Over the years public relations research has focused heavily on the study of public relations management. Public relations has traditionally been defined as a management function (Grunig, 2006) that can fully realize its potential if it is directed by communication managers rather than technicians. Meanwhile, other social science disciplines have moved forward by addressing the importance of leadership and leaders.While the scope of managerial activity is limited to planning, organizing and controlling processes, leadership implies envisioning an alternative future for an organization, encouraging followers to accomplish their potential and empowering employees (Bass & Bass, 2008).

Only recently has the public relations discipline begun addressing the issue of leadership, and how leadership in public relations can strengthen our profession and contribute to organizational effectiveness. Much of this new research trend in public relations has inquired about leadership and leaders in the United States. There has been little acknowledgement of other contexts such as Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe (World PR Report, 2013) that currently lead the growth of the public relations industry.

The purpose of this paper is to start bridging this gap in the knowledge of public relations by investigating leadership in Latvia and Russia. These two emerging markets have experienced the rise of public relations over the past two decades and they provide non-traditional sociopolitical contexts for the study of leadership in public relations.