Government calling for Hudds new professor
University of Huddersfield’s newly-appointed Professor Anne Gregory (pictured below) is the current Chair of the Global Alliance
Thu, 09 Oct 2014 14:33:00 BST
Professor of Corporate Communications Anne Gregory will work with civil servants in Whitehall to enhance their PR professionalism
IN the age of mass communication, highly-qualified public relations practitioners are vital in ensuring that company executives and government departments display integrity and make the right decisions, according to the University of Huddersfield’s newly-appointed Professor Anne Gregory, a globally-respected expert in the field. She believes that recent corporate public relations disasters, such as the Tesco accountancy controversy, could and should have been avoided.
Professor Gregory has recently returned from Madrid, where she chaired the 2014 World Public Relations Forum – the world’s largest biennial gathering of communication professionals – and her latest contract is to work with the Cabinet Office in order to boost the skills of UK civil servants, who are responsible for communication.
She has held a sequence of high profile positions within her profession. For example, Professor Gregory is a former President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and is the current Chair of the Global Alliance (logo pictured above), the worldwide confederation of public relations and communication management professional associations. She also founded the respected Centre for Public Relations Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University.
New communication age
But when she began to work in the field of public relations in the early 1980s – after switching from journalism – there was little or no formal training available. In part, she learned from her mistakes. Eventually, she became an academic and since the early 1990s has played a key role in placing public relations on a professional and academic footing. This is vital in the modern world, argues Professor Gregory.
“We are in the new communication age and organisations have had to change. CEOs and senior executives can’t hide any more. They are massively accountable,” she said.
“Globalisation means that a challenge can come from any part of the world, from anybody who is disgruntled, sitting in their bedroom at a computer. Organisations find that their ‘story’ and reputation is in the hands of other people and not controlled by themselves. This means that my profession of public relations is now essential in decision-making.”
Increasingly, the boards of forward-thinking companies include directors of communication, continued Professor Gregory. Their job is to make “cocooned” senior managers aware of what is happening in the wider community and society and to bring that voice into the boardroom. It is also to advise senior managers on how their decisions will be received by those communities.
“We can actually bring the outside perspective into the organisation, so that executives don’t make stupid decisions,” said Professor Gregory, who is convinced that good public relations advice would have forestalled the accountancy errors that recently tarnished the reputation of Tesco. (Pictured right).
“A public relations person would have said that you can’t get away with this, it will be found out, so pragmatically speaking it is a stupid way to behave. Also, it is totally unethical. So don’t do it in the first place! Your reputation depends on actions, not words.”
PR professionalism in Whitehall
She acknowledges that one popular perception of public relations people is that they are cynical spin doctors.
“But that is not how I understand my profession and it is certainly not how I want to see it practised,” she said.
She spreads her message of good communication to the public sector too. Her arrival at the University of Huddersfield – as Professor of Corporate Communication – coincides with a contract she has been awarded to teach courses to civil servants in Whitehall. The purpose is to raise the levels of PR professionalism within government.
“They do some incredible work as it is. Civil servants are responsible for enormous campaigns on subjects such as pensions and drink driving. But there is always room for improvement and that is why they want me to go and work with them.”
Professor Gregory has also begun to explore the possibilities for expanding teaching public relations to students at the University of Huddersfield. The fact that it is her home town university – she was brought up in Milnsbridge and has lived in Lindley for several years – was a major inducement to take up her new post. But there were other factors too.
“I just feel that the University of Huddersfield is going places. I like the culture here, the philosophy of trying to be different and high quality, and the tremendous sense of energy.”
