Download Imagining the lives of others: the paradox of empathy in public

Imagining the lives of others:
the paradox of empathy in
public relations and
implications for the curriculum
Panel Presentation:
“Exploring parallels and linkages in international public
relations and intercultural communication: theory
development and implications for education”
EUPRERA Congress 2016
What is empathy?
O “an affective response that stems from the
apprehension or comprehension of
another’s emotional state or condition and
is similar to what the other person is feeling
or would be expected to feel” (Eisenberg et
al, 1994 in Eisenberg, 2000, p. 671 )
O Put simply: stepping into another person’s
shoes.
Empathy as contemporary
concern
O today, empathy seems to be of greater concern than
ever before, as researchers from multiple disparate
disciplines have become convinced of its relevance
to a wide range of issues, such as the nature and
conditions of morality and moral judgments, how we
understand one another, what makes certain
political candidates appealing, how and why we
engage with works of art, what characterizes
psychopaths and bullies, how medical workers
should interact with their patients, and the recipe for
successful psychotherapy.
O (Coplan, 2011, p. 41)
Paradox of empathy:
self/other orientations
Self-orientated empathy is a form of perspectivetaking (pseudo-empathy; fake): This is subject to
ego-centric bias - we cannot always predict how a
person different from us, or even similar to us,
might feel - and is therefore unreliable. (Coplan,
2011).
O
O
O
Also relates to ‘role-taking’ (Mead, 1934)
True (authentic) empathy is ‘other’ orientated and
operates at the level of feeling: suppresses our
own perspectives in order to focus on the ‘other’
and their feelings in their particular situation.
(Calloway-Thomas, 2010; Coplan, 2011).
Types of empathy
O Cognitive empathy: high level perspective-taking or
“recognition of another’s difficulties, coupled with some
understanding about the nature and causes of these
difficulties”.
O Physical empathy: “experiencing the distress of another at a
physical level”. [also known as ‘emotional contagion’;
‘catching’ emotion]
O
(Clark, C. 1997, cited in Turner and Stets, 2005).
O Emotional or affective empathy: feeling what other people
might feel or “actually having an emotional reaction to a
person’s plight.” It is also culturally regulated (what people
should feel and how this should be displayed).
O
Marks out true empathetic skill (Calloway-Thomas, 2010).
O Moral empathy: also known as a ‘social emotion’ (Eisenberg,
2000). Associated with feelings of guilt and shame in relation
to another person’s emotional state.
The business discourse of
empathy
Empathy in the public
relations literature
O Empathy is considered to be a key principle of dialogue
in organisation-public relationships. Provides “an
atmosphere of support and trust” (Kent and Taylor,
2002, p. 27)
O Windahl and Signitzer (1992, p. 21) cite empathy and
social perspective taking (Reardon, 1987) as valuable
competencies of the communication planner, especially
as planners have “no direct contact with the people with
whom they communicate”.
O Related to role-taking (Mead, 1934) which is identified
as an important part of the public relations process for
the practitioner to understand the position of the ‘other’
(Culbertson, 1991; 2009)
Empathy as a personal attribute in
public relations literature
O Among the top three ‘personal attributes’ in four
specific professional communication roles: chief
communication officer, crisis communication
manager, internal communication manager and
social media manager, according to the ECOPSI study
(Tench and Moreno, 2015).
O A US survey found that transformational leadership
and empathy [as a personal attribute] were significant
predictors of PR leaders’’competency in gaining
employees’ trust, managing employees’’frustration
and optimism, taking stances toward employees and
top management in decision-making conflicts (Jin,
2010).
Empathy in PR consultancy
relationships: PR executives
O
O
O
O
O
O
A key skill in public relations agency work which is learned on the
job to manage the feelings and expectations of clients, journalists
and colleagues
Linked to the process of educating the client about the value of PR
work to their business
Linked to the process ‘selling-in’ stories to journalists
Helps practitioners to manage upwards (with agency
directors/managers) to ensure that confidence in their accounthandling skills are maintained.
Some empathising strategies suggest ‘deep acting’ (emotional
empathy) techniques that could be considered harmful to one’s
sense of self; however in my study empathising was considered as
‘part of the job’.
Learning more about the other person’s situation enabled
practitioners to take control of the professional relationship
(cognitive empathy).
Empathy in PR consultancy
relationships
Senior level perspectives
‘Client alignment’ strategies to
understand the client’s situation
O “So we do try to understand what
pressures they are under because the
pharmaceutical industry’s not doing well
at the moment.” (participant 5)
O “So we suggest things like ‘go and hot
desk’; ‘go and actually sit and work in
the client’s office so you can see what’s
going on’, because that sort of
chemistry, that relationship I think is
terribly important to do.” (participant
2)
Developing empathy among junior
team members
O “all the accounts will have regular internal
meetings; it’s a point that you can just say, look
guys, you just need to be on it a bit more;
remember, always think in their shoes, wear your
client’s shoes, what does it feel like?” (participant
3)
O “I’ll need to win him round to make him reflect on
how, if he’s going to develop a career and become
a very senior consultant, maybe a little bit more
empathy and therefore what are you going to do
about it then?” (participant 4, referring to a junior
entrant who loudly complained about a ‘stupid’
client)
Understanding client relationships
beyond the immediate contact
O “We delivered a campaign for them which got
outstanding national coverage and we thought,
wow […] the next day that client sacked us and
the reason why is because what we didn’t
account for is the chairman of that company
totally disagreeing with the whole news angle
that we had come up with. Even though that had
been discussed at length with marketing
director […] he never checked with his
chairman”. (participant 1)
Conclusions
O Intercultural communication theory (Calloway-
Thomas, 2010) presents empathy as ‘other’
orientated practice based on authentic feelings and
imagination.
O But, there is a paradox within a business context
where empathic skill is framed as a route to careerenhancement and profit, suggesting an instrumental,
self-orientation, This particularly applies in a highpressured PR ‘sales/selling’ environment.
O I argue for clear distinctions to be made between
‘empathy’, ‘role-taking’ and ‘social perspective taking’
in the PR literature and for empathy teaching in the
curriculum to prepare students for interactions where
culturally-sensitive ‘other’ related skills are deemed
as essential, while recognising the commerciallydriven motivations for empathy.
References
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Calloway-Thomas, C (2010) Empathy in the Global World: An
Intercultural Perspective. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Clark, C. (1997) Misery and company: sympathy in everyday life.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Coplan, A. (2011) Will the real empathy please stand up? A case for a
narrow conceptualization. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 49, pp.
40–65.
Culbertson, H.M. (1991) Role-taking and sensitivity: keys to playing and
making public relations roles. Public Relations Research Annual, 3, pp.
37-65.
Culbertson, H.M. (2009) Role-taking: an important public relations
process. Malaysian Journal of Media Studies, 11 (1), pp. 1-8.
Eisenberg, N. (2000) Emotion, regulation and moral development.
Annual Review of Psychology, 51, pp. 665-697.
Hochschild, A. R. (1983) The managed heart: commercialization of
human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
References
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Jin, Y (2010) Emotional leadership as a key dimension of public
relations leadership: a national survey of public relations leaders.
Journal of Public Relations Research, 22 (2) 159-181.
Kent, M. and Taylor, M. (2002) Towards a theory of dialogue in public
relations. Public Relations Review, 28, pp. 21-37.
Olson, G. (2013) The neoliberal state and the state of empathy. In:
Empathy Imperiled: Capitalism, Culture and the Brain. SpringerBriefs in
Political Science 10, pp. 43-51.
Mead, G. H. (1934) Mind, self and society. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Tench, R. & Moreno, A. (2015). Mapping communication management
competencies for European practitioners. Journal of Communication
Management, 19(1), 39 – 61
Turner, J. and Stets, J. (2005) The sociology of emotions. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Windahl, S. and Signitzer, B. (1992) Using communication theory.
London: Sage.