Creating a global framework for the public relations profession

Dr Gabriel Sadi

Huddersfield Business School

While the public relations profession is a global one, for many years there was no recognised framework for benchmarking the capabilities of practitioners worldwide. The Global Alliance (GA), the United Nations-recognised confederation of public relations professional bodies worldwide, sought to remedy this.

A changing profession

Public relations, as a profession, is going through considerable change. The number of professionals working beyond the Western countries where the practice was historically concentrated is increasing. The sector therefore needed global benchmarking capability to ensure common understanding of the scope of the profession. This would mean professionals could work to, and further develop, their potential. It would also provide common standards for delivering high-quality public relations services to corporate organisations, the public sector, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and nation states. Previous research produced a framework based on ‘competencies’ - lists of knowledge, skills, attributes and behaviours. This proved unwieldly, complex, and difficult to use. With its Westerncentric approach, it also failed to account for the cultural and operational differences in the profession between nations and continents.

The research

Professor Anne Gregory and Dr Johanna Fawkes, from Huddersfield Business School, directed a research project at the request of the GA from 2016 to 2019. The project team included 12 academic researchers drawn from nine countries on six continents, including Dr Gabriel Sadi, who was responsible for the Latin American region in the project and joined our Business School in 2020. Dr Gabriel Sadi explains: “The GA sought a global framework that offered practical value to the profession while reflecting cultural diversity and meeting rigorous academic standards. We fully supported those aspirations and the need to develop a tool that would allow benchmarking of capability across countries while accommodating and acknowledging local diversity in practice.”

The researchers used a three-stage data gathering process: a Delphi study, an online survey and focus group discussions and interviews. The team produced individual frameworks for each of the

nine countries involved in the original research. After studying these frameworks, the team broke them down and constructed an agreed Global Capability Framework (GCF) which researchers from all the countries involved and the Global Alliance supported.

The Framework

Unlike the previous framework, the GCF takes a ‘capabilities’ approach setting parameters for what the profession is, what it can be at its best, and what it requires of its professionals. The Framework allows organisations, teams, and individuals to assess their capabilities, identify strengths and weaknesses and plan professional development to improve current and future performance.

Global impact

The GA officially adopted the Framework at its biennial World Public Relations Forum in Oslo in April 2018, with the chair of the GA describing it as ‘a game-changer for the profession.’ The impact of the GCF has extended beyond the original countries involved in the research. The GA, which represents 79 public relations professional bodies with 280,000 members around the world, has displayed the Framework prominently on its website landing page. The world’s largest PR professional association – the Public Relations Society of America – is among many member organisations to adopt it. Other countries, such as Colombia, Ecuador, UAE, and Malaysia, have either developed, or are developing, frameworks of their own using the methodology designed by the Huddersfield team and their partners. In addition, academics and universities in many countries – including Australia, Sweden, South Africa and the UK - are using it to inform their curricula.