Handbuch Unternehmenskommunikation. Strategie - Management - Wertschöpfung (Handbook of Corporate Communication. Strategy - Management - Value Creation)

Citation

Irene Pollach and Martin Nielsen (2016), "Handbuch Unternehmenskommunikation. Strategie - Management - Wertschöpfung (Handbook of Corporate Communication. Strategy - Management - Value Creation)", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 268-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-09-2015-0055

We have to admit that we are reviewing a book that we have not managed – or even attempted – to read in its entirety. At more than 1,300 pages, the Handbook of Corporate Communication is quite a tome. Written in German, the handbook gives an extremely comprehensive overview of the field of corporate communication, featuring the work of 91 high-profile scholars and practitioners from German-speaking Europe. These authors hail from the fields of communication, management, marketing, sociology, psychology, linguistics, law, and accounting. Their diversity makes for a truly interdisciplinary perspective on corporate communication.

The handbook consists of 68 chapters, divided into ten sections. They summarize existing knowledge about concepts, instruments, activities, or issues within the field of corporate communication. Each chapter starts with an abstract and concludes with implications for practice. The first section includes fundamental chapters on corporate communication, communication management, stakeholder relationships, the role of media, and communication as a profession. Next, Section II considers some of the risks and challenges that corporate communication faces, such as the attention economy, corporate social responsibility, ethics, media relations, and disclosure regulations. In Section III, the core sociological, cultural, and psychological concepts in corporate communication are addressed in chapters on trust, credibility, reputation, image, brand, organization, corporate culture, and impression management. Section IV consists of chapters on the analysis of the communicative environment, including issues management, employee and stakeholder surveys, media analysis, and social media monitoring. The chapters subsumed under Section V focus on communication objectives, campaigns, and message styles. Section VI covers a broad range of communication instruments, including the news media, events, sponsorship, speeches, the internet and social media, corporate reports, audio-visual communication, and design. This section is followed by a section on evaluation and measurement, which addresses topics such as communication effectiveness, value creation, performance indicators, and intangible assets. Section VIII deals with various aspects of organizing corporate communication, including organizational structure, communicative competences, consulting services, and auditing. Section IX is dedicated to liaising with key stakeholder groups, such as investors, consumers, employees, and society at large. The handbook concludes with a catch-all section for special situations in corporate communication, such as change, social media, corporate governance, CSR, innovation, crises, and litigations.

As the editors note in their preface, the handbook is targeted at executives, communication professionals, and consultants, but is also intended as an educational resource for students of management or communication. Thus, one should not expect a handbook addressing theories, research methods, and findings. Rather, one can expect a handbook that outlines a wide variety of topics central to corporate communication and does not shy away from covering practical topics, such as collaborations with external communication professionals, cost considerations, or the evaluation of communication efforts. What the handbook may lack in depth in some places, it certainly makes up for in breadth. It is without a doubt the most comprehensive handbook in the field of corporate communication on the German market and most likely also beyond these borders, not least because of the interdisciplinary array of authors that have contributed to this handbook. What makes the handbook particularly valuable is the consideration of managerial issues, such as staffing, competences, budgets, and performance measurement.

As is typical of new editions, the changes from the first to the second edition are mostly extensions. Whereas the first edition (Piwinger and Zerfaß, 2007) consisted of 52 chapters (930 pp.), the second edition (2014) has increased the number of chapters by 30 per cent and the number of pages by 40 per cent. Since many of the chapters have not only been updated, but also re-written to some extent, they provide new perspectives on the subjects they deal with. For instance, the previous chapters on change communication (Pfannenberg, 2007) and public opinion in the media society (Theis-Berglmair, 2007) have been re-structured and re-written and now also take into consideration the important role of social media for these two areas. The chapter on stakeholder management (Karmasin, 2007) has been extended with the integration of a network perspective and is now also co-authored by Weder. And the chapter on international corporate communication (Huck, 2007) has been fully rewritten, possibly because of a change of author, now with a stronger focus on global PR than on international marketing and advertising. All in all, the second edition has been a worthwhile endeavour that definitely offers more contemporary and comprehensive perspectives of corporate communication.

Our main criticism concerns the most apparent change from the first to the second edition: In the 2014 version, the handbook no longer contains a subject index, which is quite unfortunate, considering that the target group probably wants to or has to find their way around in the book as quickly as possible. A subject index would have increased the value of the book considerably in our opinion, given that many concepts cut across several chapters. Any book well exceeding the 1,000-page mark will make most readers, particularly professionals, look for a short-cut to the relevant contents. Further, one cannot help but wonder why the handbook was not written in English. The potential target audience would clearly have multiplied. At the same time, however, we would like to applaud the editors and authors for having chosen to publish their work in German for several reasons: First of all, by writing in German the handbook is more accessible to German-speaking target groups, who would clearly prefer German publications. Second, the handbook stays true to its area of practice and theory by developing and maintaining German terminology and the German scientific style (Clyne, 1987). Third, although German scholars are perfectly capable of writing in English, they will most likely write in a more genuine, nuanced and precise style in their mother tongue than in a foreign language. Finally, with (World) English conquering more and more of the scientific domains, a solid handbook like the one reviewed here makes a valuable contribution to keeping German alive as a language of science.

Some degree of overlap is almost inevitable in such a comprehensive volume that has the ambition of covering such a broad range of subjects. Consequently, some of the chapters may seem to overlap at first sight (e.g. those on reputation, social media, financial communication, and CSR), but actually do so non-redundantly. It might have been worth considering, if the structure of the handbook should stick to one, comprehensive chapter for each subject, since there are well enough subjects to cover. It is clearly debatable whether it is the task of a handbook to dedicate several chapters to one subject or whether it should rather cover as many subjects as possible, thus going more clearly for breadth than for depth. With a scope that possibly pushes at the limits of what is both conceptually and technically feasible, it may be a bit unfair to point to subject areas, phenomena or approaches that are “missing” in the handbook. Nevertheless, we wonder if readers would look through the table of contents for any of the following areas, all of which are not mentioned in the chapter titles: History of the field; corporate and organizational identity, corporate values; and employer branding.

Despite these minor points of criticism and some features that could have been structured differently, the handbook is a highly significant contribution to corporate communication in the German-speaking world. Certainly the result of tremendous efforts and high ambitions, the handbook is a highly impressive publication. Without doubt, it will find and keep its readership now and in the years to come and certainly deserves further editions, as the field of corporate communication continues to evolve.