ABSTRACT
Public relations, public affairs, and communication professionals working for nonprofi t, for-profi t, and governmental transnational organizations (TNOs) are challenged by a world in which the need for interdependence is increasing all the time. International markets are fl attened by technologies that allow us to move faster and farther and communicate more widely in real time (Friedman, 2005). Social interdependence joins forces with the spread of democracy and alternative political systems that empower public opinion nationally and internationally (Sharpe & Pritchard, 2004). Morley (2002) explains that signifi cant changes
have reshaped the world in which we live and the techniques we use to communicate: the Internet, religious fundamentalism, global terrorism, increasingly strident NGOs seeking to de-rail globalization, the concentration of power into new communications conglomerates, the boom and bust of the “new economy” along with the rapid deployment of the Internet in a 24/7 mobile and continuously connected society. (p. vii)
The local and global impact of communication, the empowerment of public opinion, and democracy each presents practitioners and TNOs with an opportunity to balance those forces. The achievement of local and global impact is possible with the mechanisms of coordination and control for effi cient and effective management of the public relations or public affairs function (Molleda, 2000a, 2000b). The effi ciency is necessary to master internal operations and effectiveness is necessary in order to achieve public relations goals and objectives with a variety of stakeholders. Internal effi ciency and external effectiveness is a dayto-day preoccupation of large domestic organizations with branches or subsidiaries in several locations within a country, such as national banks and social-driven foundations (see Lim, chapter 15 this volume).
