title: Understanding the construction of marketers’ credibility by NZ senior managers: An interpretive study

authors: Harrison, Lee John

subjects: Marketer

abstract: Academics report that marketers are losing their influence in the boardroom due in part to serious challenges to marketing’s credibility. Although the credibility of marketing sources has received much attention since the early 1950s, research into how individuals in business organisations construct the credibility of marketers is scarce. This study, using in-depth interviews, describes how seven senior managers from different New Zealand businesses construct the credibility of marketers. For these senior managers, the credibility of marketers is grounded in their performance in delivering commercial outcomes. The findings also suggest that senior managers construct credibility in terms of a work aspect and a social aspect of a marketer’s performance, and that both these aspects have to be present if the marketer is to be considered credible.
 
The work aspect of performance is made up of a marketer’s Pedigree, Projects, and Pervasive Influence. The Pedigree of a marketer includes their qualifications, skills and background. A degree is usually the minimum qualification required, particularly for more senior marketing roles. Skills expected from marketers include leadership, management, sales and intuition. With regard to background, the marketer needs to demonstrate they have achieved commercial outcomes in previous employment to be considered credible. 

Projects describes how marketers must design and implement cogent marketing plans, work effectively without supervision, achieve commercial outcomes in a clever or creative way, and provide evidence that their projects have contributed to commercial outcomes. Pervasive Influence describes how marketers influence others in the organisation toward customer-centricity. Marketers can lose credibility in the work aspect of their performance when they have no structured purpose to their marketing research, are unable to execute marketing plans or are unable to demonstrate the results of a marketing project.

The social aspect of a marketer’s performance is made up of Personal Integrity and Professional Conduct. Personal Integrity describes marketers who are respected, take pride in their work, strive to improve themselves and are not precious. Professional Conduct describes a marketer who relates and collaborates competently and professionally with others, and is a team fit. Marketers lose credibility in the social aspect of their performance when they are precious, flighty, argumentative, and only out for themselves. 

This paper contributes a framework that describes the construction of a marketer’s credibility from a senior manager’s perspective. It also introduces a new understanding of credibility, grounded in performance terms, which is distinct from past conceptualisations of credibility found in the literature, which is based on expertise and trustworthiness. These findings demonstrate that while a marketer might be considered an expert and trustworthy, if they are not delivering commercial outcomes then they may not be considered credible, from a senior manager’s perspective.

text: Understanding the construction of marketers’ credibility by NZ senior managers: An interpretive study Academics report that marketers are losing their influence in the boardroom due in part to serious challenges to marketing’s credibility. Although the credibility of marketing sources has received much attention since the early 1950s, research into how individuals in business organisations construct the credibility of marketers is scarce. This study, using in-depth interviews, describes how seven senior managers from different New Zealand businesses construct the credibility of marketers. For these senior managers, the credibility of marketers is grounded in their performance in delivering commercial outcomes. The findings also suggest that senior managers construct credibility in terms of a work aspect and a social aspect of a marketer’s performance, and that both these aspects have to be present if the marketer is to be considered credible.
 
The work aspect of performance is made up of a marketer’s Pedigree, Projects, and Pervasive Influence. The Pedigree of a marketer includes their qualifications, skills and background. A degree is usually the minimum qualification required, particularly for more senior marketing roles. Skills expected from marketers include leadership, management, sales and intuition. With regard to background, the marketer needs to demonstrate they have achieved commercial outcomes in previous employment to be considered credible. 

Projects describes how marketers must design and implement cogent marketing plans, work effectively without supervision, achieve commercial outcomes in a clever or creative way, and provide evidence that their projects have contributed to commercial outcomes. Pervasive Influence describes how marketers influence others in the organisation toward customer-centricity. Marketers can lose credibility in the work aspect of their performance when they have no structured purpose to their marketing research, are unable to execute marketing plans or are unable to demonstrate the results of a marketing project.

The social aspect of a marketer’s performance is made up of Personal Integrity and Professional Conduct. Personal Integrity describes marketers who are respected, take pride in their work, strive to improve themselves and are not precious. Professional Conduct describes a marketer who relates and collaborates competently and professionally with others, and is a team fit. Marketers lose credibility in the social aspect of their performance when they are precious, flighty, argumentative, and only out for themselves. 

This paper contributes a framework that describes the construction of a marketer’s credibility from a senior manager’s perspective. It also introduces a new understanding of credibility, grounded in performance terms, which is distinct from past conceptualisations of credibility found in the literature, which is based on expertise and trustworthiness. These findings demonstrate that while a marketer might be considered an expert and trustworthy, if they are not delivering commercial outcomes then they may not be considered credible, from a senior manager’s perspective.

year: 2012

title: Unveiling the layers of educational reform: A critical realist analysis of the ideation, development and enactment of the Philippine professional standards for teachers policy

authors: Macam, Alea

subjects: teacher professionalism

abstract: This study investigates changes in teacher professionalism in the Philippines in response to globalising education policies, with a particular focus on the impact of the 2017 Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST) policy introduced under the conditions of official development assistance. With the technical and financial support of the government of Australia, this policy introduces clear indicators of professional competence that challenge traditional views of teacher professionalism and redefine teacher quality. Anchored by the ontological and epistemological foundations of critical theory and critical realism, and the theoretical and methodological framework of the Critical, Cultural Political Economy of Education (Dale & Robertson, 2015), this study explores the underlying mechanisms that have shaped the ideation, development and enactment of the professional standards policy and its impact on teacher professionalism.

Based on interviews with policymakers, Department of Education (DepEd) officers, a public school district supervisor, school heads and teachers, the findings of the study indicate the emergence of idealised professionalism, a term used to describe how the context and policymaking process of the professional standards policy was heavily influenced by broader economic, political, and cultural globalisation. However, this idealised professionalism remains primarily a theoretical construct that is not grounded in the actual realities of teaching in the Philippines.  The introduction of the policy has resulted in ongoing tension between state regulation and teachers’ professional autonomy. This tension is further complicated by the fact that policy enactment is not always consistent across different schools and jurisdictions, with various cultural practices and contextual socio-economic factors shaping teachers’ agentic responses. Ironically, the institutionalisation of clear expectations for teachers embodied in idealised professionalism has led to teaching practices characterised by complexity rather than certainty.

This study makes a contribution to the continuing debate over the role of official development assistance in driving education policies that not only perpetuate neoliberal and neocolonial practices but also fail to align with the local context of aid-receiving countries.  It prompts critical reflection on whose interests are ultimately served by externally induced official development assistance project reforms in developing countries. 

The study recommends redirecting official development assistance towards areas of government where its benefits would be maximised, such as institutional building and capacity development, rather than project-based reforms. Additionally, establishment of a mechanism for local school stakeholders and the local community to actively participate in national policymaking could help ensure that policies are appropriate and relevant to teachers. Lastly, future studies could re-narrativise the globalisation story by concentrating on local contexts and using them as the vantage point from which to better understand the modernisation of education.

text: Unveiling the layers of educational reform: A critical realist analysis of the ideation, development and enactment of the Philippine professional standards for teachers policy This study investigates changes in teacher professionalism in the Philippines in response to globalising education policies, with a particular focus on the impact of the 2017 Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST) policy introduced under the conditions of official development assistance. With the technical and financial support of the government of Australia, this policy introduces clear indicators of professional competence that challenge traditional views of teacher professionalism and redefine teacher quality. Anchored by the ontological and epistemological foundations of critical theory and critical realism, and the theoretical and methodological framework of the Critical, Cultural Political Economy of Education (Dale & Robertson, 2015), this study explores the underlying mechanisms that have shaped the ideation, development and enactment of the professional standards policy and its impact on teacher professionalism.

Based on interviews with policymakers, Department of Education (DepEd) officers, a public school district supervisor, school heads and teachers, the findings of the study indicate the emergence of idealised professionalism, a term used to describe how the context and policymaking process of the professional standards policy was heavily influenced by broader economic, political, and cultural globalisation. However, this idealised professionalism remains primarily a theoretical construct that is not grounded in the actual realities of teaching in the Philippines.  The introduction of the policy has resulted in ongoing tension between state regulation and teachers’ professional autonomy. This tension is further complicated by the fact that policy enactment is not always consistent across different schools and jurisdictions, with various cultural practices and contextual socio-economic factors shaping teachers’ agentic responses. Ironically, the institutionalisation of clear expectations for teachers embodied in idealised professionalism has led to teaching practices characterised by complexity rather than certainty.

This study makes a contribution to the continuing debate over the role of official development assistance in driving education policies that not only perpetuate neoliberal and neocolonial practices but also fail to align with the local context of aid-receiving countries.  It prompts critical reflection on whose interests are ultimately served by externally induced official development assistance project reforms in developing countries. 

The study recommends redirecting official development assistance towards areas of government where its benefits would be maximised, such as institutional building and capacity development, rather than project-based reforms. Additionally, establishment of a mechanism for local school stakeholders and the local community to actively participate in national policymaking could help ensure that policies are appropriate and relevant to teachers. Lastly, future studies could re-narrativise the globalisation story by concentrating on local contexts and using them as the vantage point from which to better understand the modernisation of education.

year: 2025-03-10

title: Unpacking media narratives: Racism and problematic reasonings

authors: Tan, Kyle K. H.

abstract: In this research brief, we present summaries of four case studies of racism in mainstream and social media in Aotearoa. Through a series of carefully selected datasets sourced from TV episodes (Police TEN 7), print media such as news articles (including Northland checkpoints), and tweets (Three Waters reform), we outline how Māori are represented across these mediums. With an expert in language modelling on our team, we analysed large datasets that give us sufficient statistical power to infer specific Māori discourses on respective platforms. Further, we examined key themes that characterise how Māori are represented in the media and signal the scale of anti-Māori attacks. For instance, we found that the predominant discussion on Three Waters reform on Twitter focused on ‘conflict’ (distrust towards government; 33%) and ‘capability’ (questioning the credibility of the reform; 23%) rather than its core intention of promoting water ‘safety’ (7%). The modelling analysis was supplemented by in-depth qualitative analysis that integrates anti-Māori themes (Moewaka-Barnes et al., 2012) and problematic reasoning tactics (Sturgill, 2021) to elucidate how false, deficit-based rhetoric about Māori is deployed to fuel racism and disinformation. In summary, our findings reinforce Kupu Taea’s call for new media sectors to integrate Te Tiriti o Waitangi into their practices to safeguard Māori and other minoritised groups who are likely to be at the fore of racist attacks.

text: Unpacking media narratives: Racism and problematic reasonings In this research brief, we present summaries of four case studies of racism in mainstream and social media in Aotearoa. Through a series of carefully selected datasets sourced from TV episodes (Police TEN 7), print media such as news articles (including Northland checkpoints), and tweets (Three Waters reform), we outline how Māori are represented across these mediums. With an expert in language modelling on our team, we analysed large datasets that give us sufficient statistical power to infer specific Māori discourses on respective platforms. Further, we examined key themes that characterise how Māori are represented in the media and signal the scale of anti-Māori attacks. For instance, we found that the predominant discussion on Three Waters reform on Twitter focused on ‘conflict’ (distrust towards government; 33%) and ‘capability’ (questioning the credibility of the reform; 23%) rather than its core intention of promoting water ‘safety’ (7%). The modelling analysis was supplemented by in-depth qualitative analysis that integrates anti-Māori themes (Moewaka-Barnes et al., 2012) and problematic reasoning tactics (Sturgill, 2021) to elucidate how false, deficit-based rhetoric about Māori is deployed to fuel racism and disinformation. In summary, our findings reinforce Kupu Taea’s call for new media sectors to integrate Te Tiriti o Waitangi into their practices to safeguard Māori and other minoritised groups who are likely to be at the fore of racist attacks.

year: 2025