The inimitable outsider: contracting out public affairs from a consultant's perspective

Abstract

Purpose -Academic research on public affairs which aims to reconstruct the rationale for the involvement in public affairs, and the possible outsourcing thereof, focuses mainly on the perspective of the principal. Even though consultants are undoubtedly increasing in importance, their relevance as agents is often downplayed. This study seeks to empirically supplement the perspective of the consultant in order to identify potential inimitable functions that could explain why public affairs work is often contracted-out. Design/methodology/approach -A nation-wide survey about public affairs consultants in Switzerland is based on an inductive empirical research design, which facilitates questions regarding which services consultants actually perform and what indispensable functions they claim to provide. Findings -The results highlight lobbying, political PR, and [referendums and election] campaigns as the main areas of service. These services are associated with different functions. Lobbyists in particular define themselves as partisan players closely involved in political decision making. In contrast, political PR and campaigning are understood in terms of horizontal or vertical boundary-spanning. A somewhat technical justification for contracting out, referring to a special infrastructure and costs issues, is downplayed. Instead, the independent outside view facilitating innovation forms the most important generalizable frame when explaining the unique added value consultants have to offer. Originality/value -The paper shows that the real or supposed independence of the consultant vis-à -vis the client constitutes an inimitable resource. The outsider-status facilitates the successful fulfilment of public affairs functions such as innovation, boundary-spanning, access and legitimising. Thus, it is vitally important for consultants to build up a reputation. When it comes to contracting-out decisions, impression management theories are capable of enriching public affairs theories that focus on cost-benefit-calculations.

Ready for the unexpected: theoretical framework and empirical findings on communication consulting

“…The survey thus confirms the results of earlier studies, in which a good reputation in the field of activity was one of the most important selection criteria for an agency and the lack of knowledge of the client's business was the most important point of criticism (e.g. Hoffmann et al, 2011;Zerfass et al, 2015). This shows that for clients, proximity is generally more important than distance, which ensures that their communications consultants observe things in a significantly different way from themselves.…”

“…The focus lies on public affairs and political communication consulting (e.g. Kolodny, 2000;Medvic, 2001Medvic, , 2006Hoffmann et al, 2008Hoffmann et al, , 2011Zielmann, 2009, 2012;Steiner and Jarren, 2009). Further studies have examined the role of communication consultants in organizational change (von Platen, 2016), the relationship between communication consultants and their clients in crises (Johansen, 2017;Jugo et al, 2019) and differences between crisis consultancies in different countries (Pang et al, 2013), the image of agencies (Larsson, 2007) and the job satisfaction of employees (Gallicano, 2012).…”

“…(e.g. Hoffmann et al, 2011;R€ ottger and Preusse, 2013;von Platen, 2015). Those articles define the term "communication consulting" or develop certain theories.…”

Buying media-savviness? Interest groups as clients of public affairs consultants

“…To build the hypotheses, we need to understand why groups need public affairs consultants in the first place. Hoffmann et al (2011) argued that organizations use public affairs consultants to bring added value rather than as a substitute for in-house staff. Consultants are important because they are outsiders who 'have an alternative perspective', can 'bring new ideas into client organisation' and 'ensure the independent evaluation of clients' communication strategies ' (Ibid.,p.…”

Understanding and practicing crisis consulting

“…Recently, however, a small but growing number of scholars have started investigating the market for and practice of communication consulting (Tyllström, 2013), including the outsider status of communication consultants (Hoffmann et al , 2011), the professional role, function and skills of communication consultants (von Platen, 2015), and the influence of social media on the professional role of communication consultants (von Platen, 2016). In 2013, the International Journal of Strategic Communication published a special issue devoted to “Strategic communication and consulting” (edited by Frandsen et al , 2013).…”