The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

How Issues Develop—and How Organizations Can Influence Them

Gaps between stakeholder expectations and an organization's or industry's performance evolve over time, driven by gains in human knowledge, demographic and social changes. Often, these gaps are crystallized by a major news-making event that puts the issue front and center with the public. For example, the development of tools for modeling data on global climate trends has raised climate change as an issue of concern to governments, the public, and business, leading to mandates for reduction of greenhouse emissions. Catastrophic hurricanes linked to global warming generate renewed calls for action to reduce emissions.

In its early stages, the problem may be recognized only by a few experts ...