviors remotely to manage or mitigate emotional uncertainty, particularly during the early onset of the pandemic.In order to explore this issue, in-depth interviews with 30 participants were conducted with individuals who began new positions between late February through November of 2020.Key Findings1.) Employees who sought information were mostly curious and reported uncertainty regarding workplace relationships and the hesitation to reach out to coworkers who do not know them personally for organizational assistance.2.) Employees working remotely mostly organized virtual small groups or talks to get to know one another.— This was done intentionally and proactively to mimic casual conversations.3.) Employees also engaged in unsanctioned in-person meetups to get to know their fellow coworkers.4.) Participants in the interviews reported feeling uncertain about their roles and organizational norms and sought information and relationships with fellow employees to help reduce that uncertainty.5.) Participants reported success in asking their coworkers virtually for help in a direct manner to help better understand their role or be coached through a challenge.— Impersonal digital tools, such as social media or intranets, also provided an additional way to seek information and gain role-specific and organizational knowledge.Implications for PracticeEmployers should remember remote employees need additional up-front information about the organization as well as increased access to social and relational opportunities with their peers to assist with alleviating their uncertainty, increasing the efficacy of onboarding, and increasing feelings of belonging. Additionally, employers should consider proactively maintaining and creating digital spaces such as digital intranets or online social networks where employees can casually converse with one another and get a stronger feel for the organizational culture as well as become familiar with members of the organization.Woo, D., Endacott, C. G., & Myers, K. K. (2022). Navigating Water Cooler Talks Without the Water Cooler: Uncertainty and Information Seeking During Remote Socialization. Management Communication Quarterly, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/08933189221105916 ...

 This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center based on the original study.Dr. Weiting Tao and colleagues examined how workplace dialogic communication about COVID-19 vaccination influenced employees’ intention to advocate for the vaccine to people in their personal and professional networks. Workplace dialogic communication requires open exchange of information, thoughts, and feelings between employees and managers. To be dialogic, employees and managers show mutual respect and understanding of each other’s viewpoints and engage in open, honest, and ethical communication. A survey of 505 full-time employees working across various industries in the United States was conducted in July 2021. Key Findings— The more dialogic an organization was in communicating COVID-19 vaccination with its employees, the more supportive the organization was perceived in supporting employees’ vaccination and related concerns.— The more dialogic an organization was in communicating COVID-19 vaccination with its employees, the more positive emotions and less negative emotions that the employee felt about getting vaccinated. — Perceived organizational support for employee vaccination was found to promote positive emotions and reduce negative emotions among employees regarding vaccination.— An increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions about COVID-19 vaccination likely enhanced employees’ intention to advocate for the vaccination within and outside their workplace. Implications for PracticeOrganizations are encouraged to engage in open, honest, and ethical dialogues and conversations with employees when making decisions and implementing policies related to COVID-19 vaccination. They should encourage employees to freely voice their thoughts and concerns regarding the vaccination and actively respond to and address those diverse viewpoints with respect and empathy. Such dialogic communication is likely helpful in motivating employees to be ambassadors and advocates for their organizations’ vaccination initiatives and thus promote workplace health. Learn how to practice workplace dialogic communication to promote employee vaccine advocacy during pandemics Tao, W., Lee, Y., Li, J. Y., & He, M. (2022). How dialogic vaccine communication in the workplace facilitates employee advocacy for COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Journal of Public Relations Research. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2022.2150624 ...

This summary is provided by the IPR Center for Diversity, Equity, and InclusionThe Harris Poll and U.S. News and World Report examined Americans’ views on equity, discrimination, and how businesses have addressed these issues.An online survey of 4,085 U.S. adults was conducted from Oct. 21-30, 2022.Key findings include:— 64% of all adults disagreed with the statement that “workplace discrimination is not a problem in the U.S.”— Only about one-fifth to one-quarter of respondents thought companies had put in a “very good effort” over the past two years to advance racial equity through increasing awareness about racial bias and microaggressions, recruiting and retaining minority talent, minimizing pay disparities, or increasing racial diversity in managerial or other leadership roles.— The institutions most trusted to make changes in advancing equity were small businesses (76%), nonprofit organizations (72%), educational entities (66%), and healthcare entities (63%).Learn how Americans expect businesses to help advance equity ...

This summary is provided by the IPR Digital Media Research CenterPew Research Center examined Americans’ use of alternative social media sites — BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Rumble, Telegram, and Truth Social — and the type of content on the sites.A multi-method research approach was used, including a survey of 10,188 U.S. adults on May 16-22, 2022 and content analyses of over 500,000 posts on the sites in June 2022.Key findings include:— 6% of respondents said they “regularly get news” from at least one of the seven sites studied.— 65% of alternative social media news consumers said they “have found a community” of people that share their views.— 26% of prominent alternative social media accounts appeal to right-leaning/Trump supporting views.— 21% appeal to patriotism/pro-America views.— 21% appeal to religious identity views.— Most of the alternative social media sites in the study moderate their content to some extent.— Six of the seven sites studied have moderated content.— Two of the seven sites studied have group or channel administrators that can moderate content.Learn how Americans use alternative social media sites ...

Morning Consult and Politico examined US voters’ views on law enforcement violence in 2023.A survey of 1,977 registered voters was conducted Jan. 27-29, 2023.Key findings include:1.) 3-in-4 voters surveyed said police violence against the public is a “very” or “somewhat” serious problem in the United States.— This figure was 73% in June 2020.2.) A majority of Republican voters (56%) see police violence against the public as a problem, higher than in June 2020 or in May 2021.— 89% of Democrats shared this sentiment.3.) Roughly 3-in-5 voters (62%) said police violence against Black people is widespread and common, compared to 38% who said it is rare.4.) There is a partisan divide regarding police brutality: 84% of Democrats said law enforcement brutality is a “regular occurrence” compared to 62% of Republicans who said it is “infrequent.”Find the original report here.  ...

This summary is provided by the IPR ESG & Purpose Research Library.Deloitte examined how ethical principles are currently being applied to emerging technology.A survey of 1,794 business and technical professionals actively involved in either developing, managing, or consuming emerging technologies was conducted.Key findings include:1.) 87% of respondents said that, with the exception of cognitive technologies (e.g., AI), their company does not have or is unsure if they do have specific ethical principles governing emerging technology.2.) Even for companies that have broad ethical principles for emerging technology, only 47% of respondents said their company updates those principles at least annually.3.) 79% of respondents said that their company’s ethical standards were shared by their leadership, while far fewer said they were shared by mid-level managers (11%) and individual employees (5%).4.) 89% of respondents said they buy into executive messaging on ethics, though the numbers differ by generation.— 93% of Baby Boomers— 90% of Generation X— 85% of Millennials5.) When new principles emerge, companies should try to understand why and appropriately incorporate or at least acknowledge these changes to show that they are listening.Find the original report here. ...

This blog is provided by the IPR Measurement Commission based on the original blog published by PR AcademyIn the preface of his latest and final book in the Using Data Better trilogy, Sam Knowles admits that he ‘wrote the books in the wrong order’. He states the ‘unsynchronous chronology’ of starting with data storytelling in Narrative By Numbers (NbN, 2018), then exploring the paths to true data-driven insights in How To Be Insightful (HTBI, 2020[1]), before getting to the principle at the heart of it all: Asking Smarter Questions (ASQ, published last month and dated 2023).What matters much more than the order, however, are the recurring themes that thread together the three books to a trilogy about powerful purposeful organisational storytelling: about asking the right questions to get to the right insights that help tell the right stories.A disclaimer: as Sam is a friend, a former colleague, and with Neville Hobson my co-presenter at the SmallDataForum podcast, I’m likely to be more familiar with his thinking (not least thinking about thinking), than most readers of this review. Hopefully, you’ll trust me that that’s a good thing, and has not clouded my judgement.A classicist (more Greco than Roman in his own view) and behavioural psychologist with decades in the ‘moving business’[2], Sam’s interests and curiosity are wide-ranging and eclectic. In ASQ, he discusses the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein’s ‘epistemophilic instinct’ – a constant search for knowledge and desire to connect dots – and throughout all three of his books, we get the perspectives of fellow epistemophiliacs from a wide range of fields. These voices – from Nobel Prize-winning science to policing to Zen Buddhism – provide strong proof points for the core argument: that smarter questions stimulate more useful answers. The summaries at the end of each interview section provide an equally diverse, and concordant set of top tips.ASQ is a very personal book, as were its two predecessors in the Using Data Better trilogy. Sam’s style of thinking about thinking always links personal and professional experience and reflection to arrive at genuine human insights. If you’re in the ‘moving business’, that’s what you should always strive for.What, then, are the key ingredients to Using Data Better? ASQ revisits the ‘golden rules of storytelling’ outlined in NbN:Keep it simpleFind and use relevant dataAvoid false positives (…and spurious correlations…)Beware the curse of knowledgeKnow your audienceTalk humanIt also recalls the four stages of getting to insights – “profound and useful understandings of people, issues, topics or things”, the STEP Prism of Insight of HTBI:Sweat (the hard graft to get the data)Timeout (creating the time and space for – sometimes unexpected – connections to form)Eureka (that precious moment when it suddenly clicks)Proof (the essential final step where gut feelings are validated, and why questions answered with evidence)This all comes together in six universal principles for asking smarter questions:Curiosity (the epistemophilic instinct of wanting to know more, of always asking ‘why?’)Open-mindedness (embrace your inner Socrates and start from the knowledge of knowing nothing)Preparation (always ask ‘what’s going on here’)[3]Openness (don’t prescribe an answer; open questions usually generate more interesting responses)Simplicity (in Sam’s words, “like shorter letters, simpler questions take longer to craft”)Listening (listen to hear and understand, not to speak)ASQ is not an airport bookshop-style $5.99 quick-read. Its 280 pages are packed with stories from Sam’s and his interviewees’ journeys through academia and practice, learning and application. Many if not all paths lead back to ancient Athens, to Socrates and Aristotle, to the Stoics. To the principles of classical storytelling through the three stages of thesis, antithesis and finally, synthesis. To the art of rhetoric, combining feeling or emotion (pathos), reason or logic (logos) and character or nature (ethos) of the communicator to generate impact, to influence and persuade.And those are just the foundations. A deep interest in, and understanding of both psychology, and data as evidence adds to this comprehensive account of how the right questions can lead to the right insights that help tell the right stories to address our manifold wicked problems.[4]In addition to Greek philosophy, modern psychology, and data-driven storytelling, another thread running through ASQ, and indeed the entire Using Data Better trilogy, is education (especially Western educational systems): what we teach, how we teach, and what it means. This is a topic Sam is particularly passionate and critical about as he sees “curiosity and creativity stunted by education”.He praises Simon Sinek for his childlike embrace of the why question[5], which infants ask upwards of 40,000 times in the years before they start school – at which point the focus switches to giving answers instead of asking questions. Thus Sam pleads with Roger Waters (‘Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!’) and educationalist cum TED celebrity Sir Ken Robinson for the nurture of curiosity and creativity. In doing so, he argues for a new curriculum of at least two mastered languages (mother tongue plus one), applied mathematics (in particular applied to finance, statistics and data storytelling, creative expression, coding, logic, sports for physical and mental wellbeing, meditation and mindfulness, and critical faculty and judgement.The two he highlights, not least from the perspective of ‘moving storytelling’, are creative expression and critical faculty and judgement.There is a lot to learn in ASQ, an account abundant with relevant observations and insights for all of us in the ‘moving business’ (whether as practitioners, or educators, or both). My personal favourite, which I will encourage colleagues, client and students to embrace: “When someone presents you with a set of data or a data-rich presentation, become a four-year-old again.”Do that, and inevitably you will be using data better.[1] Reviewed by Richard Bailey for PR Place Insights and subsequently picked as the Editor’s Choice for PR Academy’s Book of the Year 2020[2] A phrase coined by the US business writer Dan Pink in To Sell is Human, referring to hearts and minds rather than furniture. Pink features throughout the trilogy.[3] In a recent conversation, leading scholar of the measurement and evaluation of communication, Professor Jim Macnamara, described this to me as ‘frontloading the research’:  giving more weight to the formative, planning phase of research. See also Organizational Listening in Public Communication: Emerging Theory and Practice (Macnamara 2022).[4] For a comprehensive overview of our most pressing, complex global (=wicked) problems, explore The Wicked 7 website.[5] Sinek’s Start With Why TED Talk from 2009 is the third most watched of all time. At no. 1, also referenced in Ask Smarter Questions, is Sir Ken Robinson’s How Schools Kill Creativity. Thomas Stoeckle is Partner of Analytics and Insights at Dot I/O Health, Part-time Lecturer at Bournemouth University, Course Leader at PR Academy, and Visiting Lecturer at Quadriga University. He is also a member of the IPR Measurement Commission. ...

This blog is provided by the IPR Measurement Commission based on the original blog published by PR AcademyAs 2022 drew to a close, the time felt right to reflect on a year that was meant to bring a level of calm after the pandemic disruptions. Instead, we got a war in Ukraine, an evolving global economic crisis, more bad news on the global climate, and seemingly more political polarisation. Amid all this, professional communicators needed to ‘stay sane inside insanity’ and provide evidence-led solutions to often intractable problems:Should my organisation / spokesperson take a stand on this politically contested issue? And what should that stand be?How do we address a highly diverse audience (not to mention stakeholder environment) with consistent coherent messaging?How can our organisation contribute to making things less uncertain, and how can communication help with that?Leadership around the world in any kind of organisation appears to be in crisis, and concepts like VUCA (for something that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) and wicked problems (for which no known solution exists) are being used to describe the phenomenon (as in this article, reflecting on COVID responses; for a more comprehensive discussion, see this peer-reviewed paper that Darren Lilleker and I published in 2021).From the perspective of PR, if this is where we are, then how can we get to a better place, and what might be the role of measurement and evaluation on the journey?In a recently published study, University of Missouri scholar Luke Capizzo explores this rather complex question through interviews with PR practitioners. His insights on the measurement and evaluation of wicked VUCA problems in PR are worth considering as “the growing frequency of intractable problems and contentious issues … requires a broadening of our perspectives” (Capizzo, 2022, p. 4).His analysis of current models and frameworks concludes that they “measure progress toward organizational goals that dictate consensus outcomes as preferable, rather than incorporating alternative conceptions of success” (Capizzo, 2022, p. 2). He offers an alternative, “holistic measurement model for intractable problems” that widens the perspective from organisation-centric in a traditional sense (the ‘output – outtakes – outcomes’ model), toward societal impact in a triple bottom line sense (considering business interest, but also social and environmental interest): Jim Macnamara, for many years a thought and practice leader when it comes to the evolution and improvement of the measurement and evaluation of public communication (advocating organisational listening as the fundamental skill), provides a similar perspective in his recent work, which among others is based on large-scale project commissioned by the World Health Organisation post pandemic (Macnamara, 2023). He applies an ‘architecture of listening’ that sees organisational communication as a two-way process: from the organisation to stakeholders, communities, society at large, through a logical progression from inputs to activities, to outputs, outcomes and ultimately, impact. And then the reverse, from the environment to the organisation, through the same logical steps: In: Macnamara, J., 2022. Organizational Listening in Public Communication: Emerging theory and practice. Sydney: University of Technology Sydney, p. 65.Both Capizzo and Macnamara recognise the work of AMEC, especially the Integrated Evaluation Framework, as foundational as they “fit neatly within the quantitative, metrics-driven management frameworks favored by organizational leaders and professional communication associations” (Capizzo, 2022, p. 1). But when organisations and communicators are facing wicked VUCA challenges, previously neat fits might no longer suffice. As Sam Knowles would put it (for example in his new book, which I’ve reviewed for PR Academy), the time has come to ask smarter questions to get to better answers.For the last two years, I have been leading the AMEC International Certificate in Measurement and Evaluation at PR Academy, and the centrepiece of this course are AMEC’s freely available planning tools, from the Measurement Maturity Mapper questionnaire to assess an organisations ‘M&E maturity’, to the Planning Sheet and ultimately, the Integrated Evaluation Framework to plan, execute and evaluate communication activities.These are excellent, practically useful tools, grounded in reflective practice as well as academic theory and research evidence (enshrined in the Barcelona Principles). The more practitioners are familiar with them and apply them in their day-to-day work, the more our field will develop and improve. In particular in light of the aforementioned wicked VUCA challenges, I encourage students as well as clients to use those tools and make them work for their specific contexts and challenges. Modified and advanced frameworks with additional metrics, grounded in curious exploration through asking smarter questions and getting to more relevant insights – all this will help us navigate our ‘interesting times’.Further reading:Capizzo, L. (2022). What counts amid contention? Measuring perceived intractable problems in public relations. Public Relations Review, 48(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102179Macnamara, J. (2023). Measurement, evaluation + learning (MEL): New approaches for insights, outcomes, and impact. In D. Pompper, K. R. Place, & C. K. Weaver (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Public Relations (pp. 225-236). Routledge. Thomas Stoeckle is Partner of Analytics and Insights at Dot I/O Health, Part-time Lecturer at Bournemouth University, Course Leader at PR Academy, and Visiting Lecturer at Quadriga University. He is a member of the IPR Measurement Commission.  ...