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Table 20.4 Responses of senior-level, US PR and corporate communication professionals to additional
questions in March 2002 (%)
Question Strongly Agree Uncertain/ Disagree Strongly Mean
agree no opinion disagree
Do you agree the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks precipitated a paradigm
shift advancing communications and
public relations into a more significant
role in corporate America 18 32 27 23 0 3.45
Do you agree your company’s executive
teams have been more aware of the
importance of communicating openly,
effectively, and in a timely manner since
September 11, 2001 18 46 14 23 0 3.59
prior to September 11: (1) corporate public
relations had established a strong tradition of
playing a significant role in their company;
and (2) their organization’s executive teams
recognized years ago the importance of communicating
openly, effectively and in a timely
manner. Given the reality, these respondents
essentially were not disagreeing with the
questions reported on in Table 20.4, the level
of agreement actually would be considerably
higher – nearly 65 per cent for RQ4 and
greater than 75 per cent for RQ5. Furthermore,
while taking precautions not to violate
the study’s promises of anonymity and confidentiality,
it is important to point out that several
of those who disagreed with these two
questions are very senior-level corporate communication
officers who have earned the
utmost respect from their professional peers.
Essentially, then, their responses to these
questions might need to be overlooked. They
disagreed with the paradigm shift thesis
because corporate public relations already
was extremely significant in their organization.
And, they disagreed with the executive
teams question because that kind of open
communication has been taking place in their
company for many years.
Although this research was conducted with
promises of anonymity and confidentiality,
several subjects identified their responses and
provided additional permission to be quoted
directly in results reports. This included five
very senior-level corporate public relations
professionals. Each of these individuals was
asked to provide a direct quote in October
2001 assessing the impact the September 11
terrorist attacks were having on their jobs. The
same five senior-level professionals were
asked to review their quotes in March 2002
and explain how, if at all, their opinions might
have changed.
Quotes from these five professionals follow.
Bill Nielsen, Corporate Vice President,
Public Affairs and Corporate
Communications, Johnson & Johnson
October 2001
My company’s employee communications
came to the forefront following September
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors