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Purpose: As PR professionals are increasingly taking on a coaching and training role, and communication technology has made employees more visible and approachable, employees more and more take on active roles in the communication with external publics. While PR professionals’ roles are conceptualized fairly well, no framework exists that describes the many communication roles that employees play in contemporary organizations. This paper identifies different employee communication roles proposed in academic research in order to point out the increasing role of employees as strategic communicators in public relations.Design/methodology/approach: Literature in public relations, corporate communication and related fields is reviewed to identify the suggested communication roles employee fulfill. Findings: A typology of eight different employee communication roles is developed based on different expected employee communication behavior found in the literature: Externally, employees (1) embody, (2) promote, and (3) defend the organization. In addition, employees use communication to (4) scout for information and insights about environmental changes, and (5) build and maintain relationships with stakeholders. Internally, employees use communication to (6) make sense of information, (7) initiate and stimulate innovation, and (8) criticize organizational behavior and decisions.Research limitations/implications: Empirical studies have yet to explore employees’ extended communication roles, the extent to which employees are expected to drive public relations on internal and public social media, and who forms these role expectations in what way.Practical implications: Employees increasingly fulfill the tactic communication roles as producers and executers of corporate communication as social media have made them more visible and approachable. The communication roles require considerable tactical skills and resources on the part of employees, which they may not always possess sufficiently. PR professionals can play a coaching role in terms of helping employee frame content and communicate in a manner appropriate for the organization, the context and the media., Originality/value: The chapter provides a new framework of employees’ communication roles on the basis of existing literature. Employees’ communication roles had so far remained poorly conceptualized. By mapping out the many different communication roles employees are expected to play, the chapter improves our understanding of what it means that employees are increasingly expected to be active communicators in public relations. It can help PR professionals and scholars understand the changed role of PR professionals, as well as the changed relationships between organizations and their environment, in the context of dissolving organizational boundaries.

To assess clinical findings associated with Wuchereria bancrofti infection, 192 school children in a filariasis-endemic area of Haiti underwent physical and ultrasonographic examinations and testing for circulating filarial antigen (CFA). The CFA-positive children were more likely than CFA-negative children to have severe interdigital lesions (or = 1 macerated lesion with involvement ofor = 4 toe web spaces) (P0.0001) and inguinal (P = 0.003) or crural (P = 0.004) lymph node pathology. In multivariate analysis, CFA positivity remained a significant predictor for severe interdigital lesions (P = 0.006) and inguinal lymph node pathology (P = 0.05). Ultrasound detected adult worms and lymphangectasia (diameter = 2.0-4.0 mm) in 11 (10.8%) CFA-positive children. Among CFA-positive children, ultrasonographic detection of adult worms was associated with inguinal (P = 0.01) and crural (P = 0.004) lymph node pathology and advanced pubertal stage (sexual maturity rating = 3-5) (P = 0.02). This is the first study to associate interdigital lesions with filarial infection in children.

Although lymphatic filariasis is known to have been endemic in Haiti since at least the mid 1700s, a national filariasis survey has never been conducted. As a first step in the national program to eliminate filariasis, we collected blood in January-April 2001 from 50-250 school children (6-11 years old) in all 133 communes of the country using an adaptation of the lot quality assurance sampling method. Of 22,365 children tested, 901 (4.0%) were positive for circulating Wuchereria bancrofti antigen. When weighted by commune population, the overall national antigen prevalence in this age group was 7.3%. Infected children were found in 117 (87.9%) communes, the most heavily affected areas being concentrated in the northern part of the country. In only 16 (12.1%) communes were all 250 children antigen negative. Thus, W. bancrofti infection in Haiti is much more widespread than previously realized; virtually the entire population of the country may be considered at risk of infection.

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