DISRUPTORS IMPACTING THE GR PROFESSION

Author:  Sheree Anne Kelly, Senior Vice president Public Affairs Council

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Disruptor #1: Millennials

The real disruptive impact is that many GR professionals have not adjusted their strategies or tactics to actually reach, influence and engage the new generation. Today millennials are serving as legislative or regulatory staff, increasingly taking office as policymakers and holding positions in media or as online influencers.

Disruptor #2: Low Trust in Big Institutions

There are record levels of anti-institution sentiment. There is a declining public trust worldwide for government, media, business and nongovernmental organizations.The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust is in crisis around the world. The general population’s trust in business, government, NGOs, and media has declined broadly. With the fall of trust, people now lack full belief that the overall system is working for them. In this climate, people’s societal and economic concerns, including globalization, the pace of innovation and eroding social values, turn into fears, spurring the rise of populist actions now playing out in several Western-style democracies. To rebuild trust and restore faith the EU and national political systems must deliver effective responses to the malaise facing their societies, and the grievances felt, in particular, by older individuals who do not feel that they have shared fully in the fruits of economic growth and have been left behind by technical change and globalisation. Promoting growth and employment, and better protecting those who are hurt by globalisation and technology, should be the priorities. More transparency and accountability at the level of the European institutions are clearly needed. National and EU officials have given lip service to these ideas but taken little concrete action. They should not take improving economic conditions and the receding populist tide for granted.

Disruptor #3: Political Unpredictability

In addition to unpredictable elections, there are shifts in political party positions on major issues. For organizations that have counted on consistent political allies, or built relationships, this new dynamic means the old plan doesn’t work anymore. The rise of populism is certainly impacting public policy both domestic and foreign. Politics has become uncertain because the rules of the game have changed. The way politics is practiced has changed and the political class has failed to keep pace with those changes. The causes and signals were there if we had cared to look. Each represented a reaction to significant cleavages and perspectives within society, but which were sometimes excluded from the political mainstream. Regardless of ideology, expert opinion was confounded. They were used to a world where they controlled the political narrative, but this world has now gone forever. In any society, most people are relatively disengaged from politics. The political class needs to engage with segments of opinion that it once dismissed as electorally irrelevant. This is a mainstream phenomenon, and the audiences are the same relatively disengaged masses that hold the balance of power within any vaguely democratic society.

Disruptor #4: Noise

Not only are traditional media outlets pouring out more stories, but smartphones make everyone his or her own news outlet. There’s also growing social media engagement on hundreds of platforms, text alerts and a 24-hour news cycle. We’ve all experienced fake news, making us second-guess sources and content. There’s also a proliferation of sponsored content, which has yielded mixed results for effectiveness. And much of the discourse is far from calm and thoughtful. Anger and divisive commentary get more clicks. That’s a lot of clamor. The reality for public affairs is that you aren’t likely to get public traction on small or medium-size issues unless you can tie them to topics already in the spotlight.

Disruptor #5: Corporate Engagement on Social Issues

It’s clear that expectations are increasing for corporations to help solve social problems. But there’s a new public expectation that companies should share the values of their customers and employees. This goes beyond traditional corporate responsibility programs. Employees and the public want companies to take a stand on social issues. Major corporations are facing growing pressure to weigh in on social issues and much of this pressure is coming from employees themselves. There is now a realization that many social issues are really business issues and a growing willingness of companies to step out of the shadows and take a public stand. Corporate leaders particularly younger ones  have “genuine conviction” about social issues that has driven their personal involvement. They emphasize the social responsibility of business and think beyond simply maximizing shareholder value. It’s worth noting that many companies are going beyond issuing press releases to demonstrate their support. In fact, they are using their well-developed lobbying operations to try to change policies they oppose. The most common strategies used in social issue advocacy have been joining a coalition and lobbying at the state or local level. Expect to see this trend continue as more and more companies speak up and take action on social issues.

Where people cannot see a connection between issues they care about and action at a government level they become disengaged with the political process which ultimately undermines the power of democracy. It is telling that corporates are stepping in to reflect and trumpet what the majority of people  feel rather than those who have been elected to office.