This article seeks to build a better understanding of the concept of alignment, which has been acknowledged as a central aspect of strategic communication, but never explicitly defined. Building up...

Alignment: Explicating a Key Concept in Strategic Communication

Based on a random sample of employees (n = 391) working in various industrial sectors in the United States, we examined the respective linkages between employee–organization relationships (EORs) and authentic leadership, symmetrical internal communication, and organizational culture. Results indicated that authentic leadership, organizational culture of supportiveness, emphasis on reward, and stability were significant predictors of the symmetrical internal communication system of an organization and EORs. Symmetrical internal communication cultivates quality EORs and mediates the effects of authentic leadership and cultural dimensions of supportiveness on EOR outcomes. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings were also discussed.

Cultivating Quality Employee-Organization Relationships: The Interplay among Organizational Leadership, Culture, and Communication

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze the prevailing form of rationality that governs the challenges, goals and roles of communication professionals. The authors will also explore alternative forms of rationality and discuss what these would imply. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on survey results from The European Communication Monitor (ECM) and qualitative interviews with communication managers in Sweden. First, the authors present the ECM data and the Swedish interview material, i.e. the authors depict the practitioners’ perceptions of what they understand as important work tasks and roles. The interviews focus on the actual practices of linking communication goals to business goals. Second, the results are challenged from a reflexive perspective, using theories from the paradox turn and questioning the “taken-for-granted thinking” in corporate communications. Findings – The ECM data show that the main challenge in practice is “linking business strategy and communication.” The Swedish respondents stand out when it comes to “building and maintaining trust” since this is considered to be almost as important. The qualitative interview study strengthens the results in the ECM. The interviewees seem to do their work according to the traditional management agenda – i.e. they break down overall business goals and translate these to measurable communication goals. The results are reflected upon using paradox theory. Two paradoxes are discussed: between managerialism and professionalism, and strategic generalists and operational specialists. Research limitations/implications – The study is based on survey data that have been collected through a convenience sample, and the interview study is a pilot study. Practical implications – The paper focuses conflicts between normative practitioner ideals and reality, and helps practitioners to reflect upon mainstream thinking. Originality/value – Based on the empirical findings in the ECM, the interviews and the theoretical framework, the authors conclude that if the idea of The Communicative Organization is to be fruitfully realized, it is necessary to depart from a multi-dimensional rationality and question ideas that are taken for granted. The use of paradox theory and concepts such as functional stupidity is rather original in corporate communication research. Additional research could further explore paradoxes in order to spark dialogue, which may undermine one-dimensional thinking and functional stupidity.

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Doing the right things or doing things right?: Paradoxes and Swedish communication professionals’ roles and challenges

This thesis aims to advance knowledge about internal communication and organisational engagement. It incorporates the application of a new research instrument, the Internal Communication and Organisational Engagement Questionnaire (ICOEQ) developed by Welch (2011a). The ICOEQ investigates employee interest in different topics, helpfulness of communication methods used, ratings for senior manager and line manager communication, satisfaction with employee voice and the associations with organisational engagement.
Despite the importance of internal communication, existing research methods are limited as they do not adequately distinguish between different dimensions of internal communication as established by Welch and Jackson (2007, p.184) and they fail to make an association with organisational engagement. The ICOEQ therefore provides a new research perspective for academic researchers and communication managers. The conceptual analysis builds on Welch and Jackson’s (2007, p.185) internal communication matrix. It synthesises corporate communication and employee voice into a new concept, informed employee voice, to reflect the importance of keeping employees informed and giving them a voice that is treated seriously.
The empirical work adopts a critical realism approach. A cross-sectional research design was used. The ICOEQ was administered at five organisations followed by interviews and focus groups. Quantitative data analysis suggests that internal communication is more strongly correlated with emotional organisational engagement than with cognitive or behavioural organisational engagement. Ratings of senior manager communication and line manager communication and satisfaction with employee voice are positively associated with organisational engagement. Standard multiple regression analysis indicates that informed employee voice is a significant predictor of organisational engagement. Template analysis of qualitative data indicates that many senior managers are not visible or approachable and they do not listen to what employees have to say. New themes that emerge include more informal and small group communication with senior managers, a greater focus on the local context of internal corporate communication from line managers and more emphasis on listening and responding to employee voice. Possible explanations for the findings include a focus on shareholder value and the consequential neglect of employee value and the marginalisation of internal communication in academia and practice. Theoretical implications include the adoption of employee voice more fully into internal corporate communication theory, the addition of familiarity as an attribute of internal communication media and the identification of three explanatory factors for the exercise of internal ‘power over – dominance’. Above all, the thesis establishes informed employee voice as an antecedent to organisational engagement. The implications for practice include the establishment of the ICOEQ as a useful measurement tool and the requirement for communicative leadership that includes giving employees a voice that is treated seriously.

Informed Employee Voice: The Synthesis of Internal Corporate Communication and Employee Voice and the Associations with Organisational Engagement

Over the past 40 years, scholars and practitioners of public relations have often cast public relations workers in the role of the public relations-person-as-corporate-conscience (PRPaCC). This work, however, maintains that this construct is so problematic that invoking it is of negligible use in addressing ethical issues that emerge during a crisis. In fact, a complex crisis, such as the Jahi McMath “brain death” case at Children’s Hospital Oakland (CHO, now UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland), demonstrates the need to abandon the PRPaCC construct to better engage affected stakeholders, including “outsiders” to the organization, who often determine whether an organization is facing a crisis. Through an examination of both the concept of the PRPaCC and the McMath crisis, this work makes the case for moving beyond the PRPaCC construct in favor of a more modest role for the public relations person: facilitating widespread ethical deliberation and discussion throughout an organization, potentially help...

Crisis Management and Ethics: Moving Beyond the Public-Relations-Person-as-Corporate-Conscience Construct

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine formal and informal types of power, and identify the characteristics of corporate communications managers who are in the dominant coalition.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports on results of a survey sent to a representative sample of S&P 500 corporate communications managers and CEOs in the USA Data about industry sector, company size, annual revenue and profitability were collected for the responding companies and a random sample of 100 non‐responding companies. The responding companies (n=161) did not significantly differ from the non‐responding companiesFindings – The paper finds that four attributes of informal power differentiate communications managers who are in the dominant coalition from those who are not: reciprocal trust, strategic business decision‐making, social inclusion and communication expertise.Research limitations/implications – Future research should explore whether any of the 37 percent of communications managers in the dom...

Sara Blair

Papers

Communication managers in the dominant coalition : Power attributes and communication practices