Professor Ralph Tench

Director of Research | Leeds Beckett University

Leeds, West Yorkshire, UNITED KINGDOM

Ralph Tench's research focuses on two communications strands, for social impact and in organisational strategy, behaviour and performance.

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Biography

Professor Tench is the Director of Research for Leeds Business School and the elected President and Head of the Board of Directors for the European Public Relations Research and Education Association (EUPRERA). EUPRERA is the leading academic association for public relations and strategic communication.

Professor Tench's research focuses on two communications strands, firstly for social impact and secondly in organisational strategy, behaviour and performance. His work involves national and international funded projects including working with large organisations and business, such as the annual European Communication Monitor, now in its twelfth year (www.communicationmonitor.eu), business leaders, professions or small to medium sized enterprises. For example he led a €600K EU project on climate change using deliberative engagement. He has been appointed twice in 2017 as a special advisor to the European Commission and is currently running a consultancy project for the Commission on branding for employment services. He has been the principle investigator for several large research projects including the first and largest to be funded in public relations when he ran the ECOPSI communication competency project. He also supported another European funded SME e-learning project (SME-ELEARN). Professor Tench has also led and been part of health and obesity communication projects with the NHS and Public Health England. Professor Tench has written over 30 academic peer reviewed journal articles; published 26 books (Pearson, Emerald, Palgrave Macmillan and Peter Lang publishers), not including translations and smaller research book publications; published over 15 full research reports/books related to major research projects; written and published 15 practitioner/professional publication thought pieces/articles; presented worldwide more than 60 peer reviewed papers.

Most recently he has published the critically acclaimed Communication Excellence: How to Develop, Manage and Lead Exceptional Communication (2017) with his colleagues from the European Communication Monitor. He also celebrated in 2017 the publication of the 4th Edition of Exploring Public Relations, the market-leading textbook for the public relations subject internationally.

Industry Expertise (2)

Public Relations and Communications

Education/Learning

Areas of Expertise (4)

Corporate Social Responsibility

Public Relations

Communications

Health

Education (2)

The University of Sheffield: B.A., Psychology 1988

Leeds Beckett University: Ph.D., Communication 2001

Affiliations (3)

European Public Relations Research and Education Association (EUPRERA) : President and Head of the Board of Directors
Higher Education Association : Fellow
Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Links (9)

Languages (1)

English

Event Appearances (3)

How does Brazil measure up? Comparing rankings through the lenses of nation brand models and indexes

rd Institute of Place Management Conference Poznań University of Economics (Faculty of Management), Poland

A Social Network Analysis of the #SugarTax debate on Twitter

UK Congress on Obesity 2019

2019-09-12

How Far Have We Got? A Longitudinal Analysis of Views of Public Relations Practitioners on the Position of Women in the PR Industry

IHPRC 2016 Bournemouth, England, United Kingdom

2016-07-06

Articles (5)

Mirroring the zeitgeist: an analysis of CSR policies in the UK’s food, soft drink and packaging industries

Journal of Global Responsibility

2021 The purpose of this paper is to explore changes in corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies in food, soft drinks and packaging industries to capture changes in CSR implementation given increased environmental activism. The paper takes an exploratory approach in reviewing CSR policy changes to explore to what extent companies change CSR policies with increased environmentalism.

Trust in Public Relations in the Age of Mistrusted Media: A European Perspective

Publications

2021 One of the core problems of misinformation and post-trust societies is, indeed, trust in communications. The undermining of the credibility of media as the backbone of democratic societies is becoming a serious problem that affects democracy, business and all kinds of public institutions and organizations in society(ies). This paper explores perceptions of trust in key stakeholders involved in communication on behalf of organizations.

Why can CSR seem like putting lipstick on a pig? Evaluating CSR authenticity by comparing practitioner and consumer perspectives

Journal of Global Responsibility

2020 The purpose of this paper is to explain and better understand some of the challenges and even contradictions in relationships between CSR and stakeholder attitudes by comparing consumer and practitioner perspectives on social responsibility, its role in organisations and its influence on consumer attitudes towards companies.

Delivery of the National Child Measurement Programme in England

Public Health Nutrition

2020 The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) is a mandatory initiative delivered in England to children in Reception and Year 6. To date, no research has explored the methods used to deliver the NCMP by Local Government Authorities (LGA) across England.

An exploration of the portrayal of the UK soft drinks industry levy in UK national newspapers

Public Health Nutrition

2020 News media play a role in politics through the portrayal of policies, influencing public and policymaker perceptions of appropriate solutions. This study explored the portrayal of sugar and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes in UK national newspapers. Findings aid understanding of the role newspapers play in shaping understanding and acceptance of policies such as the UK Soft Drink Industry Levy (SDIL).