Responsibility in Strategic Communication: Truth or Trap?

Date and Time:
Tuesday, 13 May 2025
2:00 PM (CEST)

What to expect from the webinar

In this webinar, Petra Koudelková discusses with Ganga Dhanesh, Wim Elving, Denisa Hejlová, and Samira Rahimi Mavi, scholars with expertise in strategic communication and the multiple facets of responsibility. The webinar reflects on their research recently published in the new EUPRERA book, Responsibility in Strategic Communication: Truth or Trap?, the latest volume in the Advances in Public Relations and Communication Management (APCRM) series, published by Emerald.

The webinar thus provides a unique forum for discussing not only the insights related to contributions presented at the EUPRERA Congress held in Prague, 2023, but it also offers a view on how experts perceive current legal and political development in corporate social responsibility, diversity, equity, inclusion, sustainability, and ESG. Government authorities in the USA have started to change their discursive practices, and EU regulatory bodies are talking about a redefinition of plans for extensive ESG reporting. Based on their previous findings, the EUPRERA experts share their view on how this structural change will contribute to differentiating genuine commitment from mere promises of responsibility.

Speakers

Ganga Dhanesh, University of Maryland, USA

Ganga Dhanesh (PhD, National University of Singapore) is an Associate Professor of Public Relations in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. Her experience in the corporate sector has informed her extensive research on corporate social responsibility communication, internal communication, and strategic public relations across global contexts, published in multiple top journals. Dr. Dhanesh serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Communication Management and is on the editorial board of Business Horizons, Journal of Public Relations Research, and Public Relations Review. A recipient of several research awards, Dhanesh consults for various national and multinational organizations.

Wim J.L. Elving, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands

Wim J.L. Elving is a Professor of Sustainable Communication at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences (HUAS), Groningen, the Netherlands. He is part of EnTranCe, Centre of Expertise: Energy of the HUAS, that focusses on the Energy Transition and the Sustainable Society. Elving’s current research is involved with communicative and behavioral interventions to create this sustainable future. Elving has contributed more than 250 articles, book chapters, books, editorials, blogs, etcetera. His research expertise is in sustainable communications, corporate communication, internal and change communication, CSR communication and branding. He was (2022) awarded the EUPRERA distinguished scholar award and is a member of the A.W. Page Society, and EUPRERA.

Denisa Hejlová, Charles University, Czech Republic

Denisa Hejlová is an Associate Professor at Charles University in Prague and a leading Czech expert in strategic communication, public relations, and political communication. She served as Head of the Department of Marketing Communication and Public Relations from 2011 to 2023 and currently directs the university’s Research Centre for Strategic Communication. A Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in 2014, Dr. Hejlová also studied intercultural communication at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. In 2020, she launched the first Czech MA programme in Strategic Communication. Her research spans government communication, propaganda, influencer ethics, and trust management. She is a member of EUPRERA and a contributor to the European Communication Monitor.

Samira Rahimi Mavi, University of Vienna, Austria

Samira Rahimi Mavi studied journalism at Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran and earned her PhD in communication from the University of Vienna, where she worked under the guidance of Prof. Sabine Einwiller. Her research explores corporate communication, with a focus on media coverage, consumer criticism, diversity and inclusion, and ethical communication strategies on controversial issues.

Moderator: Petra Koudelková, Charles University, Czech Republic

Dr Petra Koudelková is the Head of the Department of Marketing Communication and PR, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. Her field of study is sustainable marketing, social marketing, and marketing of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). She is very interested in government communication. She leads the working group for implementing a sustainability program for the whole Faculty of Social Sciences. She is an expert in the communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and maps the phenomenon of greenwashing in rapidly changing market conditions.

Duration

1 hour