Ansgar Zerfass

Social Media Communication in Organizations: The Challenges of Balancing Openness, Strategy, and Management

Organizations from government departments and corporations to small businesses are increasingly adopting social media for strategic corporate and organizational communication and public relations. This is seen by many as a positive development because the openness of the Web 2.0 environment potentially democratizes voice and affords participation, dialogue, and community-building. However, optimistic views of the benefits of organizational social media communication fail to adequately take account of potential conflict between the philosophy of openness that characterizes Web 2.0 and organizational strategy and management processes. Based on two international surveys from Australasia and Europe, this paper shows how social media are being deployed by organizations in a number of countries. These findings were further explored through depth interviews with a selection of social media specialists to examine how the tensions between the open, uncontrolled practices of social media and organizational strategy and management might be resolved or balanced, particularly in relation to objectives, control, and governance. The findings identify future directions in strategic communication that mediate the interests of organizations and online communities.

Innovation, Communication, and Leadership: New Developments in Strategic Communication

Strategic communication, in contrast to everyday public relations, concentrates on the core drivers of organizational success. It also expands the traditional set of institutionalized communication measures in order to manage meaning in all kinds of interactions with internal and external stakeholders. Along this line, this article argues that communication should play a new role in promoting innovation management as a crucial process in todays society, and that this can be achieved by a new understanding of leadership communication. Theoretical concepts and empirical findings can be integrated into a wheel of leadership communication on innovations that combines the social, cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions of a new role in the innovation process supported by communication management.

Social media governance: regulatory frameworks for successful online communications

Purpose – When comparing the annotated relevance and the actual application of social media, enormous discrepancies show. This paper aims to introduce the concept of “Social Media Governance” as a means to accelerate the establishment of social media in communication practices and seeks to analyse its status quo in German organizations.Design/methodology/approach – The data presented here stem from a quantitative online survey among communication professionals that was carried out in Germany.Findings – The results indicate that although many organizations claim to have strategies for social media communications, nine out of ten had no explicit regulatory frameworks. Strategic pillars, such as managerial commitment and a participative corporate culture, were reported by one third of the organizations. This is crucial, because correlation analyses have revealed that the presence of such structures has a positive effect on skill levels, strategies and the level of activity.Research limitations/implications –...

Internal communication and innovation culture: developing a change framework

Purpose – Since employees are considered to be one of the most important sources for innovation, the purpose of this study is to create a change management framework for implementing an innovation culture by means of internal communication.Design/methodology/approach – First, an interdisciplinary model was derived from research and existing literature. It was then tested in a case study with qualitative expert interviews and a quantitative online survey among all employees of a sample firm.Findings – Instead of a linear change, as implied by the theoretical model, different identification levels existed simultaneously within the firms culture. A typology summed up the corresponding perceptions of the innovation culture: innovation culture, innovation pioneers, mediocrity, standstill, and refusal. Significant correlations between identification and internal media (r=0.405), as well as identification and action (r=0.158) underlined the importance of internal communication.Research limitations/implications ...

Institutionalizing strategic communication in Europe - an ideal home or a mad house? Evidence from a survey in 37 countries

Is strategic communication becoming an established discipline of practice across Europe? Is it in turn becoming institutionalized? And do we mean establishing a renowned practice at the heart of organizational operation? This article aims to address these questions while paying attention to the negative implications some of the terminology has in the English language. Institution is also the label given to prisons, hospitals and other physical structures that are used in society to organize and control groups of people. The article finds evidence that communication managers are not frustrated “inmates” but rather liberated and respected practitioners who are establishing themselves as permanent and necessary fixtures within the organizational infrastructure. As a consequence these practitioners and departments are becoming entwined parts of the organization and therefore institutionalized. Evidence is presented from data collected from 37 European countries from a sample of over 1,500 communication managers.

Corporate Communication Revisited: Integrating Business Strategy and Strategic Communication

Communication is omnipresent in our economic life. Every day sees significant sums invested in public relations, investor relations, and communication with employees and customers. Everywhere, integrated communication is looked on as a factor in economic success. And yet the question of how to portray, specifically from a management point of view, the need for communication and its contribution to value-creation is one which has hitherto been only marginally addressed by researchers. This chapter sketches out an interdisciplinary theory of corporate communication. It takes as point of departure the role played by the company per se in both market and wider society, and identifies various different approaches to the issue of value-creation. The concept of “integration,” often so labile, thus acquires a new, multi-dimensional significance — as normative basis, functional process, and strategic necessity of communication.

Strategic Orientation of Communication Professionals in Europe

The strategic orientation of European communication professionals was one of the focal points of the European Communication Monitor (ECM) 2010, an annual survey among European communication professionals. In the context of the European way of doing business with the typical dialogical stakeholder approach, strategic versus instrumental action and the reflective dimension of communication that has been found in Europe, the strategic orientation of European professionals is assessed. A so-called strategic orientation index was constructed consisting of the professional role enactment of communication managers, the use of inbound strategic activities, the use of strategies and plans and the use of evaluation and controlling tools in the organization. The results show that there is a considerable strategic orientation of communication professionals in Europe. Professionals in Northern and Eastern Europe score highest on the strategic orientation index. Western European professionals score significantly lower than their colleagues in the North and in the East.

Enabling, Advising, Supporting, Executing: A Theoretical Framework for Internal Communication Consulting Within Organizations

This article analyzes the consulting and enabling function within the role set of communication managers and provides an initial theoretical framework for internal communication consulting in organizations. The idea of communication professionals as consultants has already been introduced by a number of researchers. Nevertheless, the necessity of this task as well as the specific dimensions and practices of internal communication consulting have not been elaborated until now. This article takes an initial step towards closing this gap by developing a new framework. After a short introduction, the necessity of the consulting function will be emphasized by introducing the concept of the communicative organization. In order to fulfill this requirement, communicative competencies in a much broader sense have to be developed. This leads to a new challenge for communication professionals: they are asked to advise organizational members and to enable them to resolve communication-related issues as well as task-related issues. Based on a research review, a framework for internal communication consulting has been constructed by combining the dimensions of consulting forms and objectives. Qualitative interviews with communication executives have been conducted to verify the plausibility of this framework. The article closes by outlining implications for research, education, and practice.

Strategic Communication – Pillars and Perspectives of an Alternative Paradigm

Professionelle Kommunikation in und zwischen Organisationen sowie ihren Bezugsgruppen kann aus sehr unterschiedlichen theoretischen Perspektiven analysiert werden. Innerhalb der Kommunikationswissenschaft haben sich Public Relations und Organisationskommunikation als teilweise uberlappende Theorieansatze mit unterschiedlichen Ausgangsfragen und Schwerpunkten etabliert. In Betriebswirtschaftlehre und Marketingforschung werden Konzepte wie Integrierte (Marketing-) Kommunikation, Reputationsmanagement und Unternehmenskommunikation diskutiert.

Corporate Communications from the Top and from the Center: Comparing Experiences and Expectations of CEOs and Communicators

Common viewpoints as well as divergences between top executives and communication professionals influence the institutionalization of strategic communication. However, there is little empirical evidence on the accordance between both groups. Most research explores either communication professionals or chief communication officers (CEOs). Very few studies have combined both perspectives. This article identifies the research gap, explores insights from previous research, and contributes to the body of knowledge in strategic communication with an original study that is based on two surveys with replies from 602 CEOs and executive board members as well as 1,251 communication managers from companies in the largest European country, Germany. Although top executives rate the information and motivation of employees as the most important objective of corporate communication, communication professionals focus on the creation of a positive image. Respondents from both groups also state different opinions about dealing with the demand for transparency. Both top executives and communicators give most support to a role model that describes communication professionals as a facilitator between an organization and its publics. Nevertheless the overall conclusion is that perspectives diverge quite often and attention should be directed towards a better alignment between top management and those leading the strategic communication function.