Normal is not normative: Public relations indicators from a Spanish secondary political and economic region

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the state of communication in Galicia, as an example of a peripheral environment, and to determine to what extent it corresponds to the patterns indicated in different studies for the Spanish case and for the whole of Europe. A quantitative technique was used, consisting of the distribution of an online questionnaire, via e-mail, to three groups: communication officers from companies, communication managers from public institutions, and agencies offering communication and public relations services. Trends point to limited communication planning and to some impact of the economic crisis in terms of danger (budget cuts, especially in the case of agencies) and opportunity (increased need for measurements to justify investments). In addition, actions considered most needed within 5 years converge as a result of globalization: online communication and social media management are priority goals for diverse organizational profiles. However, the degree of awareness of strategic communication is higher in the institutional sector than in the corporate sector, since its use has been linked to the development of political communication management.

Keywords

Practitioners periphery profession public relations quantitative research Spain

Introduction

Trend analysis in the field of communication, either from the point of view of the discipline’s conception, the activities performed or the professional’s characteristics, is relevant to understand the evolution of the sector dynamics, to detect training and work needs, to identify areas of interest or to anticipate situations that may be resolved on the field of research (Heath, 2006). These analyses generally have a globalizing nature and their orientation is highly conditioned by the standard practice of large organizations in solid economic contexts and, therefore, by what can be expected from a strategic, organized, and complex communicative practice. In addition, they are typically characterized by a North American perspective of the discipline, based on the cultural and political characteristics of US society (Pieczka & L’Etang, 2006).

On the European level, regional differences are understandably large. There is great diversity in the ownership and authority structures of companies, the system of management, leadership styles, cooperation and power relationships, the organization of countervailing power, the formality or informality of the organizational culture, and the position of the organization’s employees and their representatives (Verhoeven, Zerfass & Tench, 2011).

The European Communication Monitor (Zerfass et al., 2019 and earlier), covering 50 countries, represents a major effort to generate trend analysis that not only takes into account the development of communication in major powers, but also in smaller countries, economically less relevant, but with well-established communicative practices in the business and institutional sector. Even so, as a consequence of statistical distortions occurring when analyzing data from large territories, this study usually refers to large organizations, which concentrate their activity in large population centers or very relevant cities within each country, unlike smaller organizations operating in reduced environments and away from large economic-political centers.

Nevertheless, SMEs account for 99% of the European business fabric. These companies, as well as local or regional public institutions, can also carry out an intense communication activity, relying on the services offered by small agencies or consulting businesses located in peripheral cities. The particular characteristics of these communication practices are not reflected in national or international studies; however, they are relevant in quantitative terms and may depart from common sector problems in other contexts (Jackson and Moloney, 2019).

For this reason, it is of special interest to broaden the analysis of trends to peripheral environments and thus fill a gap in the current research agenda.

From this perspective, the present study aims to analyze the current state of corporate communication activity in a peripheral entity, based on global analyses or on national territorial entities. To this end, the authors focused on the autonomous community of Galicia, which has its own self-government and Parliament, and whose territory is divided into four provinces with governing bodies and 313 municipalities, in addition to having a business network that encompasses some leading companies in the Spanish and international rankings, such as Inditex (fashion industry), Hijos de Rivera (beer industry), or a PSA Peugeot Citroën¹ production plant (automotive industry). However, it is an area away from the two main national poles of business, economic, political, and institutional activity, which are mainly found in Madrid (home of central government) and Barcelona. Indeed, in line with Europe 2020 objectives and with the regional specialization strategy, the Operational Program Galicia 2014–2020 was launched, seeking to promote sustainable economic development in the region through employment creation—in particular, in high added value sectors—and improved regional competitiveness with the support of SMEs (European Commission [EC], Regional Policy, s/d). The program, jointly developed by regional academic institutions, is part of a project led by the Galician delegation of the Association of Communication Managers (Dircom).²

The study discusses the results of a survey conducted among communication managers from companies and institutions operating in Galicia, as well as among heads of agencies offering communication and public relations services in the community, with the purpose of responding to the following questions:

RQ1: What is the perceived importance of communication in a peripheral environment?

RQ2: What level of strategic development does communication reach in organizations?

RQ3: What are the main changes in the context of communication in recent years, considering the medium-term impact of the economic crisis at the end of the last decade?

RQ4: What are the most developed and most requested communication activities currently and within the next 5 years?

RQ5: What are the training needs detected by communication professionals?

On the basis of the answers to these questions, the authors will try to remedy the dearth of research on small and medium-sized organizations and in peripheral environments. This paper contributes to previous studies by means of the analysis of the situation of the sector in this type of micro-context. In this way, previous studies are completed through this local analysis, which serves as a reference for the diversities and convergences of the profession in its different practical realities.

Literature review

Supranational studies on communication trends

In addition to world-class studies that analyze the main communication trends, focusing on the most developed countries and large companies, there are other supranational investigations that include an important range of countries, with very different socioeconomic realities.

Given its relevance, it is worth noting the above-mentioned European Communication Monitor, the main annual report on communication at European level (Zerfass et al., 2019 and earlier), based on the results of a survey carried out in 46 countries in its latest edition, which serves as a fundamental reference to identify trends and to consider analysis variables in any in-depth study of communication.

Other particular studies can be mentioned, such as the one carried out by Beurer-Zuellig et al. (2009), based on a sample of 1410 communication professionals from 30 European countries and focused on exploring their training, activities, salary, and job satisfaction in accordance with their own standards, far away from the North American reality.

At the Latin American level, signs of expansion and transformation have been observed (Vásquez and Marroquín, 2016). We have data available from the Latin American Communication Monitor 2018–2019, 2016–2017, and 2014–2015, with three differentiated approaches: challenges in strategic communication, trends in strategic communication, and excellence in strategic communication.

Studies on communication trends in national contexts

As happens at the supranational level, various national organizations promote specific studies on communication trends in different countries. In the Spanish case, Dircom has a long history in the preparation of studies on the state of communication, with a report that has already reached its fifth edition (Dircom, 2018) and that gathers the opinions of communication managers from many Spanish companies. Likewise, Dircom presents some trends in its yearbook. In the 2019 edition, Dircom highlights that communication managers must demonstrate with objective data how their activity contributes to the achievement of business goals, so measurement is essential. It also highlights the role of internal audiences, given that, for the companies, workers are the main prescribers, and maintaining and attracting talent, as pointed out by the Global Alliance’s Global Communication Report, is one of the organizations’ challenges. But the main challenge for the coming years is transparency. Other key trends identified include the demand for hyper-transparency in organizations, the search for authenticity and value-based messages, as well as the social contribution of organizations to fields such as diversity and the environment.

Although Dircom’s studies refer only to large companies, there are few studies that have addressed the reality of communication in smaller companies in Spain ( Blay Arráez, 2010; Carretón Ballester, 2010; Carrillo et al., 2005; García Orosa, 2005; Gómez Nieto, 2011; Marín Dueñas, 2016; Sainz de Vicuña, 2009). Similar studies on communication in small and medium enterprises have been undertaken in other European countries such as Italy (Palazzo et al., 2017), Germany (Zerfass and Winkler, 2016), Switzerland (Einwiller and Boenigk, 2012), England (Jackson and Moloney, 2019; Moss et al., 2003), or in an overall context (Iurcovich, 2012; O’Connor et al., 2017).

These studies point to a series of problems and difficulties for communication in small businesses, stemming from the absence of a specific department and the lack of professionalization: most small businesses do not have specialized professionals dedicated exclusively to communication management, nor do they have the economic resources to plan, implement and evaluate their communication needs. This is compounded by a low awareness of the importance and necessity of communication to achieve business goals and by a limited experience regarding communication issues; communication strategies and tools are unknown, and communication is only identified with advertising, commercial, communication, or marketing. Consequently, priority is given to external communication linked to advertising or corporate graphic identity, which will hardly become news, resulting in little coverage and impact in traditional media.

In the study conducted by Marín Dueñas (2016), the analyzed companies carry out disconnected actions and do so in a fragmented manner, which becomes an obstacle to controlling and managing their communication from a strategic approach, and reduces, in turn, corporate efficiency and coherence.

With regard to peripheral regions, unrelated to the business development of the main population centers, which in Spain are located in the Community of Madrid and Catalonia, few research efforts have focused on analyzing their situation. In Huertas and Fernández Cavia (2006), it was concluded that while public relations have strongly flourished in big cities, this does not happen in the rest of the country (Spain), where a lack of knowledge remains on this subject, both at the social level and, specifically, at the business level. They concluded that, on the other hand, in medium-sized companies and institutions, communication activities are conducted by their own departments, which are understaffed and poorly prepared for performing these functions.

The Galician case

In the Galician context, specifically, the Consello da Cultura Galega has been promoting for more than 20 years, on a biennial basis, a report, composed of several chapters, on various aspects of the communicative activity within the region. In the last edition, Baamonde et al. (2016) approached, from the perspective of public relations, the state of business and institutional communication in Galicia, based on the results of a survey submitted to 34 communication officers, mostly from Galician institutions, which takes up various elements of analysis considered in the previous study of the same organization (Míguez and Rúas, 2013). The 2016 study highlights that 94% of communication officers from companies and institutions take part in strategic decision-making or, at least, make recommendations for consideration by management. It also shows that 61% of respondents (that is, 30% more than in 2013) consider that entrepreneurs and institutions understand and value the function of communication and are willing to invest in it.

The perspective of business communication is reflected in further detail in the study by Mundinova Consultores de Comunicación (2013), based on a sample of 150 companies. This research highlights that, although Galician entrepreneurs rate the importance of communication for their organizations an 8 out of 10, in fact, only 52% of organizations have a communication director. The percentage of companies resorting to external services is 58%, but communication budgets were dramatically reduced as a result of the economic crisis.

Limitations of previous studies

As acknowledged by Matilla and Marca (2011), despite the fact that much of the research carried out in the Spanish state and periodically repeated (primarily promoted from the professional sphere), demonstrates a substantial evolutionary improvement in most of the analyzed elements, its ambitious objectives and its breadth of vision, while constituting an important contribution, do not allow us to go into detail and, sometimes, open doors to new questions. This research is a continuation to such efforts, but provides a perspective that has not been looked at so far and whose implications have not been fully explored. The main goal of this paper is to analyze Public Relations in a reality usually invisible to the research agenda.

Methodology

To carry out the study, a quantitative technique was used, consisting of the preparation and distribution of an online questionnaire. The questionnaire is, in fact, the instrument used in most of the studies focused on trend analysis cited in this paper, since it allows reaching an important group of qualified professionals and obtaining precise and easily quantifiable information on relevant aspects. In this case, it was sent via e-mail to three groups: communication officers from Galician companies, communication managers from regional public institutions, and agencies offering communication and public relations services in Galicia.

The sample of companies was selected based on the Ardán Report, drawn up by the Vigo Free Trade Consortium on an annual basis. In this case, data was taken from the 2016 Ardán Report (ZFV, 2016), which includes a directory of more than 9000 companies registered in Galicia, grouped into large, medium and small companies, according to the criteria of number of workers. More than 5000 companies were contacted by email and 750 by telephone. The final sample, after excluding invalid or incomplete questionnaires, included 200 companies. This sample consisted of 18.4% of large companies (more than 250 workers), 28.5% of medium-sized enterprises (from 50 to 250 workers), and 53% of small and micro-enterprises (less than 50 workers).

To determine the organizations of the institutional sector, the Guía de Comunicación (Communication Guide), the institutional directory published by the regional government, and the legislative provisions on regional institutions and State Administration’s representation in Galicia were used. Out of a total of 426 organizations, a convenience sample was chosen, and 87 responses were validated to ensure that the analyzed management entities covered at least 50% of the population and that actors from all selected areas were included.

In the case of the agencies, given the absence of any specific directory that includes the companies performing strategic communication and public relations services in Galicia, four more generic online directories were used: the Guía da Comunicación (Communication Guide) of the Xunta de Galicia, with a section dedicated to advertising, communication, and public relations agencies; the communication directorate of Galicia Digital, with a section on press offices and another section on advertising agencies; Briefing Galego, with a repertoire of advertising companies; and Creatividade Galega, with a list of professional associates in this field. Based on these directories, in addition to duplicates, the agencies that did not specifically offer strategic communication services were removed, resulting in a list of 235 companies, to which 13 agencies that operated in Galicia and had not been included in the list were added. In the subsequent process of contacting via email and telephone, 78 agencies were discarded because they were no longer operative or due to the impossibility of contacting them. Finally, the questionnaire was sent to 170 companies and satisfactorily completed by 58 agencies.

Although the three questionnaires differ in some regards, as a consequence of the different collectives to which they are directed, they share a common core that allows to compare several groups of data.

In January 2017, a questionnaire was created, consisting of five sections and a total of 15 questions, with a design similar to the one implemented by Dircom (2018; 2015; 2010), which was slightly modified for application to institutional/tertiary sector and consultancy. Thus, although some questions were modified or deleted since they were not relevant or appropriate for the organizations concerned, the three questionnaires maintained a common axis that allows to compare several groups of data, through comparable units of analysis and testing scales, constructs, instruments, and measurement equivalence (Volk, 2017).

In the initial section, regarding contact and identification details, the contact data of the person responding to the questionnaire and the most important data about the company were collected. The second section, related to communication awareness, included questions about the importance of communication for the organization, in order to know the corporate philosophy in this regard. The third section dealt with communication planning; as a key document of the communication department, we sought to know the existence/consideration of the communication and crisis plan in the case of companies and institutions, but these questions were not included in the case of agencies. In the fourth section, related to crisis impact, attention was paid to changes resulting from the impact of the economic crisis on the communication function. Finally, in the present and prospective section, the aim was to know the most developed, best valued and most needed activities in the short term (5 years) for companies and institutions as well as the most offered and requested services for agencies.

The initial results were processed using Excel and R statistical software. In addition, a Strategic Communication Awareness Index was designed in connection with organizations, which allowed to re-categorize them based on their high, medium or low level of development. To prepare this scale, a numerical score was given to the response options of the questions: Perception of the communication evolution in the last 5 years (Q1), Perception of the role of communication in service of organizational success (Q2), Communication Planning (Q3), and Crisis Communication Planning (Q4), so that the maximum achievable score was 8 and the minimum score was 0. Among other possible analytical strategies, two contingency tables were generated, in which the Strategic Communication Awareness Index variable was crossed with two structural variables of the research: activity sector and number of employees. To test the level of correspondence, the associated Chi-squared test is statistically significant.³

This questionnaire was tested on a sample of 20 companies and 10 institutions that were not part of the final sample. Confidentiality was guaranteed by committing not to disseminate nominal information of the organizations, and they were asked to provide the name and email or telephone number of the person who answered the questionnaire in order to verify 10% of the answers obtained and, in addition, to ensure that duplicates were avoided when validating results.

The data collection tool was sent by email to the sampled organizations between November 2016 and February 2017. The mailing technique was complemented with telephone calls to check reception and compliance. The level of participation achieved is similar to that achieved in previous studies on similar topics (Dircom, 2015; Gómez Nieto, 2011; Marín Dueñas, 2016). However, the present study is exploratory and points to main trends. Given the difficulty of involving participants of the group and the diversity of the collaborating entities, it is an extremely valuable sample of data. The implementation of this first peripheral monitoring effort will enable the stabilization and preparation of subsequent comparatives with equal frequency to Dircom’s studies (every 5 years), allowing to monitor the evolution of both situations, in parallel.

Results

Importance of communication and level of strategic planning

When asked, in general terms, about the evolution of the importance of communication in society, on average, 71% of respondents consider that communication is at present much more important than 5 years ago or somewhat more important (18%). This opinion is slightly more widespread among agencies and companies than among institutions.

Increased relevance of communication in the last 5 years is, therefore, an aspect that generates broad consensus. Percentages are very similar to those provided by communication professionals in Spain according to Dircom’s study (2015), thus it can be said that this perception is widespread, not limited geographically or by size or organizational profile.

When specifically asked about the relevance of communicative activities for their companies or institutions (this question does not apply to agencies), 96% of institutional respondents believe that communication is important for the success of their institutions, either as a key factor (44%), an important part of success (31%), or a complementary tool (21%). This percentage drops to 71% in the case of companies’ communication managers, although this downward distortion is due to the fact that more than 20% of the respondents belonging to this group did not answer this question. These data are consistent with those obtained by other independent studies (Baamonde et al., 2016; Dircom, 2015). On the other hand, in the business world, the different positive conceptions of communication coexist in similar percentages, which suggests that commitment to communication is not yet strategic, given that it is not considered instrumental to achieve organizational goals. Taking into account that strategic communication encompasses all communication that is substantial for the survival and sustained success of an entity and that strategic communication is the purposeful use of communication by an entity to engage in conversations of strategic significance to its goals (Zerfass et al., 2018b), it is striking the low level of awareness of the role of communication in the activity of organizations and the perception of their survival and success.

As a matter of fact, despite the global importance given to communication, only 24% of the institutions and 18% of the companies have a communication plan linked to their formal organizational strategy. In a slightly higher percentage of cases (35% of institutions and 28% of companies), the plan was under development and, in other cases (16% and 15%, respectively), its preparation was being considered. These figures are lower than those reported by medium and large companies in the national environment, where 51% of organizations claim to have a communication plan (Dircom, 2015). With regard to crisis plans, percentages are clearly lower, with only 8% of companies and institutions having a crisis plan currently in place (Table 1).

Table 1.

Does your organization have a communication plan linked to the strategy? Does your organization have a crisis plan?

	Communication plan linked to the strategy		Crisis plan
	Companies (%)	Institutions (%)	Companies (%)	Institutions (%)
Yes, formally written	17.7	24	7.6	8
Not yet, but under development	28.5	35	15.3	20
Not yet, but under consideration	15.4	16	9.2	18
It does not exist	33.8	18	60.7	45
Don’t know/no reply	4.6	7	7.1	9

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Changes in communication: Impact of the crisis

When asked about the main changes that, in general terms, have affected communication in recent years, most respondents from agencies (69%) consider that companies and institutions have reduced their communication budgets. In the corporate field, there are more differing opinions and the proportion of managers who consider that budgets have been reduced is only 28%; this data clashes not only with the agencies’ opinion, but also with the data obtained by Mundinova Consultores de Comunicación (2013), which highlighted this decline in investment in communication by Galician companies; although there is also the possibility that they initially, as a direct consequence of the crisis, reduced their budgets (2013), but in a second stage increased them again (2017).

Fifty-five percent of agencies’ managers also consider that investment in human resources for communication has been reduced in all types of organizations (including the agencies themselves), compared to 22% of companies’ communication managers. There is further agreement in the consideration of the investment in performance measurement; 62% of agencies’ managers and 53% of corporate communication managers coincide in highlighting the increase in that investment. This conclusion is consistent with the results of Dircom’s (2015) study at the national level, in which 57.14% of the professionals had pointed to this trend. Data on the institutions have not been included due to the low response rate to that question (Table 2).

Table 2.

How have communication elements changed?

	Budgets		Human resources		Investment in measurement of results
	Companies (%)	Agencies (%)	Companies (%)	Agencies (%)	Companies (%)	Agencies (%)
Reduction	28.4	69	22.3	55	10.7	16
Increase	39.2	19	43	24	53.8	62
No variation	29.2	12	30.7	21	31.5	22
Don’t know/no reply	3	0	3.8	0	3.8	0

Source: Author’s elaboration.

When asked about the direct consequences of the economic crisis on the communicative activity of their organizations, it can be observed that 26% and 22% of communication managers from institutions and companies, respectively, consider that the crisis has not influenced their communicative activity. However, in the case of institutions, 55% of respondents indicate a moderate or substantial reduction in the communication budgets (compared to 26%, which denotes an increase); the decrease in projects and communication actions in general or in projects commissioned to agencies, as well as layoffs in the department, occurred in less than 20% of the cases. The results obtained for the companies are lower in almost all the indicators, although the most noticeable difference seems to be found in communication personnel layoffs, mentioned only by 1% of the companies’ communication managers (Table 3).

Table 3.

How has the economic crisis influenced your organization?

	Companies (%)	Institutions (%)	Agencies (%)
High communication budget reductions	11	26	57	Reduction of benefits
Significant communication budget reductions	14	29	57	Reduction of benefits
Increased communication budget	3	26	9	The influence of the crisis was small
Decline in communication projects and actions	9	15	28	Reduction in the amount or variety of services requested by clients
Decline in projects outsourced to external agencies or collaborators	8	17	43	Reduction in the number of clients
Staff reduction	1	15	24	Reduction of the agency’s workforce
The crisis did not influenced the organization’s activities	22	26	19	The crisis did not influenced the organization’s activities

Source: Author’s elaboration.

These general findings on the perception of the influence of the crisis are consistent with those provided by Baamonde et al. (2015) in their consultation to Galician communication professionals, who mostly classify the impact of the crisis as severe (47%) or very severe (11,7%), while only 11.7% claimed not having suffered any consequence.

The results obtained for the agencies (Table 3) are also quite consistent with the companies and institutions’ responses. Fifty-seven percent of managers point to a reduction in benefits, which is consistent with the above-mentioned budget reduction, especially by public institutions, on which many Galician agencies depend for their survival. In 43% of the cases, a reduction in clients is also detected, in line with the decrease in projects commissioned to agencies by institutions and companies. A reduction in the amount or variety of services is perceived by 28% of the agencies, and 24% have had to reduce their workforce as a result of the crisis. It should be mentioned that 19% of managers consider that the crisis has not influenced their agency’s activities and 9% allude to a minor impact, but none of them represents those agencies existing before 2000, whose managers have a less optimistic perception of the effects of the crisis.

Communicative activities: Development, relevance, and 5-year forecast

In overall terms, the communication activities performed by a higher percentage of Galician organizations and, at the same time, regarded as very relevant by a higher percentage of respondents are online communication through web pages or corporate blogs, communication in social networks and relations with the media. External communication, therefore, remains the most developed activity by the communication departments of peripheral organizations.

Audiovisual communication, social networks, and CSR are the activities that will gain more strength in the next 5 years, in relation to their current perceived importance, while relations with the media, online communication through web pages and corporate blogs and internal communication will lose strength (Table 4). The national-level analysis (Dircom, 2015) concurs on the commitment to online communication but some disparities are found with respect to second trends, which point to corporate communication (19.16%), internal communication (12.88%), relations with the media (12%), CSR (9.74%), or institutional relations (9.31%). Also, in the Latin American Communication Monitor (Moreno et al., 2015), online communication, social networks or mobile communication were activities expected to grow significantly. In addition, in the Latin American context, relations with traditional media are perceived as an activity in decline in the short term (Moreno et al., 2017).

Table 4.

Developed activities, relevant activities and 5-year forecast. Data disaggregated by organization.

	Developed activities (%)			Most relevant activities (%)			Most relevant activities within 5 years (%)
	C	I	T	C	I	T	C	I	T
Audiovisual communication	50.38	40.23	46.33	22.14	20.69	21.56	35.11	47.13	39.91
Commercial advertising (product/brand)	56.49	29.89	45.87	32.82	9.20	23.39	25.95	6.90	18.35
Corporate social responsibility	37.40	16.09	28.90	16.03	2.30	10.55	35.88	11.49	26.15
Event planning	65.65	72.41	68.35	21.37	13.79	18.35	19.85	10.34	16.06
Institutional relations	35.88	43.68	38.99	17.56	16.09	16.97	16.79	13.79	15.60
Internal communication	64.89	62.07	63.76	45.04	31.03	39.45	32.82	21.84	28.44
International communication	29.77	21.84	26.61	17.56	3.45	11.93	24.43	8.05	17.89
Online communication on social networks	68.70	81.61	73.85	56.49	62.07	58.72	73.28	74.71	73.85
Online communication on web pages or corporate blogs	74.81	74.71	74.77	54.96	44.83	50.92	53.44	27.59	43.12
Protocol	28.24	44.83	34.86	1.53	6.90	3.67	1.53	4.60	2.75
Public relations	43.51	43.68	43.58	11.45	5.75	9.17	17.56	8.05	13.76
Publications/editorial	38.93	55.17	45.41	16.03	9.20	13.30	7.63	10.34	8.72
Relations with the Media	62.60	86.21	72.02	44.27	81.61	59.17	29.01	68.97	44.95
Sponsorship	42.75	14.94	31.65	9.92	0.00	5.96	6.11	3.45	5.05

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

C: Companies; I: Institutions; T: Total.

Data disaggregated by type of organization reveal differences in the priority given to the tasks implemented. This is especially significant in several of the most performed functions, as in the case of relations with the media (86% of public institutions carry out this task, compared to 63% of private companies) or communication in social networks (82% vs 69%). The cause of the clear institutional commitment towards relations with the media lies in the search for public approval. On the other hand, commercial advertising, CSR, sponsorship and international communication are tasks carried out by a higher proportion of companies than institutions (Table 4).

Regarding the most relevant activities, institutional communication managers widely indicate relations with the media (82%), although their consideration as a very relevant activity within 5 years drops to 69% in favor of social networks (75%). In the case of companies, opinions are much more varied, even though around 55% of respondents consider online communication to be very relevant, both on social networks and on corporate websites and blogs. Also, 74% of respondents agrees with their institutional counterparts that communication in social networks will be the most relevant activity within 5 years (Table 4).

From the point of view of the agencies, according to their managers, most of the services that are related to the online domain are among the most provided by agencies and among the most requested by clients. They also deal with the growing supply and demand for advertising services and for the preparation of communication plans. With regard to expectations for the next 5 years, social network management, corporate videos, preparation of communication plans and services related to websites and blogs will be the most requested services (Table 5).

Table 5.

Offered services, most requested services and 5-year forecast.

Services	Offered (%)	Most requested (%)	Most requested within 5 years (%)
Social network management	88	57	74
Development of communication plans	83	45	45
Commercial advertising (product or brand)	83	48	29
Creation and maintenance of corporate websites or blogs	81	38	41
Corporate website or blog management	79	28	41
Event planning	71	33	29
Publications/editorial	71	24	9
Audiovisual communication	66	29	50
Relations with the media	64	10	24
Internal communication	52	16	17
Public relations	50	16	24
Development of crisis’ communication plans	41	3	7
Sponsorship	36	5	3
Institutional relations	36	33	9
Corporate social responsibility	33	2	38
Intranet creation or maintenance	24	2	5
Protocol	21	3	2
Intranet management	16	2	2

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

It is possible to observe a general consistency in the results of the relationship between the activities most performed by the organizations and the services identified by agencies as the most requested, although they clearly reflect how some activities with high implementation levels, such as relations with the media or internal communication, are not usually outsourced to agencies.

Demand for training

The in-depth study of the training needs detected by corporate and institutional professionals emphasizes the relevance of our new social-technological context and reveals two types of deficiencies:

Specific training needs, which in the case of institutional communication involve political communication (in particular oratory, political management and crisis communication), and in the case of business communication involve balances and budgets, marketing and business management and task planning.

Common needs, with a two-fold trend: planning and strategy, which, according to the data, are considered a fundamental priority by business communication professionals; and digital environment and new technologies, relevant to both institutional (51.7%) and business sectors (38.7%).

These trends are again consistent with the Spanish context, where they were highlighted as areas in which most respondents would be interested in enhancing their performance: digital environment, crisis communication, communication strategy, and planning and strategy design (Dircom, 2015).

Strategic communication awareness index

According to the Strategic Communication Awareness Index, the average development of strategic communication awareness among peripheral organizations is intermediate, being higher in the institutional sector than in the private sector.

By economic sectors (Table 6), the lowest index corresponds to primary-sector and construction organizations, while the services sector records a higher strategic communication awareness index. However, half of the organizations in the services and industry sectors have a low level of development.

Table 6.

Strategic communication awareness index × activity sector.

Index		Activity sector					Total (%)
Index		Primary (%)	Industry (%)	Construction (%)	Services (%)	Institutional (%)	Total (%)
High	% Within index	0.0	16.2	0.0	35.1	48.6	100.0
High	% Within sector	0.0	13.6	0.0	18.1	20.7	17.1
Medium	% Within index	0.8	19.7	1.6	29.9	48.0	100.0
Medium	% Within sector	16.7	56.8	25.0	52.8	70.1	58.5
Low	% Within index	9.4	24.5	11.3	39.6	15.1	100.0
Low	% Within sector	83.3	29.5	75.0	29.2	9.2	24.4
Total	% Within index	2.8	20.3	3.7	33.2	40.1	100.0
Total	% Within sector	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

The Strategic Communication Awareness Index also correlates with the variable size of the organizations based on the number of employees (Table 7). It is concluded that the larger the entity, the higher the level of strategic communication awareness, which means that this awareness must be especially encouraged in medium and small peripheral organizations.

Table 7.

Strategic communication awareness index × size of the organization.

Index		Size				Total
Index		Large company (more than 250 employees) (%)	Medium company (from 50 to 250 employees) (%)	Small company (from 11 to 49 employees) (%)	Micro company (upto 10 employees) (%)	Total
High	% Within index	45.9	29.7	18.9	5.4	100.0
High	% Within size	32.1	18.0	9.0	8.0	17.1
Medium	% Within index	22.0	33.9	30.7	13.4	100.0
Medium	% Within size	52.8	70.5	50.0	68.0	58.5
Low	% Within index	15.1	13.2	60.4	11.3	100.0
Low	% Within size	15.1	11.5	41.0	24.0	24.4
Total	% Within index	24.4	28.1	35.9	11.5	100.0
Total	% Within size	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Discussion

Regarding the perceived importance of communication in a peripheral environment (RQ1), the results of the study allow to conclude that, according to the professionals in this field, communication is an element that has gained relevance in recent years, regardless of the environment in which they carry out their work (agency, public institution, or private company). This result does not differ substantially from those obtained in previous studies on the same geographic context and is also consistent with the researches carried out in other peripheral (Marta-Lazo, 2014) and non-peripheral contexts, both at national and European level, so it can be inferred that this perception is widespread among the professionals in this field.

With regard to the level of strategic development reached by communication (RQ2), the results show an inconsistency, both for companies and institutions, between the strategic relevance given by professionals to communication and the actual implementation of communicative elements demonstrating such relevance, such as communication plans or crisis plans (Claeys and Opgenhaffen, 2016). In this regard, the preparation of communication plans, which are a key element for guiding the communicative activity of an organization in a deliberate and strategic way and clearly contribute to organizational goals, is much lower than that found in previous studies on non-peripheral contexts. In addition, there is limited awareness on the strategic nature of communication for the organizational survival and success. Both indicators show that improvements are needed in the dissemination of strategic communication in the peripheral regions, where normal is not normative. The Awareness Index, despite reflecting an intermediate global level, reveals that institutions present a more advanced level, linked to the development of institutional communication intended at renewing political mandates. In connection with this relationship between institutional and political communication, there is also higher strategic awareness regarding business communication. Meanwhile, from the business sphere, this perception of success of the communicative factor is less evident. The service subsector is particularly relevant to those organizations that need the communicative factor to publicize and promote the services provided, although with substantial room for improvement. With regard to the size of the organizations, there is a pressing need to improve the Index in medium-sized (from 50 to 250 employees) and small-sized (up to 49 employees) organizations, which are the ones with the least financial resources. Small and medium-sized organizations perceive communication as an expense rather than an investment, they lack a culture of communication and are not aware of the strategic and dialogical potential of communication.

Regarding the main changes that have occurred in the communication profession in recent years (RQ3), it should be noted that, in the context of budget cuts and shortages of human resources perceived by agencies (not so much by companies), it is particularly relevant to assess the effectiveness of the actions carried out. The fact that companies and agencies agree on indicate an increase in investment in measurement reveals growing interest and efforts, which have also been found in studies at the national level (Dircom, 2015), with the aim to objectively demonstrate y the effectiveness of communicative actions so that they can be perceived as profitable in a context of expenditure rationalization due to the crisis (Macnamara, 2014).

With regard to their particular insight into the effects of the crisis most companies and institutions agree on detecting new challenges arising from the crisis, either moderate or substantial reductions in the communication budget or layoffs, although a quarter of communication managers believe that the impact of the crisis has been minimal. Particularly in the case of institutions, 26% of respondents confirmed an increase in communication budgets, which may be the result of the trend to incorporate services by small institutions that until recent years lacked stable structures; however, this upward trend has not yet reached the business sphere.

In the case of agencies, as it was observed in the sample selection, this is an ever-changing sector, where companies are frequently created, merged, or destroyed. Actually, the crisis led to the disappearance of many agencies and favored the emergence of others, which seemingly covered market niches. In this context, it is not surprising that almost three-quarters of the heads of agencies consider various types of negative effects of the crisis, such as a decline in benefits, customers and requested services, and that those who do not consider these effects are the heads of newly created agencies, incorporated during or after the crisis. Therefore, although according to Dircom’s study (2015), consulting and communication service companies confirm the increasing demand for their work in recent years and predict a positive future, this reality is not reflected in the peripheral context of this study.

In relation to the most developed communication activities today by companies and institutions (RQ4), online communication, in its different forms, has established itself as the most developed and most relevant activity in overall terms, hence communication school departments and professors should consider digital and dialogical communication as one of their priority orientations when teaching corporate communication (Costa-Sánchez, 2017). The growing interest in online communication and the decline in the relations with the media could lead to changes in a professional profile that in Spain has traditionally prioritized journalism as a basic training to ensure knowledge of media routines (Costa-Sánchez, Túñez-López and Míguez-González, 2019; Dircom, 2015; Dircom, 2010; Dircom, 2005). In the case of public institutions, relations with the media continue to be their priority activity, which would reveal the importance of their impact on the agenda of public institutions as a justifying argument for their communication activity, which, in certain cases, has a clear political intention, given the degree of confusion detected in Spanish public organizations between institutional and political communication (Túñez-López, Costa-Sánchez and Míguez-González, 2018; Rodríguez Virgili, 2015; García & García, 2014; García-Orosa & Vázquez Sande, 2012). Agencies also consider online communication among the most offered services, although the demand for services regarding creation and management of corporate websites and blogs is lower than that of social network management. Social networks, in particular, are seen as the most relevant activity within 5 years, both by companies and institutions, as well as the most requested activity within a 5-year period, according to agencies. PR departments and agencies agree on what will be the main communication activities in the future (Verčič et al., 2018). In this regard, the present study confirms a tendency toward widespread online communication and social media management (Zerfass et al., 2018a), which reflects a clear evolution compared to previous studies (Mundinova Consultores de Comunicación, 2013) and which begins to bring Galician companies and institutions closer to network use levels in the national context.

Overall results do not show significant differences between the perception, diagnosis and forecast on the future evolution of communication management between a peripheral territorial analysis and similar researches carried out at national level (Dircom, 2015; Falkheimer et al., 2017; Marta-Lazo, 2014) or at supranational level, in the Latin American region (Moreno et al., 2015; Moreno et al., 2017; Moreno et al., 2019). The rise of online communication, social networks and the management of relations with users/audiences/public through mobile terminals has set the trend towards the globalization or standardization of strategic communication planning and implementation, which would be more oriented to select the most appropriate contact method in each geographic area rather than to defining the communication strategy itself (Etter et al., 2019).

However, even areas with an uneven development of public relations show a common concern for online communication (Huertas & Cavia, 2006). The apparent democratization that digitization brings to public relations could be undermining or hiding vital issues for organizations, such as the strategic development of communication in a thorough and planned manner. Thus, the focus would be shifting toward global trends (Verčič & Zerfass, 2017), without realizing that online communication is a continuation of offline communication and that both spaces respond to a public relations’ role whose main tool is planning.

As critical scholars have pointed out (L’Etang et al., 2015), the socio-political and economic context affects how the profession develops (Gutiérrez and Rodríguez-Salcedo, 2009). Thus, although the contextual issues derived from globalization, such as online communication, have been adopted by the professional practice, the late take-off of Public Relations in Spain (Xifra, 2011) and its limited location in Madrid and Barcelona for several years (Rodríguez-Salcedo & Watson, 2017) could be the reason why structural issues, such as the need for strategic planning, have not been consolidated in those regions far from political and economic poles. In this way, the institutionalization of strategic communication in Europe (Tench, Verhoeven & Zerfass, 2009) must be relativized, taking into account the historic background and the peculiarities of each country, in which different realities can coexist.

In terms of training demands (RQ5), professionals put forth that there are clear needs regarding strategic planning and management, business management and online environment. The self-assessment carried out by professionals regarding their training needs is in line with the aforementioned structural and global needs, related to communication planning and the emergence of social media, respectively. This means that professionals are aware that their work is performed in a tactical rather than strategic manner with all that implies (Andersson, 2020), while the digital context is constantly testing their adaptability.

The present work emphasizes the existence of PR peripheral realities, with their singularities and convergences. It seems necessary to analyze the contrasts and to compare the different contexts, although this perspective is usually ignored by professional studies, as they consider it unrepresentative.

Conclusion

The study draws relevant conclusions for the academic and professional field. Firstly, it highlights the relevance of studying the reality and the most important communication trends in medium and small-sized organizations in order to determine their characteristics, shortcomings and needs, since they represent the most common type of organization in the exercise of the profession.

Secondly, it provides useful information for adapting university studies to professional profiles in line with the identified gaps. Considering the results, it would be necessary to emphasize the need for training in communication management as a success factor and for measuring communication results at the service of corporate strategy. Both elements—the acknowledged lack of planning and the need for measurement, especially after the economic crisis—underscore another conclusion of the present analysis: the low awareness on the culture of communication. Organizations do not make planning efforts because they work with a tactical perspective of PR. Communication and PR are not valued as a determining factor because they are not recognized as a management element at the highest level of the organization. These activities need to be measured to justify their budgets. This would support the idea that there are two realities in the exercise of PR in Spain: an elite with a high culture of communication in business and institutional centers coexisting with a low culture of communication in peripheral areas, where PR has no tradition in organizational structures.

It is difficult to get out of this circle without conducting an outreach work on the concept and role of PR from professional associations, universities, or the professionals themselves. A PR plan is needed at the service of the PR profession, with three fundamental objectives:

(a) Raise awareness in the peripheral business sector with regard to the characteristics and potential of the communication and PR degrees.

(b) Disseminate the importance of a professional communication function.

(c) Develop a training path to demonstrate to the business and institutional sector the benefits of strategic communication for achieving organizational goals; encourage training to raise awareness towards PR by business or institutional managers and directors.

Even with this effort, moving forward towards a culture of communication at the peripheral level will be difficult. At the business level, the primary sector, which is very relevant in Galicia and other Spanish regions, is far from the actors that can promote this plan, such as chambers of commerce or business associations. In addition, there are organizational cultures opposed to change. It will be essential to look ahead to the medium-term future, so that new organizations of different profiles and sizes can analyze and understand their communication needs in an increasingly “glocal” context.

Furthermore, the present work shows that a new phase has begun for the profession. Relations with the media are taking a secondary role in the functions of the communication departments. Communication on social media has become the most important trend, both at present and in the short-term future. This means that journalistic training, which has traditionally been the most valued in the sector, could give way to other types of profiles within the communication field, or even to hybrid profiles between communication and technology. It also means that PR is facing its most important challenge: that of bidirectional, dialogical and direct communication, apart from gatekeeping processes, which aims to create community. This new need could be a way to develop a greater strategic communication awareness in medium and small organizations.

Finally, the study concludes that PR at a professional level in a peripheral environment is at an intersection between two transitions: the transition to digitization, which poses the challenges resulting from an interactive symmetric bidirectionality, and the transition from the tactical perspective to its strategic condition.

Its evolution in both processes will determine the degree of relevance and influence of the profession in the coming years.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The present study is the result of the joint effort by academic institutions from the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain), with the support of Dircom (the main Spanish Association of Communication Managers).

ORCID iD

Carmen Costa-Sánchez

Notes

Author biographies

Carmen Costa-Sánchez (PhD, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain) is an associate professor of Corporate Communication and Communication Strategies in the Department of Sociology and Communication Sciences at the School of Communication Sciences at the University of A Coruña. Her research interests include communication management and social media.

Miguel Túñez-López is currently a professor of Organisational Communication and Communication Strategies and Plans in the Department of Communication Sciences at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He is also an advisor and lecturer to various European and Latin American organisations and universities on communication management processes and plans.

María-Isabel Míguez-González is currently a professor of Public Relations and Communication Management in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication at the University of Vigo. She coordinates SEPCOM, a research group on communication for public service. Her research activities are focused on public relations, communication management and online communication.

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