Leadership and Workplace Culture in Public Relations Industries

Introduction: Workplace Culture and Leadership in Public Relations

Martina Topić-Rutherford and Michał Chmiel

Part I - Workplace Culture in Public Relations

1. Organisational Psychology of the Public Relations Workplace: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Lynsey Mahmood and Michał Chmiel

2. Ordinary Workplace Digital Violence: The Process of Banalization and the Role of Communication

Aurélie Laborde

3. Always in Meetings: Changed Conditions for Work Meetings as Arenas for Leadership

Maria Månsson, Jörgen Eksell and Marlene Wiggill

Part II - Leadership and Professional Practice in PR Workplaces

4. Integrating Guanxi into HRM Practices: Bridging Gaps Through an Inter-Relational Approach

Liane W.Y. Lee, Angela K.Y. Mak and Harry H. Li

5. Anticipatory Professional Socialization in Communication and Public Relations: Gen Z Representations on Well-being, Leadership and the Workplace

Anca Anton

6. “Assertive, Empathetic, Team Worker and Doesn’t Mind Teaching”: Gendered Expectations and Perceptions of Leadership in Portuguese Communication Industries

Maria João Cunha, Carla Cruz and Célia Belim

7. Informal Practices and Employee Engagement: Lessons for PR Leaders

Martina Topić-Rutherford, Claudia B. Bawole and Laura L. Lemon

Part III - The Challenges of the PR Workplace and the Way Ahead

8. Adapt or Die: Awards as Institutional Forces Shaping Workplace Culture and Leadership in PR

Markéta Kaclová

9. Employee Perceptions of the Risks and Benefits Associated with Workplace Monitoring

Claudia B. Bawole and Laura L. Lemon

10. Leading with Empathy: How Servant Leadership Supports Workplace Engagement, Satisfaction, and Well-Being Among Communication Professionals

Nicholas Eng, Yi Zhao, Ruoyu Sun and Juan Meng

11. The Role of the Leader: Leadership Accountability and Its Effects on Organizational Performance during a Crisis

Elina R. Tachkova and W. Timothy Coombs

12. The Tyranny of the Average: The Procrustean Syndrome and the Threat to Organizational Excellence

Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez and Bárbara Castillo-Abdul

Biography

Martina Topić-Rutherford is Associate Professor in PR leadership at the University of Alabama, College of Communication and Information Sciences, Department of Advertising and PR, USA.

Michał Chmiel is Associate Professor of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.

'This timely and wide-ranging volume brings together scholars from across the globe to examine the contemporary PR and communication workplace with both rigor and relevance. From servant leadership and empathetic management to the normalization of digital violence, from Gen Z's professional expectations to the quiet power of shared lunches, the chapters span the full complexity of organizational life today. Cross-cultural perspectives, including guanxi in Chinese HRM, gendered leadership in Portugal, and award cultures in the Czech Republic, give the book a genuinely international scope. Essential reading for practitioners, educators, and researchers who want to understand not just what communication professionals do, but the conditions under which they thrive or struggle.'

- Cen April Yue, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Boston University, USA.

'I recently read about leadership being an impossible, demanding endeavor, an enormous challenge to anyone. And yet, people have to perform in it every day in very different situations and cultures. The relevance of workplace conditions, wellbeing and leadership cultures get a lot more attention in the recent years. This volume is a fantastic guide through the reality of PR workplaces in different cultures. For me, it lays ground to a whole new field of research.'

- Lars Rademacher, Professor of Corporate and Sustainability Communication, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

'It is a highly anticipated book and a valuable contribution to the field. Martina and Michał have compiled an impressive collection of research on public relations and leadership, offering insight from multiple perspectives. The book emphasizes the importance of workplace culture and illustrates how digital infrastructures, meetings, and informal practices influence leadership processes, often normalizing issues such as surveillance, incivility, and inequality.

Across the chapters, leadership is examined at the individual, organizational, and cultural levels, drawing on perspectives from psychology, management, and critical sociology. The collection moves beyond idealized conceptions of leadership, focusing on its lived realities and emphasizing accountability, care, and resistance. In doing so, the book calls for more reflexive, ethical, and relational approaches to leadership within an increasingly digital PR environment.'

- Dr. Anastasios Theofilou, Public Relations, Faculty of Media and Communication, Bournemouth University, UK.