Corporate Communication: Key Concepts

Corporate Communication

• Corporate communication is a management function for internal and external communication.
• It helps maintain a favorable reputation with stakeholders.
• Communication is vital for building, maintaining, and protecting a company's reputation.
• Company success and sustainability depend on how stakeholders view it.

Key Concepts Explained

• Mission: A statement explaining an organization's fundamental purpose, values, culture, and goals.
• Purpose: The reason for an organization's societal relevance beyond profit, articulating its contribution to stakeholders and the community.
• Vision: The aspired future state, outlining long-term aims.
• Corporate Objectives: Aims aligned with the overall purpose that guide strategic activities.
• Strategy: Actions designed to achieve objectives and fulfill the mission, which requires resource allocation and competitive positioning.
• Corporate Identity: Encompasses values, personality, distinctive characteristics, including visual elements like logos and intangible aspects like culture.
• Corporate Image: The immediate associations in response to organizational signals influenced by branding and stakeholder experiences.
• Reputation: A collective representation of past images built over time through consistent behavior and communication.
• Stakeholder: Any group or individual who can affect or be affected by an organization's objectives.
• Market: A defined group for whom a product is in demand and the organization creates and maintains products and services.
• Communication: The tactics and media used to communicate with internal and external groups.
• Integration: Coordination of all communication to consistently communicate corporate identity to internal and external groups.

Corporation Definitions

• Narrow view: A specific legal form.
• Broad view: A group working together strategically.

Corpus

• A body metaphor where the organization has different functions.

Metonymy

• Where one term is substituted for another closely associated with it, relying on relationships.

Corporate Communication Role

• Shapes how organizations are perceived by stakeholders, a strategic imperative for executives.

Stakeholder Management

• Emphasizes inclusive engagement with all stakeholder groups.
• Poor stakeholder relationship management leads to crises and reputational damage.
• Example: Verizon's mishandling of internet throttling issues affecting firefighters.

Evolution of Corporate Communication

• 1900-1980s: Not strategically integrated, used one-way communication.
• 1980s-2000s: More strategic, focused on positioning and image.
• 2000s-present: Focus on stakeholder interaction in a fast-changing media landscape.
• Current challenge: Balancing strategic ‘one-to-many' and ‘many-to-many' communication.

Stakeholders Defined

• Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the organization's objectives.

New Media

• Enables individuals to share information and become active participants shifts the traditional model of messaging.
• New media blurs the lines between providers and consumers, presenting challenges for corporate communications.
• It provides opportunities for interactive conversations with stakeholders.

Traditional vs. New Media

• Traditional Approach: Broadcasting to audiences in a controlled manner.
• New Media Approach: Crowd-casting where stakeholders produce content.
• Traditional Model: One-to-many.
• New Media Model: Many-to-one, many-to-many.
• Traditional Principle: Corporate positioning through planned transfer.
• New Media Principle: Content generation through impromptu creation.
• Traditional Metaphors: Medium, channels.
• New Media Metaphors: Platforms, arenas.

Rules of Communication

• Traditional Media: Fixed and controlled.
• New Media: Messy and emergent.

Content Production Costs

• Traditional Media: Expensive/high.
• New Media: Cheap/low.

Types of Online Media

• Owned media: Controlled online media (website, blog, social media).
• Paid media: Paid content on other online media (ads, sponsored links) with challenges.
• Earned Media: Stakeholder-generated word-of-mouth potentially most credible but uncontrollable.

Social Presence

• Acoustic, visual, and physical contact create a sense of 'presence'.
• Can be lower for more digital forms.

Media Richness

• Rich media such as face-to-face conversations enables feedback and understanding.
• Poor media, such as written documents, limits active discussion.

Self-Presentation and Social Presence

• High/low: Blogs.
• Low/low: Wikipedia.
• High/medium: Social networking sites.
• High/high: Virtual social worlds.
• Low/medium: Content community.
• Low/high: High video games.

Social Media Opportunities and Risks

• Offers direct engagement and brand promotion but poses risks, such as loss of control.

Social Media Advantages

• Provides a step in marketing and PR integration.
• Enables direct engagement with stakeholders.

Social Media Potential

• Fosters new stakeholder behaviors.
• Stakeholders can share experiences and network at scale.
• Allows dissemination of corporate news.

New Media Integration

• Institutionalize new patterns making social media integral.
• Opportunities for integration.
• Consumers are more likely to participate in societal challenges.
• Conversational voice (chatbots), networking with stakeholders.

Stakeholder Dynamics

• Consumers participate in societal challenges.
• Stakeholders are capable.

Corporate Communication Transformation

• 1980s: Restructuring for organizational objectives through strategic communication.
• Shift toward interactive communication due to empowered stakeholders and technological advancements.

Stakeholder Perspectives Shift

• Traditional views saw stakeholders as passive.
• Shift to communication demanding transparency.
• Corporate communicators maintain organizational consistency and advocacy.

Socio-Economic Theory

• Broader view with social, cultural, and institutional factors.
• Government intervention to address societal inequalities and promote social welfare.
• Acknowledgment of actors with legitimate interests beyond financials.
• Emphasis on financial health and acceptance of conduct.
• Organizations as socio-economic entities.

Defining Stakeholders

• Groups or individuals affected by an organization's purpose and objectives.
• A "stake" is an interest ranging from simple interest to legal ownership.

Stakeholder Types

• Contractual: Legal relationship (customers, employees).
• Community: Non-contractual (consumers, regulators).

Stake Types

• Equity: Direct relationships (shareholders).
• Economic/Market: Economic interest (customers, employees).
• Influencer: No economic/ownership (activists).

Stakeholder Relationships

• Primary: vital transactions.
• Secondary: indirect interest.

Stakeholder Model Use

• Descriptive: Visualizing the organization's environment.
• Instrumental: Reaching communication goals.
• Normative: Acknowledging legitimate stakes beyond financials.

Types of Stakeholders

• Dormant: Power to impose will but lacking legitimate relationship.
• Discretionary: Legitimate claims, no power.
• Demanding: Urgent claims, no power or legitimacy.
• Dominant: Powerful and legitimate claims.
• Dangerous: Power and urgent claims, lacking legitimacy, may resort to coercion.
• Dependent: Urgent and legitimate claims, lacking power, rely on others.
• Definitive: Legitimacy, power, and urgency: require attention.

Stakeholder Strategies

• Informational: Distributing information.
• Persuasive: Attempts to change stakeholder knowledge.
• Dialogue: Mutual exchange, consultation.

Shift in Communication Focus

• Shift towards engaging stakeholders directly and building collaborations.

Evolution of Approaches

• "Old": fragmented, preventing interference, departmental interests.
• "New": integrated, building relationships, aligned with goals.

Engagement Costs

• Requires time and resources.
• Balances engagement and resource allocation.

Management vs. Engagement

Focusing on stakeholder relations.

• From buffering, interference to bridging.
• Fragmented activities to coordinated communication programs.

Emphasis

• Purpose and social value creation balance economic and social value with leadership.

Crisis Defined

• Requires decisive and immediate action triggered by public pressure or direct danger.

Issue Management

Managerial approaches include: -Core focus on relationships between organizations and stakeholders. -conceptual Background needs to be managerial.

Issue Managment and Public Concern

• Public concern about the organization's decisions may or may not entail conflict.

Managing Issues Strategically

Involves

• environmental scanning.
• issue identification.
• analysis and response strategies.
• evaluation.

Addressing the life cycle of an issue

Stages include

• emergence.
• debate.
• codification.
• enforcement to influence opinion favorably.

Analytical tools

• DESTEP analysis
• SWOT analysis.

Environmental scanning

• Communication practitioners will identify potential and emerging issues.

Power-Interest MatriX

• Problematic,Antagonistic, low-priority stakeholder/publics, Supporter

Communication Strategies includes

• Buffering, Bridging, advocasy,Thought leadership ( oh wow)

Crisis Communication Requires

• risk awareness, calculation, and management.

Action in case of a crisis

• Requires decisive and immediate action triggered by public pressure, intense media scrutiny, or direct danger.

Organizational Redesigns

• To Cope with crisis by training employees and having management systems

Contingency Planning

• Minimal to extensive planning for disasters and human errors

Reputations

• Reputational capital acts as a buffer during crises.
• Strong reputations experience quicker recoveries.
• Poor reputations may face stigma, which leads to discredit.

Crisis Matrix

• two dimensions: internal-external and intentional-unintentional.
• Determine the type to estimating responsibility

Crisis Response - LOW level of responsibility attribution:

• Non-existence strategies: denial,clarification,attack and intimidation
• Distance: excuses,downplay
• Association: Bolstering,Transcendence
• Suffering: Victimization

Crisis Response - HIGH-LEVEL RESPONSIBILITY:

• Acceptance: Full apology, Remediation,Repentance
• Accommodative: Rectification

Strategic Identity Management

• Coordinates multiple processes.
• Identity Encompasses who we are.
• who we say we are.
• how others perceive us.

I vs ME

• I" = organizational culture.
• "Me" = awareness of stakeholder environment.

The key in week IV

• Media relations are important and influence perception.

Most stakeholder groups and Traditional News

• Traditional news is the most important source of organizational information.

Agenda Setting levels:

• Increase in object salience. -Increase in object attribute salience (associating with the particular issue)

Factors affecting the Public Agenda

The organization (agenda-building effects) and the media (agenda-setting effects).

Framing Definfed

• Framing is selecting aspects of reality to promote a problem definition or evaluation.

Types of Frames

• Damage Control reduce negative impact.
• Attribution assigns responsibility.
• Solution-Oriented highlight corrective actions.
• Victimization portray victimhood.
• Conflict emphasize opposing actions.

Media influence

• Emphasis certain aspects of issues, downplay others, or use specific language to frame their messages in a favorable light.

Negativity

• The negative influence is 3 times stronger than the positive effect of positive news.
• Previously demonstrated in political communication.

Existing Views

• People prefer media coverage that aligns with their pre-existing views, creating a buffer effect.
• Building favorable reputations is essential for organizations.

Mediatization Defined

• The increasing dominance of media logic in society.

News Values

• Drama, proximity, sensationalism, surprise are
• negativity. Factors used by journalists

Two Selection Biases explained

• Negativity biases in journalists lead to more coverage.
• People write it more negatively, because most consume it more negatively

Managing Employee Communications

• Management communication + Corporate information
• Managers communicate directly with employees.
• Tech systems share organizational info.

Communication goals

• Provide info for job performance and build community.

Directions

• Downward, Upward

Organizational identification defined

• The perception of oneness with the organization.

Power of voice vs Organizational silence

• Voice involves participation in decision-making.
• Organizational silence occurs when employees don't speak freely.

Contributing Factors to silencing

• fear of feedback, managerial beliefs, and policies

Transactional Leadership

• Maintaining tasks and rewarding employee performance.

Transformational Leadership

• Motivating employees with inspiring visions.

Additive Change

• Enhances existing processes at a small scale

Substitutive Change

• Redefines identity and restructures organization at a large scale.

Kotter's Change Model

• Establish urgency, form coalition, create vision, communicate, empower, generate wins, consolidate, institutionalize.

Communicating Change Effectively

Convince of change, position plan, manage mood.

Change strategies

• Spray and Pray, Tell and Sell, Underscore/Explore, Identify/Reply, Withhold/Uphold

Strategies and levels explained

• Need-to-Know, Quid Pro Quo, Dissemination, Participation.

Legitimacy (WEEK 6)

• Assessed by how well it aligns to societal expectations.
• Which factors are contextual, dynamic and facilitated.

Sustainable Development focus explained

• Triple bottom line: planet, people, profit.

CSR definition

the commitment to improve the quality of its workforce.

Perspectives on CSR

Societal: Considers patterns in society, how society values CSR

• Functional: Strategic use by an organization (more internal)

CSR Value explained

Is involves responsibilities, goodwill,ethics and performance

• Aids both ethical and reputational standing

Forms of CSR Approach

including defensive, charitable, promotional, strategic, and transformative

• Which incorporates both ethics and alignment with organization