Emotional capital: Putting soft issues on the boardroom agenda

Abstract

As business communicators, we seek the ‘holy grail’ of our industry — a way to contribute to the bottom line, and demonstrate that contribution in hard business terms. We want the hard evidence to support our belief that internal communication is more than a fashionable ‘nice to have’, but also a critical element of business performance. It will be this ability to measure the impact of our work on the top and bottom lines of our businesses that will win us a seat at the boardroom table. This will give the role of the corporate communicator the credibility and influence it deserves. This paper offers not only the latest thinking in using internal communication and marketing as an effective business tool, but also the rationale and measures for communicators to develop their role and the arena in which they work. It introduces the concept of emotional capital, and explains the impact this has on an organisation. More importantly, it demonstrates how it can be measured as a tangible element of the balanced scorecard, increasing quality, profitability and shareholder return.

Citation

Thomson, K. and Powell, L. (1999), "Emotional capital: Putting soft issues on the boardroom agenda", Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 401-408. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb023503