The Sage handbook of international corporate and public affairs. Edited by Phil Harris and Craig S. Fleisher. Sage Publications, London, UK. 2017. ISBN: 9781446276112

AuthorRob McLoughlin
Date01 November 2017
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1681
Published date01 November 2017
BOOK REVIEW
THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL
CORPORATE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Edited by Phil Harris |Craig S. Fleisher
Sage Publications, London, UK. 2017. ISBN: 9781446276112
1|NEVER WASTING A CRISIS?
You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.
The line, one of his best, comes from the 44th Mayor of Chicago in
the USA. A man often credited with the observation that the weekend
is No more than 2 more working days to Monday.
Rahm Emanuel was also the 20092010 holder of the Office of
Chief of Staff in Obama's White House.
It may seem a short period of time to have such a powerful role at
the centre of a the web, but it will prove longer than many will enjoy
inside the Trump administration's version of The West Wing, and in
fairness, Emanuel was there for the tidal wave, which brought Barack
Obama to power. The Mayor believes that as each crisis presents itself
in government, business, the charitable or NGO sectors, and maybe in
our private lives, it is an opportunity to make changes, which would not
have been possible earlier.
You could add that it may be best to anticipate them, avert them,
or minimise them ahead of the fire. Public Affairs, administered cor-
rectly, can often play a key role in ensuring practitioners do not always
suffer the darkest hour before the dawn.
Never waste a Crisiscould so easily have been a populist title for
the comprehensive and probing academic work of Harris and Fleisher
and it could be a wakeup call to the corporates and academics
who should devour the content of this fascinating work.
Instead, the jointeditors have opted for a more acceptable and
easily understood handle, which nonetheless portrays a similar mes-
sageindeed, it is screaming out from all 681 pages excluding the
index.
If the Artof Public Affairs had a manifesto, indeed had cheer
leaders and a run for office, then Harris and Fleisher (Chester in
England and Aurora WDC, USA, respectively) would be in the van-
guard as they have been for a huge number of years.
It's wrong that Public Affairs and PA professionals are not repre-
sented at the top table in major companiescomplained a delegate at
one of Harris's roundtables some years back.
If they don'tI opined Maybe it's your fault?
The complainant fell silent, point taken. More cheerleading may be
needed and soon if PA is to get to more top tables and on more univer-
sity curriculums. After all, who trains Public Affairs specialists?
At a recent conference on Reputational Management, we were
enthralled by a speaker who had just flown through the eye of a storm
within a UK bank (The Chairman seemed to know more about drugs,
scandal, and sex than he did about the assets and liabilities on his
own balance sheet).
As he sat down, I used my position as Conference Chairman to ask
the obvious question: Who knew?
The speaker smiled and simply said: Good question.
The bank nearly collapsed, but there was silence within until it was
too late.
There are 1) those who are good at public affairs and politics and
their businesses succeed and 2) those who do not understand the sub-
ject and they are either no more or in decline.
This statement, which sets the tone of the chapters that follow, is
in essence the thread, which runs through an indepth and challenging
compilation of new and refreshed research, which updates the previ-
ous volume of 2005.
In that time, some contributors note that little has changed and
Catie Snow Bailard (George Washington University) identifies a core
problem with those wishing to promote the study and adoption of
PA in both business and the academic sector; there remains marked
ambiguity and disagreement within the study and practice of public
affairs as to how exactly to define public affairs.
In a fascinating chapter on digital and technology trends, she is
quick to point out that although some see it as a cushion
protecting organisations, other academics see it as shortterm politi-
cal lobbying as opposed to the Van Schendelen definition, which I
would favour as the facilitation and construction of relationships
and interactions between members of social and political spheres
in order to bring corporate preferences and public policy into
alignment.
This embraces aTheory of Countervaleing Powers, which may suit
modern liberal democracies best.
Alongside that, I would add the need to protect through reputa-
tional alertness and the simple business need that PA can (a) protect
your business if threatened by unwelcome political actions or (b) grow
your business by advocating change, which may allow legal, regulatory,
or other measures to permit expansion or growth especially in con-
trolled market places.
Harris and Fleisher make a solid call for PA to be taught at busi-
ness schools across the globe.
DOI: 10.1002/pa.1681
J Public Affairs. 2017;17:e1681.
https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1681
Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of2

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