Journal of Public Affairs

J. Publ. Aff. 6: 309-316 (2006) ..-;; wilY

Published online in Wiley InterScience *i'<^|
(www.interscience.wUey.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.223 ^

Book Review
Public affairsnew wave of research^
The Handbook of Public Affairs
Edited by Phil Harris and Craig S. Fleischer
Sage Publications Ltd: London; 2005; No. of Pages 6l6;
ISBN 0761943935; $130; Hardback

Introduction
The President of the US-based Public Affairs Council, Doug Pinkham
said it elegantly...
'It's remarkable that a working knowledge of public affairs is not
required of every business school graduate. Students learn the
essentials of finance, marketing and operations management, but
many don't do more than dip a toe into the waters of politics,
regulation, corporate reputation and social responsibility... As a
result, many of the world's most influential companies are run and
managed by individuals who lack an imderstanding of public
affairs...'
Many corporate leaders are now realizing that externalities facing
their business models are as vexing as their operational or
competitive challenges. The problem is that many have not
integrated public affairs considerations into their overall business
strategy. That means their decisions and organization's responses
may be ineffective or counter productive.
At the same time we are aware that the more complex, politicized
and globalized the business environment has become the more
focused senior managers have had to be on the management of
external issues and the more the fledgling public affairs function has
grown in scope, importance and professionalizm.
Last year has seen a 'once in a decade' contribution to
understanding of, and thinking about, public affairs management.
This is the publication of The Handbook of Public Affairs (Harris
and Fleisher, 2005) edited by two enterprising professors, Phil Harris
(UK, currently NZ) and Craig Fleisher (Canada).
This book comes from the keyboards of a new generation of
writersmost but not all academicswho are building on the

^Geoff Allen of the Australian Centre for Corporate Public Affairs provides a review
of the recently released Tbe Handbook of Public Affairs (Sage Publications), a
major, new intemational research-focused book that captures the depth of the
rapidly growing and strategically important public affiairs discipline.

Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Journal of Public Affairs, August-November 2006
DOI 10.1002/pa
 Book Review

foundations laid over the past 25 years byfirstwave public pioneers

of public affairs research and writing, [see Box 1, The Antecedents].
A mmiber of these are also publishing in the foumal of Public
Affairs.
The book itself reflects interesting dimensions of the profession, as it
is currently perceived. The first is the underpinning assiunption of
some writers that 'public affairs' is narrowly defined to govemment
relations and public policy, while for others it is broadly defined to
include, for example a broad range of stakeholder relations, CSR and
communications.
Another is its geographical/cultural dimension. While there is
some concentration on continental Europe, it is overwhelmingly
written from the experience of North America and to a lesser extent
the UK. The otily chapter, one in a total of around 30, ^vritten outside
Europe and the USA is that written by this reviewer entitled 'An
Integrated Model: The Evolution of Public Affairs Down Under'
explaining the Australian experience, with a small section on Asia.
To some extent this geographical limitation refiects the nature of
the social and political environments and business' relationship to
them, particularly in Anglo-Saxon democracies. However, new
interest in public affairs concepts and strategies, driven by
globalization and the example of multinationals, will hopefully lead
to chapters on at least Asia and Latin America in subsequent editions.
The book is in four parts. The first looks at the environments of
public affeirs, and in particular the business-government relations and
policy frame-works of a number of countries. The second examines
tools, techniques and the business response. The third is a series of case
studies, again with an emphasis on lobbying in various jurisdictions.
These carry a mixture of learnings, some that are specific to particular
countries or systems and others that have practical value and
applicability regardless of place.
One chapter tells a story about a particular political environment,
but with ramifications beyond it. The chapter 'The Rise of NGO's in
the EU' (see Box 2) is instructive not only because of the expansion
of the phenomenon to other polities, but because of the current role
of the EU as the source of many regulatory precedents around the
world.
However, Part 4 of the book (Scholarship and Theory Building in
Public Affairs) is of most interest to this reviewer. It forms the
publication's most unique contribution, in particular the editors'
introduction and those chapters which trace the emergence of
public affairs thinking and writing, and review the current state of
professional development globally.

Theoretical roots of the discipline

Professor Duane Windsor (Rice University, Houston, Texas), writes
of theories and theoretical roots of public affairs practice. Defining
public affairs as activities that address the interface between a

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Book Review 311

corporation and its external non-market environment he claims at

the outset, while acknowledging its growing importance, public
affairs 'remains in search of identity, conceptualisation, theory,
effective corporate organization, best practice and social legit-
imacy . . . There is no 'grand' theory of public affairsno integrative
or overarching framework'.
Windsor's compass for what is included as 'public affairs' is as
broad as the integrated function, which is the Australian model. He
cites Stanford Professor David Baron who uses the term businesses'
'non-market' environment, ('Managing in the Non-market Environ-
ment' is incidentally the title of a compulsoryfirst-yearMBA subject
Baron developed for Stanford Business School. Alumni have voted
this subject unloved by contemporary students, but amongst the
programs most useful 10 years on). Baron sees the four elements of
non-market external relations as interests (i.e. stakeholders),
intelligence (competitive and political), institutions (e.g. govem-
ment, media, NGOs) and issues.
Building on this, Windsor is eloquent in support of a broad
definition of the function, which, as noted, reflects the dominant
Australian view.
'Accepting that modem public affairs historically grew out of
community relations and political lobbying, the general tendency, in
practice and scholarship, has been to regard public affairs activities
as narrowly concemed with cotnmunities, issues, politics and
external stakeholders... Corporate philanthropy, legal affairs and
media relations have tended to be independent concems. This
tendency, begitining to be reversed in global practice, ignores the
integrative effects of these activities in combination in strategically
responding to and shaping the firms' non-market environment and
the firm's and industry's social legitimacy'.
In making these comments Windsor acknowledges the editorial
'In Search of Public Affairs; A Function in Search of an Identity' in the
Journal of Public Affairs (Vol. 1, No. 2, 2001) by the Joumal's
editors Phil Harris and Danny Moss.

Separate Disciplines
Unable to find an overarching theory, Windsor suggests pubUc affairs is
not a uniform discipline but is 'intellectually at the interface of multiple
disciplines that contribute rich but not automatically compatible
theoretical roots'. He elaborates upon these separate disciplines:
business in societies and business ethics (including corporate
citizenship and social responsibility, corporate social perfor-
mance theory and stakeholder management);
communications and public relations;
ecological systems (including appreciation of corporate and
stakeholder impacts on nattiral ecological systems and the issues
generated by them);

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312 Book Review

economics, (including collective action, public choice theory,

transaction cost theory and game theory);
organizational sociology;
political science and
strategic management (including agency theory, behavioural
theory of the firm and integrated strategic management theory).
Windsor notes that different theoretical roots are linked to different
elements of the public affairs task. He concludes that the closest we
get to an overarching theory is a combination of corporate social
performance theory and corporate political or social issues life cycle
theory.
The second of these chapters is Geotge Washington University's
Professor Jennifer GrifBn's review of the history of empirical scholar-
ship of public afiEairs. This itself is a scholarly work that will have more
value for academics than practitioners, although it is important for
professionals to understand the intellectual development and tmder-
pinning of their function. She looks at three waves of research.

Blurring the boundaries

The first, 'Foundation Building', examines early work on business-
government relationshipsa number of surveys of contemporary
practice by the public affairs professional bodies in North America,
the UK and Australia, and 'handbooks' in the 1980s to the mid-1990s,
which explore the role of public affairs in firms.
The second wave identified by Griffin, (with an overlapping
chronology) refers to 'Managerial Challenges'. It explored how firms
organized and deployed their resources in the political arena 'via
political involvement activities, building upon managerial capabil-
ities and effective issues management'. Through this wave, case
studies on political and issues management and research on political
involvement activities grew. Being American, and refiecting the
continuing dominance of American research and writing. Griffin
particularly notes work on political action committees (PACs) and
grass roots advocacy. Further work on political management tactics
was complemented by studies into the political environment of
business with an emphasis on regulated industries, and on the global
political environment and intemational institutions.
The underpinning assumption of public affairs in most of the work
dted by Griffin had been the narrower political/public policy
orientation. Her third research wave 'Blurring the Boundaries' reveals
a more recent broadening of interest, under the rubik of 'public affairs'.
She gets to this by noting new questions a number of analysts were
asking about the practical effectiveness of the function in firms,
including;
the effect on firm performance;
the creation of 'political capital' and

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Book Review 313

impact on legislative outcomes, added value, corporate reputation

or overall strategic management.
Other writers, she notes, looked at links between the role of public
opinion, political strategy and organizational theory and competi-
tiveness.
She concludes that empirical research was leading to a blurring of
past boundaries between public affairs, political strategy, public
relations, communications and reputation management in business,
govemment and society relationships.
So Griffin, too, reflects a movement in academic thinking towards
an integrated approach to corporate extemal relations which, as we
have noted elsewhere emerged in Australia through limits to scale
and by designing organization structure back from issues manage-
ment, which in essence requires an integrated approach. It has been
the long-standing approach of some major multinational companies
in 'issues rich' industry sectors.

Professional development
The final chapter for comment discusses issues close to the raison
d'etre of the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs. This is Professor
Craig Fleisher's 'Educating Present and Future Public Affairs
Practitioners'. He starts by noting the fact in North America, which
is also true elsewhere, that the overwhelming majority of
practitioners in the field have had no formal training in public
affairs.
After reviewing the variety of what he regards as inadequate
approximationsprograms aimed at govemment officials in
public policy, or in communications and public relations, he does
identify a few North American masters programs that 'prepare
students for careers closely akin to business corporate public affairs'
(BCPA).
His attention turns then to the professional development
activities of associations of professionals. He gives particular
attention to 'the institute sponsored by the Australian Centre for
Corporate Public Affairs in Melbourne'. He describes this program
as a 'strong example of what can be done', as 'broad in scope' and
'rich in overall management content', and calls it a 'benchmark'
which 'should be replicated in other parts of the world'. Fleisher's
article was in fact written before the Hong Kong Institute organised
by the Australian Centre, and held in conjunction with the US
Public Affairs Council (PAC) in 2005 and 2006. Faculty included the
PAC President Doug Pinkham and University of Maine's Professor
John Mahon. These have brought together around 60 practitioners
from 15 Asian countries into an intensive 4-day residential program,
with company case studies from numerous Asian-based practi-
tioners, most from European-, US- and Australian-based multi-
national companies.

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314 Book Review

Fleisher's chapter concluded by noting the responsibility compa-

nies have in both developing their own professionals, facilitating
teaching and research in the field in universities, and supporting
professional organizations like the Public Affairs Council (USA) and
Centre for Corporate Public Affairs (Australia). He also has some tips
for practitioners to assist their own continuing professional
development.

Conclusion
While expensive, this book can be regarded as the current 'bible' in
the field of corporate public affairs. Not all chapters will be equal
relevance but Boston University's Professor James Post told this
writer, 'This book is a valuable resource for academics and
practitioners There are nuggets of 'Ballarat Gold' in each of
the chapters. The product is first rate.' This is a strong affirmation
indeed, from one of the pioneers of public affairs research and
writing.

References
Harris P, Fleisher CS. (eds) 2005. Tbe Handbook of Pubiic Affairs. Sage
Publications: London.
Simon Titley S. 2005. The Rise of NGOs in the EU. In The Handbook
of Pubiic Affairs, Harris P, Fleisher CS (eds). Sage Publications:
London.

Box 1. The Antecedents

While some authors like Professors Craig Fleisher, Archie Carrol
and Gerry Leim 'straddle the generations', this book brings
together a new second generation of contributors to the conceptua-
lisation of public affairs that arose in the 1970s. It is still strongly
North American but with a growth of contributions from
Europe.
As noted in a chapter by Professor Duane Windsor, the theoretical
roots of public affairs scholarship reside in longer standing disparate
disciplines of communications and public relations, economics,
organizational sociology, political science and business strategy.
However, the first generation of researchers to conceptualize the
professional function as we know it arose in significant books and
articles in the late 1970s and 1980s. They include Robert Ackerman
and Raymond Bauer, Igor Ansoff, David Baron, Rogere Buchholtz,
Archie Carroll, Howard Chase, Edwin Epstein, Edward Freeman,
Robert Heath, Neil Jacoby, John Mahon, Joseph Nagelschmidt, James
Post, Lee Preston, Peter Sandman, S. Prakash Sethi, Geoi^e Steiner
and David Vogel.
In the 1970s and early 1980s a substantial body of work analyzing
the way the issues were actually managed infirmsemerged from the

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Book Review 315

Boston University Research Group led by Professor James Post.

The Conference Board also published a series of relevant studies in
the 1980s, but the Boston work had a significant influence on
national surveys on the practice of public affairs in companies.
The first Public Affairs Survey was done with Boston University in
1981 and published in a Calijomian Management Review article
in 1983. This was later followed by the Australian Centre for
Corporate Public Affairs (1993), European Centre for Public
Affairs (1995) and Canadian Council for Public Affairs Advancement
(1996), The US and Australian studies have continued at
regtilar intervals, facilitating longitudinal and cross-ctiltural
comparisons.

Box 2. NGO's win in EU Advocacy

One chapter (Simon, 2005) speaks with particular eloquence to a
broad business audience. The Rise of the NGO's in the EU' written
by UK/Brussels-based consultant Simon Titley. This highly acces-
sible chapter starts by drawing attention to the steady erosion of
business positions in the European Union, the clearest example he
claims is the precautionary principle, ' . . . which is having a
profound effect on EU policy making and regulation. It has shifted
the burden on the proponents of a new activity to prove it is safe...'.
Titley concludes that business advocacy in the EU is an expensive
failure, the winners being environmental and consumer NGOs who
are setting the agenda with a fraction of industry's resources.
Without using the phrase, he sees business celebrating 'winning
as slowly as possible' as an acceptable outcome. Titley notes the
huge business resource dedicated to EU lobbying. With an estimated
950 EU-focused business associations (750 of them in Brussels) he
calculates the ratio of lobbyist to EU officials at a staggering one to
one! Among the reasons that, despite this, the balance of power has
shifted away from business are:
the internet 'which empowers the public and NGOs, lowers the
'price of entry' for political influence, deprives old elites of their
advantages and accelerates the speed at which issues develop;
the shift from policy elites to policy networks (including think
tanks, media and NGOs) varying pressure points and increasing
the need for coalition building (which NGOs are good at);
understanding and leveraging emotional appeal, compared to
desiccated rational/scientific argument, associated trust in NGOs
ahead of business and effective use of the media and
speed and agility, without the need to seek internal consensus
required by businesses.
Perhaps the most interesting are Titley's comments on 'leveraging
brand vulnerability'. He notes that pressure groups understand fully
the competitive importance for companies of brands, and business
efforts to build emotional attachment from consumers, rather than a

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316 Book Review

rational assessment of the functional benefits of products. Accord-

ingly corporate behaviour can be changed by attacks on brand
reputation in the marketplace even more effectively than by
lobbying for increased regulation.

GeoffAllen
Australian Centre for Corporate PubUc Affairs
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
E-mail: gallen@allenconsult.com.au

Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Journal of Public Affairs, August-November 2006
DOI 10.1002/pa