The Curse of the Communication Literacy by Josef Pallas
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0714060062 Media: The Curse of The Communication Literacy by Josef Pallas Mercury Magazine 2014, Summer/Autumn (Special Issue on Sustainability), Issue 7-8, pp. 060-062. Mercury Magazine issue No. 7/8, [Summer/Autumn] 2014. Copyright © 2014, The Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the printed magazine in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. Mercury Magazine ISSN 2001-3272 is published by the Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. This reprint is available for free at www.fek.uu.se/mercury. Annual printed subscription rates for non-alumni and non-students at the Department are 399 SEK, Euro 50, $60, £35. To subscribe please email your order to [email protected]. Mercury Magazine is the official magazine of the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University PHO T O B Y JOH ANNA HANN O 014 018 023 026 038 042 MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD: SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS BOOK REVIEW: NOT BEING LAZY SERVICE LOGIC AND CLIMATE CHANGE STEPS FORWARD ARE SUSTAINABLE ’THE SECOND MACHINE AGE’ Lena Zander portraits Magnús Scheving PRODUCTIVITY Daniel Nyberg and Christopher Wright Head of Department Leena Avotie on Successful entrepreneurs are A review of the acclaimed new book by [cover] - a social sustainability Bo Edvardsson explains what you need argue that the nature of the corporate recognizing the importance of characterized by understanding the Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. entrepreneur in the entertainment to consider in order to improve service world’s responses to climate change sustainability, not least in education. concept of balance, argues Ivo Zander. industry. productivity in your organization. hitherto can best be described as myths. 024 016 020 SCIENTIFICATION IN 034 041 050 SWEDISH SORROWS THE CONCEPT OF SPORTS LEADERSHIP AND PHENOMENA: WHEN SOME CUSTOMERS AND DANISH DELIGHTS COMPLY OR EXPLAIN The field of sports is one of many SUSTAINABILITY EMOTIONAL CONTAGION ARE WORTH MORE THAN Lars Engwall on the contrasting Hans Dalborg, Honorary Chairman of frontiers of ongoing scientification Carin Eriksson Lindvall identifies four Are users being treated as guinea pigs OTHERS development of the pharmaceutical Nordea, illuminates a key concept in argue Leon Michael Caesarius and factors that seem to contribute to the when Facebook’s data science team Preferential treatment may be unwise, industry in Sweden and in Denmark. corporate governance. Jukka Hohenthal. creation of intrinsic motivation. carries out experiments? argues Magnus Söderlund. 004 005 052 063 068 076 084 092 MOOCS ROCK STAR CAN WE REALLY AFFORD THE FUTURE OF TOTAL VALUE OF STUDYING CONTROLLERSHIP Leon Michael Caesarius and Jukka PROFESSOR FINANCIAL CAPITALISM? THE MULTINATIONAL OWNERSHIP Frank G. H. Hartmann draws on Hohenthal investigate if MOOCs will help Professor and Managing Director turned Political and economic systems are CORPORATION When you calculate customer experimental studies to increase our redefine the higher education landscape. rock star Henrik Bäckström is the often deemed as fiascos, but when are Ivo Zander paints a picture of the future profitability, ask not if your company understanding of controllers' conflict of renaissance man. we going to make a similar evaluation of of the well-established multinational makes money of customers but if your interest. financial capitalism, asksGöran Nilsson. corporation. company helps your customers to make 060 money, says Torkel Strömsten. THE CURSE OF THE 064 098 COMMUNICATION LITERACY MONSTROUS LEADERS 074 082 WHY PERFORMANCE-BASED Josef Pallas is not convinced about the Torkild Thanem shows how monstrous WHAT YOU BELIEVE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 090 PAY ACTUALLY MAY LOWER PR-industry’s alleged merits. Instead he leaders constitute a new leadership IS WHAT YOU SEE NEEDS STIMULI VALUE VS VALUE MOTIVATION tries to answer the question: when is it category and how you can avoid The essence of sensemaking occupies Staffan Movin calls for cooperation Magnus Frostenson focuses on the hard Göran Nilsson explains why financial time to fire the PR-consultant? becoming such a leader. Henrik Bäckström's mind. between society, academia and business. predicament of sustainability. incentives sometimes fail. 006 007 MEDIA Does the world need Superman? This was the title of The Pulitzer winner article in the DC Comics movie Superman Returns. The article questioned the role of a superhero as necessary for securing and enabling tranquil development and functioning of a society. Paraphrasing this title I’ll try to in the following lines briefly elaborate on the existence and relevance of PR-consultants’ as the indispensable heroes of contemporary world. FELACO NICOLA Let us start with the taken-for-granted assumption about the necessity of PR-consultancy as based in providing its customers – i.e. politicians, BY RK companies, NGO’s, universities, hospitals, kindergartens or celebrity couples O – with knowledge about how to relate to and deal with different aspects of their public appearance, branding, marketing, media relations and other com- artw munication activities. This knowledge is - in turn - derived from the notion on communication literacy and communication professionalism as a cornerstone of the foundation upon which social actors have to build their identities and organizations. On top of that, the PR-consultancies also assume that each Josef Pallas is Associate Professor customer’s communication needs (and solutions) are specific and unique. of Management at the Department of Business Studies in Uppsala “… we appreciate that each case is unique and requires a customized solution. University. He is Mercury’s columnist on media, mediatization and corporate One of JKL’s distinguishing characteristics is the ability of our exceptional- communication issues. ly talented consultants to understand the unique quality of each situation and provide insights, strategies, ideas and rec- ommendations based on this.” (jkl, 25/04/2014) There are a number of arguments not only to question reliability of such a claim, but also to regard similar promises as directly motivating healthy skepticism toward the major part of the consultancy industry. First of all, if the PR-agencies are serious about their ability to provide you with unique solutions to your exclusive Josef Pallas is not convinced communication challenges one might by the PR-industry’s alleged start to worry. Study after study shows clearly that both the advices provided merits. He is therefore and the factual outcomes are generic preoccupied with finding an and hallow to such a degree that their value is highly questionable. You can just answer to the question: when simply go through corporate communi- / Study after is it time to fire the cation and PR-strategies at randomly picked organizations, their press study shows PR-consultant? releases, annual reports, campaigns or clearly that their websites, to conclude that these communication products (commonly both the advices produced by PR-agencies or under their supervision) suffer from being each provided and the other’s copies, following same templates and recipes. Secondly and relatedly, the PR-consultants are at large rather insensitive factual outcomes to differences between different sectors. Hospitals, universities, schools, political parties are all treated according to the same ‘corporate model’. are generic and Such a model is presented and defended with an argument that similar (read: hallow to such a business) values, priorities and relations are valid in (almost) all contexts. Not only that the ‘professionalization’ - i.e. the introduction and implemen- degree that their tation of the private sector's communication solutions across different parts of a society – tend to lead to dilution and disparagement of core activities of value is highly organizations that operate under different rationales. The newly required questionable./ and acquired ‘media and communication literacy’ – once again frequently introduced and proliferated by specialized PR-agencies – might lead or- ganizations to break with and disregard some of their most fundamental 060 061 / The role and relevance democratic, professional and legal obligations. Our research on Swedish universities and governmental agencies sadly illustrates such a development. of the PR-industry is Thirdly, PR-consultants tend to promise their customers miracle medicine to almost all organizational problems. Studying the PR-industry – unquestionable – but both nationally and in the light of international comparison – one might get perhaps not in the way we the impression that all organizational challenges can be attributed to com- munication deficits or malfunctioning. The consultancies are eager to argue usually think. Just hiring that CSR, crises management, change management, leadership, stakeholder management (including public & governmental affairs), HR, Media relations, a renowned consultant and many others areas are at the bottom connected to the same underlying is most probably not ability of organizations to manage the way they and their activities are presented and perceived. However, the PR-consultancies struggle in this improving your organiza- context to present relevant, accurate and credible measurements for evaluation of their services. tion name or reputation In evaluating a campaign aiming at helping the Swedish Public to any substantial or Employment Service to get more disabled people a job, Gullers Grupp