From an “outside group” to a catalyst for corporate change: Examining activists’ legitimation strategies

Woods, Chelsea L.

doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.02.001

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Related, in a study featuring interviews with 21 activist organizations, Woods (2019) extended Coombs' (1992) typologies of legitimation strategies and made two key findings: 1) Activists who tie values to the issue manager increase legitimacy; and 2) activists have an opportunity to increase legitimacy by harnessing media coverage of the issue in a way that emphasizes misdeeds by corporate actors.…”

Section: Social Issues Managementmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The building of legitimacy also speaks to the communication task of awareness in social issues management. Activist groups, when faced with a credibility challenge, attempt to increase awareness, deliver accurate information, harness news coverage, and celebrate wins (Woods, 2019). In this case, given the mission-level connection with immigration issues, RAICES is arguably the most credible issue manager of the three stakeholders, i.e., the most authorized to speak.…”

Section: Awarenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spinning at the Border: Employee Activism in ‘Big PR’

Reyes

2021

MaC

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This article extends Coombs and Holladay’s (2018) social issues management model to provide new perspectives on activism and public relations. It also fills a gap in the literature on internal activism by analyzing the case of The Ogilvy Group and their employees, many of whom pushed for the agency to resign its work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Through a textual analysis of a leaked transcript documenting a meeting between Ogilvy management and internal activist employees, the communicative tasks of definition, legitimation, and awareness (Coombs & Holladay, 2018) are explored in a way that complicates identity and power. As public relations practitioners are increasingly called upon to either advocate for or against social issues, this study provides an interesting contrast, showing one interpretation of what happens when there is dissension in the ranks.

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Section: Social Issues Managementmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Awarenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spinning at the Border: Employee Activism in ‘Big PR’

Reyes

2021

MaC

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“…Theorizing is about creating new concepts and rationalizing. Activist public relations may use research, facts and reports to justify their issues and their proposal to resolve the issues (Woods, 2019).…”

Section: Institutions and Activist Public Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…green washing, unethical partnerships, inhumane behaviors, etc.) (Woods, 2019). Mythologizing refers to narrating history and telling positive stories for supporting norms and negative stories for destructive norms.…”

Section: Informal Institutional Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mythologizing refers to narrating history and telling positive stories for supporting norms and negative stories for destructive norms. For example, food activist organizations may tap into the history and traditions of food production to fight against genetically engineered food (Woods, 2019). Stories are strong persuasive tools for activist organizations (Kent, 2015).…”

Section: Informal Institutional Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Activist public relations in developing contexts where rules and norms collide: insights from two activist organizations against gender-based violence in Bangladesh

Ali

Saniei

O’Leary

et al. 2022

JCOM

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PurposeThis study aims to broaden the understanding of activist public relations in developing contexts. The power of formal laws and policies in developing contexts diminishes by traditional norms and authorities, and therefore, a great deal of activist public relations efforts is devoted to controlling destructive norms and informal authorities. Activist public relations literature often assumes powerful formal institutions that are capable to control behaviors. The authors challenge this assumption by exploring activist public relations against gender-based violence (GV) in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThis study took an interpretative and social constructionist approach to examine public relations practices of two GV activist organizations in Bangladesh. The data were collected through observation, interviews and document analysis of four campaigns. The data were coded in NVivo.FindingsThe data show that the activist organizations used public relations campaigns for informal institutional work. The campaigns included educating various publics and storytelling to build supporting identities, norms and networks to address GV in Bangladesh.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has been limited to advocacy campaign of the non-governmental organizations.Practical implicationsThe knowledge from this study can be applied to the social development sectors where public relations is used to activate activism. In addition, the public relations practitioners and scholars can find how activists public relations is emerging in developing context.Originality/valueThe findings suggest that activist public relations in developing contexts carry out institutional work and create informal institutions to compensate for the formal institutional voids. In addition, this paper highlights the role of public relations in institutional work, to create and maintain contributory institutions or disrupt disturbing institutions.

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