Why All Managers Are Alike

Written by Robert A. Kelly


Continued from page 1

That’s whyrepparttar responses you gather are red-meat when you begin to establish your corrective public relations goal. For example, correct that inaccuracy, replace that false assumption withrepparttar 104969 truth, or spike that unfair rumor as soon as possible.

Are there strategies available to you designed to show you how to achieve your new goal? Absolutely, but only three when it comes to perceptions and opinions. You can create perception/opinion where none exists, you can change existing perception, or you can reinforce it. A caveat here: be surerepparttar 104970 strategy you choose flows naturally from your brand new public relations goal.

Perhapsrepparttar 104971 most challenging step in our problem solving sequence is preparingrepparttar 104972 actual corrective message you will use to try and alter perception among members ofrepparttar 104973 target audience. Stay involved with your PR staff as they writerepparttar 104974 message. Satisfy yourself that it is not only clear, but persuasive and compelling as well.

This is not a simple task because, as you makerepparttar 104975 case for your point of view, you should keep two considerations in mind: one, above all, your message must be believable and, two, seldom will you want to deliver it inrepparttar 104976 high-profile manner of a news announcement, preferring instead to make repparttar 104977 message part of another general interest release, presentation or address.

Speaking of communications tactics, here you must work closely with your PR folks (and your budget) in reviewingrepparttar 104978 broad array of such tactics available to you. Everything from consumer meetings, media interviews, speeches and newsletters to brochures, press releases, special events, letters-to-the-editor and many others. But keep your eye on how each tactic stacks up as to its efficiency in reaching folks like those in your target audience.

Inevitably, you will question whether your effort is succeeding in achieving your public relations goal. To satisfy yourself, you and your PR staff must re-monitor perceptions among members of that audience, and that means more questions. Only this time,repparttar 104979 big difference is, you are focused sharply on signs of progress, i.e., indications that perceptions are clearly moving in your direction.

But are things moving too slowly for you? Add more communications tactics, and increase their frequencies, to speed things up.

Yes, when it comes torepparttar 104980 kind of crucially important outside audience behaviors that help them reach their operating objectives, I believe all managers are, indeed, alike in welcoming such support.

end



Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com




The Morality of Child Labor

Written by Sam Vaknin


Continued from page 1

Regrettably,repparttar debate is so laden with emotions and self-serving arguments thatrepparttar 104968 facts are often overlooked.

The outcry against soccer balls stitched by children in Pakistan led torepparttar 104969 relocation of workshops ran by Nike and Reebok. Thousands lost their jobs, including countless women and 7000 of their progeny. The average family income - anyhow meager - fell by 20 percent. Economists Drusilla Brown, Alan Deardorif, and Robert Stern observe wryly:

"While Baden Sports can quite credibly claim that their soccer balls are not sewn by children,repparttar 104970 relocation of their production facility undoubtedly did nothing for their former child workers and their families."

Such examples abound. Manufacturers - fearing legal reprisals and "reputation risks" (naming-and-shaming by overzealous NGO's) - engage in preemptive sacking. German garment workshops fired 50,000 children in Bangladesh in 1993 in anticipation ofrepparttar 104971 American never-legislated Child Labor Deterrence Act.

Quoted by Wasserstein, former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, notes:

"Stopping child labor without doing anything else could leave children worse off. If they are working out of necessity, as most are, stopping them could force them into prostitution or other employment with greater personal dangers. The most important thing is that they be in school and receiverepparttar 104972 education to help them leave poverty."

Contrary to hype, three quarters of all children work in agriculture and with their families. Less than 1 percent work in mining and another 2 percent in construction. Most ofrepparttar 104973 rest work in retail outlets and services, including "personal services" - a euphemism for prostitution. UNICEF andrepparttar 104974 ILO are inrepparttar 104975 throes of establishing school networks for child laborers and providing their parents with alternative employment.

But this is a drop inrepparttar 104976 sea of neglect. Poor countries rarely proffer education on a regular basis to more than two thirds of their eligible school-age children. This is especially true in rural areas where child labor is a widespread blight. Education - especially for women - is considered an unaffordable luxury by many hard-pressed parents. In many cultures, work is still considered to be indispensable in shapingrepparttar 104977 child's morality and strength of character and in teaching him or her a trade.

"The Economist" elaborates:

"In Africa children are generally treated as mini-adults; from an early age every child will have tasks to perform inrepparttar 104978 home, such as sweeping or fetching water. It is also common to see children working in shops or onrepparttar 104979 streets. Poor families will often send a child to a richer relation as a housemaid or houseboy, inrepparttar 104980 hope that he will get an education."

A solution recently gaining steam is to provide families in poor countries with access to loans secured byrepparttar 104981 future earnings of their educated offspring. The idea - first proposed by Jean-Marie Baland ofrepparttar 104982 University of Namur and James A. Robinson ofrepparttar 104983 University of California at Berkeley - has now permeatedrepparttar 104984 mainstream.

Evenrepparttar 104985 World Bank has contributed a few studies, notably, in June, "Child Labor: The Role of Income Variability and Access to Credit Across Countries" authored by Rajeev Dehejia ofrepparttar 104986 NBER and Roberta Gatti ofrepparttar 104987 Bank's Development Research Group.

Abusive child labor is abhorrent and should be banned and eradicated. All other forms should be phased out gradually. Developing countries already produce millions of unemployable graduates a year - 100,000 in Morocco alone. Unemployment is rife and reaches, in certain countries - such as Macedonia - more than one third ofrepparttar 104988 workforce. Children at work may be harshly treated by their supervisors but at least they are kept offrepparttar 104989 far more menacing streets. Some kids even end up with a skill and are rendered employable.



Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com




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