Page 181 - Corporate Communication

Cornelissen-06.qxd 10/9/2004 9:05 AM Page 169

Communications Practitioners 169

Relations (IPR). In 1998, the IPR even introduced a new diploma qualification as
the basis for entry to membership of the IPR.The motivation behind this develop-
ment was to achieve ‘chartered status’ for which the IPR would have to demonstrate
that 50 per cent of its members held an approved qualification and met acceptable
academic and work qualifications. In the US, there has equally been an ongoing dis-
cussion around licensing and certification of practitioners, and whether professional
associations should be in the business of according and protecting this for the field
of communications as a whole (and not just for its own members). Edward Bernays
has been the most vocal proponent for licensing of practitioners in the US as a way
to enhance credibility in communications practice and to elevate the practice to
28
a profession. Although legislation to introduce licensing in public relations and
communications management was subsequently introduced in Bernays’ home state
of Massachusetts in the early 1990s, no other US state has yet adopted licensing of
practitioners as a standard. Others have vigorously opposed licensing in the practice,
29
including the PRSA and the IABC. The opposition reasons that given the current
state of professional development, and the huge differentiation in practitioners’
competencies and skills in particular, systematic accreditation and licensing is not yet
possible, and that furthermore government involvement through legislation would
be ineffective, restrictive, unwelcome and superfluous.The general idea behind this
is that first of all practitioner standards must be raised across the board, a development
in which professional associations can play a part, before a full-force accreditation, let
alone licensing, of practitioners can set in.

3. Academic researchers. In the process of expanding the body of knowledge and
thus the domain of expertise of communications, academics have an obvious stake.
The academic James Grunig even suggests that communications cannot be practised
as a profession, rather than a mere occupation, unless practitioners have a body of
30
knowledge based on scholarly research available to them. Academic research on
communications management has, as mentioned in Chapter 1, increased over the last
two decades or so, and academic theorizing and research is now even seen by many
as maturing in its theoretical scope, the sophistication of its analysis and the many
new insights that it has brought.The progress of academic research notwithstanding,
there is still a huge range of academic questions that need to be addressed concern-
ing the use of communications within strategic management – particularly questions
about the way in which communications can be effectively used within organiza-
tional development and change programmes – and also greater efforts need to be
made on the part of academics to communicate their concepts and findings to prac-
titioners. In the past, practitioners have often been unaware of developments in
theory and research,because of insufficient links between the worlds of academia and
practice, and as many theories and research are couched in general and abstract terms
and therefore often difficult to understand for practitioners. When cast in such
abstract terms, practitioners may then feel that theory and research do not appear to
provide anything useful or relevant to their day-to-day affairs.
Therefore, what seems to be needed for further professional development is not
only to increase the level of academic research into crucial questions in communi-
cations management (i.e. questions concerning the role of communications in strategic
management and organizational development), but also to foster greater links