This document includes in-depth notes from every lecture as well as tutorial information (+ all text from slides). It also includes extensive summaries of mandatory readings and assigned chapters from the book.
Corporate Communication
Book citation: Cornelissen, J. (2017). Corporate Communication: A Guide to Theory
and Practice. London: Sage.
Key words
● org = organization
● CC/CorpCom = corporate communication
● comm = communication
● imp = important/importance
● ES = example
● + = and, also
● Q = question
● bc = because
● HP = hypothesis
● GR = Germany, CH = China …
● RQ = research question
Week 1
Chapter 1
Corporate Communication: management function that offers a framework for the
effective coordination of all internal and external communication with the overall
purpose of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations with stakeholder
groups upon which the organization is dependent.
Corporate
➔ refers to the business setting in which corporate communication emerged as
a separate function
➔ body (corpus) + forming into a body (corporare) >> emphasize a unified
way of looking at ‘internal’ and ‘external’ communication disciplines.
Organizations >> establish/maintain relationships with the stakeholders (investitori)
on which they are economically and socially dependent
= CorpCom guides how organizations communicate with their stakeholders
⇩
Corporate Communication
❏ strategic
❏ aim: building, maintaining and protecting the company’s reputation
❏ to oversee & coordinate all communication of employees and
departments of the organization
, ❏ CorpCom is integrated around one mission/vision/ corporate identity
❏ management function responsible for coordinating the work done by PRs in
different specialist disciplines such as media relations, public affairs and
internal communication.
❏ sustainability/success of a company depends on how it is viewed by
key stakeholders
❏ demands an integrated approach to managing comm
Corporate Reputation: collective evaluation of an organization (induced through
either communication or past experiences) established over time.
+ related to the concept of image (= association that people have of an
organization)
+ can be at the level of organization, industry, branches BUT also people
Organization: a group of people working together to reach a common goal
● goals that cannot be obtained individually >> comm helps to work together
● Organizations are trying to be smaller and adapt to a society that is changing
+ they try to cooperate with locals and small realities
○ Protest movements >> can became organizations (ES strikes in Paris)
but they quickly dissolved
● Without comm there wouldn’t be an organization
Organizational Comm = deals with internal
communication (with employees and among them)
(video)
What is organizational communication?
➢ communication that happen WITHIN
organizations (ES talking on the phone,
emails, meetings…)
○ organization = a container
○ communication = flow in the container
■ comm is then shaped by the structure of the organization
○ organizational comm → happens separately in each organization
■ = informational view of comm
○ Miscommunication → getting right info to right people is critical!
■ SO we need effective comm within organizations
■ BUT we interpret the same messages differently!!!
● communication problems ⥥
➢ organizations AS communications
○ Communicative Constitution of Organizations (CCO)
○ Organizations CONSIST OF communication
, ○ comm as fundamental process that shapes our social reality
■ complex process of creating/negotiating meanings
■ = constitutive view of comm (BC comm makes up our world)
○ what happens inside an organization?
■ organizations are communicative
● made of interaction, messages, decisions, interpretations,
symbols, negotiations …
● BUT these have no inherent meaning apart from human
interaction
○ 1st idea of comm = flat earth approach: conventional in easy
processes BUT fails to account for the complexity of the situation
■ “round world complexities” = culture, ethnicity, power, gender
Key concepts
● Mission: purpose of the organization
○ in line with the values and expectations of stakeholders
○ concerned with the scope and boundaries of the organization.
● Vision: desired future state of the organization
○ requires the energies and commitment of the members
● Objectives: more precise (short-term) statements of direction
○ to be achieved by strategic initiatives or strategies
● Strategy: ways in which corporate objectives are to be achieved
● Corporate identity: profile and values communicated by organization
○ how it aims to be known by these various groups in terms of its
corporate image and reputation
● Stakeholder: any group of whom a product is in demand
○ need for an ‘inclusive’ and ‘balanced’ stakeholder management
approach = actively communicating with all stakeholder groups on
which the organization depends (NOT just stakeholders/customers)
, -
Five approaches to communication management
by Van Ruler A. 2005
>> their aim: improving the management of comm in org
+ provide a good starting point to search for solutions to practical
communication problems and issues
+ use different perspectives
1) Informative approach: transmission of information from a source (sender)
to a target group (receiver)
○ challenge: reach your audience = effective transmission takes place
○ sender transmits a message, through a channel to a receiver.
■ meaning of these messages is unproblematic: receivers will
interpret the message in the intended way.
2) Persuasive approach: deals with the effects of the message.
○ assumption: attitudes, moods and behaviors can be manipulated by
communication
○ process used especially in marketing
○ point of interest: conditions for specific effects
■ which conditions you can reach the intended effect on the target
group?
○ theory of behavioral intentions (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1980)
■ used to predict which behavioral intentions people have, based
on their attitudes/ expectations of attitudes of others
3) Relational approach: deals with behavioral patterns of individuals/groups
○ approach is grounded in systems theory
■ societies as a collection of interconnected systems (media
system, law, education, politics, journalism...)
■ you need an input system (monitoring system) to see the
changes in the environment, a communication system to
translate this input into policy (throughput), and an output
system to let the world know what the organization is up to.
4) Interpretative approach: NO distinction between sender and receiver
○ assumption: actors construct reality together through communication
○ there’s not only 1 reality BUT many constructed realities >> become
self-evident and people act in reaction to it
■ emphasis on the subjective experience of events
○ The sense making theory (Weick, 1995)
■ we apply basic rules to assign meaning to the info they receive
■ Through communication cycles (enactment) we respond to
ideas of others = apply this meaning as ‘reality’ in our behavior
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