A New Model of Communication for Market-Oriented Governing Leaders: Portraying the Qualities of Being In Touch, Leadership, and Credibility in Office

Abstract

In the field of political marketing much study has been devoted to the examination of how political parties adopt a market-orientation when seeking office. However, scholars are increasingly noting the difficulties parties face in maintaining a market-orientation and a positive public image once in government. More recent political marketing studies promote greater importance of the communication used by governing leaders. Yet extensive study on how this has changed is yet to be done. Therefore, this thesis outlines the development of a new model for how contemporary market-oriented governing leaders could use communication during the non-campaign period in an attempt to alleviate the public image problems faced by their predecessors. The model was developed using a grounded theory method. An initial framework was developed using previous literature. It was then applied to two leaders’ communication around two issues each during their first term in office. This was done before revising the framework. The findings suggested that contemporary market-oriented governing leaders are using some of the communication strategies suggested by the initial framework. Yet the findings also suggested these governing leaders' communication did not correlate with some of the most important aspects of the initial framework. Notably, second generation marketoriented governing leaders are still unwilling to be truly reflective about the decisions they and their governments have made. In saying this, the case study analysis also suggested ways to promote market-oriented qualities not found when designing the initial framework. Most importantly, this research suggested that a governing leader can promote both strong personal convictions while also highlighting the fact that they are still in touch with the public. It is going to take more than one generation for governing leaders to adapt to new communication strategies in government, just as it took political parties multiple decades to adopt marketoriented strategies to get into office. The difference being that many of these parties adopted such practices without the pressure of the challenges of office. The model for market-oriented governing leaders' communication provides at theory for analysing the evolution of marketoriented governing leaders' communication going forward.