%0 Journal Article
%T Shaping the Political Environment: An Ethnography of Public Affairs Professionals at Work
%A Ece Kaynak
%A Stephen R. Barley
%J Work and Occupations
%@ 1552-8464
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0730888419829175
%X Relying on an ethnographic study of in-house public affairs professionals, this article sheds light on the process by which boundary-spanning occupations can shape an organization¡¯s environment. Public affairs professionals are responsible for devising and implementing a firm¡¯s political strategy. By focusing on their work practices both internally as they make sense of their environment and strategize, and externally, where they interface with the organization¡¯s audiences, the authors develop a model of political influence as a boundary-spanning activity. The authors demonstrate that influence is best understood as a cyclical process in which public affairs professionals embed themselves in sociopolitical networks by building and maintaining relationships with external actors. Their embeddedness facilitates influence in three ways: First, being embedded in networks allows public affairs professionals to monitor the political environment and decide when and how to be politically active. Second, embeddedness supplies resonant frames for constructing political narratives to persuade audiences. Third, their sociopolitical networks constitute the channels through which public affairs professionals disseminate narratives that mobilize support for their position
%K boundary-spanning occupations
%K public affairs professionals
%K lobbying
%K narratives
%K monitoring
%K ethnography
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0730888419829175