How Strategic Communication Shapes Value and Innovation in Society

Betteke van Ruler, Iekje Smit, Øyvind Ihlen, Stefania Romenti, Oyvind Ihlen, Betteke Van Ruler, Iekje Smit, Stefania Romenti

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781787430143
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Public Relations
• Index: Business

Communication is developed in our relation to others and in relation to what happens in the social context. It is therefore not neutral but mediates people's relationships and practices. Technological transitions, economical changes, medical advancements, environmental turbulence, political movements and other evolving circumstances influence public values that shape societies. It is important to analyse the situated meaning of these societal themes in everyday life, and the influence of public relations and strategic communication in this regard.
Let's Talk Society – and the society we´re talking about is in transition to a green and sustainable society, to an inclusive society, to an innovative and reflective society. What is our role as communication professionals in all of this? How can we foster public debate? This book addresses these challenges and offers some answers.
The chapters from primarily European countries were selected from a large number of peer-reviewed contributions for the 2016 congress of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association hosted by Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen.

WHEN A NATION’S LEADER IS UNDER SIEGE: MANAGING PERSONAL REPUTATION AND ENGAGING IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Augustine Pang, Ratna Damayanti and Eugene Yong-Sheng Woon

ABSTRACT

In 2015, Malaysia’s investment vehicle, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), came under international scrutiny after it amassed a debt of US$11 billion (€10.3 billion) (Wright & Clark, 2015), which it had difficulty repaying. More disturbingly, investigators found that US$700 million (€658 million) was transferred into the personal bank account of Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, founder and chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board (Wright & Clark, 2015). Najib was also accused of embezzling state money (Reuters, 2015) and damaging the image of the country (“Najib tried to bribe me”, 2015). This chapter aims to examine the strategies used by the Malaysian prime minister to repair his image in the 1MDB scandal, the effectiveness of these strategies, and how these impacted Malaysia’s public diplomacy efforts in restoring the country’s image and reputation. Findings showed that the prime minister denied wrongdoing, and simultaneously bolstered his position and promised to turn 1MDB around. In contrast to the current explication of Benoit and Pang’s (2008) image repair strategies, Najib’s way of attacking the accusers sheds light into how image repair strategies may be operationalized in the Asian context. A new image repair strategy – diversion – is proposed to be added to the existing framework.

Keywords: Reputation; public diplomacy; nation; leader

INTRODUCTION

In 2015, Malaysia’s investment vehicle, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), came under international scrutiny after it amassed a debt of US$11 billion (€10.3 billion) (Wright & Clark, 2015). Investigators also found that US$700 million (€658 million) was transferred into the personal bank account of Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, founder and chair of 1MDB’s advisory board (Wright & Clark, 2015), which was later dissolved (Latiff, 2016). Najib was also accused of embezzling state money (Reuters, 2015) and damaging the image of the country (“Najib tried to bribe me”, 2015).

These accusations undermined his legitimacy as Malaysia’s leader and affected its image internationally. It was described as a “failed state” as a result of this scandal (“Malaysia close to becoming”, 2015). Indeed, when a nation’s leader is implicated in wrongdoing, it has a corollary impact on the country’s image. For instance, when then Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was found guilty of tax fraud for personal tax evasion of US$8.05 million (€7.99 million) (Fyre & Vasarri, 2013), Italy’s image took a beating (Zulueta, 2009). Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” scandal also damaged Italy’s image when he was alleged to have paid prostitutes for sex (Squires, 2011).

Park and Berger (2004) argued that a leader’s personal image and reputation are synonymous to that of an organization. When their personal image is threatened, individuals seek to restore them. When the organization is a country, one way to repair its image is through public diplomacy. Coined by Dean Edmund Gullion (Edward Murrow Center, 2009), public diplomacy is a tool of influence on public attitudes for the implementation and development of foreign policies. With the ending of the Cold War in 1991, public diplomacy saw the rise of “soft diplomacy”; strategies centered on relationship building with strategic partners for the construction of national reputation (Wang, 2007), and reaping of possible economic, political, and social benefits through those tactics (Yang, Shin, Lee, & Wrigley, 2008). Public diplomacy today is a multidimensional function that seeks to communicate a nation’s values and develop global trust and understanding through image management (Wang, 2006; Yang et al., 2008; Zhang, 2008). Public diplomacy is understood as first-hand communication with foreign stakeholders and governments with the objective of influencing their thoughts to produce a positive image of the nation’s rules, actions, and governmental and monetary operations (Gilboa, 2000; Tuch, 1990). Public diplomacy is also the development of discussion among the nation’s people, building connections, and understanding needs through the use of media (Hassman, 2008). As nations need to establish good reputations, diplomatic efforts need to harness public relations’ “communication and persuasion” strategies in order to build, maintain, and manage them over time (Gerber, 2008, p. 123).

Thus, when a leader’s image and reputation are threatened, the leader must first repair them with a view of how that impacts the organization; in this case, the nation, which the leader heads. Additionally, the nation must also engage in public diplomacy efforts to bolster its image. This can manifest in the form of complementary communication strategies or using the leader’s strategies as a proxy.

The image repair theory has been applied to analyze how individuals and nations repair their images during crises (see Cai, Lee, & Pang, 2009; Drumheller & Benoit, 2004; Zhang & Benoit, 2009). Using image repair theory as its theoretical lens, this chapter aims to examine the strategies used by the Malaysian prime minister to repair his image during the 1MDB scandal, the effectiveness of these strategies, and how they impacted Malaysia’s public diplomacy efforts in restoring the country’s image and reputation.

Data is obtained from textual analysis of news reports and interviews that the prime minister gave concerning the matter, as well as postings from his Facebook account and blogs. It is critical to study how communication transmits societal values from nation’s leaders to its citizens, and how these are reflected nationally and internationally. In some societies, particularly in Asia, the leaders’ narratives become the nation’s narratives, transmitted by consistent and coherent strategic communication via the media. Thus, insights from this chapter can help leaders, who are embroiled in crisis, on the dos and don’ts of their image repairs. It is not just their own reputations that are on the line but, in this case also the reputations of a nation and its citizens.

LITERATURE REVIEW

How Leaders’ Reputations Impact Countries’ Reputations

Kang and Yang (2005) defined a nation’s reputation as a nationwide corporate reputation constructed from opinions of domestic and international stakeholders. The nation’s leader is the prevailing representative of his ruling coalition. The leader’s popularity, beliefs, goals, and effectiveness are framed by his words, actions, perceived competence in governing national and international matters, and favor with the electorate (Jacobson, 2009, 2012, 2013). This means the ruling party functions as a country’s brand while the leader is responsible for the government’s and country’s image and reputation (Jacobson, 2012, 2015). Thus, country leaders are akin to chief executive officers (CEOs) of their respective countries as they have the power and responsibility to determine their nations’ image, reputation, and future, just like their corporate counterparts (Yoo & Jin, 2015). Given that country leaders are well-known figures, they are in many ways considered celebrities (Yoo & Jin, 2015), embedded with virtues like trust, integrity, and believability because of their social prominence and recognition (Erdogan, 1999; Ohanian, 1991). This results in high public awareness (Biehl-Missal, 2011) or constant scrutiny of the leader’s every movement (Sutton & Galunic, 1996). In the era of social media, their actions are amplified (Coombs & Holladay, 2012). Thus, more nations are putting in effort to manage their reputations (Yoo & Jin, 2015).

Yoo and Jin (2015) argued that McCracken’s (1989) source model, which consists of models of source credibility and attractiveness, can be used to explain a nation leader’s impact on his country’s reputation. Ohanian (1990) defines source credibility as positive traits of a communicator or nation leader, such as expertise and trustworthiness, that influence the receiver’s reception of a message. Expertise is the degree to which citizens view the leader to be trained, knowledgeable, experienced, and legitimate (Hovland & Weiss, 1951); trustworthiness refers to the citizens’ certainty in their leader’s capability to communicate rationally and transparently (Erdogan, 1999); and attractiveness depends on the leader having an endearing image (McGuire, 1985). Given that reputation has a myriad of meanings, such as thoughts about an entity (Clardy, 2012); images constructed from actions and impressions (Fombrun & Shanley, 1990); and accumulated assessments of an entity’s nature and credibility (Abimola & Kocak, 2007), traits, values, and integrity (Jackson, 2004), a nation leader’s increasingly damaged image would arguably inflict corresponding damage to the nation’s reputation. This is exemplified by the image damage and embarrassment suffered by Austria when President Kurt Waldheim’s past as an officer in Hitler’s army was revealed (McCartney, 1987). He was shunned by nearly all of his Western allies and humiliated when Belgium’s monarch declined to sponsor a cultural event if Waldheim was on the organizing committee (McCartney, 1987).

The leader’s image and the country’s image are inseparable (Hambrick & Mason, 1984; Meindl, Ehrlich, & Dukerich, 1985; Pfeffer, 1981; Whetten & Mackey, 2002). A disgraced national leader could be discriminated against and be perceived by citizens as inadequate, which damages the country’s image (Goffman, 1963). If a country fails in any aspect, the leader would be tagged with the same failure (Sutton & Callahan, 1987). For example, when India’s former prime minister, Manmohan Singh, suffered continuous damage to his reputation, which went from “honorable, humble, and intellectual technocrat” to “dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a corrupt government” (Denyer, 2012, para. 3), his government was criticized for being “slow, timid, status quoist, and, above all, corrupt” (Guha, 2012, para. 20). This reflected poorly on India’s slowing economy, crashing of the rupee, and notoriety for prevalent corruption. In such instances, Leary and Kowalski (1990) argued that such circumstances would cause the nation leader to become concerned with how he and his country are perceived by domestic and international citizens.

Political Scandals

Scandals can be understood as infringements that violate certain social rules of integrity (Thompson, 2000). These violations can be in the form of an illegal act that is brought to light then indicted by the law, or a moral indiscretion, which may not be unlawful but is perceived to violate societal standards of conduct and integrity (Tumber & Waisbord, 2004, p. 1146). For an action or behavior to be outrageous and shameful, it must be known by nonparticipants that have chosen to reveal knowledge of the act...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Educating Society’s Future PR Practitioners: An Exploration of ‘Preparedness’ as a Qualitative Indicator of Higher Education Performance
• Contextualising Change in Public Sector Organisations
• When a Nation’s Leader is Under Siege: Managing Personal Reputation and Engaging in Public Diplomacy
• Towards a Societal Discourse with the Government? A Comparative Content Analysis on the Development of Social Media Communication by the British, French and German National Governments 2011–2015
• Lessons Learned: Communication Studies in Transition
• Secrets of Public Affairs
• Social Media: The Dialogue Myth? How Organizations Use Social Media for Stakeholder Dialogue
• Clarifying Skills and Competencies in Organisational Decision Making – Perceptions of Finnish Communication Professionals
• Reputation: A Cross-Disciplinary Study of Key Concepts in Public Relations, Business Administration, and Public Administration
• About the Contributors
• Index