Impact case study database

LBS’s ongoing analysis of ECM data has contributed to the development of global communication management practice. Research insights have directly supported the sustainability of the global communications industry by helping it to prepare for new sector wide challenges; to identify trends in practitioner skills to inform training and education; and prompting action to address gender equality. The research has benefitted industry associations and professionals in large multi-national corporations through to small operators by enabling global sharing of best practice and academic/industry knowledge exchange. The ECM’s findings are regularly shared via its website ( viewed by 31,264 people between 2014-2020, academic conferences, professional presentations, webinars, podcasts and videos on YouTube (that have been viewed a total of 32,681 times between 2014-2020).

The GCM has created a worldwide network of 80,000 communication professionals, practitioners and academics in over 80 countries. This network is contributing to sector development by identifying and sharing best practice, monitoring and benchmarking strategic priorities and enhancing cross cultural co-operation. Central to the network’s success is a close collaboration between researchers and practitioners. The European network has expanded from the original 5 to 28 institutions (December 2020) in Europe and worldwide this has expanded in 5 years with 40 more academic institutions forming their own regional networks (Asia Pacific, 16; Latin America, 19; North America, most recently, 10). *“The success of the ECM demonstrated the value of this kind of data and the feasibility of a project on this scale, and the NACM is a direct result of the value coming out of the European version.” (C1). The Latin American Monitor (LAM) has also developed a Spanish speaking practitioner network (Fundacom), helping to generate new insights, increase discourse and develop theories and practice to improve performance across the sector: *“It is important to have different surveys in different areas. We can learn from the other areas and see what they are doing. For example, Latin American PR departments have good skills in CSR because sustainability is important, so businesses in Spain can learn from this. It is important to know what trends are in Latin America because a lot of big Spanish companies also have companies in Latin America..” ( **C2.*)

The ECM research team established a competency framework to standardise role requirements across the sector and devised a framework of excellence as a blueprint for quality (R1). These tools model the characteristics of high-performing communication departments, enabling organisations and individuals to identify training and development needs to address inconsistencies in communications performance, practices and standards. The tools have been used widely across the sector to inform practice and to decide what training opportunities to offer, as evidenced by two examples from senior UK and EU practitioners:

*“[when] I was Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum, a major international agency. I used the ECM as part of the continuous professional development platform, which is used by all 2,500 practitioners in the agency. It runs a syllabus and every three to six months it provides training around a contemporary area of public relations practice and would inevitably draw on the ECM for insight.” ( C3, **Past President, Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)*).

“ *The ECM’s data on trends shows what is on the mind of other colleagues, which in turn reflects on priorities for training. It influenced decisions about budget, in terms of which types of courses to get them on, or which type of coaching to give them. It did inform different aspects because […] you could see how some concepts in the profession are different by geographic region.” ( C5, Former Corporate and Online Communications Manager IBM Europe)

The North American Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) has used the ECM’s resources on competency and frameworks to inform the development of public relations curricula within the US education system. As a member of its Advisory Board (2015-2021), Prof Tench has drawn on the research to contribute to influential CPRE global education papers and reports. Tench has been invited to stay on beyond 2021, increasing opportunities for the research to influence practice in the US (C4&10).

The research team developed benchmarking tools, based on the capabilities of over 50,000 (European) communication professionals from 48 countries. This enables individuals and organisations to benchmark their own capabilities around key topics such as AI, cybersecurity and fake news and to review and adapt their processes to ensure they are competitive and ethically astute. Since 2019 the benchmarking tools had been accessed by over 746 practitioner organisations in 25 countries. A past president of the professional body that oversees PR in the UK, explains its value to the sector : “ *Year on year it is a useful tool to understand practice and benchmark and then as an ongoing diagnostic for organisations to measure excellence and performance against this. The trend data is useful to understand the evolution of practice – because much of our profession is changing - it is interesting to understand that from an executional point of view helping inform education providers, professional bodies like the CIPR and individual organisations.” ( C3 Past President (CIPR).* It has also been used to contribute to workforce planning, recruitment and selection processes as evidenced below by a German member of the GCM network: *“[The ECM] can give me an indication regarding the future topics of PR; it gives me also a good indication in which areas I have to further develop the skills of my team. I can see whether data-driven PR or algorithm-based analysis, stakeholder orientation or NGO focus is in the forefront of thinking and if I don’t have the right people in my team, I get an indication for the need to train or hire them.*” *( C6. Executive Vice President Corporate Communications & Governmental Affairs, Bosch GmbH).

ECM findings also raise awareness of workplace conditions and one of the issues highlighted is persistent gender inequalities within the sector and in every region. This has promoted UK industry members to initiate change within their organisations to increase transparency to reduce gender gaps : “The ECM has been helpful in raising awareness of issues like the gender pay gap, as PR is a feminised profession; the ECM’s reporting on this has led trade organisations to start to measure and characterise that issue particularly as it relates to their own market. The CIPR (10,000 members) and PRCA (30,000 members) both now conduct census surveys and publish data on their membership annually. It would be unthinkable now if they didn’t.” ( **C3.**)

Prompted by the ECM findings, Dr Martina Topić led a stand-alone project, Women in Advertising (2018) to explore inequalities in this sector. Women reported exclusion from business decisions, sexism and sexual harassment, as well as masculine organisational cultures that impede career progression. This research has reached communicators across Europe via practice social media networks and led to change at a media agency in Croatia which commented that it was “...profoundly changing the nature of work in Croatian journalism by empowering the position of women and by opening the themes that were previously considered as unappropriated in Croatian media spaces.” ( C7) The European Public Relations Research and Education Association (EUPRERA) responded by setting up a network (Women in PR 2018-21) dedicated to influencing change for women around the world. This started with 8 members including founders Topić and Tench and now has 21 members across 9 countries and 14 institutions. An example of an output of this network is a partnership between Women in PR and ULBRA University in Brazil, resulting in greater insights into women’s experiences of working in practice in America and Brazil.

The findings from the GCM family have influenced communications sector teaching within higher education. Evidence from an evaluative survey of the ECM indicated that 66% of academics who took part agreed or strongly agreed that the ECM findings improved understanding of key issues affecting communications practitioners (C8), helping to equip students for work in the sector. A textbook based on the research findings and initiated and co-authored by Prof. Tench, Exploring Public Relations and Management Communication (Pearson), is now in its 5^th edition and is the primary textbook for communication students , demonstrated by global sales in excess of 45,000 copies since 2007. GCM findings have also been used to design curricula in university programmes, ensuring that future communications professionals have key competences necessary to succeed in their roles. For example, the University of Technology Sydney has drawn on the Asia-Pacific Communication Monitor “in updating academic subjects that address culture and cross-cultural communication and expanded our media subjects to reflect models of media in China and other countries in addition to Western models.” **(C9.) Moreover, the GCM network itself has created opportunities for knowledge exchange programmes between academics and practitioners that has helped to shape curricula in HE, provide internships and enhance the skills of practitioners through university-led training opportunities.