THE STORY OF PR
Looking back at landmark communications
THE DEVELOPMENT
OF NORWEGIAN PR
38
Scandinavian ideals of equality, egalitarianism and ethics have been
driving forces in post-second world war public relations in Norway.
By Gillian Warner-Søderholm and Tor Bang
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THE STORY OF PR
I
n 1949, then Norwegian Prime Minister
Einar Gerhardsen held
a one-hour, private and
confidential discussion
on current Norwegian
public affairs with a group of highly
powerful and elite Norwegian public sector leaders. In the meeting’s
minutes, the secretary noted “The
Prime Minister sat uncomfortably
in the middle of the sofa. Future
guests should be offered their own
chair”.
This was in fact one of the very
first meetings of the Norwegian
Public Relations Club and the first
formal recognition of what we know
today as the public relations profession in Norway. This elite club had
just 10 members, all of whom held
senior level positions in the Norwegian government. These included
the head of press relations at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who
served as chair of the Public Relations Club, a state secretary, head
of SAS (state-owned airline), and
the press officers for the Norwegian
Armed Forces and the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. There was only one
female member, Oslo’s first head of
tourism.
As an apolitical club, they made
it their goal to advance excellence in
public relations along with ethical
behaviour, to promote knowledge
and understanding about public relations, to improve working conditions and to establish both national
and international networks. Nearly
seven decades later we may reflect
that, in a post-second world war
Norway endeavouring to re-build
a nation, the club had worthy goals
that are as important today as they
were then.
Indeed, according to Odd Kjell
Skjegstad, a former head of the
Norwegian Public Relations Association, the essence of
public relations philosophy in Norway is still that public relations is about “doing well and making it known”.
Indeed he even links this ethos to patriotic feelings of
reputation and ethics in Norway that go as far back as
the Viking times. The following Poetic Edda is a good
example, he feels, of this sense of reputation that is a core
Norwegian value:
Cattle die, kinsmen die;
The self must also die;
I know one thing that never dies;
The reputation of each dead man.
Prior to the establishment of the Public Relations Club,
Norway experienced strong elements of patriotism and
propaganda in its external communication endeavours
during the 1930s and 1940s. Not surprisingly, and perhaps due to certain political communication initiatives
in the wake of the first and second world wars, Norway
wanted to be seen as one nation, with town and country
people working together hand-in-hand for a stronger future together. Harnessing these feelings of national pride
was the key to good public relations at that time. It was
during this time period that the first female member of
the Club initiated the tradition of donating a Christmas
tree to London as thanks for their help during the War;
a tradition that continues to this day.
The 1930s and 1940s might be described as the first
period in the modern history of public relations in Norway, with the second period dating from the late 1940s
to early 1960s. It was during those years that saw a significant growth of public relations in both the public
and private sectors along with trial lectures in public re-
Norway experienced strong elements of patriotism and
propaganda in its external communication endeavours.
lations at the University of Oslo. The Public Relations
Club opened for membership by the private sector and
the government established the Norwegian State Information Service, which added an institutionalised level to
this growth.
TACKLING NEGATIVE PERCEPTIONS The third period of public relations development in Norway might be
seen to have occurred in the years from the late 1960s
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THE STORY OF PR
to the early 1970s. During this cold war period, many
professionals dropped the use of ‘public relations’ in their
titles as public opinion viewed public relations work as
negatively associated with propaganda, hiding the truth
or exploiting the art of persuasion to mislead the general
public. To tackle the problem of public relations’ negative
reputation, new initiatives were put in place to change the
name and thus hopefully the image of the practice. The
term ‘information and society contact’ became more popular than public relations for a period of time and further
institutional initiatives to raise the standards and professionalism in the field were introduced. Even though these
initiatives were designed to combat the negative perception of public relations they were never entirely successful, and it was not until the middle of the first decade of
the 21st century that the term ‘public relations’ became
widely used again in Norway.
RISING STATUS We could argue that a fourth paradigm shift in the public relations field in Norway started
in the 1980s. This shift saw the growth of several initiatives to raise the professional status of public relations in
Norway. In 1982, the Norwegian Public Relations Association merged with the Norwegian Association of Editors of Internal Newsletters to become The Norwegian
This shift saw the growth of several initiatives to raise
the professional status of public relations in Norway.
40
Information Association, a much more robust association, now with 350 members. Furthermore, in 1984 the
first one-year public relations college programme was
launched in Norway followed in 1989 by the Norwegian
Business School starting the first complete bachelor programme in public relations in Norway. To further continue with the drive to professionalise the field, in 1999
the Norwegian Communication Association was established (from a merger of the predominantly private-sector Norwegian Information Association and the public
sector membership organisation Forum for Public Information). Further, the BI Norwegian Business School
launched two master of management modules in public
relations and organisational communication, establishing
post-graduate executive study opportunities in Norway.
The latest developments are the establishment of two
professorship positions at BI Norwegian Business School
within public relations and corporate communication
02/2013 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Norwegian PR Timeline
1930s: the US term ‘public relations’
introduced in Norway: Labour movement rhetoric inspired by American
public relations propaganda
1949: First Norwegian Public Relations
Club (10 members)
1965: Norwegian State Information
Service established
Late 1960s: many people drop their
public relations title due to negative
connotations as propaganda
1975: Forum for Public Information established
1982: Public Relations Association
merges with the Norwegian Association of Editors of Internal Newsletters,
to become The Norwegian Information Association (350 members)
1984: One-year college programmes
launched in Norway to study public
relations
1999: Norwegian Communication
Association is established (merger of
Norwegian Information Association
and Forum for Public Information)
2009: first professor of communication
management at BI
2013: Communication Association has
over 4000 members
and also the opening of a successful
research centre at the school, The
Centre for Corporate Communication.
POLITICS AND PR In some sectors of Norwegian business, especially the highly important energy,
telecommunications and finance
industry sectors, executives can
have close ties to top politicians.
The same can be said in many pub-
THE STORY OF PR
lic sectors as well, such as health,
education and infrastructure. This
informal connection between businesses and politicians has opened
up a new field of public relations
career opportunities for a number
of former, well-connected politicians, not only in Norway but in
a growing number of countries.
Many such new consultants in Norway may have rather unique insight
into important industry issues. Such
knowledge may be valuable in terms
of lobbying opportunities or in offering an organisation a competitive
edge. There is indeed a six month
quarantine period for politicians
before they are allowed to enter the
field of public relations after leaving
office. However, restrictions are not
general, but specific to concrete issues that the politician worked with
in their political career. This practice
has raised eyebrows in the investigative press and among academics.
The way forward could be to extend
the quarantine period for people
moving from a political career into
public relations. In this way, new
corporate communication people
will know that they are being chosen for their outstanding communication and leadership skills and not
just their political connections.
Photos: Private
WRESTLING WITH CHALLENGES Today, the Norwegian
Communication Association has
more than 4000 members, representing a much different demographic than the older, elite, cigar
smoking Public Relations Club
members. Approximately 70 per
cent of today’s members are between
31 and 50 years old and more than
60 per cent are women (compared to
just one woman in 1949!). Public relations has come a long way in Norway; some believe it has adapted to
the Scandinavian values of equality, egalitarianism and
high ethical standards, with organisations viewed as less
hierarchical than those in many other nations. One could
argue that such values support innovation, new thinking
and transparency in public relations, especially in the age
of social media. Nevertheless,
the practice wrestles with the
same challenges as our international colleagues:
• The need for continued development of excellent university education to ensure public
relations and corporate communication are recognised as
academic professions
• In a field dominated by women practitioners, there are
still too few women in leadership positions, particularly
among public relations agencies, and there are still salary
discrepancies between men
and women (with women
earning less)
• Journalists vigorously and
publically lament the growing numbers of practitioners
in the country, particularly in
the government
• Executives are still not participating in the dominant coalition in great numbers
• There is a tendency for leaders
to treat the communication
office as a message deliverer
as opposed to a partner in
strategic decision making
In today’s digital age and all
the challenges it has brought
about, Norway is not alone in
recognising the need to continually design and develop
outstanding
performance
within the field, not forgetting that, in the long-run, it
is still personal engagement
that counts the most.
Gillian WarnerSøderholm
BI Norwegian Business
School
Dr Gillian Warner-Søderholm
is a full time faculty member
of the BI Norwegian Business
School, and is the head of the
department of Communication, Culture and Languages.
She is also an associate professor, teaching on a number
of programmes in intercultural
communication, international
business, Scandinavian culture,
study strategies, negotiations,
and presentation.
Tor Bang
BI Norwegian Business
School
Tor Bang is a senior lecturer in
the department of Communication, Culture and Languages at
NI Norwegian Business School,
Oslo. Previously, he worked as
a liaison officer with various
shipping companies in the US,
Europe and Asia.
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