Re‐configuring and organising for strategic management: the BP Oil experience

Abstract

This paper describes how BP and BP Oil, its marketing and refining business, moved internal communication from being a soft option to being a strategic imperative to help turn the then ailing business around, with spectacular results. Recognition of the crucial bond between leadership and communication is highlighted, and a programme of cultural change at BP Oil is described, including some practical methods by which progress has been effected. The company's virtuous circle model of communication, the link made between management competence as communicators and the human resource management policy is discussed. The nature of corporate communication as a system of strategic communication management which focuses attention on relationships as core business assets for competitive strength and quality of working life is explored. A number of models are offered as explanation for the evolution in sophistication from discrete communication functions to coincident domains within a corporate communication system. BP Oil is well advanced in moving from the former to operating the latter for strategic communication management.

Citation

Varey, R.J. and Mounter, P. (1997), "Re‐configuring and organising for strategic management: the BP Oil experience", Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 11-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb023444