Business in the 21st century is rapidly changing. Today,
successful organizations must operate in a global marketplace. American companies
now have subsidiaries all over the world. Likewise, companies from Europe
and Asia have operations in the United States. Globalization means that what
happens to an organization in one part of the world will affect the organization in
other parts of the world. The implications for public relations are clear: successful
organizations must understand the intercultural and international aspects of public
relations.
In an attempt to better understand the implications for organization–public
relationships, the field of international public relations has become an important
research area. Culbertson and Chen brought together 22 chapters that explored
public relations development in 14 nations/regions of the world.1 VanSlyke Turk
and Scanlan edited a volume of 15 different public relations case studies about
nations making the transition to democracy.2 The enormous growth of scholarship
and discussion about international public relations is impressive given that the first
articles about international public relations only appeared in print 15 years ago.3
The significant research accomplishments that have occurred over the last 15 years
now allow for a macro perspective on international public relations. According to
Taylor, four major lines of research now delineate the field of international public
relations: (1) extensions of Grunig’s four models of public relations to international
situations, (2) critical examinations that question the presuppositions that
guide American and international public relations theory, (3) discussions of international
ethics and pedagogy, and (4) nation- or region-specific research that
examines similarities and differences between nations.4 All four areas are important
to provide a well-rounded picture of global public relations theory and practices.
Globalization creates both opportunities and challenges for public relations
practitioners. Opportunities include the potential for public relations practitioners
to lead their organizations during times of transition. Because the public relations
function creates, changes, and maintains relationships with publics, it can help an
organization build new relationships in international environments. But challenges
also exist. The ways in which organizations can effectively communicate with
international publics are dependent on a variety of cultural and societal forces.
These cultural and societal variations will affect the communication between international
organizations and the publics in the host nations.
One of the most difficult challenges for public relations in the global marketplace
will be in the area of crisis communication. Writing about crisis in the
United States, Zoch and Duhe5 and Coombs6 noted that crises often result from
poor organization–public communication, and many case studies support this
argument. However, crises are exacerbated when they occur in an international
environment. When an organization lacks competence in understanding the cultural
norms of host nations, then unfortunate incidents can become enormous
crises that damage the relationship between an organization and its publics.