University of Twente Student Theses
What it takes to be a good Public Affairs professional : a study into the competences of Public Affairs professionals
Gankema, M.S. (2016) What it takes to be a good Public Affairs professional : a study into the competences of Public Affairs professionals.
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| Abstract: | Several definitions of Public Affairs (PA) are used by academics. In this study PA is defined as follows: PA focuses on facilitating and building relationships and interaction with actors in the political and social environment so as to align corporate and public policies. For the last decades the field of PA is considerably growing and with this growing field issues become more complex. This emerging field results in an increase in demand for more skilled and experienced PA professionals. In response to this need the aim of the present study is threefold: which are the most important competences to be a good PA professional, to which extent does the PA professional master these competences and what kind of personality traits a PA professional has. In order to examine the first two elements a Q-sort was used among 32 PA professionals. Additionally, a questionnaire was used for the demographic information and a big five personality test. Based on the results of this study there could be concluded that the most important competences for a PA professional were strategical and tactical thinking, networking, knowledge of politics and ethics (honesty, integrity and reliability). The best mastered competences were strategical and tactical thinking, ethics (honesty, integrity and reliability), knowledge of politics, networking and analytic (research minded and conceptual thinking). It turned out that the majority of the important competences were also the best mastered competences. Furthermore, the results of the big five personality test showed that PA professionals scored relatively low on neuroticism, high on extraversion and high on openness. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 05 communication studies |
| Programme: | Communication Studies MSc (60713) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/69717 |
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