Relying on an ethnographic study of in-house public affairs professionals, this article sheds light on the process by which boundary-spanning occupations can shape an organization’s environment. Public affairs professionals are responsible for devising and implementing a firm’s political strategy. By focusing on their work practices both internally as they make sense of their environment and strategize, and externally, where they interface with the organization’s audiences, the authors develop a model of political influence as a boundary-spanning activity. The authors demonstrate that influence is best understood as a cyclical process in which public affairs professionals embed themselves in sociopolitical networks by building and maintaining relationships with external actors. Their embeddedness facilitates influence in three ways: First, being embedded in networks allows public affairs professionals to monitor the political environment and decide when and how to be politically active. Second, embeddedness supplies resonant frames for constructing political narratives to persuade audiences. Third, their sociopolitical networks constitute the channels through which public affairs professionals disseminate narratives that mobilize support for their position.

中文翻译：

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塑造政治环境：工作中的公共事务专业人员的民族志

依靠对内部公共事务专业人员的民族志研究，本文阐明了跨界职业塑造组织环境的过程。公共事务专业人员负责制定和实施公司的政治战略。通过关注他们的工作实践，他们在内部了解他们的环境和制定战略，在外部，他们与组织的受众互动，作者开发了一种作为跨界活动的政治影响模型。作者证明，影响最好被理解为一个循环过程，在这个过程中，公共事务专业人士通过与外部参与者建立和维持关系，将自己嵌入社会政治网络中。它们的嵌入性以三种方式促进影响：第一，嵌入网络使公共事务专业人员能够监测政治环境并决定何时以及如何参与政治活动。其次，嵌入性为构建政治叙事以说服观众提供了共鸣框架。第三，他们的社会政治网络构成了公共事务专业人员传播动员支持他们立场的叙事的渠道。