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168 Corporate Communications in Practice

practitioners will need the tactical skills that they have always needed (e.g. writing, graphics,
media relations). But in addition they will be expected to possess a ‘business’ frame of
reference and set of competencies not historically typical of all professionals. In essence, they
will need to think, make decisions, and communicate as savvy and believable members of
their organization’s management teams.Tomorrow’s practitioners – and scholars, for that
matter – must be able to understand not only public relations and communication strate-
gies and tactics but also economic and organizational change strategies. 23

Communications practitioners need a thorough preparation for their roles,a prepa-
ration that should be as rigorous and demanding as the preparation expected of profes-
sionals in other management areas. In a recent commentary piece, the former director
of the Cranfield School of Management argued that for this reason more needs to be
done to encourage communications practitioners to take part in general management
education and to develop their professional knowledge and qualifications. 24
In comparison with other specialists, [communications] practitioners may be relatively less
qualified in terms of their specific preparation for the roles they play. In other areas of
management, such as financial management, senior managers may have professional quali-
fications, gained through rigorous preparation, and general management qualifications such
as the MBA. It has long been recognized that the preparation of senior PR, public affairs
or corporate communications managers may have been much less thorough – a general first
degree and some relevant experience, perhaps in journalism or politics. 25

The responsibility for a more rigorous preparation lies in part with the higher
education sector,which may need to revamp its curricula and programmes with more
intellectual substance and business knowledge. In doing so, the practice of commu-
nications may in time come to be defined more by its domain of expertise and
formal education than by its techniques,and through more rigorous education may be
advanced to a level comparable to that of established professions,such as accountancy
or law.

2. Professional associations. Professional associations such as the Public Relations
Society of America (PRSA) or the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising play an
important role in the professional development of communications. Besides their
roles as political representative bodies (to government, industry and society at large),
professional associations also provide their own practitioner members with learning
and networking opportunities, with an understanding of best practices, and with
professional norms and values. In fact, quite a number of these professional associa-
tions have been rather successful in that many of their practitioner members across
the US, UK and Europe are now guided by ethical guidelines and professional
norms, as well as by well-established standards in skills (in writing, editing, etc.). 26
Many of these professional associations have also discussed, often in their own
national contexts, the professional status of communications over the years in terms
of what criteria appropriately determine professional qualification and how the prac-
tice can be monitored and adjudicated to ensure appropriate professional training
and behaviour. 27 Discussion has often been in this regard about the licensing or
certification of practitioners in communications. In the UK, for instance, there has
been an ongoing discussion of entry criteria and licensing in the Institute of Public