Corporate Communication Exam

Aligning vision, culture, image: potential gaps

Vision-culture: management's vision not aligned w/ employees Image-culture: stakeholder impressions not aligned w/ employees Image-vision: stakeholders' impressions are not aligned w/ strategic course by management - pg 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dLVu8BBLidCcZbjIckY0EnlUF2-ZKP9hrNtkBltWXyM/edit

Organizational stigma

- collective stakeholder group-specific perception that an organization possesses a fundamental, deep-seated flaw or quality demonstrated in repeated crises or failures; stakeholders then single out & discredit organization - According to stakeholders, all reputational capital spent

Employee communication

- communication w/ employees internal to organization; easier due to tech (e.g. emails, Zoom); most productive when it is two-way process - blurred boundaries between internal and external due to tech; internal communication with employees; organizational identification

Insights: Relationship PR/journalists

#5 Antagonistic ( = fighting against each other) #6 The two professions are closer together than often thought

Insights: what corporations do

#1 They write bad press releases #2 Sometimes journalists use them anyway (= called MBA journalism) #3 Proactive media policy works in the advantages of corporations, because: #4 Organizations w/ an open culture communicate more w/ press and are most satisfied about the coverage

Insights: media effects

#12 Publicity about corporations has mixed effects, positive and negative #13 there are almost no studies about behavioral change as media effect; some observations: #14 Group conversations about corporations are important for media effects in a typical two-step flow kind of way #15 The moderately educated are influenced the most, usually w/ paradoxical effects on reputation of corporation #16 Corporations do not always have to worry about negative news #17 issue ownership influences reputations #18 The combination of publicity and advertising influences reputations #19 Studies show that PR people are less or equally credible than other staff members or customers (not as credible so don't use them, use experts) #20 Investors partly react just like the rest of the audience, for example on negative news

Insights: Media content about corporations

#7 The amount of info subsidy (= amount of news that is directly coming from corps) is not very well known #8 Sector and culture media organization influence the content #9 Visibility of corporations is low #10 Newspaper journalists often take over frames from corporations #11 Except about three issues (enviro, health, financial fraud)

Organizational identification

'the perception of oneness with or belongingness to an organization, where individual defines him or herself in terms of organization(s) of which he or she is a member'

Guidelines for management of issues so that 'latent' and 'active' issues do not morph into 'intense' issues or a crisis. Following stages:

(1) environmental scanning (e.g. DESTEP, SWOT analysis) (2) issue identification & analysis (power-interest matrix, life cycle of issue) - may become active in public domain, others may be identified as 'active' b/c organization has marked them as important given their objectives & annual reporting - Once issues have been identified as significant/active, further analysis: determine present intensity of issue in public domain (how likely it is to trigger govt action or impact on public opinion likelihood of issue continuing; ability of organization to influence resolution); key stakeholder groups & publics involved w/ issue (3) issue-specific response strategies (buffering, bridging strategy, advocacy strategy, thought leadership) (4) evaluation (lobbying, PACs, industry coalitions, grassroots campaigns)

4 questions for CSA

(A) Who is engaging? (B) What is being engaged? (C) What is the purpose of the engagement? (D) How is the engagement being enacted?

Two central ideas of employee communication (complement each other; must have balance between them):

(a) Management communication: communication between manager and their subordinate employees; often directly related to specific tasks & activities of individual employees as well as to their morale & wellbeing - Often supported by communication practitioners - Tech increasingly used for this - Misses broader organizational picture (b) Corporate information & communication systems (CICS): involve tech & communication systems that broadcast corporate decisions & developments to all employees across organization - usually reserved for communication department using intranet, emails, "town-hall" meetings (i.e. large employee meetings where senior managers announce & explain key corporate decisions or developments) - Doesn't differentiate content between groups of employees (like (a)); relates to more general organization developments rather than specific areas of work

What questions Nike article suggests we should add to Morehouse and Saffer (2019)'s 4 questions of CSA

(e) how do various publics view, receive, and/or interpret engagement efforts, particularly in social justice contexts? (f) What factors, if any, will differing interpretations of the engagement play in shaping the organizational intention and decision to engage?

Transparency and alignment

- 'a state in which the internal identity of the firm reflects positively the expectations of key stakeholders and the beliefs of these stakeholders about the firm reflect accurately the internally held identity' Importance of alignment between (a) organizational culture as experienced by employees (b) corporate vision as articulated by senior managers (c) corporate image or reputation in the minds of external stakeholders

Different strategies require different medias/channels to communication w/ stakeholders; vary based on richness

- 'rich' exchange involves ability to provide immediate feedback between two parties, ability to personalize & adapt messages based on responses, & ability to express and articulate a message in different ways; rich media central to dialogue & persuasive strategy + less rich central to informational strategy - Rich: f2f, social media, personalized documents (​​useful for ambiguous, sensitive, controversial or complex issues) - Not as rich: impersonal documents, print/TV ads (effective for reporting well-understood messages and standard data)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

- 'the continuing commitment by business to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the community and society at large' - implies adoption by organization of responsibilities for actions which don't have purely financial implications & which are demanded of organization under some (implicit or explicit) identifiable (moral) contract' w/ stakeholders in society - Hard to distinguish if done for moral or reputational reasons (definitely help reputation)

Life cycle of an issue

- (1) emergence, (2) debate, (3) codification, (4) enforcement - important for organizations to detect issues when they first 'emerge' & to engage publicly in 'debate' on issue; after 'debate', can't influence life cycle - pg 12: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17vKwqOgV8s2R9WBAxpUXw_8suecqiW5qcoYb0fEAJkI/edit

Issue

- (a) a public concern about the organization's decisions and operations that may or may not also involve (b) a point of conflict in opinions and judgements regarding those decisions and operations (e.g. fraud allegation, product recall) - Many issues already exist as matter of public debate within society before the issues become connected to an organization (e.g. healthy eating and obesity, executive pay and remuneration) - Chase defines it as 'an unsettled matter which is ready for a decision'; often involves matter that is in contention between organization & another party, requires decisive action of organization to protect its reputation; issues may develop into crisis

Organization

- All organized groups that communicate strategically within their stakeholders

From image management to identity management (Birkigt & Stadler)

- Birkigt & Stadler (1986): identity is more than 'design' - Corporate personality: embraces subject at most profound level; soul, persona, spirit, culture of organization; not necessarily tangible but can be; based on deeper patterns of meaning and sense-making of people within that same organization and includes the core values that define organization - Corporate identity: outward presentation of organization through symbolism, communication and behavior; tangible manifestation of corporate personality - First implication: extended image management; not only symbolism, also behavior and communication - Second implication: identity should emerge from mission, vision, organizational culture - pg 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DMbakJ2EfH3_cHu-tJFnX0lZRWdXS7PiAj3XMmp9csc/edit

CSR Engagement

- CSA engagement is about strategically using a social issue to foster involvement and interaction between the organization and stakeholders - a dynamic multidimensional relational concept featuring psychology and behavioral attributes of connection, interaction, participation, and involvement, designed to achieve or elicit an outcome at individual, organization, or social levels - "can be as used a parameter to determine socially responsible organizations" - where companies and leaders stand on issues, how company engage with issues - three forms: commitment from senior management and employees; mapping responsibilities by involving stakeholders in CSR processes, activities, and decisions; and closing the loop, which entails identifying how the organization has incorporated stakeholder perspectives

Classification of change based on focus of change:

- Change may be adoption of novel/updated technology to accomplish work; restructuring and change in policies and routine ways of working; change in products and services of an organization; change in organizational identity and culture of organization

Communication practioners

- Core task of corporate communication practitioners: objective of building, maintaining, and protecting company's reputation - Communication practitioners tend to feel undervalued, input compromised, senior managers/CEOs feel powerless → recognize and diagnose communication-related management prbs, know appropriate strategies/courses of action - important: stakeholder view of corporation

Journalists and corp practitioners frame stories differently

- Corporate frame: frame which features in press release, corp reports on company's website, speeches of spokespersons/CEO - News framing: way in which news is selectively portrayed by media in an effort to explain news or ideas about organizations in familiar terms for broader audience; largely depends on political views & ideology of journalists & news organizations - Alignment of frames between practitioners & journalists: comm practitioners don't just pitch/sell a story but able to align a story proposal (corporate frame) w/ story expectation (news frame) which leads to greater probability of story being placed and reported more likely when substance of corporate frame relates to common norms and expectations about business and society - when practitioners and journalists openly discuss an issue, decision or event - Comm practitioners often find themselves engaged in frame contests w/ journalists; journalists will deliberately strive to frame stories in ways that resonate with what journalists perceive to be largest segment of their audience

Identity management

- Culture and strategy feed into corporate identity (CI) - Direct influence CI on both reputation and corporate objectives - Two way mediation between CI and objectives via reputation - Direct influence of CI on objectives - aim: establish favorable image or reputation, with organization's stakeholders which it is hoped will be translated by such stakeholders into propensity to buy that organization's products & services, to work for that organization, or to invest in it - pg 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dLVu8BBLidCcZbjIckY0EnlUF2-ZKP9hrNtkBltWXyM/edit

Internally there are also different perspectives of innovation. In development teams, thoughts about cyberinfrastructure (metaphors) differ:

- Goal-directed - Should meet needs of end users - More informational product - Develop in unexpected ways - Not only goal-oriented - More transformational product - Communication professional may be helpful for the confusion mentioned above pg 4: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOfGes1E3pOUtYPQDZHtbpF60TwvAgkjVkBXFz11CXg/edit

Agenda building

- How is agenda formed? communication practitioners form foundation, involves discussions & debates amongst multiple groups, including journalists & communication practitioners, but also policymakers and interest groups

Management vs engagement

- Increased focus on stakeholder relations (from managing to building/fostering relationships (e.g. Saab, LEGO and Harley Davidson) - More bridging, less buffering (refraining from engagement)--from buffering interference to bridging w/ interests (e.g. Starbucks and Novo Nordisk) - From fragmented to coordinated corp com (from fragmented activities to coordinated communication programs for stakeholder relations) - old more persuasive, now more dialogue - pg 8: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17vKwqOgV8s2R9WBAxpUXw_8suecqiW5qcoYb0fEAJkI/edit

Models of stakeholder communication: three strategies

- Informational strategy: one-way communication relationship; symmetrical b/c organization treats stakeholder as equal - Persuasive strategy: two-way but not direct or equal; asymmetrical b/c organization wants to persuade stakeholder and then improve persuasive campaign (uses info of campaign to persuade) - Dialogue strategy: Two-way symmetrical b/c stakeholder is treated as equal and stakeholders are listened to - In practice all these models used together, interchangeably, not just one

News routines

- Journalists have limited degree of control b/c at level of news routines there are many other people involved in writing process who affect story - Strong set of news routines = journalists writing for needs of desk; weak set of news routines = journalist more flexible - News routines may also reflect certain ideology (set of normative principles & values) or political orientation (i.e. media logic: ideological frame of reference of news organization which influences how editors & journalists see, interpet, cover political, corporate, social affairs; underpins media coverage)

According to Nike article, what is the purpose of engagement?

- can be a means to support the empowerment of marginalized groups - Engagement can be a means to make moral statements and judgments - the effectiveness of CSA is enhanced through targeted engagement with key stakeholders and publics, and at the same time engagement enhances CSA by inviting more voices into the conversation on social issues

Leadership style + transformational vs transactional leaders

- Leadership style: way in which, in their communication and behavior, they approach other and provide direction, implement plans and energize and motivate others in an organization; may reflect their own leadership philosophy, personality, experience, organizational situations in which they work - E.g. transactional leader: use designated authority and range of incentives to motivate employees to perform to best of their abilities in completing set of tasks; no broad or long-term strategic vision; key to day-to-day operations - E.g. 'Transformational' leader: leaders set broad strategic goals & then use range of influencing and motivational tactics to push and support their subordinates to higher performance levels, whilst providing opportunities for personal and professional growth for each employee; key when a CEO wants to move organization in different direction

Models of change communication management: Clampitt's model

- Most effective according to Clampitt: underscore and explore - pg 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOfGes1E3pOUtYPQDZHtbpF60TwvAgkjVkBXFz11CXg/edit

Success of social media for corporations hinges on degree to which their use meets one (or more) PARC principles for success:

- Participatory (stimulating interaction with the community) - Authentic (engaging in conversations without forced attitudes or a false demeanor) - Resourceful (providing an audience or a community with helpful information) - Credible

Different community relations programmes

- Philanthropy (charitable donations) - Volunteers - Partnerships

Models of change communication management: Kotter's model

- Preparing change: step 1-3 - Implementing the change: step 4-6 - Institutionalizing the change: step 7-8 pg 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOfGes1E3pOUtYPQDZHtbpF60TwvAgkjVkBXFz11CXg/edit pg 6: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vhIkXPaqfMnuQG7CLOvYDMRchEE9doh_GJlPMpmNNVE/edit

Corporate advocacy + reasons for it + strategic fit

- Publicly promoting & voicing support for an individual, group, or idea - An effort to persuade audiences to embrace this individual, group, or idea Link CSR - Corporate social advocacy - Corporate environmental advocacy Reasons for corporate advocacy - Issues jeopardizing organization in the long run - Polarization - Mediatization Strategic fit (identity, mision, vision, culture)--find one (social or environmental or both? Depends on strategic fit)

Personal observations in practice (guest lecturer)

- Relationships with journalists are complicated. They are important - It is give and take - Sometimes journalists follow your story, sometimes they don't - You cannot control publicity as an organization. That is a good thing in democracy - The effects on the public are small (nobody of my friends ever saw or heard me as a spokesperson spontaneously) - The effects on politicians and other businesses were bigger - Good thing to handle the press professionally

Two heuristics to cope w/ info search & overload through using strategies that minimize cognitive effort

- Reputation - Persuasive intent (people assume organizations want to influence people's opinion on things but employees are seen as neutral)

Strategic approach to issues communication

- See e.g. Cornelissen (2020) - Core question: What do organizations do with issues? - Core focus: organizations and stakeholders - Communication: OF organization - Conceptual background: economic - Issue definition: 'A public concern about the organization's operations and decisions that may or may not entail conflict' (Cornelissen, 2020, p. 1994) - Environmental scanning (e.g. DESTEP & SWOT) → issue identification → issue response strategies → evaluation - pg 4: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ka4xhBtLN3MNTs1uGbpx93uY3cA5xtKTebzmJn0bnFI/edit

Sociological approach to issues communication

- See e.g. Luoma-aho & Vos (2009) - Core question: What do issues do with organization? - Core focus: issues and issue publics - Communication: OF & ABOUT organizations - Conceptual background: socio-political - Issue definition: a public concern that may or may not entail conflict - Monitoring complexities article we had to read this week

Companies rated highly by stakeholders for CSR reporting appear to adhere to following guidelines:

- Set clear objectives - Set progressive objectives - Involve stakeholders - Report transparently - Be accountable

Emergent to sudden crises

- Some crises are emergent (develop from issue or paracrisis to a serious crisis); others are sudden and/or disruptive - E.g. Shell mismanaging climate risk (emergent)

Metaphor + what's a good one (REWATCH THIS PART OF LECTURE)

- Sourced domain: concrete (e.g. traveling, highway) - Target domain: abstract domain we want to say something about - Make abstract (non-physical, general) things more concrete (physical, specific) - Politics, math, etc. use metaphors - Figuring out words for tech; some don't catch on (e.g. people thought about saying "dropping by" a website or "float" by a website, "surf" the web, Internet as highway) - Some words become so popular we forget origins (e.g. recognize "save as" Word icon but have no idea what a floppy disk is) A good metaphor would be one that meets its communicative goal; distance within two domains should be small (source and target) - Metaphor must fit target group - Complex issue to wide audience then metaphors can help explain w/ broad strokes; if you have knowledge/interest in topic, it may be problematic for them

Corporate branding

- Specific form of corporate identity management specifically focused on concept of distinctiveness - Core values, cultural elements, strategic elements - E.g. "Think different" strategy for Apple (1997-2002); Steve Jobs embodiment of this; resonated w/ stakeholders (doesn't really work anymore, now Apple has wordless logo which is increasingly emerging as popular)

The neo-classical economic theory

- The shareholder (primary economic/financial stakeholders) approach - Purpose of (commercial) organizations is to make profit - As such, firms can contribute to wealth for itself and society at large - Relationships are financial/economic - The "Friedman doctrine" (1970): from economist Milton Friedman; the social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits; this leads to wellbeing of society? - Corporate communication based on input-output (one-way); transactional model (purely sending and receiving, less on engagement) - pg 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ka4xhBtLN3MNTs1uGbpx93uY3cA5xtKTebzmJn0bnFI/edit

Socio-economic theory

- The stakeholder model (more dominant nowadays) - "Who counts" extends to other actors (groups & individuals) besides shareholders - More actors w/ legitimate interests (ot only financial interests) in the organization are recognized in order for organization to perform financially well (in long run) and foster acceptance for its conduct - Organizations as socio-economic actors - Corporate communication based on two-way interaction - In order for organization to perform financially well, organization should consider all stakeholders - pg 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ka4xhBtLN3MNTs1uGbpx93uY3cA5xtKTebzmJn0bnFI/edit

News media involve variety of organizations w/ core operational process of producing & disseminating news content through various media

- Two levels: (1) journalists who, on an individual basis, consult sources & write news stories; (2) other parties within news organization (e.g. copy editor) who, based on their news routines, edit stories before they make it into print

Corporate image management

- Umbrella term for all sorts of work concerned w/ crafting impressions - Symbolic dimension of corporate communication - Traditionally one-way models of (persuasive) communication - Relation w/ framing: highlighting some aspects, neglecting others - Hyperadaptation: companies overly focused on projecting their identity, therefore losing their core values

Stakeholder model suggests that, at first, all stakeholders need to be identified. Basic form of stakeholder identification analysis involves asking:

- Who are the organization's stakeholders? What are their stakes? What opportunities and challenges are presented to the organization in relation to these stakeholders? What responsibilities (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic) does the organization have to all its stakeholders? In what way can the organization best communicate with and respond to these stakeholders and address these stakeholder challenges and opportunities? - Similar approach: use map or model to identify & position stakeholders in terms of their influence on organization's operations or their stance on particular issue related to organization - Two mapping devices/tools: stakeholder salience model, power-interest matrix

Corporate communication

- a management function that offers a framework for the effective coordination of all internal and external communication with the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favorable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the organization is dependent - Management function: has to do with strategy (ways and means corporate objectives are to be achieved and put into effect, purposeful communication); has to do with leadership of organization - Effective coordination of all internal and external communication: bridging function that integrates subdivisions, subdiscipline likes marketing, public relationships, investor communication, public affairs, etc.; umbrella function - the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favorable reputations: ultimate dependent variable, when reputations among stakeholders are good this is a signal for strategic success

Communication efficiency

- accomplishment of change communication w/ a min expenditure of time, effort, resources - Need high in organizations where (a) physically impossible to communicate in f2f or interactive manner w/ all employees, (b) resources devoted to change communication are scarce, (c) urgent need to progress through change process & thus little time for interaction about it

Integration

- act of coordinating all communication; corporate identity is effectively and consistently communicated to all internal and external groups; a need

Corporate reputation

- aggregate level of images; collective representation of past images that happens over time

Social media

- all kinds of online or digital technologies through which people create, share, exchange info and ideas; 'a group of Internet-based applications that build on ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, that allow for creation and exchange of user-generated content'

Crisis

- an issue that requires not just decisive but also immediate action from organization; immediate action may be triggered by mounting public pressures, intense media attention or b/c of direct danger to employees, customers, members of general public - Karl Weick defines it as a critical and intense issue that threatens the very existence of an organization in terms of its basic assumptions, values and ways of operating - pg 10: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17vKwqOgV8s2R9WBAxpUXw_8suecqiW5qcoYb0fEAJkI/edit

Stakeholders

- any group or individual who can effect or are affected by achievements and objectives of organization (e.g. inventors, politicians, journalists)

Attributes of successful management/leadership communication involves:

- authenticity (= consistency, personal touch, passion) - they themselves are committed to what they are saying - using values as a basis - stories & frames to articulate change initiative & motivate workforce, continuous conversations w/ employees - conversational skills & open conversations (aim is one of mobilizing conversation at interpersonal level to enable others in organization to see possibilities that they may have missed); listening to others

When communicating about CSR w/ stakeholders, corporations traditionally ...

- based on model of strategic persuasion rather than 'democratic' communication 'dialogue'; other models of communication, from models of participatory democracy, may be better for 'democratic', actual stakeholder dialogue - Difficult for managers to meet conditions mentioned above, shown in how they communicate CSR: glossy social and environmental reports more about style than substance, may view social responsibility as PR exercise instead of as a refocusing and reshuffling of their business operations (communicate about CSR but don't implement), may still approach it as symbolic or for reputation-building

How engagement is enacted through Nike's CSA

- bold stance on sensitive social issues → communication campaigns, corporate actions on endorsements and sponsorships → stakeholder & public engagement including those against it

Issues management

- by being knowledgeable about issues & govt regulation & by getting involved in development of public policy & stakeholder solutions, corporate organizations better able to protect themselves from potentially damaging criticism while taking advantage of any positive opportunities that arise from engaging w/ stakeholders - e.g. corporate advertising campaigns, advocacy & lobby efforts, stakeholder engagement - has grown

Greenwashing

- companies declaring & framing themselves as promoting environmentally friendly policies, whereas, in reality, actual implementation out of step with rhetoric; not only environment but also social policies! - Side effect of CSR communication, especially of promotional CSR - Stakeholder perceptions of misalignment - Between corporate (environmental) responsibility communication on the one hand and corporate environmental responsibility behavior on the other hand - Often 'catch-22 effect' (paradoxical trap from which someone is not able to escape b/c of conflicting rules or certain limitations)

How does organization identification increase?

- degree to which employees feel that they are listened to and are involved by managers when decisions are made. - Increase as a result of perceived external prestige of organization & degree of overlap between personal identity of employees & identity of organization - Employee communication has significant impact on organizational identification - E.g. downward communication enhances organizational identification when info transmitted is perceived as adequate and reliable (involves perception that managers release info that is trustworthy and instrumental to accomplishment of tasks)

Vision

- desired future state of organization; aspirations of organization; involves a time frame according to book but theory and practice not always on same page

Consensus-building

- effort in change communication to achieve commitment to course of action as a result of joint decision-making - Need high in organizations where (a) changes are perceived to be radical and/or controversial, (b) history of resistance to similar change, (c) critical resources (e.g. expertise, approval) are controlled by employees, (d) ongoing support & cooperation needed to maintain change

Web 2.0

- general ideological and technological shift in use of online technologies; web has evolved from being a platform where content is created and published by individuals or organizations to one where content and applications are continuously generated and modified by all users in a participatory and collaborative fashion

The power-interest matrix

- general objective is to categorize stakeholders on basis of power they possess & extent to which they are likely to have, or show, an interest in organization's activities → practitioners estimate stakeholders on these two variables and plot location of stakeholders in matrix → practitioners can formulate appropriate communication strategies - reaction or position of 'key players' (quadrant D) towards organization's decisions & operations, must be given consideration; constantly communicated w/ - those w/ high level of interest in organization but low level of power or influence (quadrant B) need to be kept informed of organization, so they remain committed to organization, may spread positive word-of-mouth to others - Stakeholders in quadrant C most challenging to maintain relationships w/ as, despite lack of interest, these stakeholders might exercise power in reaction to a decision or corporate activity - Practitioners should remain sensitive to possible movement of stakeholders from one quadrant to another when, e.g., levels of interest in organization change

Important to develop communication plans for probable crisis scenarios & to establish key responsibilities for comm practitioners, including

- identification of organization's key spokespersons media training of CEO, executive directors, key spokespersons - establishment of crisis comm team and, in major crises, a press office to field media enquiries and to handle the release of info - establishment of safe crisis locations where media can meet and be briefed in the event of hazardous situations - identification of contacts at relevant external agencies (e.g. police, fire services) who may need to be contacted in case of a crisis

Corporate image

- immediate set of association individual has in response to one or more signals from or about an organization in a particular point of time; direct responses to cue and signals and communication messages

Communication climate (open vs closed)

- internal environment of info exchange between managers and employees through an organization's formal and informal networks 'Open' when info flows freely between individuals, groups & departments - employees feel free to express opinions, voice complaints, offer suggestions to superiors; info passes w/o distortion upward, downward and horizontally throughout organization; employees know their info will be seen as valuable 'Closed' when info is blocked - Organizational silence corresponds to 'closed' communication climate b/c it involves shared & widespread feeling amongst employees that speaking up is of little use, leading them to withhold potentially valuable info

Relationship between comm practitioners & journalists adversarial

- journalists believe comm practitioners only think about their company, withold info, not always objective, not focused on issues of public interest - Comm practitioners less negative view of journalists but realize they have their own agenda - However, they are interdependent → dedicated office or media team for dealing w/ general media

'Community of practice'

- networks of communication that bind employees together w/ common focus on particular project or b/c of shared professional interests; based on idea of self-organization through coordinated activity - 'learning communities' at Hewlett-Packard Company, 'family groups' at Xerox Corporation, 'thematic groups' at World Bank

Organizational silence

- often powerful forces in many organizations that prevent employees from participation & force them to withhold info about potential prbs or issues, meaning vital info may not be passed on to managers - Two possible factors: related to manager's fear of receiving negative feedback (whether this info is about them personally or about a decision or course of action with which they identify) OR involves a set of managerial beliefs which suggest that managers know best about organizational matters (employees don't have broad enough understanding of organization so their info is irrelevant) - no upward communication/centralization of decision-making OR acceptance/solicitation of negative feedback - Effect: errors may not be detected & corrected, could intensify; lower quality of decision-making, negative reactions from employees (less identification w/ organization) - pg 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOfGes1E3pOUtYPQDZHtbpF60TwvAgkjVkBXFz11CXg/edit

Corporate objectives

- overall aims in line with overall purpose (mission); more tangible; clear objectives stated, for example, on websites and communication to stakeholders, visible ways to adhere to mission

Mission

- overriding purpose in line with values and expectations of stakeholders, higher aim; important; mission statement; communication internally and externally about this

Issue arenas

- physical and/or virtual public and networked, spaces where issues get communicatively co-constructed by multiple social actors such as corporations, experts, political & govt actors, NGOs, activists, civilians, opinion leaders, influencers, etc. - presented to describe how today issues & discussions, not organizations, at center of communication - Emerge around diverse topics such as environment, energy, health, mobility, housing, economic inequality, discrimination, stereotyping, human rights, privacy, etc.

Tools & techniques used by communication practitioners to obtain news coverage & monitor reporting on their organization over time

- press releases, press conferences, interviews, online newsrooms, media monitoring and research, syndicated media-monitoring services - pg 3: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19GfmsjGYXFIyYknEhFyjsrh9Ozxf2YuskG96pus7qyI/edit

Sensemaking

- process through which people work to understand issues or events that are novel, ambiguous, confusing, or in some other way violate expectations - E.g. use metaphors (like COVID--"we are fighting an invisible enemy") - E.g. analogy of things that are on a desk w/ desktop of computer (like folders stored in physical files, people were familiar with this, they used folders on desktop)

Corporate identity

- profile (outline) and values communicated by organization; want to align everything they do and say with corporate identity statement

Key objective for corp comm practitioners + steps

- protect company's reputation following a crisis and limit damage to its image - First step: disseminating info openly & engaging with those affected in dialogue on crisis through direct meetings, newsfeeds, blogs - Second step: determine organization's responsibility for crisis & communicate its actions to range of stakeholder groups (e.g. victim frame, taking responsibility)

Paracrisis

- publicly visible trap that may seem like a crisis or may be the beginning of it (e.g. people complaining about rising gas prices of Vattenfall)

Cyberinfrastructure/e-infrastructure + metaphors for it

- refers to new infrastructure that is set up to deal w/ extremely large data sets; currently being developed (e.g. partial collider which generates so much data that we need several supercomputers to deal w/ data coming out of this machine, satellites that orbit globe; article "unprecedented Facebook URLs Dataset now Available for Academic Research through Social Science One") Metaphors for cyberinfrastructure: - Business as usual: metaphors for new tech identical to old tech; used highway metaphor that was also used for Internet which means people can't see what is different and why this change is needed - Digital destruction: metaphors portray huge destruction of current situation (e.g. data tsunamis); present new innovation as threat to current situation, lead to fear

Stakeholder salience model

- stakeholders identified & classified based on salience to organization (how visible or prominent a stakeholder is to an organization based on stakeholder possessing one or more of 3 attributes: power, legitimacy, urgency) → based on classification, communication practitioners can develop communication strategies to deal w/ each stakeholder

Changes in recent years of CSR

- standards & frameworks for 'integrated' social & environmental reporting commonplace (e.g. Global Reporting Initiative, Integrated Reporting Framework) - Formal third-party assurance of CSR reports more common (major accountancy firms, as auditors, & third-party stakeholder voices & expert statements) - companies opting to publish a single 'integrated' report that includes CSR alongside their financial performance over the year

Corporate sustainability

- stresses importance of organizations adopting global & 'outside-in' view of CSR, as opposed to local, firm-centric ('inside-out') perspective on their environmental & social responsibilities

Corporate citizenship

- the portfolio of activities that organizations undertake to fulfill their perceived duties as members of society; organizations have rights & responsibilities just like citizens do; not mandated but expected - E.g. pro bono activities, volunteering, charitable contributions, environmental programs, etc. - However, relationship between govt & citizens is symmetrical while relationship between stakeholders & organizations asymmetrical (e.g. organizations still harm environment even after donating to fight climate change) → CSR term adopted instead

Issue framing

- the purposeful efforts that communication practitioners take, while communicating, to shape the frames of interpretation of stakeholders or publics - linked to second level agenda-setting - employ selection & salience to hold together or organize certain ideas in a communicating text, diagnose a situation and prescribe a course of action; organizing function is often seen to be based on an 'underlying logic' that manifests itself at the level of a text, particularly in terms of stock phrases, keywords or metaphors that signify the larger frame and 'that [together] provide thematically reinforcing clusters of facts or judgements' - prototypical cultural phenomena may function as central organizing theme or underlying logic of frame, including cultural archetypes (e.g. heroes/ victims), myths or mythical figures (e.g. David versus Goliath in Brent Spar) & ideologies or values (e.g. freedom of speech, environmental care)

The Brent Spar crisis (1995)

- they fixed it after Greenpeace's campaign - key moment in history of corp comm; 1st time it became explicitly clear on such a large scale how much power the media, NGOs, consumers and general public have - Shell responded w/ non-existence strategy; accommodation or acceptance strategy crisis would have played out differently; huge learning moment for Shell and other corporations

Objective of crisis management & crisis communication

- to exert control, insofar as possible, over events & organizational activities in ways that assure stakeholders their interests are cared for & that the organization complies w/ social, safety, environmental standards - Must develop contingency & communication plans to prepare & plan for crises

Position-importance matrix

- useful device to analyze stakeholder & public opinion on particular issue and make a strategy Problematic stakeholders/publics: likely to oppose/be hostile to organization's course of action, but relatively unimportant to organization b/c not normally recognized as important, have little power to exert strong pressure on organization Antagonistic stakeholders/publics: likely to oppose/be hostile to organization's course of action and hold power or influence over organization Low priority stakeholders/publics: likely to support organization's course of action but are relatively unimportant in terms of power or influence on organization Supporter stakeholders/publics: likely to support organization's course of action & are important to organization in terms of their power or influence

Organizations w/ strongest reputation are characterized by high levels of ...

- visibility (degree to which corporate themes are visible in internal & external communication) - distinctiveness (degree to which corporate identity or positioning of organization is distinctive) - authenticity (degree to which organization communicates values that are embedded in its culture) - transparency (degree to which an organization is open & transparent about its behavior) - consistency (degree to which organizations communicate consistent messages through all internal and external communication channels)

Strategy

- ways and means corporate objectives are to be achieved and put into effect, purposeful communication/action

'Strength of weak ties' notion

- we often value strong ties in social and organizational settings that are based on strong durable relationships w/ others and on frequent communication. However, such strong ties may lead to an in-group mentality where you mirror each other's ideas and pts of view, making it harder to generate new ideas; weak ties between individuals more likely to lead to challenging of taken-for-granted assumptions & combining of different ideas that may potentially lead to significant innovations

Increased awareness of ...

... the development of uncontrollable human-induced risks (e.g. climate change, nuclear energy/weapons, financial system, food, globalization, COVID, misinformation on social media), caused a strong global focus on risk calculation, management of insecurity, risk and crisis communication - however life has never been safer

Stake

An interest or a share in an undertaking. Stakes are multiple and they vary

Gatekeeping can be affected by variables on 5 levels

1. Individual level (e.g. journalists) 2. Levels of routines (e.g. processes of news making) 3. Organizational level (e.g. differences between media organizations) 4. Extra-media level (e.g. agenda-building efforts from corp comm) 5. Societal level (e.g. political developments)

Models of change communication management: Gavin and Roberto's model

1. Leaders talk to other managers in organization to convince them of change and its urgency 2. Leaders have to craft a frame or vision of strategic and economic issues motivating change & of change itself 3. Managing moods of employees which involves leaders engaging in continuous conversations w/ staff to glean feedback but also keep persuading & motivating employees to make change 4. Reinforcing and institutionalizing new behaviors (according to Garvin and Roberto: effective leaders explicitly reinforce organizational values on a constant basis, using actions to back up their words) pg 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOfGes1E3pOUtYPQDZHtbpF60TwvAgkjVkBXFz11CXg/edit pg 7: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vhIkXPaqfMnuQG7CLOvYDMRchEE9doh_GJlPMpmNNVE/edit

Five overall conclusions:

1. Making news about corporations is a co-production ( = cooperation) between PR and journalism 2. Working relations between corporations and media are interdependent (= mutually dependent) culture and society dependent (increasing more and more cause of social media) 3. Substantial influence of corporations on the media content is dependent on the culture of the country and the media organization 4. There is a feedback loop to corporations themselves 5. The relationship between corporate news, media content, and effects are mixed

Four phases of mediatization

1. Media as most important sources of info 2. Degree of media autonomy (e.g. press freedom) 3. Media content mainly governed by media logic 4. External actors adapt to media logic (e.g. organizations)

Five stages/levels/forms of crisis contingency planning (Mitroff & Pearson)

1. Minimal planning, few contingency plans 2. More extensive planning (natural disasters & human errors) 3. Extensive planning for crisis procedures (natural disasters, human errors, implementation of training of personnel) 4. Wider range of crisis types (e.g. including product defects, tampering, socio political issues) 5. Stage 1-4 including environmental scanning & early warning systems to identify crises in advance

First two steps of crisis management

1. anticipation: the capacity of organizations to predict & prevent potential crisis scenarios from arising before they have occurred (e.g. consulting stakeholders on routine basis & tracking social media) 2. resilience: the ability to cope w/ a crisis once it occurs & confronts an organization; members of organization improvise and act mindfully in real time to deal w/ the crisis and minimize its impact - Enhanced by training employees for possible crises & having management & operational systems that allow for thinking & improvisation by employees in context

Trends in corporate communication

1900s-1980s: not strategically integrated in the organization, one-way communication (spin, publicity, promotion, information) 1980s-2000s: more strategic. strong focus on reputational positioning: getting the right image in the minds of the stakeholders 2000s-present: focus on stakeholder interaction; two-way and one-way; at the back of a fast changing media landscape Current challenge: how to balance strategic 'one-to-many' vs 'many-to-one' and 'many-to-many' communication? There is a hybrid situation (https://www.imre.uk/2018/01/pr-1-many-inbound-many-many-many-1/) Diagram on pg 4: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oBSAfbR4Xr80veXzBpYF_plKWjNFJpGvWGkTa5SeoE0/edit Flowchart on pg 3: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dzDv_W5iTKUEGze6czmDhog3UG7gIAL9q4RdPyaU9oI/edit

Situational Crisis Communication theory (SCCT): high level of responsibility attribution

Acceptance strategy: full apology, remediation, repentance - Accident, faux pas, transgression Accommodative strategy: rectification - Accident, faux pas, transgression

Type of organizational change (additive vs substitutional)

Additive change: change processes at the level of work processes; relatively minor change Substitutive change: redefinition of the strategic course, identity and/or purpose of the organization. Relatively major change (e.g. Fairphone)

Agenda-setting theory

Agenda: just like a personal planner the news is a priority list w/ limited space agenda-setting: salience on news agenda will transfer to salience on public agenda First-level agenda setting hypothesis: increase in object (organization) salience on news agenda will lead to an increase in object salience on public agenda Second-level agenda setting hypothesis: Increase in object attribute (associations in the news like issues.& topics or emotions) salience on news agenda will lead to an increase in object attribute salience on public agenda - pg 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oLIsw1Ickmlc30ZEWiCO23Sn8p9D4FW82KUZc3hrgcc/edit

CSR vs CSA

Both CSA & CSR prioritize corporate profit but CSA maintains focus on communication through emphasis on advocacy; emphasizes communication more than CSR

Issue response strategies

Buffering: stonewalling/delaying issue (e.g. Nestle requesting YouTube to remove damaging video about them); communicative silence/non-communication (e.g. Vitol is unknown in Netherlands including by politicals, journalists, activists; companies sometimes invest in not being reachable or visible); reactive Bridging: answering to calls from critical stakeholders Advocacy: persuasive communication (lobbying, campaigning for certain issue position); can be reactive or proactive; non-public (happens behind closed doors w/ govt actors as well); multinational companies have the $ for this - EU saying corps must be transparent about lobbying) Thought leadership: proactively taking leadership on potential issues (e.g. Unilever, Nike & Colin Kaepernick)

Classic idea of leadership vs new idea of leadership

CLASSIC - 'born-to-lead' - : managers & supervisors should control & manage employees in strict ways; from top down on basis of authority relationships NEW - can be acquired & developed, may be situational - employees are social beings who look for inspo and want to be socially involved. Leaders are those individuals who, in daily interactions w/ others, can articulate inspiring visions that marshal support

Development of new medias/web-based techs challenge vs opportunity

Challenge: view that new media landscape blurs boundaries between content providers and consumers, makes news gathering and dissemination increasingly fragmented, for themselves and stakeholders; may feel that these developments challenge them in managing/controlling the corporate messages of organization and way organization is seen and understood Opportunity: reaching & engaging w/ stakeholders; organization can engage in conversations & tell/elaborate on its story/key messages to stakeholders or general public in interactive manner

Current media landscape: challenges and opportunities

Challenges: - developments in digital media move quickly (professionals may lack resources to keep up; has to do with age) - institutionalization of new organizational patterns making social media (and experts) integral part of the organization takes time; at expense of strategic decisions maybe; No clear rules, benchmarks, principles Opportunities: Further opportunities for integration of subdisciplines (e.g. marketing and PR), conversational voice, networking with (more) stakeholders, self-organization of stakeholders, co-creating reputations--reputations emerge from these networks and interactions with stakeholders; from these one-to-many and many-to-one conversations; scary cause less control

At European Communication Monitor, asked the main tasks that EU communication professionals engage in (many in more than 1):

Communicator - Managing reputation, rand and crises - Creating campaigns and content - Manages and evaluates paid, owned, earned, shared media - Maintains relations with journalists and stakeholders Ambassador - Communications corporate strategies internally and externally to make them happen - Personally convinces politicians, investors, internal influencers, or important customers Coach - Provides content for speeches, presentations, and social media posts - Offers communication training - Gives feedback Manager - Defines processes & structures, allocates budgets - Hires and fires people - Develops competencies and tech infrastructure - Revises business models for communications - Maintains relationships w/ (interal) clients Advisor - Explains opportunities and risk derives from monitoring public opinion or internal and external stakeholder expectations - Interprets trends in society

Contractual vs community stakes

Contractual: formally tied (e.g. distributors) Community: not formally tired (e.g. activists)

Corporation + corporate

Corporate: business setting in which corporate communication emerged as a separate function Corporation: Narrow view: specific legal form of organization, Broad view: group of people working together strategically (e.g. street gangs, families) Corpus: body metaphor--organization is a body with different functions (want to make body communication internally but also coordinate speaking and listening) - Metonymy: Organization seen as unitary actor, humanized, simplified, personalized; humanizing companies (e.g. "I have called the bank", "Spotify backs Joe Rogan's disinformation machine") - cognitive linguistic function

Three perspectives of corporate citizenship

Corporations as citizens: like humans, fellow members of society, vertical relationship w/ govt (expected to obey govt); metonymy (related to first week of course) Corporations as political actors (corporate governance): corps as govts; acquire and deploy authority like govt, can't singley rule; e.g. corps get involved in multiple countries which makes it more feasible for corps tp step in as political & governmental actors; e.g. NGOs Corporations as political sites: provide opportunity for human citizens to exercise their citizenship/perform political acts: arena for human citizenship, case for stakeholders like employees and consumers who want to purse objectives like better pay and fair trade (e.g. Talpa used as site to protest against social unsafety during Voice of Holland scandal)

Approaches to CSR

Defensive CSR: ad hoc investments in social & environmental practices Charitable CSR: supporting social & environmental causes through donations or sponsorship Promotional CSR: rhetorical or symbolic use of CSR through PR Strategic CSR: investing in social and environmental conduct and issues connected to strategy and core operations Transformational CSR: focusing activities on the root causes of environmental sustainability and social responsibility

Stakeholder salience model: Seventh and final type of stakeholder group

Definitive stakeholders: those who have legitimacy, power and urgency; need to be communicated w/; when claim of a definitive stakeholder is urgent, communication practitioners & other managers have responsibility to give it priority and attention (e.g. shareholders who are normally classified as dominant stakeholders, can become active when they feel their legitimate interests are not being served by managers of company in which they hold stock, then they effectively act as definitive stakeholders) When actions of such powerful shareholders may imply removal of senior executives, communication practitioners & managers of organization urgently need to attend to their concerns

Three reasons why stakeholder (socio-economic) model is used

Descriptive: it's a way to visualize and strategically map organization in/and its environment Instrumental: it's a way to reach (communication) goals Normative: it's a way to acknowledge a broader set of legitimate stakes (beyond only financial/economic claims)

Strategic advantages of developing corporate image

Distinctiveness: may help stakeholders find/recognize an organization; may instill confidence in stakeholders; can help raise motivation & morale of employees by establishing & perpetuating 'we' feeling, allowing people to identify w/ organization Impact: provides basis for being favored by stakeholders → stakeholders support organization → better performance of organization Consistency: avoid pitfalls that may occur when conflicting images & messages are sent out; helps b/c stakeholders may have more than one role (e.g. employee & consumer)

Stakeholder salience model: expectant stakeholder groups

Dominant stakeholders: those who have both powerful and legitimate claims, giving them strong influence on organization (e.g. stakeholder groups who regularly transact w/ or have strong binding relationships w/ organizations such as employees, customers, owners, significant (institutional) investors in organization); have power b/c there's always possibility they may decide to withhold their investment or labour, for example Dangerous stakeholders: those who have power and urgent claims, but lack legitimacy; dangerous as they may resort to coercion, even violence (e.g. wildcat strikes, employee sabotage, terrorism) Dependent stakeholders: those who lack power, but who have urgent, legitimate claims; rely on others for power to carry out their will, at times through advocacy of other stakeholders (e.g. local residents of a community in which a plant of a large corporation is based often rely on lobby groups, media, another form of political representation to have their concerns voiced and considered by a company)

Stakeholder salience model: latent stakeholder groups

Dormant stakeholders: those who have power to impose their will on others, but b/c they don't have legitimate relationship or urgent claim, their power remains dormant (e.g. those who wield power by being able to spend a lot of money or by commanding attention of news media, prospective customers); have little/no interaction w/ organization but b/c of their potential to acquire second attribute (urgency or legitimacy), practitioners should be aware of them & their potential impact on organization Discretionary stakeholders: those who possess legitimate claims based on interactions w/ an organization but who have no power to influence organization, nor any urgent claims (e.g. recipients of corporate charity) Demanding stakeholders: those who have urgent claims, but neither power nor legitimacy to enforce them; can be bothersome but don't warrant serious attention from communication practitioners (where stakeholders are unable or unwilling to acquire either power or legitimacy necessary to move their claim to more salient status, 'noise' of urgency insufficient to move stakeholder claim beyond latency) E.g. lone demonstrator who camps near a company's site might be embarrassing/nuisance, but claims of demonstrator will typically remain unconsidered

Equity vs economic/market vs influencer (stakes)

Equity: direct relationships (e.g. stakeholders) Economic/market: economic interest; no ownership (e.g. customers or employees) Influencer: no economic interest, no ownership (e.g. govt agencies, activists)

Classification of change based on time frame: evolutionary vs revolutionary

Evolutionary changes occur slowly and gradually Revolutionary changes happen swiftly and affect virtually all of the organization

Purpose of external vs internal communication

External communication: show added value of innovation Internal communication (within development teams): make sure that everybody is aligned in shared vision of goal of innovation

Situational Crisis Communication theory (SCCT): low level of responsibility attribution

Non-existence strategies: denial, clarification, attack and intimidation - Accident, faux pas Distance strategies: excuse, downplay - Accident, faux pas Association strategies (to compare past good behavior w/ crisis): bolstering, transcendence - Accident, faux pas Suffering strategy: victimization - Terrorism, faux pas, accident pg 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1avM67uYtyVNOISGDDYxWxcVuuFYvq5sdZOdwplrpTqs/edit

Crisis communication: responsibility attribution (crisis-type matrix)

Faux pas: organizational conduct (often related to CSR) is perceived as unintentional but problematized by external actor(s). Note, perceptions of crisis responsibility strengthen Terrorism: acts taken by external agents to harm the organization directly are perceived as intentional Accident: tangible event that happens to or within the organization is perceived as unintentional. Note perceptions of crisis responsibility strengthen over time (may shift to transgression type) Transgression: acts taken by the organization are perceived as intentionally placing stakeholders or publics at risk or harm pg 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/190WfIOQ3q74oXS0kOLKhkTnDzQe-9mLCz0fwYua1j7k/edit

The CFMM model: five hypotheses

H1: Media frames are more often the same as corporate frames than they are not, except when environmental, health or fraud issues are involved H2: The degree of similarity between corporate and media frames is mediated by the relationship between corporate PR professionals and journalists H3. The better the relationship between the PR professional of the corporation and journalists, the more similar corporate and media frames on the corporation are H4. The relationship between the corporation and media outlets is moderated by the culture of the corporation and by the society that they are part of H5. The relationship between the corporation and the media is moderated by the culture of the media organization and by the sector of the corporation. H6. Media frame effects on the public are moderated by the visibility and credibility of PR professionals.

Van Zoonen article

H1: Organizational responses attributing responsibility for a crisis (i.e., rebuild strategy) yield stronger positive effects on post crisis evaluations of organizational reputation while defensive strategies yield negative effects (i.e., denial and diminish strategies) - Support for this hypothesis H2a: The positive effect of a rebuild strategy on organizational reputation is stronger when the employee is the source of crisis communication rather than the organization itself. - No support for this hypothesis H2b: The negative effect of denial & diminish strategies on organization reputation is weaker when employee is source of crisis communication rather than the organization itself. - Support for this hypothesis H3: Source and content credibility have a positive effect on post-crisis evaluations of organizational reputation - Support for this hypothesis H4: The effect of source and content credibility on post-crisis evaluations of organizational reputation is stronger when employees are the information source rather than the organization as information source - Support for this hypothesis H5: The effects of crisis-response strategies on the organization's reputation are mediated by perceptions of source and content credibility in case of the organization and employee as communicator. - Support for this hypothesis pg 3: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1avM67uYtyVNOISGDDYxWxcVuuFYvq5sdZOdwplrpTqs/edit

Jonkman et al. (2020) article

LECTURE - The more positive the tone of news about a company, the more positive the corporate reputation of that company. - The negative effect of negative news on corporate reputation is stronger than the positive effect of positive news. - Pre-existing reputation moderates the effect of tone on corporate reputation such that the more positive the individual's initial opinion of the corporation is, the weaker the negative effect of negative news on reputations will be (Reputational capital) MY NOTES - people who read more news, will be exposed to more articles about the companies - news coverage is structurally negative across companies and time - as people are exposed to more articles about a company, their opinions regarding the corporation deteriorate - corps with good reputations are arguably more likely to attract positive coverage, whereas firms with bad reputations tend to receive more negative coverage ("reputational spiral effect")

Different perspectives on CSR communication

Societal perspective - CSR as a pattern in society/a globalized world - How do societies make sense of CSR? Functional - CSR as a strategic function of the organizations - How do organizations use CSR communication?

Corp comm is more than 'organizations doing stuff': research perspectives (more about the approach to research)

MICRO level of analysis: the individual level. E.g. inter-employees communication; CEO communication; making sense of the organization on a personal level MESO level of analysis: the group level. E.g. organizations communication with other organizations; stakeholder groups; or units with the organization communication MACRO level of analysis: the societal level. E.g. public opinion on organizations; issue communication in which organizations and individual organization are actors; and public communication about the organization

Classifications of change: major/radical vs minor convergent

Major/radical: complete restructuring of an organization Minor/convergent: adjustment of customer service guidelines as a result of customer feedback; consists of fine tuning existing orientation and ways of working

Corporate branding strategies

Monolithic: one overarching corporate brand strategy Branded: no overarching corporate brand strategy; only distinct brands Endorsed: overarching corporate brand strategy, but also distinct brand strategies - pg 3: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DMbakJ2EfH3_cHu-tJFnX0lZRWdXS7PiAj3XMmp9csc/edit

Communication strategies for differential treatment of different groups of employees & practical considerations of communication efficiency & consensus-building:

Need-to-know strategy: managers keep quiet about planned change except to those employees who really need to know or who explicitly express a desire for info - For efficiency, to avoid objection, avoid overburdening employees Quid pro quo strategy: managers give more communicative attention to those employees who have something valuable to provide (e.g. expertise, approval power, resources) for change - Good for cost considerations, may anger employees who feel left out of change process Equal dissemination strategy: disseminating info to employees across entire organization, early, on equal basis - Not to involve everyone but give everyone fair notice (so employees can't complain) - Common in large companies Equal participation strategy: involves two-way communication (i.e. both disseminating info & soliciting input) between managers and employees; used when employees are crucial to success of change - Costly, too many opinions may arise, common in small & public sector organizations pg 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOfGes1E3pOUtYPQDZHtbpF60TwvAgkjVkBXFz11CXg/edit

Organizational identity vs corporate identity

Organizational identity: values and culture that people share within the organization Corporate identity: strategic presentation of values and culture trough symbols, communication, and behavior - involves outward presentation like logos but rooted in idea that identity is related to values, etc.

Classification of social media types

Owned (owned by organization itself like website of organization and their social media accounts) Paid (advertising, paid social media influencers) Earned (user-generated content, external stakeholders communication about organization; not paid for by organization)

Organizations should have accountable bottom line of ...

People: societal well-being Planet: environmental sustainability Profit: growth market economy; economic growth - Profitability only sustainable in long run if they balance people, planet, profit elements

Points-of-parity vs points-of-difference

Points-of-parity: features & associations that are not necessarily unique to the brand but may be shared by other competing brands; these features may not be prime reason for liking or choosing a brand, but their absence can certainly be a reason to exclude or discount a brand Point-of-difference: features & associations that consumers and other stakeholders find relevant & believe they cannot find w/ competing brands; basis for superiority over competing brands Point-of-parity & point-of-difference highlights two things: - Points of difference for customers/consumers buying specific products & services increasingly based on organizational capabilities, values, technology, or associations w/ company/corporate brand - degree of similarity to other companies and their products and services may also be important

History of community relations

Pre-1980s: 'balloon and T-shirts era'; purely making donations to non-controversial non-profit organizations like hospitals, museums, community centers; done as necessary (when approached) Post-1980s: greater emphasis on employee volunteer programmes; w/ growing pressures from govts & charities placed on organizations, community relations emerged as important sub-field of corp comm; 1990s onwards: encompasses how company acts, as a citizen, & what it does for community, besides any charitable donations; company needs to behave in ways that promote & build trust between it and community, and that provide it with legitimacy to operate in that community - pressured to build sustainable and ongoing relationships in a community; trust built over time

Primary vs secondary (stakes)

Primary: financial and/or vital transactions (e.g. employees, suppliers) Secondary: no direct/financial stake (e.g. media)

Difference between investors and shareholders

Shareholder is a form of investor. Investor is the umbrella term so to say

Social presence & media richness

Social presence: enabled by intimacy and immediacy of medium, higher on new media (e.g. the metaverse) Media richness: communication getting either richer or poorer depending on number or quality of cues of medium (e.g. virtual reality very rich); info transmission better for poorer media (e.g. press release) VERSUS Self presentation: e.g. if organization wants to present itself in a certain way Self-disclosure pg 4: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oBSAfbR4Xr80veXzBpYF_plKWjNFJpGvWGkTa5SeoE0/edit

Five different communication strategies that managers use to communication a change to employees in their organization:

Spray and pray: involves managers showering ('spray) employees w/ all info about change; it is hoped ('pray') they will themselves sort out significant from insignificant & work out what changes means for their job; rarely effective Tell and sell: involves managers communicating a more limited set of messages that they believe address core issues about change; managers first tell employees about key issues & then try to sell employees on a particular approach; top-down: employees not engaged in dialogue so may feel they are not listened to and become skeptical Underscore and explore: involves managers focusing on several fundamental issues most clearly linked to organizational change while allowing employees creative freedom to explore implications of change in a disciplined way; managers are concerned w/ developing few core messages & also w/ listening to employees Identify and reply: involves employees setting agenda to which managers reply; assumption that employees are in best position to know critical issues & feasibility of change - Issue: employees do not have wider pic of entire organization; managers use this as defensive posture to be seen as listening to employees w/o actually using feedback Withhold and uphold: consists of managers withholding info until they can no longer do so b/c of rumors or employee revolt; when confronted by rumors/revolt, managers uphold party line

Three different logics of stakeholder engagement

Strict commercial logic: economic considerations (profit, growth, efficiency) paramount & where social value and actively collaborating w/ stakeholders seen to come at expense of economic returns Collaboration for competitive gain logic: companies collaborate w/ stakeholders to create value; in doing so, gain competitive advantage, reputation, capacity for innovation Social value creation logic: for organization, actors, groups in society; most complex for managers b/c requires they actively think through bidirectional & positive links between social & economic value & recognize interdependence of wellbeing of organization & society

Classification of change: substitution vs addition

Substitutive: major strategic change that often involves redefinition of organization's mission and purpose or substantial restructuring of organization; more difficult to sell to employees and get support for; requires good leadership communication Additive: less drastic; e.g. improvements to ways of working

Reputation is theoretically distinct from ...

Theoretically distinct from concept of image: - image is immediate responses at one moment in time; reputation is is over time collection of images - reputation is positive to negative, image is more open (relates to impressions & associations about organization) Theoretically distinct from concept of legitimacy - Reputation is distinctiveness vs legitimacy vs alignment (w/ norms, values, expectations) - Reputation less suitable concept for e.g. government organization (focus on legitimacy)

Top-down vs bottom-up approach

Top-down approach: may involve employees only to limited extent in routinization of change; managers will not consult employees in identification of need for change and formulation of change initiative;they will meet each other in management meetings and will consult external sources, periodicals, formal documents - Change ruled out through organization-wide media more practical for large companies - Communicate in plain English, f2f (so they can respond), from direct supervisor not senior managers Bottom-up approach: employees are involved to a greater degree in the entire change process; managers speak to employees face to face and through e-mails and over the phone in identification stage, will meet them in meetings and electronic conferences in the formulation stage, and will engage with all employees through interactive meetings and technologies more effective than top-down

How principles of corp comm have changed over time

Traditional guiding principle: releasing messages in planned, controlled manner to build, manage, maintain strong reputational 'position' in minds of stakeholder groups; corporate positioning model: practitioners start w/ their own objectives, develop extensive communication plans, assume that, w/ creative, powerful adverts, PR campaigns, other media, organization's reputation can be strengthened maintained; doesn't fully work in social media environment Generation of content: corp comm as joint activity between organization and stakeholders; where stakeholders can easily initiate a conversation as an organization can - Comm based on exchanging carefully crafted messages in controlled, scripted manner → messy, open-ended communication; unpredictable consequences as to weather particular content of organization will 'stick'

Traditional media vs social media

Traditional media: one-way messaging techniques; underlying model is broadcasting: model of mass communication whereby an organization informs or ties to persuade many members of a particular stakeholder audience at once; stakeholders are audiences, can only actively decide to consume message or not Social media: 'crowd-casting': they enable stakeholders of an organization to self-organize as a 'crowd' in order to produce and disseminate content about an organization; stakeholders active - from organization's perspective may include 'push' and 'pull' elements where an organization first engages a community of stakeholders and builds a network of participants ('push') and then harnesses network for new insights ('pull'); other cases crowd may have limited ties to organization

Leadership styles: transformational & transactional

Transformational leadership: motivational tactics to push and support employees (e.g. Fairphone) Transactional leadership: authority and a range of incentives to motivate employees to perform better

Two selection biases + effects + explanation

Two selection biases: (1) negativity bias journalists (news selection) and thus in coverage (2) negativity bias news consumers Effects - May have substantial (negative) effects (compared to the effects of positive news) on public evaluations and/or behaviors Explanations - Psychological and biological theories - Negativity sells, commercial motivations - Watchdog role press/reflection on what is wrong in society

Models of change communication management - Lewin's model: phases

Unfreezing: recognizing necessity of change; space for change; old form melts and it becomes visible that there is a need for change Vision: development of a new plan/innovation Movement: introduction of change that employees have to get used to; procedures that bring change Refreezing: making change part of organizational routines; needs to become automatic, habitual, w/o thinking

Upward vs downward communication + feedback/information loop

Upward: bottom-up (from employees to managers/leaders) - E.g. info about employee, co-workers, organization practices & policies, what needs to be done and how - May be useful to improve organization performance & $ - Typically facilitated within interpersonal setting of management communication but can involve CICS too Downward: top-down (from managers/leaders to employees) - CICS and management communication central to this - E.g. corporate calendar Siemens which lists events throughout year at which corporate strategy and objectives are communicated to employees from different parts of the company Feedback/information loop: upward and downward interplay - Communication that follows strict hierarchical lines often about control & command & about supporting coordination of specialized tasks across employees & departments; many organizations have started to use other media & means of communication to harness creative potential & energy of employees; enable interactive dialogue between employees (e.g. Yammer, Slack, Google Hangouts); break w/ formal lines of of communication

Forms of social media

blogs, collaborative projects, social networking sites, content communities, virtual social worlds, virtual game worlds - pg 7-8: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dzDv_W5iTKUEGze6czmDhog3UG7gIAL9q4RdPyaU9oI/edit

What makes an effective leader?

can focus efforts of group or team on a common goal and can enable individuals to work together; individual managers influence & shape interpretations of others in organization but ideally are also sensible in not unduly burdening process w/ overlarge ego

Employee participation

involves organizational structures and processes designed to empower & enable employees to identify w/ organizational goals and to exert power over decision-making (e.g. unions, cooperative organizations)

Corporate communication consists of ...

marketing communication, PR, organizational communication (all involve stakeholder communication & corporate reputation) - involves: corporate branding, corporate identity, CSR communication, issues management, media relations, crisis communication, employee communication, leadership communication, change communication

Van der Meer article (airplanes)

relative media attention is found to go up over the years, despite that the number of yearly aviation incidents drops # of passengers boarding a plane is negatively associated w/ volume of media attention for aviation incidents in that same month while there is no association with real-world data on number of aviation incidents (support for H2) Follow time frames identified: Period 1, 1991-1999; Period 2, 2000-2010; Period 3, 2011-2015 (contain drop in media attention then increase) - Through going from 1st period to 3rd, increasing prominence of mediatization frames, especially in comparison with the first phase, might be a indication of an over-time change in media logic towards more negative oriented and sensational news framing to attract a large audience - finding provokes claim that journalists not always strictly guided by actual trends and long-term statistics/reality - real-world statistics seemingly irrelevant for public reactions; media reality, or media induced fear, is stronger predictor for how public understands world and behaves accordingly as compared to reality itself - news on negative incidents increasingly covered in personalized & sensational way → news might become more appealing & lively for audience → negative news becomes news that individuals can easily sympathize and identify with → as this portrayed media reality comes closer to audiences, peoples' perception and behavior might become more susceptible to media effects - one might argue that media logic & news values should not always be leading in journalistic process of news selection & reportage to avoid truth suffers considerable distortion where complex is made into simple & relative into absolute

Different mindsets of corporate communicators about social media

risk frame vs opportunity frame

When corp comm practitioners propose a particular story to journalist, they engage in two related processes

solicit interest in story topic & make sure story is framed in a way that is consistent w/ organization's preferred framing (can negotiate it)

Community relations

specific part of company's CSR and relate primarily to communications and engagement w/ residents of local communities in which company resides with its facilities; if badly managed, can have significant consequences for reputation - why faced more opposition recently? corporations themselves larger, more powerful, have increased their hold over individuals; psychological contract between companies and communities in society (implicit expectations community members have of companies)