Manchester Airport's second runway campaign: The boundary‐spanning role of public relations in managing environmental‐organisational interaction

This paper explores the role which the public relations function can play in assisting organisations to manage their interface with the environment and, in particular, with their key stakeholders. The paper examines the conceptual arguments concerning the importance of the boundary‐spanning role of public relations practitioners and examines how this role was enacted at Manchester Airport, Britain's largest regional airport, during its prolonged campaign to win approval for the construction of a second runway on the airport site. Through analysis of this case study, the paper highlights how practitioner roles may vary according to the situational context, and explores the factors which may influence the extent to which the public relations function is able to contribute to the strategic management of an organisation's interaction with its environment.