Glossary

OePAV’s respon­si­bil­i­ty includes edu­ca­tion in the pub­lic affairs field. Our glos­sary defines pub­lic affairs terms and dif­fer­en­ti­ates these.

Advo­ca­cy describes activ­i­ties of com­pa­nies, asso­ci­a­tions or indi­vid­u­als to influ­ence the polit­i­cal deci­sion mak­ing process. Advo­ca­cy is led by eth­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions. The term is main­ly used by NGOs.

CSR is the social respon­si­bil­i­ties of com­pa­nies and organ­i­sa­tions. CSR is a com­pre­hen­sive busi­ness strat­e­gy. It com­pris­es all social, eco­log­i­cal and eco­nom­ic busi­ness deci­sions that reach above legal com­pli­ances. CSR stands for respon­si­ble cor­po­rate actions in rela­tion to the envi­ron­ment, employ­ees and stakeholders.

Deal-Mak­ing is not a part of pub­lic affairs. How­ev­er, it has often incor­rect­ly been used as syn­onym for lob­by­ing. Deal-Mak­ing is the ini­ti­a­tion and pro­cure­ment of busi­ness deals. Deal clos­ings are com­pen­sat­ed with com­mis­sion pay­ments. Deal-Mak­ing dif­fers from lob­by­ing in two aspects: First­ly, in the activ­i­ty itself (arrang­ing a deal vs. con­vey­ing infor­ma­tion). Sec­ond­ly, com­pen­sa­tion (hon­or­able lob­by­ists are paid on a time and mate­r­i­al basis and do not accept com­mis­sion payments).

The Aus­tri­an Pub­lic Affairs Asso­ci­a­tion sees dig­i­tal pub­lic affairs as the strate­gic use of dig­i­tal tools to ana­lyze, man­age and influ­ence the social and eco­nom­ic envi­ron­ment with regard to the issues and inter­ests of an orga­ni­za­tion. Through dig­i­tal pub­lic affairs, the pub­lic and influ­encers in par­tic­u­lar are more close­ly involved in polit­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion. There­fore, the abil­i­ty to cre­ate and acti­vate com­mu­ni­ties is being expanded.

GR means estab­lish­ing and main­tain­ing rela­tions with politi­cians and mem­bers of the admin­is­tra­tion. Key ele­ment is a con­stant exchange of infor­ma­tion between com­pa­nies and pol­i­tics / the admin­is­tra­tion. Gov­ern­ment Rela­tions aim to inter­act direct­ly with the leg­isla­tive bod­ies and the admin­is­tra­tion. Gov­ern­ment Rela­tions are built for longer terms while lob­by­ing efforts focus on a cur­rent and sin­gle issue. GR improve rela­tions in gen­er­al with­out an under­ly­ing con­crete con­cern. Their goal is a rela­tion­ship of mutu­al trust between pol­i­tics and the administration.

Grass­roots Lob­by­ing is a par­tic­u­lar way of lob­by­ing. Grass­roots Lob­by­ists ral­ly indi­vid­u­als con­cerned by an issue to influ­ence polit­i­cal deci­sions. Grass­roots Lob­by­ists act upon their per­son­al con­cerns and beliefs. Grass­roots Lob­by­ing is usu­al­ly done by NGOs. How­ev­er, it is increas­ing­ly used also by com­pa­nies to ral­ly their employ­ees for the company’s objectives.

The term is used in dif­fer­ent cir­cum­stances. First­ly, it describes activ­i­ties of an inter­est group (Lob­by­ing). Sec­ond­ly, inter­est groups unite indi­vid­u­als or legal bod­ies to rep­re­sent their mem­bers’ inter­ests in pol­i­tics and the pub­lic. Activ­i­ties of a spe­cial inter­est group are designed for long terms. They aim to influ­ence polit­i­cal deci­sions in a direct way. The groups’ posi­tions need to be defined dur­ing an inter­nal process (inter­nal bal­ance of interest).

Issues are top­ics with con­flict­ing objec­tives. Issues man­age­ment deals with issues in a strate­gic and antic­i­pa­to­ry way. It means iden­ti­fy­ing, analysing and mon­i­tor­ing issues rel­e­vant for a com­pa­ny or an organ­i­sa­tion. The poten­tial risk of an issue deter­mines the way it has to be dealt with. Suc­cess­ful issues man­age­ment iden­ti­fies prob­lems at an ear­ly stage and gives the com­pa­ny or organ­i­sa­tion suf­fi­cient time to deal with it.

Lob­by­ing aims to influ­ence the polit­i­cal deci­sion mak­ing process by indi­vid­u­als who are not part of the process them­selves. Infor­ma­tion and argu­ments are brought into the process of polit­i­cal opin­ion form­ing to accel­er­ate, delay, advance, avoid or mod­i­fy deci­sions. Lob­by­ing activ­i­ties encom­pass meet­ings with polit­i­cal deci­sion mak­ers as well as indi­rect meth­ods like pub­lic rela­tions work, cross-lob­by­ing, strate­gic alliances etc.

Lob­by­ism describes the sys­tem of lob­bies aim­ing to influ­ence polit­i­cal decisions.

Polit­i­cal Con­sult­ing is a gen­er­al term used for dif­fer­ent ser­vices. For exam­ple, it means advis­ing out­siders on the polit­i­cal sys­tem and sup­port­ing them in their inter­ac­tions with politi­cians (Lob­by­ing, Gov­ern­ment Rela­tions, Pub­lic Affairs). It could also mean the advice of experts for polit­i­cal or pub­lic insti­tu­tions in spe­cif­ic areas like strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions, cam­paign man­age­ment, organ­i­sa­tion devel­op­ment or rhetoric. Polit­i­cal con­sult­ing also han­dles con­crete issues via think tanks, com­mit­tees or polit­i­cal acad­e­mies. In gen­er­al, it adds exter­nal knowl­edge to polit­i­cal process­es and opti­mizes polit­i­cal decisions.

In broad­er terms, polit­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion includes infor­ma­tion about pol­i­tics, trans­fer of polit­i­cal knowl­edge and active par­tic­i­pa­tion in polit­i­cal process­es. In nar­row terms, polit­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion means work for a polit­i­cal campaign.

Pub­lic Affairs are the strate­gic man­age­ment of exter­nal rela­tions of a com­pa­ny or an organ­i­sa­tion. Pub­lic affairs arise at the inter­face of pol­i­tics, econ­o­my and soci­ety. Pub­lic Affairs are also known as a company’s “for­eign affairs”. Their goal is to man­age and improve a company’s rela­tions with its busi­ness envi­ron­ment in order to rep­re­sent the company’s inter­ests in pol­i­tics suc­cess­ful­ly. Pub­lic Affairs max­i­mize a company’s scope of actions and min­i­mize neg­a­tive impact of polit­i­cal and social devel­op­ments. Pub­lic affairs are lob­by­ing, gov­ern­ment rela­tions, CSR, issues man­age­ment, stake­hold­er man­age­ment and rep­u­ta­tion management.

Sub­ject to PR is the devel­op­ment and man­age­ment of inter­nal and exter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tions. PR com­pris­es all activ­i­ties pro­mot­ing a company’s or organisation’s rela­tions with the pub­lic and its image. PR’s focus is the pub­lic eye. In con­trast, pub­lic affairs are based on bilat­er­al rela­tions with stakeholders.

Rep­u­ta­tion is the imma­te­r­i­al val­ue of com­pa­nies. It con­trols con­sumer behav­ior, stock price and cred­i­bil­i­ty. Rep­u­ta­tion is the over­all rat­ing of a com­pa­ny or an organ­i­sa­tion by its stake­hold­ers. Rep­u­ta­tion man­age­ment com­pris­es all strate­gic busi­ness actions aim­ing at build­ing, main­tain­ing and improv­ing a company’s rep­u­ta­tion. Ulti­mate goal is to increase the company’s val­ue sustainably.

Stake­hold­ers are indi­vid­u­als with an inter­est in a com­pa­ny or an organ­i­sa­tion. Stake­hold­ers may have any kind of claim towards the enti­ty, even unde­fined ones. Stake­hold­ers include own­ers, employ­ees, con­sumers, sup­pli­ers, politi­cians, the gov­ern­ment admin­is­tra­tion, the media and inter­est groups. Stake­hold­er Man­age­ment deals with stake­hold­ers in a strate­gic way tak­ing into account their expec­ta­tions and concerns.