Strategic Issues Management or Andes in Focus

Strategic Issues Management: Organizations and Public Policy Challenges, Vol. 1

Author: Robert Lawrence Heath

Strategic Issues Management is designed to position issues management in the strategic planning and management efforts by staff and executives. This book argues that issues management is not one of the many communication functions, but a management function that can entail use of public policy resources to achieve harmony with key publics. Issues management is vital to organizations' strategic management. It entails understanding and achieving high standards of corporate responsibility by listening to and acknowledging the soundness of key publics' opinions. The book explores the communication options that organizations can employ in their stewardship to address crucial public policy options and engage in collaborative decision making. Thus, issues management is featured as supporting strategic management, getting the organizations "house" in order, engaging in tough defense and smart offense, and monitoring opinion changes that affect public policy. In addition to these crucial topics, the book examines crisis response to advise managers on ways to lessen the chance that a crisis will become an issue. A chapter on risk communication challenges managers to engage in collaborative decision making with community leaders to reduce the chance that undue fear will translate into unnecessary regulation or legislation. Filling a void in the literature, Strategic Issues Management is a long awaited text that will be of invaluable to students and professionals in mass communication, journalism, management, and media studies.

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1 A Foundation of Community 1

Vignette: British Petroleum - Enlightened Leader or Lightning Rod? 1

Ch. 2 Historical Foundations 45

Vignette: Westinghouse Versus Edison

Ch. 3 Scouting the Terrain 87

Vignette: The Greening of Nuclear Power

Ch. 4 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Vignette: Wal-Mart's Makeover? 125

Ch. 5 Special Interest Activities as Foes or Allies 157

Vignette: Fast Food - A Lightning Rod for Big Food Protest

Ch. 6 Issues Communication 199

Vignettes: Activists Speak with Many Tools

Ch. 7 Obligations and Constraints on Issues Communication 245

Vignette: Corporate Speech-Free, Free for Some, or Not at All? Chapter Goals

Ch. 8 Issues Management and Crisis Communication 273

Vignette: It Takes Two to Tango

Ch. 9 Issues Management and Risk Communication 309

Vignette: Risk, Risk Everywhere

Ch. 10 Brand Equity and Organizational Reputation 349

Vignettes: Proactive Versus Reactive

References 373

Index 405

About the Authors 411

Look this: Adventures with Ed or Diplomats Dictionary

Andes in Focus: Security, Democracy, and Economic Reform

Author: Russell Crandall

"How can a region roiled by political strife, civil war, illicit drug trafficking, and dismal economic performance achieve political stability and support economic growth? The Andes in Focus addresses this question with an in-depth look at the complex factors underlying the present volatile situation." The authors offer detailed analyses of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, as well as examinations of U.S. policies with regard to the Andes. The result is a detailed but accessible study of current political, economic, and security issues in a beleaguered region.