This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more here.
Accept & CloseAll Subjects
- Accounting and Finance
- Architecture and Landscape Design
- Art and Design
- Biomedical Sciences
- Business and Management
- Civil Engineering
- Computing and Engineering
- Creative Technologies
- Criminology Psychology and Sociology
- Dietetics and Nutrition
- Economics and Analytics
- Education and Teaching
- English History and Media
- English Language Study
- English Language Teaching
- Events Management
- Film
- Law
- Marketing PR and Journalism
- Music and Sound
- Nursing Health Care and Health Promotion
- Performing Arts
- Planning Housing and Human Geography
- Politics and International Relations
- Psychological Therapies and Mental Health
- Rehabilitation Therapies
- Safety and Environmental Health
- Social Work
- Speech and Language Sciences
- Sport
- Surveying Construction and Project Management
- Tourism and Hospitality Management
- Youth Community and Playwork

Our Research Projects
- Britain’s Most Admired Companies (BMAC)
- ECM
- European Professional Skills and Innovation Programme (ECOPSI)
- Family Business Sustainability and Growth (FAME)
- Intergenerational Succession in SMEs Transition (INSIST)
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)
- MentorCert
- SME Leaders and Sustainability: Deliberative Engagement (SME-DE)
- Report of the Wakefield Poverty and prosperity Commission
- Work-Based Learning as an Integrated Curriculum (WBLIC)
ECOPSI – European Professional Skills and Innovation Programme
Providing insights into communication competencies across Europe
The ECOPSI programme was a two-year research project exploring the competencies required by communication professionals in Europe. This innovative programme was a partnership of six leading European universities in communication research and education located in Germany, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the UK as well as the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD).
The two-year programme led by Professor Ralph Tench at Leeds Beckett University was the first and largest study of public relations and strategic communication to be funded by the European Union.
The research included quantitative and qualitative data collection from practitioners. An online survey was developed with questions focused on hypotheses for the ECOPSI project about the education, skills and competencies of communication practitioners. The online survey was then distributed via professional networks to communication practitioners from 42 countries across Europe. The English language survey was distributed for four weeks with 4,107 respondents. To support the quantitative data, 53 in-depth interviews were conducted to gain a deeper understanding on four defined roles: (1) chief communications officer, (2) crisis communications manager, (3) internal communications manager, and (4) social media manager.
The study provided in-depth insights into the competencies needed for these four distinct communication roles and developed a Communication Role Matrix. The Communication Role Matrix captures what it is a communication professional does and the requirement necessary to perform the role successfully by identifying the knowledge, skills (hard and soft) and personal attributes for each role (Tench et al 2013a, Tench and Moreno, 2015).
The results of the study: (1) analyses the construction and perceptions about the Communication Role Matrix; (2) highlights current contemporary issues faced by the industry; and (3) presents the transference of knowledge from ECOPSI to the professional field through the Portal (for) Advancing Communication Expertise (p4ace) along with a self-diagnostic tool aimed to engage practitioners in continued professional development.
Project website: www.ecopsi.org.uk
Project Director: Professor Ralph Tench
Project completed: 2013
-
For Business and Professionals
- Contact Us
-
+44 (0)113 812 0000
Contact Details
- Find Us
-
Leeds Beckett University
City Campus, Leeds
LS1 3HE
© 2019 Leeds Beckett University