corpcom exam notes
week 1
Chapter 1 - Introduction to corporate communication
Scope and definitions
Until the 70s, practitioners had used the term 'public relations' to describe communication with
stakeholders. It largely consisted of communication with the press. When other stakeholders started to
demand more information from the company, communication started being more than just 'public
relations'. It focused more on the organization as a whole and how it presents itself to all its key
stakeholders.
●
This broad focus is reflected in the word corporate, it refers to the business setting in which
corporate communication emerged as a separate function (together with HR and finance).
○ Narrow view: specific legal form
○ Broad view: group working together strategically
●
Corporate also stems from the Latin words for 'body' (corpus) and for 'forming a body'
(corporare) which emphasize a unified way of looking at 'internal' and 'external'
communication disciplines.
○ Organization a body with different functions
Corporate communication, in other words, can be characterized as a management function that is
responsible for overseeing and coordinating the work done by communication practitioners in
different specialized disciplines such as media relations, public affairs, and internal communication.
Definition:
Corporate communication is 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 favourable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the organization is
dependent.
●
management means it's connected to strategy
○ to the overall goals of the organization
○ It tries to think strategically about communication itself (with purpose and goal in
mind)
●
Coordination of different aspects (like an umbrella)
○ Employee communication, crisis management, public affairs all together
●
Reputation not the same as image, captures the idea of a collection of images overtime
○ Reputation is indicative of success
●
stakeholders refers to every individual that affects or is affected by the organization
○ Organizations have stakeholder models
●
One consequence of these characteristics is that is complex in nature and demands and
integrated approach.
Corporate communication often uses metonymy trough logos (Nike)
● Capturing the identity of an organization just by showing or saying one word/logos
○ E.g., I went to AH (supermarket)
Integration of strategic communication functions:
Key concepts in corporate communication
Trends in corporate communication
● 1980s: Many organizations restructured separate communication disciplines (media relations,
advertising, sales…) and brought these together into more integrated departments or into
specific working practices. This proved productive in that it offered direct organizational and
managerial benefits. Fragmentation, it was realized, that lead to a process of suboptimization
where each department optimizes its own performance 'instead of working for the
organization as a whole'.
●
1990 - 2000s: Organizations emphasized the importance of its positioning. A favorable
reputational position in the minds of stakeholders drives whether they will transact with the
firm or not.
○ The key downside with this is that it reinforced an assumption that the minds of
stakeholders can be managed and even controlled. It neglects stakeholders as active
agents. Instead it suggests a linear 'counduit', model of communication, as opposed to
seeing communication as a joint activity.
○ This view has been overtaken by current events. Stakeholders have become more
active in voicing their expectation towards organizations and, empowered by new
media technologies, have also started to expect more interactive forms of
communication.
The state of corporate communication is one of gradual change. Where the difference lies in the view
that stakeholders can be managed or controlled. Another break lies in the principle that organizations
need to 'engage' individual stakeholders through different platforms. It is related to the organization
being 'transparent' and acting in character in order to bring across its distinctive identity. If there are
any discrepancies or concerns about the organization not acting in character, this is picked up by the
media and individual stakeholders who will point out the lack of 'authenticity'.
Chapter 3 - corporate communication in a changing media environment
For corporate communication, developments in new media technologies can be seen as both a
challenge and opportunity.
● Challenge: when practitioners take the view that the new media landscape blurs boundaries
between content providers and consumers and there is content dissemination increasingly
fragmented. As a consequence, they may feel that these developments challenge them in.
Managing/controlling the corporate messages
●
Opportunity: These developments may create new ways of reaching and engaging with
stakeholders in an interactive manner.
The new media landscape
This shift is quickly changing how dialogues occur, how news about organizations is generated and
disseminated, and how stakeholder perceptions are shaped and relationship forged.
● 'citizen journalists'
● Newspaper suffering a significant decline
The term social media has been defined as involving al kinds of online/digital technologies through
which people create, share and exchange information. The term web 2.0 describes a general
ideological and technological shift in the use of online technologies.
Therefore: Social media are accordingly defined as ‘a group of Internet-based applications that
build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow for the
creation and exchange of user generated content
Broadcasting vs crowd-casting (both types of media are still current)
The 'positioning' model of communication (controlled and planned release of corporate messages)
doesn't apply fully anymore. The process of communication shifts from one based on exchanging
carefully crafted messages in a controlled and scripted manner to one that is much more dynamic and
open-ended: with social media, stakeholders can produce and disseminate various forms of content
with often unpredictable consequences as to whether particular content on an organization will stick.
● E.g., campaign to get memories associated with the product: lots of people expressed their
negative experiences.
Classifying social media
First dimension
Social presence theory states that the media differ in the degree of 'social presence'- defined as the
acoustic, visual and physical contact that individuals can have with one another as they communicate,
such that they feel that they are both 'present'.
● Social presence can be expected lower for digital and mediated communication (telephone,
email) than for direct interpersonal interaction (face2face).
● When social presence is high, it leads to a greater degree of involvement of individuals in the
interaction and commitment
Media richness theory states that media differ in the degree of 'richness' - defined as the amount of
information and cues that can be exchanged between individuals in real time, as they are
communicating.
● Rich media: face to face conversations or instant messaging (WhatsApp) allow for frequent
updating and opportunity to provide feedback
● Poor media: written documents or a corporate advert, information can only be retrieved and
not actively discussed.
Second dimension
Involves the intentions and objectives of individuals when they actually use social media. Here, the
focus is on the actual use of the medium by individuals or organizations rather than any characteristic
of the medium.
● We can use the medium to create a certain impression of ourselves to influence others but also
to create a self-image that is in line with our personal identity
● Self-presentation is typically achieved through self-disclosure: the release of some personal
information.
Blogs:
● Controlled web-based mediums that enable an individual or a group to publish information in
a diary
● They control the info
● It involves blogging on behalf of organizations to interact with stakeholders
● Spokesblogger: official spokesperson for an organization
● Advantage of corporate blogging: allows stakeholders to engage and encourages supportive
word-of-mouth.
●
Disadvantage of corporate blogging: once they are active on blogs, they have to deal with
consequences of employees writing negatively about the firm.
Collaborative projects:
● Joint and simultaneous collaboration between individuals in an online setting (Wikipedia)
● Distinction in wikis:
○ where users add, remove and change text-based content
○ Social bookmarking apps that allow individuals to collectively rate media content
Social networking sites:
● Allow users to present personal information and create profiles of themselves and share these
with others.
● Medium relatively rich in that users can upload images, videos, links… (yet it is short of face
to face interaction)
● E.g., Facebook, LinkedIn
● Advantage of a firm having a networking site: provides a channel to gain customers and to
strengthen ties with brands
● Disadvantage of a firm having a networking site: to have a 'discrete' presence on Facebook, it
is not about selling but creating a personal image
Content communities:
● Applications through which users share media content
● Advantage: provides organizations with lots of opportunities to make contact with users and
position their brands. They can publish promos.
● Disadvantage: From a corporate perspective, YouTube or TikTok present the risk that
copyrighted materials are shared without permission of the organization
Virtual social worlds:
● Users can adopt a certain persona and live a virtual life (create avatar)
● Advantage: Organizations can also use the medium to organize meetings and knowledge
exchange. Plus, the medium has been adopted by organizations for marketing and
communication purposes, but also for fostering interaction internally between employees
● Disadvantage: it may mimic real life setting, but it's not. Plus, not all of a company's
stakeholders may be familiar with the medium.
Virtual game worlds:
● Like virtual social worlds, but users are restricted in how they behave themselves and also in
the roles, as avatars, that they adopt.
● Advantage: opportunity for in-game branded presences.
Challenges and opportunities
Challenges:
● It takes time before new technologies and their uses are fully documented, understood and
established as tools within corporate communication.
● Developments in digital media move quickly and professionals may lack resources to keep up
Opportunities of social media:
●
Presents a further step in the integration of marketing and PR.
○ Allows companies to engage more directly with customers, employees and
stakeholders. Change from one-way to two-way conversations with stakeholders that
might build reputational capital and brand equity. More interactive and inclusive
compared to traditional advertising and marketing
●
Allows the company to present a more human image of itself and to have conversational
voice
○ defined as an engaging and natural style of communicating as perceived by the
organization's stakeholders
●
May foster or create a whole new range of stakeholder behaviors in support of the
organization.
○ Stakeholders can use social media to network with others and disseminate corporate
news, whether good or bad
○ They may also use it to organize themselves for action and to take steps in favor or
against the organization
Priming or nudging is the idea that with a few carefully chosen expressions (such as positive
announcements) on social media platforms, organizations can try to mobilize individuals to produce
and share content in favor of the organization.
● The influence is more indirect and not forced
In a framing, social media are seen as a vehicle for disclosing or exposing information that may be
harmful to an organization. An alternative framing, and one that is more alive to the opportunities of
social media, is to view them as conversation starters and as ways of co-creating corporate reputation
with an organization’s stakeholders.
In the co-creation frame, reputation is shaped by the organization as well as by the community it
embraces. They believe that reputation is not theirs to claim, but is constantly being established in
interactions with their stakeholders.
Many organizations are starting to develop guidelines for employees to use social media.
● Practitioners from the 'risk' frame have guidelines that limit the free expression of certain
topics or issues and promote a more 'defensive' attitude in responding to negative comments
online.
●
Practitioners from the 'opportunities' frame embrace technology and don't question
employees actions online. They argue that spontaneously expressed views of staff are more
authentic. E.g., ambassadors.
PARC principles of success of social media:
● 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
week 2
Chapter 4; Stakeholder management and communication
4.1 Stakeholder management
Neo-classical economic theory: the purpose of organizations is to make profits in their accountability
to themselves and to shareholders, and that only by doing so can businesses contribute to wealth for
itself as well as society at large.
● Shareholder approach
●
●
●
●
Input-output model: power lies with the organization, on which the other parties are
dependent and this relationship is only financial
The organization is the center of the economy
Investors, suppliers, customers and employees are depicted as contributing inputs(investment,
resources..)
The 'black box of the organization transforms inputs into outputs for the benefit of customers
Socio-economic theory: the question of 'who counts' extends to other groups besides shareholders who
are considered to be important for the continuity of the organization and the welfare of society.
- more actors with legitimate interests (not only financial interest)
●
Stakeholder model: all groups who hold legitimate interest in an organization do so to obtain
benefits and there is no priority for one set of interests and benefits over another.
●
●
The arrows between the organization and its stakeholders run in both directions. The
relationship between the stakeholders and the organization is not linear but one of
interdependency.
○ Groups are affected by the operations of the organization, but the organization's
operation and performance is also affected by those groups
It suggests that an organization needs to be considered 'legitimate' by both 'market' and
'non-market' stakeholder groups
Reasons why the stakeholder model is used
●
●
●
Instrumental: point to a connection between stakeholder management and corporate
performance
○ Stakeholder management may lead to increases in revenue and reductions in costs and
risks as it increases transactions with stakeholders
Normative: appeal to underlying concepts such as 'rights', 'social contracts', morality…
○ The interests of all stakeholders are seen as being of some intrinsic value to the
organization in this view
Descriptive: it's a way to visualize strategically the map of the organization and its
environment
4.2 The nature of stake and stakeholders
Stakeholder: any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the
organization's purpose and objectives
Stake: an interest or a share in an undertaking, that can range from simply an interest in an
undertaking at one extreme to a legal claim of ownership at the other extreme
● Equity stakes: held by those who have some direct 'ownership' of the organization, such as
shareholders, directors…
● Economic/market stakes: held by those who have an economic interest, but not an ownership
● Influencer stakes: held by those who don't have either ownership or economic interest in the
actions of the organization, but who have interests as consumer advocates, environmental
groups, trade organizations…
Looking at stakes:
1. Assessing whether the interest is primarily economic or moral in nature.
○ Primary groups of stakeholders: groups that are important for financial transactions
and necessary for the survival or the organization
○ Secondary groups of stakeholders: those who influence or affect or are influenced
or affected by the organization but are not engaged financially, they are not essential
for the survival of the organization
■ They have a moral or normative interest in the organization and have the
capacity to mobilize public opinion regarding the firm
1. Considering whether stakeholder ties with the organization are established through some form
of contractor not
○ Contractual stakeholders: groups who have a legal relationship with the organization
for the exchange of goods and services, formally tied (distributors)
○ Community stakeholders: groups whose relationship with the firm is non-contractual
and more diffuse, not
formally tied (activists)
4.3 stakeholder communication
Stakeholder salience model
● Stakeholders are identified and classified based on their salience to the organization (how
visible or prominent a stakeholder is to the firm based on power, legitimacy and urgency)
● The more salient, the more priority, and therefore, the more need to be actively communicated
with
1. Latent stakeholders (only possess one attribute)
○ Dormant stakeholders
■ Have the power to impose their will on others
■ Little or no interaction with the organization
○
Discretionary stakeholders
■ Possess legitimate claims based on interactions with an organization but have
no power to influence
○
Demanding stakeholders
■ Urgent claims, but no power or legitimacy
2. Expectant stakeholders (possess two attributes)
○ Dominant stakeholders
■ Both powerful and legitimate claims
■ Strong influence in the organization
■ Employees, customers
○
Dangerous stakeholders
■ Power and urgent claims
■ They may resort to coercion and violence
■ Wildcat strikes, employee sabotage
○
Dependent stakeholders
■ Urgent and legitimate claims
■ They rely on others to carry out their will
■ Local residents of a community in which a corporation is based
3. Definitive stakeholder
○ Legitimacy, power and urgency
○ They need to be communicated with
○ Important shareholders
The power-interest matrix
● Objective is to categorize stakeholders on the basis of the power they possess and the extent
to which they are likely to have or show an interest in the organization's activities.
○ Key players (D)
■ Need to be constantly communicated with
○
Keep satisfied (C)
■ Most challenging to maintain relationships with
○
Keep informed (B)
■ High level of interest and low level of power
■ Need to be informed so they can spread positive word-to-mouth
○
Minimal effort (A)
Stakeholder communication: from awareness to commitment
1. Informational strategy
○ Informing someone about something
○ This creates awareness of organizational decisions
○ One-way symmetrical
■ One way: Communication from organization to stakeholders
■ Symmetrical: no intend to persuade, they aim to report objectively
2. Persuasive strategy
○ Organization tries to change and tune the knowledge and behavior of stakeholders in
a way that is favorable to the organization
○ They try to 'sell' a particular kind of understanding of the organization's decisions
○ Two-way asymmetrical
■ Two way: communication flows between organization and stakeholders
■ Asymmetrical: unbalanced communication, organization doesn't change, but
it attempts to change stakeholders opinions
3. Dialogue strategy
○ Organizations and stakeholders mutually engage in an exchange of ideas and
opinions
○ Active consultation of stakeholders and even involving them in decision-making
○
Two-way symmetrical
■ Two way: communication flows between organization and stakeholders
■ Symmetrical: exchange views and reach mutual understanding
4.4 Stakeholder Engagement
Management vs engagement
● From management to collaboration
● From exchange to engagement
●
Increased focus on stakeholder relations
○ From managing to building/fostering relationships
●
More bridging, less buffering
○ From buffering interference to bridging with interests
●
From fragmented to coordinated corpcom
○ From fragmented activities to coordinated communication programs for stakeholder
relations
●
Emphasis on purpose and social value creation
○ Balance between economic and social value. Dependent on leadership/CEO
Buffering: trying to influence the attitudes and opinions of stakeholders so they don't interfere with
internal operations
Bridging: organizations seek to adapt their activities so that they conform to the external interests and
expectations of stakeholders
The dominant logic: conceptualize the firm's relationship with the broader society
1. Default logic
○ Strict commercial logic
○ Economic considerations
2. Logic of senior managers
○ Companies collaborate with stakeholders to create value and gain competitive
advantage
3. Logic of joint value creation
○ Actively think through the bidirectional and positive links between social
environmental and economic value
Chapter 10; Issues management
10.1 defining issues
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
between an organization and its stakeholders
Howard Chase defines issue as: 'an unsettled matter which is ready for a decision'
● Issues may develop into crisis
● Crisis: an issue that requires not just decisive but also immediate action from the organization
●
Media can magnify interest in the issue
10.2 managing issues
1. Environmental scanning
● DESTEP
○ Demographic
○ Economic
○ Social
○ Technological
○ Ecological
○ Political
■ With this, practitioners are able to describe the most important current
environmental changes and to predict future ones
● SWOT
○ Strengths
○ Weaknesses
○ Opportunities
○ Threats
■ Understanding of the organization's status, of its standing with important
groups and its environment
1. Issue identification and analysis: to determine the present intensity of the issue
● Position-importance matrix
○ Concerned with the position of a stakeholder or public in elation to a particular issue
○ Categorized according to their position on an issue and importance to the
organization
○ Numerical value from 0 to -5 (those opposing the issue) or 0 to +5 (those supporting
the issue)
■ Problematic stakeholders
■ Likely to oppose to the organization
■ Unimportant to the firm
■
Antagonistic stakeholders
■ Likely to oppose to the organization
■ Hold power over the firm
■
Low priority stakeholders
■ Likely to support the organization
■ Unimportant to the firm
■
Supporter stakeholders
■ Likely to support the organization
■ Hold power over the firm
●
Life cycle of an issue
○ To identify the current 'stage' of the issue
■ Emergence
■ Detect issues when they first 'emerge'
■
Debate
■ Engage publicly in the 'debate'
■
Codification
■ Issue defined within the public domain
■
Enforcement
■ Enforced through government legislation
1. Issue-specific response strategies
● The way organizations communicate about issues
○ Buffering strategy
■ Attempt to 'stonewall the issue' and delay its development
■ Trying to keep claims from stakeholders from interfering with internal
operations
■ E.g., remain silent
●
●
○
Bridging strategy
■ Being open to change and recognizing the issue
■ Seek to adopt organizational activities so that they conform to external
expectations of stakeholders
■ E.g., be transparent and engage in dialogues
○
Advocacy strategy
■ Try to change stakeholder expectations on an issue through campaigns
■ E.g., sponsorship or NGO's
○
Thought leadership
■ Identify salient emergent issues before they become active or intense
■ Stake out a leadership position on the issue
■ E.g., CEO's speaking on the issue to the media
The way they communicate issues often involves acts of framing
Issue framing: efforts that communication practitioners take, whilst communicating, to shape
the frames of interpretation of stakeholders
1. Evaluation
● Evaluation of how the issue has developed and how stakeholder expectations have changed
10.3 Influencing public policy
● Such influence may be:
○ Indirect: through advocating a certain framing of an issue that may in turn influence
the government
○ Direct:
■ through lobbying(individual hired by the firm to influence public policy in
the firm's favor) ,
■ political action committees(represent a fund for political donations made up
of money from a firm's members or employees) and
■ industry coalitions(alliance of organizations in the same industry who through
direct lobbying or donations, attempt to have a voice in the policy-formation
process)
■ Grassroots campaigning: organization engaging with members of its own
and/or others with a stake in an issue to persuade legislators to support its
public policy
10.4 Anti-corporate activism
● Corporate communication practitioners not only scan and monitor the environment for issues
and activist groups, but also seek to actively communicate and engage with activist groups
● A prolonged silence or continued dismissal of the issue may come to harm rather than protect
the reputation of he organization
● Corporate activism / CEO activism: organizations and senior leaders representing the firms
taking public stands on political and social issues unrelated to their companies' bottom line.
Article; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0363811109000149?via%3Dihub
Issue arena's: Physical and/or virtual public, and networked, spaces where issues get
communicatively constructed by multiple social actors, such as corporations, experts, political and
governmental actors, NGO's, activists, civilians, influencers…
● They emerge around diverse topics, such as the environment, energy, health, housing, human
rights…
■
Includes product defects, tampering and social issues regarding a company's
supply chain, operations and contribution to society
5. Stage 5
○ All previous stages but also incorporates environmental scanning and early warning
systems to identify crises as early as possible
11.3 impact of a crisis on corporate reputation
● Impacts organization's operations, both financial (loss of income) and reputational (loss of
earnings in the long run)
● Reputational capital: organization's stock of perceptual and social assets - the quality of the
relationship it has established by stakeholders and the regard in which the company and brand
is held
○ Based on performance and communication, organizations accumulate such capital
with their stakeholders over time
○ 'reservoir or goodwill': an organization with a more favorable reputation prior to a
crisis is also likely to have a stronger post-crisis reputation because it has more
reputational capital
● Organizational stigma: collective stakeholder group-specific perception that an organization
possesses a fundamental flaw or quality which is demonstrated in repeated crises or failures,
and which leads stakeholders to single out and discredit the organization.
○ Represents a social negative evaluation where all reputational capital has been spent
○ Leads stakeholders to 'disidentify' with the organization and spreading bad
word-of-mouth
Steps:
● Crisis situation demands that communication practitioners begin their efforts by releasing
information to the media. After that, one can turn the attention to communicating more
broadly with their stakeholders and focus on reputational capital
○ Disseminating information openly is seen as an important first step in an effective
crisis response
●
Determine the organization's responsibility for a crisis and communicate its actions to a
broad range of stakeholder groups
○ Owning up to a crisis, a company can minimize feelings of anger amongst
stakeholders
11.4 communicating about a crisis
Four types of crises based on two dimensions:
● Internal-external
○ Whether the crisis resulted from something done by the organization itself (actions of
managers) or by some person outside the firm
●
Intentional-unintentional
○ Motives behind the action that lead to the crisis
○ Intentional: crisis committed deliberately by some actor
○ Unintentional: not committed on purpose but emerged through happenstance
Classifying crises into these 4 types:
Faux pas (false step): corporate decisions or actions which unbeknown to the firm is transformed
into a crisis by an external actor
● Begins with an issue between a firm and a external actor who challenges the appropriateness
or the firms' actions
● When the firm does not engage in a debate with the actor, then a crisis emerges
● Social responsibility the focal point of faux pas
Accidents: unintentional and happen during the course of normal organization's operations
● Product defects, employee injuries, natural disasters…
● Leads to attributions of minimal organizational responsibility, unless it was the firms fault
● They can be divided into:
○ Nature: hurricanes (distancing strategy)
○ Human-induced errors: industrial accidents (apologize)
○ Stakeholders react better at natural accidents
Transgressions: intentional acts taken by an organization that knowingly place stakeholders or
publics at risk or harm
● Knowingly selling dangerous products
● Violating laws
● Acceptance strategy from firm: admit responsibility but work to atone (make amends) for the
crisis
Aggression: intentional acts taken by external agents
● Designed to harm the organization directly (hurt customers through product tampering) or
indirectly (reduce sales)
● Suffering strategy
Principle for choosing appropriate communication strategy:
● Degree to which an organization is perceived by stakeholders and public to be responsible
for the crisis
○ When responsible: defend its position or apologize
○ When not responsible: distance itself from the problem
Crisis communication strategies
Article; Hatch, M. J., & Schultz, M. (2002). The dynamics of organizational identity. Human
relations, 55(8), 989-1018. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726702055008181
Strategic identity management
● Identity is thus an umbrella construct to coordinately manage multiple processes
●
Key questions
○ Who are we?
■ Traditionally captured by organizational identity also related to culture
○ Who do we say we are?
■ Corporate identity
○ How do we perceive how others perceive who we are?
■ Constructed image/reputation
●
Underlying conceptual question
○ Is identity fixed or dynamic?
○ And if dynamic: what are destabilizing processes?
The "I" and the "Me"
● Philosopher, sociologist and psychologist
● Chicago school (pragmatism, 1920s)
● Social identity emerges from the ongoing dynamic relations between the "I" and the Me"
Mead's (1934) concepts "I" and "Me"
● The "self" is not a fixed thing, but a dynamic ever evolving, emergent, concept of becoming,
it's the product of the two components of me and i
○ I: spontaneous, creative, dimension of the self (e.g., you make music out of your
creative and spontaneous side)
○ Me: socially aware, conforming dimension of the self (e.g., you make what you think
other people will like)
Narcissism
Hyper adaptation
week 4
Chapter 8: media relations
Journalism and news organizations
Core operation of news media organizations: producing and disseminating news content
Production of news involves two levels:
● Journalists: consult sources and write new stories
● Other parties (news routines): edit stories before made public
○ Journalists may cover and write the story, but at the same time not even recognize
their piece because of news routines
○ News routines may reflect a certain ideology --> 'media logic': ideological frame of
reference of a news organization, which influences how editors and journalists see
and interpret corporate and social affairs
■ E.g., The Guardian has been characterized as left-wing political spectrum
Effects of news coverage on corporate reputation
Media coverage may often have an 'amplifying' effect on a company's reputation when 'good' or 'bad'
news is reported.
● The amplifying effect studied with the agenda-setting theory: frequency in which the media
report on a public issue determines that issue's salience in the minds of the general public. (
the idea that there is a strong correlation between the emphasis that mass media place on
certain issues (placement of story) and the importance attributed to these issues by mass
audiences)
●
Two levels of agenda setting:
○ Objects of news coverage(such as political candidates or organizations)
■ Salience of a particular organization and the degree to which it readily comes
to mind when a particular topic is being discussed
■ E.g., Shell comes to mind first when it receives more media attention than
other petroleum companies
○ Framing
■ Media can also influence how people think about a topic by emphasizing and
ignoring attributes
■ Not only on whether people think about a topic but how they do so in terms
of certain associations
■ E.g., public associates Shell primarily with a particular issue (renewable
energy) that has received much attention in the news during a particular
period
○ Results have shown that news coverage influences which corporations are salient in
the public's mind, and the amount of media coverage devoted to certain corporate
issues or attributes of an organization are in line with public associations regarding
those corporations
○ Also, the greater salience of an issue associated with a company, the better the
reputation
●
How is this agenda formed?
○
Agenda building: discussions and debates amongst multiple groups, including
journalists and communication practitioners, as well as policymakers and interest
groups
Framing news stories
Adversarial relationship between journalists and communication practitioners
● Journalists: they think that communication practitioners think about the needs of companies
rather than what journalists need, and withheld information, are not always objective and not
focused on issues of public interest
● Communication practitioners: less negative about journalists, but realize that journalists have
their own agenda and may frame news about the company in line with their news routines and
ideology of the news organization that they work for.
● However, they are interdependent
○ Journalists need and use info provided by practitioners and practitioners need the
media as a channel to generate coverage on the firm to reach important stakeholders.
Practitioners propose a story to a journalist:
1. Solicit interest in the story topic itself
2. Make sure that the story is framed in a way that is consistent with the firm's preferred framing
○ Framing involves processes of inclusion and exclusion of information in a message as
well as emphasis
■ Involves selection and salience
○ Framing theory: communication practitioners frame a particular corporate decision,
issue or event in such a way that it furthers and promotes the interests of the
organization
■ That frame is labelled the corporate frame that is provided to the media
■ News framing refers to the way in which news is selectively portrayed by the
media to explain ideas of organizations (journalism view). It depends on the
political view of journalists
■ Because of that, both might tell the same story in completely
different ways
■ Alignment of frames: spotting stories that can turn corporate news
into media news
■ It's likely when practitioners and journalists openly discuss
an issue
○ Disinformation: intentional spreading of incorrect information
Media relations tools
Tools to obtain news coverage:
● Press releases
○ Transfer news to journalists so that it can be made public
○ Newsworthy events and have a human interest
○
● Press conferences
○ Disseminating info to the news media inviting journalists to a press conference
○ Organized around fixed periods when firms share final results
○ Also be ad hoc press conferences around an issue to provide up-to-date info to
journalists
○
'interactive feature': allows journalists to address questions, this is the difference
between press conference and press release
●
Interviews
○ Interview between a journalist and an executives of organizations
○ Communication practitioners need to offer executives advice and training on angles
of corporate themes for the interview
●
Online newsroom
○ One-stop shop for media relations; standard reports, speeches but also host dynamic
content including videos, podcast
○ Provides journalists with info when they need it and drives traffic to company's
website
●
Media monitoring and research
○ Gate-keeping:
■ analyses characteristics of a press release or video news release that allow
them to 'pass through the gate' and appear in a news medium
■ Both content and style are examined
■
○ Output analysis:
■ Measure the amount of exposure or attention that the organization receives as
a results of media relations
■ Measure the total amount of news coverage (number of articles)
■ Measure the tone (positive or negative)
■ AVE (advertising value equivalent): counting the column inches of press
publicity and seconds of air time gained and then multiplying the total by the
advertising rate of the media in which the coverage appeared
■ However, it doesn't incorporate an evaluation of the tone
●
Syndicated media-monitoring services
○ Agencies have developed media-monitoring packages
○ They focus on:
■ measuring the total circulation or audience reached
■ The tone of news
■ The extent to which hey messages are picked up and communicated
■ The share-of-voice compared to competitors
○ Advantage: it focuses on the outcome (tone and share of voice) as opposed to mere
exposure
Lecture
Stakeholder communication in a (non) digital society
Why are news media (effects) so important for corporate communications?
● For most stakeholder groups, and specific stakeholders particularly, traditional news is (still)
the most important source of organizational information
○ Stakeholder management
○ Coordination
○ Uncontrollable but manageable
●
●
●
Newspapers are still the most important agenda- and frame setters
○ Stakeholders agenda's
■ Political; public; investors; activists
■
Most organizational news is negative
○ Negative is predominant over positive news, greater effect on the public
News can have negative effects on reputation
Agenda-setting theory
● Agenda
○ Just like a personal planner the news is a priority list with limited space
● Agenda setting
○ Salience on the news agenda will transfer to salience on the public agenda
● First -level agenda setting hypothesis
○ What do we think about
○ Increase in object salience on news agenda will lead to an increase in object salience
on the public agenda
● Second-level agenda setting hypothesis
○ How do we think about an organization
○ Increase in object attribute salience on news agenda will lead to an increase in object
attribute salience on the public agenda
Objects and attributes in corporate communication
● Objects
○ Organizations(visibility)
○ 1st level of agenda setting
● Attributes
○
Associations in the news
■ Cognitive attributes
■ Rational facts, topics
■ Things like issues
■ Usually covered in a neutral way
■ 2nd level of agenda setting
■ Affective attributes
■ Irrational and emotional aspects
■ Emotions like tone/sentiment
■ Usually covered either positively or negatively
■ 2nd level of agenda setting
Agenda building and setting
Agenda setting refers to how the how the views and thoughts of the public can be altered by what
they see and hear in the media (position of the story) while agenda buildingrefers to how
public-supported issues are brought to policymakers and the media (government and citizenry
reciprocally influence one another)
● Still complex, journalists may not use the sources of the organization to present an issue, so
agenda building is not fully in the hands of an organization
Agenda setting and framing
● Agenda setting
○ 1st level agenda setting: what do we think about
○ 2nd level agenda setting: how do we think about it
● Framing
○ Framing has been conceptually linked to 2nd level agenda setting
○ It offers a much more advanced and theoretically advanced literature and lexicon om
'how do we think about it' compared to agenda setting
○ E.g., emphasis framing: equivalence framing; generic framing; issue specific framing
○ But framing ans agenda setting: distinct research paradigms
Main difference
Framing refers to how an issue is characterized in news reports can have an influence on how it is
understood by audiences. Once frames are learned, they guide our sense-making, actions, situations,
and events. While agenda-setting refers to the idea that there is a strong correlation between the
emphasis that mass media place on certain issues (placement of the story) and the importance
attributed to these issues by mass audiences.
Agenda/frame setting and building
How organizations frame some issues and how are these issues transferred to the media
Reputation
● Method Jonkman et al. (2020): investigating if the news have an effect on the public and
how they view the reputation of an organization
○ Dependent variable: Reputation of set of large Dutch companies (survey)
■ Measured on a 10 point Likert scale (very negative to very positive)
■ Measured with the same persons (representative sample of Dutch adults) at 3
time periods
○ Independent variables(media content)
■ Attention to (visibility of) corporations in the news (counting mentions)
■ Tone of coverage (-1 to +1; very negative to very positive)
●
Research question 1
○ To what extent does the visibility of a corporate actor in the news negatively affect
the corporate reputation of this actor?
■ Support for this idea. If you have been exposed to news without looking at
the tone than this can produce bad effects on reputation
■
■
Basic underlying idea: visibility may trigger negative responses because most
people assume there is a negative bias in the news
Mere exposure to objects in the news may activate negative attitudes because
visibility indicates negativity (while statistically controlling for tone)
●
Hypothesis 1
○ The more positive the tone of news about a company, the more positive the corporate
reputation of that company
○ This doesn't take into account the cognitive attributes (facts, what is the issue)
●
Hypothesis 2
○ The negative effect of negative news on corporate reputation is stronger than the
positive effect of positive news
■ Hypothesis 1 and 2 supported
■ H1: classic second level agenda setting
■ H2: the (negative) influence of negative news > 3 times stronger than
(positive effect on positive news
■ Previously demonstrated in political communication
●
Hypothesis 4(moderation effect)
○ Preexisting 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 reputation will be
■ Support for this moderation effect
■ Effects of negative news on the reputation of a company are less strong
among individuals who held a positive pre-existing reputational attitude
towards that corporation
■ Cognitive dissonance theory:people prefer not to see their opinions
challenged by media coverage and therefore tend to interpret news coverage
in ways that are in line with their existing beliefs
■ Buffer-effect for organizations:like a shield protecting against negativity
Implications for reputation management
● News coverage can influence corporate reputation in various ways
● The reputational effect of negative news outweighs the effect of positive news substantially
● A good reputation may function as a 'buffer' (protection) against negative news coverage
● Thus, organizations should invest in building favorable reputations
Mediatization
Definition: long-term dynamic process in the course of which the mass media become increasingly
influential in and deeply integrated into different levels of society
Four phases of mediatization:
● Media as most important sources of information
● Degree of media autonomy (e.g., press freedom)
● Media content mainly governed by media logic
○ Independent way in which media looks at the world and handles social reality
● External actors adapt to media logic (e.g., organizations)
Media logic: focuses on ingrained patterns and characteristics of news selection and production that
are applied by news workers (e.g., journalists) to cope with translating social reality into news.
Mediatization includes the idea that media logic is becoming more dominant both within and outside
media organizations
News factors: concrete elements that can be associated with media logic: factors, such as negativity,
proximity, elite people, drama… that signal newsworthiness to new workers (e.g., journalists) who, in
turn, incorporate them in news stories
News factors / values
● Concrete queues that are used to convert the social reality into news
● E.g., proximity, elite/famous actors, conflict, drama, negativity
● Aspects of perceived reality, steering journalistic news selection
● They materialize in news articles
● Can be strategically used by sources (e.g., corporate communication)
Negativity and news
● Two selection bias
○ (1) negativity bias journalists (news selection) and thus in coverage
○ (2) negativity bias news consumers
■ Negative cover sells way more than positive covers
●
●
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
■ The press is traditionally seen as a function in society that focuses on
problems
Effects of mediatization
H1: media attention for negative incidents follows a different over-time trend as compared to the real
world indicators of these negative incidents
● In real world: violence 10% non violence 90%
● In media: violence 30% non violence 70%
○ Therefore, media covers negative incidents in a different way
H2: media attention for negative incidents is negatively associated with public responses
● Attention in the news with actual sells of airplane tickets
● When media covers airplane crashes, people didn't buy tickets that much (people react to what
they see in the news)
week 5
Chapter 9; employee communication
Defining employee communication
Employee communication: traditionally was communication with employees internal to the
organization
● However, technology has blurred the line between internal and external communication as
employees can distribute their own info about an organization electronically to outside
stakeholders without any gatekeeping control
Two central areas of employee communication
● Management communication
○ Communication between a manager and their subordinate employees
○ Restricted to specific interpersonal work
○ Related to specific tasks and activities of individual employees as well as to issues
relating to their morale and wellbeing
● Corporate information and communication systems (CICS)
○ Broader focus than manager-employee
○ Involve technologies and communication systems that broadcast corporate decisions
and developments to all employees across the organization
○ Disseminating info to employees in all ranks in order to keep them informed about
corporate matters
Forms of employee communication
● Downward communication
○ Information flowing from the top of the organizational management hierarchy and
telling people in the organization what is important (mission) and what is valued
(policies)
○ Includes both management and CICS communication
■ E.g., corporate calendar: list events throughout the year at which corporate
objectives are communicated to employees from different parts of the
company
● Upward communication
○ Information from employees that is sent up to managers within the organization
○ Typically facilitated within the interpersonal setting of management communication
Employee communication and organizational identification
Organizational identification: the perception of oneness with or belongingness to an organization,
where the individual defines herself in therms of the organization of which she is a member
● Organizational identification increases as a result of:
○ the external perceived prestige of the organization
○ Fit between employee and organizational values
Downward communication enhances organizational identification when the info transmitted is
perceived as adequate and reliable (useful and efficient info)
● The more adequate or specific the information, the higher the level of identification with that
organization
Employees that feel they are listened to and are involved in decision-making will increase
organizational identification
● Employee communication most productive if it's a two-way process (both upward and
downward)
Voice, silence and stimulating employee participation
The degree to which employees speak up, are listened to and participate in organizational
decision-making
Organizational silence: powerful forces in many organizations that prevent employees from
participation and that force them to withhold information about potential issues. Some factors that
cause employees to remain silent:
● Managers' fear of receiving negative feedback from employees
● Managerial beliefs which suggest that managers know best about organizational matters
Organizational silence can damage the organization in that it blocks negative feedback and hence an
organization's ability to detect and correct errors. It can also affect decision-making as there's no new
perspectives. It will elicit negative reactions from employees as managers tend to discourage
employee opinion.
Communication climate: internal environment of information exchange between managers and
employees through an organization's formal and informal networks
● Characterized as 'open' when info flows freely between individuals
● Characterized as 'closed' when info is blocked
Organizational silence corresponds to a 'closed' communication climate because it involves a shared
and widespread feeling amongst employees that speaking up is of little use, leading them to withhold
info
Social media, networks and communities of practice
Vertical communication (employees at the end and managers up), either upwards or downwards, is
often about control and ocmmand.
Besides such communication, may firms have started using social media tools to support employees in
working together, as well as horizontally across the organization
Such tools are referred to as 'enterprise social media' (ESM): web-based platforms that allow
workers to:
● Communicate messages with specific ci-workers or broadcast messages to everyone in the
organization
● Explicitly indicate or implicitly reveal particular co-workers as communication partners
● Post, edit, and sort text and files linked to themselves or others
● View the messages, connections, text and files communicated, posted, edited and sorted by
anyone else in the organization at anytime of their choosing
Production networks: primarily formed around the accomplishment of work tasks
Innovation networks: emerge around the creation, development and diffusion of new ideas
Maintenance networks: serve to develop and maintain social relationships at work
Strength of weak ties: we often value so-called strong ties in social and organizational settings that
are based on strong durable relationships with others and on frequent communication
● However, it may lead to in-group mentality where no new ideas emerge
Community of practice: networks of communication that bind employees together by common
interests
● They set their own boundaries around themselves and largely through collaborating together
Chapter 12; Leadership and change communication
Defining leadership and change
Two views about leadership: either is natural, or acquired and developed.
They may differ in terms of 'leadership style': the way in which, in their communication and behavior,
they approach others and provide direction, energize and motivate others in an organization.
●
●
Transactional leadership style
○ Situations of leadership where the leader is concerned with maintaining and ensuring
the completion of a specific set of tasks
○ Leaders use their authority and incentives to motivate employees
○ 'transactional': the style of leadership where the leader essentially motivates by
exchanging rewards for performance
○ Leaders focused on specific tasks and don't have a long-term vision for the firm
■ E.g., supervising and supporting day-to-day operations of an organization
■
Transformational leadership style
○ Broad visions are formulated by leaders to motivate employees and foster
collaboration between them towards a set of higher-level ambitions
○ Broad strategic goals
○ Motivational tactics to obtain good performance and providing opportunities for
personal growth for employees
○ 'transformational': leaders not focused on specific operational goals, but aiming to
empower employees
■ E.g., CEO wants to strategically move the organization in a different
direction
Organizational changes:
● Degrees of change:
○ Major or radical: complete restructuring of an organization
■ Complete reorientation of an organization
○ Minor and convergent: adjustment customer service guidelines as a result of customer
feedback
■ Fine-tuning existing orientation and ways of working
● Time frame:
○ Evolutionary: slow and gradually
○ Revolutionary: swiftly and affect virtually all of the organization
●
Focus of the change:
○ Adoption of novel or updated technology to accomplish work
○ Restructuring and change in policies and routine ways of working
○ Change in the products and services of an organization
○ Change in the organizational identity and culture of the organization
●
Changes can also be:
○ Additive
■ An addition or update to the old organization
■ Less drastic and may involve improvements of ways of working
○ Substitutive
■ Departure from the old organization
■ Involves redefinition of the organization's mission and purpose or substantial
restructuring
■ More difficult to get support of
Communicating during a change
Poorly managed change communication may result in rumors and resistance to change.
Model of the change process:(water freezing) -->change in an organization involves an alteration of
the organization (water) in terms of its structure or function (in the form of ice) over time. All of the
phases require communication between managers and employees
1.
2.
3.
4.
Unfreezing: recognizing the need for change
Vision: development of a change plan
Moving: implementation of the new change
Refreezing: routinization of the change
Lecture
Different forms of employee communication
● Management communication
○ Communication between immediate supervisor and employee
○
● Corporate information and communication systems (CICS)
○ Communication to share important information and collaborate with the entire
organization
○ E.g., via email, intranet or townhall meeting
●
● Goals employee communication
○ Provide relevant information for employee job performance and build a strong
community
Complimentary functions
● Downward communication flows from management to employees
● Upward communication flows from employees to management
● However, if you want to build a strong community, there should be horizontal
communication, also known as ESM
Enterprise social media (ESM)
● "social media tools used for communication within teams, organizational units, and
department, as well as to support collaboration across professional groups and hierarchical
layers"
● ESM are web-based platforms that allow workers to…
○ Communicate messages with specific coworkers or broadcast messages to everyone
in the organization
○ Explicitly indicate or implicitly reveal particular co-workers as communication
partners
○ Post, edit, and sort text and files linked to themselves or others
○ View messages, connections, text, and files at any time of their choosing
Identification with the organization
"the perception of oneness with or belongingness to an organization, where the individual defines
themselves in terms of the organization(s) of which they are a member"
● Prestige organization
● Overlap personal and organizational identity
● Two-way traffic in employee communication
Voice and silence
Simulating employee participation
● Voice: employee participation in organizational decision-making
Step 2:leaders have to craft a frame or vision of the strategic and economic issues motivating the
change
● Deciding on a set of key words and phrases that best capture the change
Step 3:managing moods of employees to make the change
Step 4:reinforcing and institutionalizing the new behaviors
● Modeling new ways of working and positive reinforcement
Communication strategies about change
● Spray and pray
○ Managers showering 'spray' employees with all kinds of information about the change
○ Info is simply passed on to employees who, t's hoped 'pray', will then themselves sort
out the significant from the insignificant details and work out what the change means
for their day-to-day job
○ Rarely effective: more communication does not mean better communication
●
Tell and sell
○ Managers communicating a more limited info that they believe address the core
issues about the change
○ Managers first tell employees and try to sell employees a particular approach
○ Top-down strategy: employees are not engaged in a dialogue but simply informed of
change
○ Employees might not feel listened
●
Underscore and explore
○ Managers focusing on several fundamental issues most clearly linked to the
organizational change whilst allowing employees the creative freedom to explore the
implications of the change in a disciplined way
○ Managers are concerned not only with developing a few core messages but also with
listening to employees
○ Best strategy
●
Identify and reply
○ Starts with concerns of employees
○ Employees setting the agenda to which managers reply
○ Employees are in the best position to know the critical issues and the feasibility of
change
○
●
Danger: employees do not have the wider picture of the entire organization and that
managers use this strategy as a defensive posture in which they are seen to attend
employee concerns without actually using that feedback
Withhold and uphold
○ Managers withholding info until they can no longer do so because of rumors or
employee revolt
○ Managers assume that information is power and that employees are not sophisticated
enough to grasp the big picture or simply do not know the rationale for a change
Underscore and explore strategy
organizational change is more successful when employees in non-management positions are able to
exert the influence over the change process by providing feedback on the change and its
implementation
● Bottom-up involvement in change is generally more effective than strict top-down
Top-down:
● Employees involved only to a limited extent
● Managers will not consult employees, instead, they will meet each other and consult with
external sources (management consultant)
● Once the change initiative is formulated, it will then be rolled out to employees
● For this strategy to be successful, they need to communicate face-to-face
○ Associated with 'open' climate influences employees' trust, commitment and
willingness to change
Bottom-up:
● Employees are involved to a greater extent
● Managers speak face-to-face and emails and then will meet them and will engage with all
employees through interactive meetings
Need for communication efficiency high when:
● It's physically impossible to communicate in a face-to-face or interactive manner with
employees
● Resources devoted to change communication are scarce
● There's an urgent need to progress through the change process and thus little time for
interaction
Need for consensus-building high when:
Consensus-building: effort in change communication to achieve commitment to a course of action as
a result of joint decision-making
Need for
● Changes are perceived to be radical and controversial
● There's a history of resistance to similar change
● Critical resources (expertise) are controlled by employees
● Ongoing support and cooperation are needed to maintain the change
When these two dimensions put together = 4 different communication strategies:
●
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 the info
○ Strategy is useful when the change is more convergent or additive than radical and
when employees are themselves selective about what firm's activities are of interest to
them
●
Quid pro strategy
○ Managers give more communicative attention to those employees who have
something valuable to provide (expertise, resources) for the change process
○ These employees are crucial to the change and thus need to be consulted
○ Combines a focus of consensus-building with efficiency as only certain employees
are communicated with
○ Risk: may anger other employees left out
●
Equal dissemination strategy
○ Disseminating information to employees cross the entire organization on an equal
basis
○ Not to involve all employees in the change but simply to give everyone fair notice
○ Used to prevent employees complaints about them not being noticed
○ Common in large organizations
●
Equal participation strategy
○ Two-way communication (disseminating and soliciting input) between managers and
employees
○ Used when employees are crucial to the change
○ Downturn: costly and lots of different opinions
○ Used in small and public sectors
Effective leadership communication
Attributes of successful leadership communication:
● Authenticity
○ Truthful and passionate commitment to others to gain their support
○ Gives a level of consistency and personal touch that is more likely to garner success
○ Convey passion through gestures, stories and conversational skills
■ Gestures increase attention, linked to persuasion
■ Stories can be useful to present in a single frame the rationale for the change
■ Conversational skills to obtain alternative points, it may trigger a
reformulation in the implementation of a change
Hybrid working: flexible working model where employees work partly in the physical workplace, and
partly remotely; either at home of from another workspace
● Demands of leaders that they demonstrate responsiveness, empathy and clarity in their
communication to employees
○ Leaders should be responsive by following themselves the same hybrid arrangement,
otherwise they might send mixed signals
○ Leaders use their listening and conversational skills to show empathy and engage
with employees
○ Leaders should also be honest about their own struggles and allow space in individual
and team meetings for discussions around connections that are key to making hybrid
work effective
○ Leaders should be clear in their messaging as they are not all in a same office
Defensive:
● Ad hoc investments in social and environmental practices when they pay off the bottom line
and for the organization's primary shareholders
○ E.g., try to reduce its waste to avoid paying a fine
Charitable:
● Supporting social and environmental causes through donations or sponsorships, aimed at
empowering civil sector organizations
● Whilst beneficial to community, CSR is limited in this approach to local investments
Promotional:
● Rhetorical or symbolic use of CSR through PR and campaigns to bolster organization's
reputation
● It may be seen as 'greenwashing'
Strategic:
● Involves the firm identifying social and environmental issues that connect to its strategy and
core business operations
● Firm actively identifies issues that matter to its business and long-term performance
Transformational:
● Firms focus their activities on the root cause of environmental sustainability and social
responsibility and trying to invent business models and revolutionary products and services
that allow them to address these foundations in society
● Strategic is focused on the micro-level and transformative to a broader sense.
Communicating about corporate social responsibility
Traditionally there were approaches based on a model of persuasion rather than 'democratic'
communication or dialogue
● Managers are hesitant to include stakeholders in CSR decisions cause they do not want to
grant autonomy or power
●
Many firms simply focus on the media and on PR tactics to manage CSR, they don't engage
in real dialogue about CSR with stakeholders, instead, they approach the subject from a more
limited symbolic and rhetorical perspective where they communicate about CSR for
image-and reputation building.
Greenwashing: companies declaring and framing themselves as promoting environmentally friendly
policies, whereas, in reality, the actual implementation is out of step with the rhetoric.
● Promotional CSR
● Rhetorical or symbolic use of CSR through PR
● Stakeholder perceptions of misalignment
● Between corporate (environmental) responsibility communication on the one hand, and
corporate environmental responsibility behavior on the other hand
● If firms communicate aggressively or excessively about CSR, they may be negatively
perceived and evaluated by stakeholders
Three communication strategies for CSR:
Informational strategy
○ Not a persuasive intent but to inform the public as objectively as possible about CSR
activities
Stakeholder response strategy
○ Stakeholders are asked for feedback on CSR activities
○ Two-way communication model: stakeholders are asked but ultimately is the
company that decides and then engages stakeholders to promote these activities
○ Risk: CSR is perceived as marketing or PR ploy rather than as a steadfast
commitment to stakeholders and society
Stakeholder involvement strategy
○ Preferred strategy
○ Real mutual dialogue between a company and its stakeholders
○ Companies would no only influence but also seek to be influenced by stakeholders,
and therefore evolve in their CSR
○ Assumes that firms not only publish reports but set up public consultation forums
with their stakeholders to inform their CSR objectives
Nowadays there is 'integrated' social and environmental reporting:
● Prescribe clear standards which are assessed by professional social auditors
● Formal third-party used, giving greater levels of transparency
These companies that are highly rated by their stakeholders for their CSR reporting adhere to the
following guidelines:
● Set clear objectives:
○ Setting clear objectives for social and environmental performance annually
○ Systematically reporting on the results achieved afterwards
●
Set progressive objectives:
○ Objectives are progressive in bringing new aspirations and standards to bear upon
business operations instead of reciting existing practices that may be seen as socially
and environmentally viable
●
Involve stakeholders:
○ Objectives and targets include issues that are relevant to stakeholders and are linked
to clear benchmarks and standards
●
Report transparency:
○ Reporting in an honest and transparent way instead of a polishing of performance
data
●
Be accountable:
○ Performance data are rigorously assessed and verified by credible auditors
(accountants or consultants)
Community relations
1. Anti-corporate community activism has increased in scope and frequency because of the fact
that corporations themselves have become larger and more powerful and have increased their
hold over individuals
2. Psychological contract between companies and communities in society, which refers to the
implicit expectations that community members have of companies.
Psychological contract: expectations between companies and communities
● E.g., communities expected companies to provide employment to residents
Prior to 1980s --> contribution of companies to communities consisted of charitable donations to
high-profile charities (balloon and T-shirts era)
1980s --> greater emphasis on employee volunteer programs
1990s onwards--> 'citizen approach': wider expectations and the rise of community stakeholders
Elements of a community relations program
● Philanthropy:
○ Cash contributions to local community causes or charities
○ May be seen as minor involvement in community affairs, but provide a strong
symbolic signal that the company cares
●
Volunteers:
○ Most important resource of a company
○ They can help build relationships with local communities
○ They act as ambassadors for the company, enhancing its reputation in the community
●
Partnerships:
○ Higher level of commitment
○ Companies engage in partnerships with community agencies and form alliances with
other firms to address public issues
○ Allows a company to address pressing community needs and enhance the entire
community relations program
Lecture
Mediatization: long term dynamic process in the course of which the mass media become
increasingly influential and deeply integrated into different levels of society
● Four dimensions:
○ Media as most important source of information
○ Degree of media autonomy (e.g., press freedom)
○ Media content primarily governed by media logic
○ External actors adapt to media logic (e.g., corporations, non-profits)
■ Clear example of CSA
■
Corporations are changing the way they act because they want to get the
attention of media
Maintaining legitimacy
Legitimacy: the assessment of an organization against the norms, values, and expectations of its
stakeholders, in terms of what those stakeholders seem acceptable and favored by the organization
● Contextual and dynamic
● Negotiated between stakeholders and organizations
● Facilitated by organization-society relations
Triple bottom line
● People: societal well-being
● Planet: environmental sustainability
● Profit: growth market economy
●
●
Limits to growth (Club of Rome, 1972)
Brundtland report (UN, 1987)
Corporate citizenship (organization as citizen):
● Organizations are 'legal entities with rights and duties, in effect, 'citizens' of states in which
they operate'
○ Firms are like citizens, they have responsibilities but also rights
● Corporate citizenship refers to the portfolio of activities that organizations undertake to
fulfill their perceived duties as members of society
Different perspectives on CSR communication
● Societal perspective
○ CSR as a patterns in society / a globalized world
○ How do societies give meaning to CSR?
●
functional
○ CSR as a strategic function of the organizations
○ How do organizations use CSR communication?
Corporate social advocacy
● Definition: an organization's making a public statement or taking a public stance on
social-political issues
○ Strategy to increase distinctiveness of the brand, but not without a risk
○ Publicly promoting and voicing support for an individual, group or idea
○ An effort to persuade audiences to embrace this individual, group or idea
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Distinction between CSR AND CSA
○ CSA viewed as a newer form of CSR; it targets narrow stakeholder group(s), while
CSR generally targets wider/more general stakeholder group(s)
○ CSA is about controversial topics, while CSR often targets problems whose solutions
are related to the organization's bottom line and have higher public acceptance
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Ads and cons of CSA (tutorial)
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Firms should do it cause its better than nothing and they can raise awareness
However, they might lose customers cause some of them might not agree with what
the company is portraying
If you engage in CSA greenwashing might backfire
■ If you support diversity but your company's vision doesn't then it doesn't
make any sense and greenwashing has a backfire effect
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Rise of CSA
○ Clip Nike campaign 'Believe in more'
○ Black lives matter, transgender rights and other LGBTQIA+ issues, women's rights…
○ Related to mediatization and politization of corporations
■ Firms are having a political view because they are advocating for things that
don't have anything to do with the firm
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Danger of 'woke' washing
○ CSA "a corporate activity which pertains to partisan sociopolitical issues that can be
executed by any representative of the firm or via firms' brands"
■ 'woke' washing refers to the perceptions of inconsistencies between
communication and behavior(practices/policies)
■ Various types of corporate 'washing': Greenwashing, brownwashing,
pinkwashing or rainbow capitalism
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Effects of CSA
○ Most previous CSA research focused on financial performance: purchase intention,
intention to boycott, positive or negative word-of-mouth
○ Emerging question: what is the effect of CSA on corporate reputation?
Issue ownership theory
● Originated in political communication, from election campaigns and voter choice research
● Some political candidates have a stronger reputation for handling a specific issue than others
and 'own' the issue
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Corporate communication
○ Some firms have a stronger reputation on handling a specific issue than others and
'own' the issue
○ Media coverage of 'owned' issues will increase the salience of that topic, and
therefore enhance the firms reputation
CSA-brand fit: perceived congruity between the advocated cause and the brand in regard to the
brand's identity and the public expectations about the values related to the brand
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Dimensions CSA brand-fit:
○ Alignment between cause and corporate or brand identity
○ Alignment between firm's CSA and the changing social and cultural values among
key stakeholders
○ E.g., Nike's behavior against racism
■ It fits in the CSA brand fit because it goes with Nike's identity and the vision
of key stakeholders
Authenticity: perceived CSA authenticity is the genuineness and consistency of the firm's
commitment to the advocated issue reflecting the organizational true identity. It has 3 dimensions:
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Dimensions CSA authenticity
○ Genuineness of the firm's commitment to the cause
○ Consistency between words and behavior
○ The extent to which the advocated issue reflects the 'true' identity
Findings:
H1:The social media posts referring to LGBTQ + issues will be positively associated with the
respondents’ top of mind ratings for the top 10 LGBTQ + companies.
● Support for this hypothesis
H2:Perceived fit between organizational identity and advocated social issue will have a positive effect
on issue-specific reputation.
● Support for this hypothesis
H3:Perceived favorable stance on the advocated issue will have a positive effect on issue-specific
reputation.
● Support for this hypothesis
H4:Perceived authenticity will have a positive effect on issue-specific reputation.
● Support for this hypothesis
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Diversity management (Diversity, equity, and inclusion)
● To maintain their legitimacy in the eyes of their stakeholders, organizations have to refrain
from discriminatory practices
○ Recruitment
○ Equal opportunity employees
● So they want to attract 'diverse employees'
● What is a 'diverse employee'?
○ One person can't be diverse, it involves a whole group
● Most larger companies have diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies --> diversity
management
○ Dutch employers lag, in 2020 only 20% of the corporations had an active DEI-policy
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Due to the new EU-regulation 'Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive' (GSRD) all
corporations will have to account publicly for their initiatives
Important to differentiate between equality and equity so everyone can participate in the
corporate life
Diversity management (Article Kollen 2021)
● How did diversity management emerge and how are they enacted
● Debate within diversity management
○ The diversity dimensions and related prioritization
○ Legitimacy of diversity management practices
● Road forward for academic research and diversity management practices
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Origin diversity management
○ Originated in the US, based on 'affirmative action'
○ Affirmative action directives were based on anti-discrimination considerations
○ Diversity management originated from affirmative action, with the addition of the
'business perspective' and was transported to Europe via multinationals
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Shape diversity management
○ Attracting a diverse workforce in terms of demographic categories e.g., gender, origin
(race, ethnicity, nationality), sexual orientation, disability status, and religion
○ Creating an inclusive workplace for the diverse workforce
■ Training on awareness of stereotypes and bias
■ Networks or programs for disadvantaged groups: mentoring programs,
employee network affinity groups, or employee resource group
■ Work/life balance initiatives
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Debate within diversity management
○ Dimensionality of diversity management
■ Why these dimensions and how can we demarcate them?
■ Gender and sex
■ Origin (race, ethnicity, nationality)
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Criticism diversity management
○ Intersectionality:
■ Dimensions of diversity intersect
■ Different intersections ---> different experiences
■ One size does not fit all
■ We have to make firm policy more fluent in a way that reflects every
category cause firms only have dichotomous categories, either you're a man
or woman, but we're much more than that
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Legitimacy of diversity management
○ Why should corporations implement diversity management?
■ The economic value of diversity --> business perspective
■ More likely to innovate cause we have different perspectives and
therefore the firm will go better
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The moral value of diversity management
■ Work experience and work knowledge
Road forward: future challenge
○ Diversity management will become more important
■ Shrinking population and new EU-regulation 'Corporate Sustainability
Reporting Directive'
■ Working population is shrinking and you want to have the more
talent that you can
■ More attention to intersectionality
■ Polarization on political correctness
■ Ones who are in favour and against diversity management