Explain the difference between issues and risk and also how they are related.

Case study instructions :

Word InsCount: 1600 words

Referencing : Australian Harvard

Assignment Overview

You will be presented with four short answer questions. Questions 1,2,3 relate to Telstra and TPG. Question 4 allows you to focus on an organisation/brand of your own choosing.

Each question must be answered.

Start with these documents:

Question 1 (300 words): In your own words, explain the difference between issues and risk and also how they are related. Provide examples, from the Telstra and TPG annual reports linked to above to illustrate your answer.

In responding to this question, you focus on demonstrating your understanding of concepts. You must also cite academic sources relied upon and you may NOT rely on direct quotes.

Question 2 (500 words): Drawing on the latest Telstra and TPG annual reports, their websites and social media accounts, and unit readings and resources in topics 1-4, explain how these organisations report on risk and issues. 

Your response should indicate similarities and differences. Given the industry, explain why there are similarities and what might account for differences in their focus.

Don’t forget to consider this question from a stakeholder perspective and the purpose of an annual report.

Whilst this question might appear similar to Question 1, it requires a deeper/wider analysis. Do NOT repeat responses from Question 1.

Question 3 (600 words): Explain, trust, ESG and reputation. Then, using the Telstra and TPG sustainability reports, say whether you think these companies are meeting their obligations to support their reputation and why it matters.

In Week 2 you were given two videos to watch, the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer: A conversation with Richard Edelman (study guide) and 2023 Global RepTrak® 100: ESG (seminar). Start with these videos and readings to identify factors that are key social and consumer concerns in 2023.

To help you respond to this question, look for media and other reports which challenge or criticise their approach (or the telecommunications) industry.

Complete this question in two parts and cite sources that inform your response:

1. Explain trust, ESG, and reputation and why these matter.

2. Summarise your key points in two tables (one for each organisation) and use the traffic light system to rate performance against each of the reputation criteria (see worked example in Topic 2 of the study guide). Keep entries brief but they should be written using language that supports your traffic light rating.

<insert name of organisation as a subheading above each table>

This question allows you to demonstrate your ability to locate key information and critically analyse it within the context of stakeholder and media perceptions and expectations.

Question 4 (200 words): Select a brand or organisation you either admire or believe behaves badly and fails to live up to their stated values. 

Using concepts encountered in topics 1-4 explain and justify your position. Illustrate your answer with examples.

Draw on the organisation’s website, media room, social media sites, news reports, review sites, activist sites to build your case.

Week 31

Learning goalsAround the readingsRiskAssignment 1 Q&AWhat’s on next week2

3

Business Queensland (24 November 2022) Identifying and managing business risk, Queensland GovernmentHelps you understand risk from an organisational perspective. Links to other useful resources including planning resourcesComcover | Department of Finance (n.d.) Communicating Risk, Australian GovernmentIntroduces concepts such as organisational risk culture, reporting (including learning from past experience), communication channels & planning, reminds risk communication is not simply about communicating to target audiences but communicating ‘upwards’ and link to strategic planningLundgren RE (2018) Risk communication: a handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks, AH McMakin (ed.), Sixth edn., Wiley: Chapter 1 introduces risk communication in the context of crisis4

A risk is anything that poses danger or has the potential to harm an organisation. Within the context of public relations danger and harm can be understood as conditions which may damage an organisation’s reputation and erode stakeholder trust. Risks can be perceived, or they can be real; either way they must be identified and addressed. (week 1 study guide)Note this definition is risk narrowly defined to the scope of public relations activityOrganisational risk is not so narrowly defined and is the concern of many different functional areas and people within an organisation. For example:Identification and management of riskEmployees, suppliers, and other stakeholders acting (or perceived to be acting) on behalf of an organisation or interacting with an organisation (e.g. customers) will be required to modify behaviours to mitigate risk. 5

Identify and explain one or two risks for each of the categories below: Banks: Employees:Bank customers:Stuck for ideas? Have a look at McKinsey’s white paper on The future of bank risk management6

Issues monitoring and management are linked to risk management (which we turn to next week)For now, consider different ways in which risk can be categorised:direct risk—a threat to the business that is within your control (actions of employees and management)indirect risk—a threat to the business that is out of your control (actions of subcontractors, suppliers, customers)internal risk—risks you have the power to prevent or mitigate within the business (via policy, management, contracts, legal advice, training, communication etc)external risk—risks you have no control over.(accidents, natural disasters, trade, economic, regulation, malicious attacks, war etc)7

For example, how would you: Rate the risk of cyberattacks for organisations?Rate the risk of physical injury to employees in the workplace? Does industry or organisation type change your answers?8Low impactHigh impactHigh probability

Assessing impact is the challenge. Gordon (2011:283-4)suggests:Identifying possible vulnerabilitiesWhen a risk (issue/crisis) is likely to occurIdentification of warning signsCost/benefit analysis (act or monitor)PR actions – identification, briefing, training, communication with key stakeholders, media relationsMobilising key stakeholders (advocates and spokespeople)Gordon A (2011) Public Relations, Oxford University Press, Oxford9

Making a judgement about the value or utility of cost of an action in response to risk vs benefits of mitigating the riskPersonal: The Victorian Government’s $250 Power Saving Bonus Program for Victorian households. What factors might impact on the decision to switch from a current energy provider to another?Organisational: Now consider potential risk to an organisation failing to address employee concerns and legal obligations about preventing discrimination in the workplace.What are potential costs (not just financial)?What are potential benefits?10

IssueLikelihoodImpactResponse of organisationFalloutWhen might it occur Where may it occurwho what will be affected?Over what time?Who is taking control? Media statement and material Spokespeople (including third parties) Identify and monitor organisation’s weaknessesOngoing damage Who what may be affected Reputation damage, crisis, regulation, review by industry or political agencies11Adapted from Gordon A (2011) Public Relations, Oxford University Press, Oxford, Table 10.3, p. 284

Note Lundgren (2018: 3) differentiates between Technical Communication and Risk Communication. Risk communication is focused on RISK 12Technical communication Risk Communication Typical Communication Objectives•To inform•To educate•To stimulate positive feelings•To persuade•To influence behaviours

Considerations:Who is the audience?Does the audience trust the spokesperson/organisation?What role does emotion play?Return on investment – betterment of human lives (remember Mahoney – market & non-market issues)13Figure 1.1. Examples of various types of risk communication

Highlights the role for:Systematic research and planning and evaluationTwo-way communication and relationship buildingEstablishing trust and credibilityUnderstanding not all stakeholders may accept the organisation’sresponse 14Lundgren RE (2018) Risk communication: a handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks, AH McMakin (ed.), Sixth edn., Wiley, p.8

Divergent interests leads to divergent risk15

How often do you check out product recalls relating to food or other products?As the 2022 spinach recall demonstrates – media play a key role in helping organisations with risk communication Coles Recall of eleven Coles Own Brand products containing spinach with use by dates between 17 Dec 2022 and 23 Dec 2022•ALDI Product recalls•Food Standards Australia and New Zealand Current food recalls16Unknown unknowns. How do you mitigate against risk if you don’t know one exists?

PLANNING FOR RISKThere are many ways to embed systematic planning for risk in an organisation.Please open the file: Business continuity planning templateHow does the plan help you understand risk analysis and planning? What connections can you find to concepts discussed in readings and the seminar this week?How does the plan help you understand the cross-disciplinary/cross-functional nature of risk planning?17

Finding risk in the annual reports:Q3 and the traffic light exercise. Any questions?What is an annual report?How does an annual report help you understand risk – from an organisational and industry perspective?18

Issues: Assignment 1: Q&A19

Week 41

Learning goalsAround the readingsAspect of Issues & SIMWorking with annual reportsWhat’s on next week2

3

Boutilier R (2011) A Stakeholder Approach to Issues Management, Business Expert Press: Chapter 1, pp1-13 up to the heading The remaining chaptersHeath RL and Palenchar MJ (2008) Strategic Issues Management: Organisations and Public Policy Challenges, 2nd edn., Sage Publications, Los Angeles: Chapter 1, pp 1-274

Holtz provides a simple definition of an issue which provides a good starting point on the topic of issues. He says, ‘an issue is a matter for discussion, dispute, or debate’ (2002:250).How does this simple definition help you understand issues broadly from a:Stakeholder perspective?Organisation perspective?Hint: it might help you to focus on a specific issue5

What is SIM? How does it move beyond Holtz’ definition?Dutton and Ottenmayer (1987:355) Issues affect an organisation’s ability to operate and to adapt to its environmentInvolves trendsIs based on systematic research and analysis of internal and external environmentsIs more than information dissemination is based in effective governance and resource managementSIM involves organisational learningSIM is underpinned by organisational accountability linked to legitimacy6

Activator system: focus on internal issues to monitor and actCollector system: Detect internal issues and report. May rely on informal or formal processes. Issues may be interpreted or filtered before communication upwards.Antenna system: focus on external issuesIntervener systems: focus on external issues to monitor and act7

InstrumentalEnsures management are not caught off guardConsensus building and prioritisation of key issues Prescriptive output and processControl and goal drivenSymbolicMeaning making/interpretation of issues to overcome bounded rationality (biases that limit)Multilevel – allows for abstraction in treatment of issuesCausality/systems thinkingConsequence (what if….?)Dissensus – allows for different perspectives about which issues are important8

What does information equivocality mean?Information and data must be rich, analysed, and interpreted (as part of SIM)Communication (output) must be tailored to needs of stakeholders, context, impact on organisation (goals, legitimacy, reputation, risk, image)The more complex the issue, the more equivocal the data and information, the more divergent the stakeholder perspectives are, the more active (rather than passive) the SIM system needs to be 9Source: Communication Theory Org

Provide a definition and an example for stakeholders and stakeseekersThinking about risk, reputation and issues – why might differentiating between these two categories matter?10

Not just an organisation typeMay also be a specific project or operation of the focal organisation’(Boutilier 2011:6).A helpful construct to enable deeper identification and understanding of issues relating to ‘interdependencies that produce predicable patterns of behaviour among the social actors involved’(Boutilier 2011:6).Thus, Boutilier draws a distinction between self-sustaining networks as stakeholders and the corporate-centric view of stakeholder with the organisation at the center.This perspective allows a different assessment of an issue and stakeholders from stake in organisation to stake in ‘problem domain’: asks the question – who are the social actors?11Problem Domain: PollutionCorporate-centric perspective

If, as Boutilier contends, issues management should limit stakeholder identification to those who can engage in discussion and debate, how would you categorise future generations (as yet unborn) as stakeholders? How would/could their interests be represented in issues management? To answer this question, you might like to review Lundgren and McMakin’s points about environmental communication and consensus communication.What clues can you find the TPG and Telstra annual reports that demonstrate consideration of issues that impact future generations?12

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5mo1t3vSk8(8.37)13

Review TPG and Telstra’s annual reportsDo they use the term – director’s report or something else?What’s the difference between a director, a chairman, a CEO?14

Telstra reports NPS and RepTrak (page 70)TPG doesn’t report on RepTrak but does provide NPS – open their annual report at page 40Question: How does each company report on these indicators? What is similar and what is different?15Snippet from Telstra Annual Report 2022, page 70

Turn to page 46 of Telstra’s 2022 annual reportReview information in section 1.1If you were to conduct a traffic light analysis on Telstra’s treatment of People (aka employees) what clues could you find to rate them against:PerformanceBehavioursCommunicationAuthenticity factorWhere else could you look? (in the annual report and beyond)16

Open the Victorian Farmers Federation Annual Report: http://www.vff.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/VFF_20-21-Annual-Report-Final.pdf It looks similar but different. What might account for the differences?17

Issues Management Assignment 1: Q&A – any questions before we finish?18

Boutilier R (2011) A Stakeholder Approach to Issues Management, Business Expert Press: Chapter 1, pp1-13 up to the heading The remaining chaptersCommunication Theory Org (n.d.) Organisational Information Theory,accessed 30 July 2023 from https://www.communicationtheory.org/organisational-information-theory/ Dutton JE and Ottensmayer E (1987) ‘Strategic Issue Management Systems: Forms, Functions, and Contexts’, The Academy of Management Review, 12(2):355-365Holtz S (2002) Public Relations on the Net: Winning strategies to inform and Influence the media, the investment community, the government the public and more! New York: Amacom19

Week 2 1

2 ▪ Introducing Assignment 1 ▪ Reputation ▪ Case Study: Juuken Gorge (see also study guide learning activities) ▪ What’s on next week

3 ▪ Adopts a case study approach Q: What is a case study? ▪ In the context of assignment 1 you will respond to a series of questions and prompts drawing on publicly available sources (see full instructions in the Assignment folder) ▪ You apply concepts and models encountered in topics 1-4 on issues, risk, reputation. This will require a working understanding of crisis, but Assignment 2 will focus on more on issues and crisis planning and communication.

4

5

6 You already know a lot about the word reputation. The purpose of this exercise is to draw on what you know and identify what you don’t know. Q1: Working in small groups define reputation. Draw on what you know/think about reputation as it relates to: ▪ Individuals (affiliated or not affiliated with an organisation) ▪ Organisations (brand, performance, corporate citizenship etc) Q2: Reputation can be both subjective and objective. Why might this be the case? Hint: To answer this question consider the question from a stakeholder perspective and how stakeholders are different and what issues might be of concern, and where they get information (role of media/social media, WOM/eWOM etc)

7 Make notes and be ready to report back for discussion ▪ Doorley J and Garcia HF (2020), Reputation management: the key to successful public relations and corporate communication, Fourth edn., Routledge: Chapter 1, pp. 1-42 (link provided in the Essential resources study guide) Addresses: ▪ History of reputation management and ways organisations understand and treat the subject ▪ Reputation as an intangible asset (lacks physical form, difficult to quantify in terms of financial value, represents value in the near term and in the long term). Consider the principle of ‘goodwill’ as another example of an intangible asset which adds value for an organisation: brand value, unrealised value of intellectual property…. (AKA is sometimes referred to as reputation capital) ▪ Reputation is allied to crisis management/communication but is not the same because reputation can be damaged without a full-blown crisis (see next slide) Unpacking the formula:

8 • R stands for reputation: the combination of P, B, C and perceived authenticity. • P stands for performance: internal and external evaluation of the organisation against key performance indicators. • B stands for behaviour: what the organisation does. • C stands for communication: what the organisation says and to whom (stakeholder and target public perspective). Timing is key too. • Af stands for authenticity factor: how does the organisation communicate and act in a way consistent with its brand identity and key stakeholder expectations.

9 ▪ Doorley and Garcia (2020:11) quote Warren Buffet “if you lose dollars for the firm by bad decisions I will be very understanding. If you lose reputation for the firm I will be ruthless. Q: Why would Buffet say this? A: While reputation is an intangible asset it can still be measured and evaluated (as discussed later in the seminar when we review the next slide & Reptrak)

10 ▪ Harrison (2011:747), identifies the following as key components of reputation: ▪ Ethical values and behaviours ▪ Employee treatment and workplace culture ▪ Financial performance ▪ Leadership ▪ Management ▪ Social responsibility ▪ Customer/client focus ▪ Quality of product and/or service provides ▪ Ability to stimulate positive emotional responses in key stakeholders Last week we asked you to consider points made by Mahoney in relation to focus on market and non-market factors.

11 In this week’s reading, Doorley and Garcia say “studies have shown that the intuitive about reputation is true. That is, companies with better reputations attract more and better job applicants, gain more favourable earned media, have larger premiums, and pay less for goods and services. The most important long-term benefit is trust. Trust is not reputation rather it flows from it.”(2020:p3) In groups answer the following questions. You can review the Doorley and Garcia reading and draw on your own knowledge/understanding: 1. Why does attracting better job applicants, matter? 2. What is favourable earned media and why does that matter? 3. What do these scholars mean by ‘larger premiums’ and why does this matter? 4. Why is trust NOT a synonym for reputation? ▪ Trust: ‘… a key part of the strong social glue that holds society together. It allows individuals, groups, and organisations to be interdependent and to be able to rely

12 on other people to honour their commitments. Trust enables people to engage in social and commercial ventures with goodwill (Harrison 2011:753) ▪ Ensure you watch the Edelman Trust Barometer video this week there are some interesting and surprising and expected insights from Richard Edelman who says the reason for the annual research is to encourage “institutions to do better” ▪ Importantly, sociocultural and political factors have a role to play in how stakeholders perceive organisational performance and make assessments of trust.

13 Run time: 2.22secs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3uIuo9lYEg

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15 Source: Reptrak (21 June 2023)One pager: 2023 Corporate Benefit of the Doubt Report

16 ▪ Reptrak (2023: 5) say that organisations must deliver on promises made which reinforces trust in organisations and increases likelihood stakeholders will give organisations the benefit of the doubt in times of crisis. Reptrack (2023) 2023 Benefit of the Doubt Report

17 Leadership is important: Reptrak say Elon Musk’s actions with Twitter is an example of the damage poor leadership can play. ▪ Mass employee layoffs : ‘Musk sacked half of Twitter’s workforce, about 3,750 people within days of taking over the business and hundreds more left weeks later after [he] demanded that staff commit to being “hardcore” or leave.’ (Milmo 28 February 2023:para 11) ▪ Sacked engineers when they publicly/internally criticised him (Kolodny 17 November 2022: para 2) ▪ Mandated staff return to the office (post COVID) ▪ Problems with the Twitter Blue program (didn’t initially live up to claims around preventing impersonation and verification of accounts Remember: • R stands for reputation: the combination of P, B, C and perceived authenticity.

18 • P stands for performance: internal and external evaluation of the organisation against key performance indicators. • B stands for behaviour: What the organisation does. • C stands for communication: what the organisation says and to whom (stakeholder and target public perspective). Timing is key too. • Af stands for authenticity factor: how does the organisation communicate and act in a way consistent with its brand identity and key stakeholder expectations. • Working in small groups: Make an assessment of Twitter against each criteria. What do you know? What would require further research to make a complete assessment?

19 Drawing on the Juuken Gorge case and Rio Tinto’s actions complete the traffic light analysis (see bottom of page) for: ▪ Leadership ▪ Social responsibility ▪ Draw on media articles, editorials, Rio Tinto Media releases, Rio Tinto’s 2019 Annual Report ▪ Make notes and be ready to report back

20 Risk:

21 ▪An Organisational Perspective ▪Risk Communication ▪Stakeholders Assignment 1: Q&A ▪ Doorley J and Garcia HF (2020), Reputation management: the key to successful public relations and corporate communication, Fourth edn., Routledge

22 ▪ Harrison K (2011) Strategic Public Relations – a practical guide to success, Palgrave MacMillan, South Yarra ▪ Kolodny L (17 November 2022) Elon Musk demands Twitter staffers commit to ‘long hours’ or leave, CNBC, Tech News ▪ Milmo D (28 February 2023) Elon Musk fires additional 200 people at Twitter, report says, The Guardian

Week 3 1

2 ▪ Learning goals ▪ Around the readings ▪ Risk ▪ Assignment 1 Q&A ▪ What’s on next week

3

4 Business Queensland (24 November 2022) Identifying and managing business risk, Queensland Government ▪ Helps you understand risk from an organisational perspective. Links to other useful resources including planning resources Comcover | Department of Finance (n.d.) Communicating Risk, Australian Government ▪ Introduces concepts such as organisational risk culture, reporting (including learning from past experience), communication channels & planning, reminds risk communication is not simply about communicating to target audiences but communicating ‘upwards’ and link to strategic planning ▪ Lundgren RE (2018) Risk communication: a handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks, AH McMakin (ed.), Sixth edn., Wiley: Chapter 1 introduces risk communication in the context of crisis

5 A risk is anything that poses danger or has the potential to harm an organisation. Within the context of public relations danger and harm can be understood as conditions which may damage an organisation’s reputation and erode stakeholder trust. Risks can be perceived, or they can be real; either way they must be identified and addressed. (week 1 study guide) ▪ Note this definition is risk narrowly defined to the scope of public relations activity Organisational risk is not so narrowly defined and is the concern of many different functional areas and people within an organisation. For example: ▪ Identification and management of risk ▪ Employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders acting (or perceived to be acting) on behalf of an organisation or interacting with an organisation (e.g. customers) will be required to modify behaviours to mitigate risk.

6 Identify and explain one or two risks for each of the categories below: ▪ Banks: ▪ Employees: ▪ Bank customers: ▪ Stuck for ideas? Have a look at McKinsey’s white paper on The future of bank risk management

7 ▪ Issues monitoring and management are linked to risk management (which we turn to next week) For now, consider different ways in which risk can be categorised: ▪ direct risk—a threat to the business that is within your control (actions of employees and management) ▪ indirect risk—a threat to the business that is out of your control (actions of subcontractors, suppliers, customers) ▪ internal risk—risks you have the power to prevent or mitigate within the business (via policy, management, contracts, legal advice, training, communication etc) ▪ external risk—risks you have no control over.(accidents, natural disasters, trade, economic, regulation, malicious attacks, war etc) For example, how would

8 you: High probability ▪ Rate the risk of cyberattacks for organisations? ▪ Rate the risk of physical injury to employees in the workplace? ▪ Does industry or organisation type change your answers? Low impact High impact ▪ Assessing impact is the challenge. Gordon (2011:283-4)suggests: ▪ Identifying possible vulnerabilities ▪ When a risk (issue/crisis) is likely to occur

9 ▪ Identification of warning signs ▪ Cost/benefit analysis (act or monitor) ▪ PR actions – identification, briefing, training, communication with key stakeholders, media relations ▪ Mobilising key stakeholders (advocates and spokespeople) Gordon A (2011) Public Relations, Oxford University Press, Oxford Making a judgement about the value or utility of cost of an action in response to risk vs benefits of mitigating the risk

10 Personal: The Victorian Government’s $250 Power Saving Bonus Program for Victorian households. What factors might impact on the decision to switch from a current energy provider to another? Organisational: Now consider potential risk to an organisation failing to address employee concerns and legal obligations about preventing discrimination in the workplace. ▪ What are potential costs (not just financial)? ▪ What are potential benefits? Issue Likelihood Impact Response of organisation Fallout

11 When might it occur Where may it occur who what will be affected? Over what time? Who is taking control? Media statement and material Spokespeople (including third parties) Identify and monitor organisation’s weaknesses Ongoing damage Who what may be affected Reputation damage, crisis, regulation, review by industry or political agencies Adapted from Gordon A (2011) Public Relations, Oxford University Press, Oxford, Table 10.3, p. 284 Note Lundgren (2018: 3) differentiates between Technical Communication and Risk

12 Communication. Risk communication is focused on RISK Typical Communication Objectives • To inform • To educate • To stimulate positive feelings • To persuade • To influence behaviours Technical communication Risk Communication

13

14 Figure 1.1. Examples of various types of risk communication

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16 Lundgren RE (2018) Risk communication: a handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks, AH McMakin (ed.), Sixth edn., Wiley, p.8

17 ▪ Divergent interests leads to divergent risk

18

19 PLANNING FOR RISK▪ There are many ways to embed systematic planning for risk in an organisation. ▪ Please open the file: Business continuity planning templat e ▪ How does the plan help you understand risk analysis and planning? ▪ What connections can you find to concepts discussed in readings and the seminar this week? ▪ How does the plan help you understand the cross- disciplinary/cross-functional nature of risk planning?

20 Finding risk in the annual reports: ▪ Q3 and the traffic light exercise. Any questions? ▪ What is an annual report? ▪ How does an annual report help you understand risk – from an organisational and industry perspective?

21 Issues: Assignment 1: Q&A

Week 4 1

2 ▪ Learning goals ▪ Around the readings ▪ Aspect of Issues & SIM ▪ Working with annual reports ▪ What’s on next week

3

4 ▪ Boutilier R (2011) A Stakeholder Approach to Issues Management, Business Expert Press: Chapter 1, pp1-13 up to the heading The remaining chapters ▪ Heath RL and Palenchar MJ (2008) Strategic Issues Management: Organisations and Public Policy Challenges, 2nd edn., Sage Publications, Los Angeles: Chapter 1, pp 1-27 Holtz provides a simple definition of an issue which provides a good starting point on the topic of issues. He says, ‘an issue is a matter for discussion, dispute, or debate’ (2002:250).

5 How does this simple definition help you understand issues broadly from a: ▪Stakeholder perspective? ▪Organisation perspective? Hint: it might help you to focus on a specific issue What is SIM? How does it move beyond Holtz’ definition?

6 Dutton and Ottenmayer (1987:355) ▪ Issues affect an organisation’s ability to operate and to adapt to its environment ▪ Involves trends ▪ Is based on systematic research and analysis of internal and external environments ▪ Is more than information dissemination is based in effective governance and resource management ▪ SIM involves organisational learning ▪ SIM is underpinned by organisational accountability linked to legitimacy

7 ▪ Activator system: focus on internal issues to monitor and act ▪ Collector system: Detect internal issues and report. May rely on informal or formal processes. Issues may be interpreted or filtered before communication upwards. ▪ Antenna system: focus on external issues ▪ Intervener systems: focus on external issues to monitor and act

8 Instrumental ▪ Ensures management are not caught off guard ▪ Consensus building and prioritisation of key issues ▪ Prescriptive output and process ▪ Control and goal driven Symbolic ▪ Meaning making/interpretation of issues to overcome bounded rationality (biases that limit) ▪ Multilevel – allows for abstraction in treatment of issues ▪ Causality/systems thinking ▪ Consequence (what if….?)

9 ▪ Dissensus – allows for different perspectives about which issues are important Source: Communication Theory Org ▪ Information and data must be rich, analysed, and interpreted (as part of SIM) ▪ Communication (output) must be tailored to needs of stakeholders, context, impact on organisation (goals, legitimacy, reputation, risk, image) What does information equivocality mean?

10 ▪ The more complex the issue, the more equivocal the data and information, the more divergent the stakeholder perspectives are, the more active (rather than passive) the SIM system needs to be

11

12 ▪ Not just an organisation type ▪ May also be a specific project or operation of the focal organisation’(Boutilier 2011:6). ▪ A helpful construct to enable deeper identification and understanding of Corporate-centric perspective

13 issues relating to ‘interdependencies that produce predicable patterns of behaviour among the social actors involved’(Boutilier 2011:6). ▪ Thus, Boutilier draws a distinction between self-sustaining networks as stakeholders and the corporate-centric view of stakeholder with the organisation at the center. ▪ This perspective allows a different assessment of an issue and stakeholders from stake in organisation to stake in ‘problem domain’: asks the question – who are the social actors? Pollution Problem Domain:

14 ▪ If, as Boutilier contends, issues management should limit stakeholder identification to those who can engage in discussion and debate, how would you categorise future generations (as yet unborn) as stakeholders? How would/could their interests be represented in issues management? ▪ To answer this question, you might like to review Lundgren and McMakin’s points about environmental communication and consensus communication. ▪ What clues can you find the TPG and Telstra annual reports that demonstrate consideration of issues that impact future generations?

 

16 ▪ Review TPG and Telstra’s annual reports ▪ Do they use the term – director’s report or something else? ▪ What’s the difference between a director, a chairman, a CEO?

17 ▪ Telstra reports NPS and RepTrak (page 70) ▪ TPG doesn’t report on RepTrak but does provide NPS – open their annual report at page 40 ▪ Question: How does each company report on these indicators? What is similar and what is different?

18 Snippet from Telstra Annual Report 2022, page 70

19 ▪ Turn to page 46 of Telstra’s 2022 annual report ▪ Review information in section 1.1 If you were to conduct a traffic light analysis on Telstra’s treatment of People (aka employees) what clues could you find to rate them against: ▪ Performance ▪ Behaviours ▪ Communication ▪ Authenticity factor

20 Where else could you look? (in the annual report and beyond)

21

22 Issues Management Assignment 1: Q&A – any questions before we finish?

23 ▪ Boutilier R (2011) A Stakeholder Approach to Issues Management, Business Expert Press: Chapter 1, pp1-13 up to the heading The remaining chapters ▪ Communication Theory Org (n.d.) Organisational Information Theory,accessed 30 July 2023 from https://www.communicationtheory.org/organisational-informationtheory/ ▪ Dutton JE and Ottensmayer E (1987) ‘Strategic Issue Management Systems: Forms, Functions, and Contexts’, The Academy of Management Review, 12(2):355-365 ▪ Holtz S (2002) Public Relations on the Net: Winning strategies to inform and Influence the media, the investment community, the government the public and more! New York: Amacom

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