Search results

Editors of employee magazines may be torn between diverging expectations among their stakeholders. The management might be interested in strategically supportive communication, whereas employees might expect objective, independent, or critical coverage. Based on quantitative data, the paper aims to analyze how the editors perceive these expectations, how they see their professional role in this field of tension and how critically the magazines report.

The authors conducted a quantitative survey of 197 editors of employee magazines and a quantitative content analysis of 200 articles of employee magazines.

Editors perceive differences regarding the expectations of management and employees. These discrepancies, in turn, contribute to the experience of role conflicts. Our analysis reveals three types of editors: the voice of the management, the critical observer and the consensus-oriented mediator.

The study addresses the scarcely investigated area of conflict in which editors of employee magazines work. It is one of the first studies to analyze editors' perceived expectations of stakeholders, their professional self-perception and potential role conflicts with a quantitative survey. For the first time, quantitative methods are used to examine the causes of editors' role conflicts.

Editors of employee magazines work in a grey area between public relations and journalism. On the one hand, they need to accommodate the company management’s interest in a positive presentation; on the other, they must meet the employees’ need for objective and independent information. Although employee magazines reach millions of recipients every day, its editors have rarely been the focus of academic work. The purpose of this paper is to change this and scrutinise the way the editors view their professional role and the role conflicts to which they are subjected.

We conduct 15 qualitative semi-structured interviews with editors of employee magazines to analyse their professional role and possible conflicts in their work.

The editors’ self-concept varies significantly along two dimensions, which the authors use as the basis for distinguishing four types: the management ambassador, the employee representative, the mediator and the service provider.

The study sheds light on employee magazines, a medium between public relations and journalism that has not been analysed before. It helps to specify the role of these magazines and its editors’ between the expectations of the management and the employees.

Journalists moving into corporate communication have for many years been regarded as a move to the “dark side”. This paper turns the lens to explore how trained journalists working as internal communication practitioners due to their journalistic self-concept and skills can contribute to internal communication.

An interview study was conducted with twelve trained journalists working with internal communication in different types of organizations. Three indicators of professionalism, namely autonomy, altruism and expert knowledge, were used as categories to structure the interviews and analysis.

The respondents perceived that their journalistic self-concept and skills helped them identify the employee perspective, write relevant stories and deliver them quickly. Furthermore, their courage and lack of fear of authorities enabled them to challenge decisions made by their senior managers, especially regarding how, what and when to communicate.

The three indicators of the journalist profession, – autonomy, altruism and journalistic knowledge and skills – may help establish internal communication that is relevant, transparent and trustworthy.

Organizations may benefit from building their internal communication around the three indicators of the journalist profession. They could, for example, host independent internal media that present the employees’ perspective and maintain a critical attitude to the organization in a relevant and compelling manner.

Few studies have explored the role of journalists working as internal communication practitioners and their contributions to internal communication.

The purpose of this paper is to distinguish the corporate communication channels by typology, by the designation of their characteristics and features of application, as well as to institutionalize the concept of corporate media.

In the theoretical part, with the help of general review, critical analysis, systematization and generalization, the main scientific works devoted to corporate communications have been studied. In practical part, the method of typology there has been used and descriptive analysis of types of communication channels has been carried out.

The research distinguishes the types of channels used in modern corporate communication. It reveals that corporate communication channels can be divided into two main types according to the criteria of relation to the company: outsiders and insiders. Then the channels can be divided into broad functional subtypes: events, advertising, media and a specific category – social media. The typological separation also can be based on the auditorium and communication technologies indications.

This study makes a significant contribution to the development of studies of corporate communication through structuring communication channels. The establishment of types, features and prospects for the development of communication channels, in particular such specific ones as corporate and social media, contribute to a more systematic approach to the methods of their use. From a practical point of view, companies can be guided by the results of this research during the formation of a mix of corporate communication.

This paper aims to examine the tourist business and marketing strategies of a US agribusiness giant, the United Fruit Company (UFCO), between its incorporation in 1899 and 1940. It considers how tourist marketing served the company’s public-relations interest and tourism’s broader connection to narratives of US ascendancy in the Caribbean Basin.

This study is based on original research in a series of published company materials, including annual reports and a wide variety of marketing materials, as well as a variety of rare primary sources documenting the experiences of US tourists on UFCO cruises.

From its incorporation in 1899, the UFCO developed a Caribbean cruise business as a vital part of its strategies of vertical integration and expansion around the region. Marketing tropical travel at a time when tropical disease dominated US perceptions of such places required a thorough conceptual makeover, and UFCO publicity played an important part in this process. The company advertised Caribbean destinations first for their therapeutic possibilities, but by the 1920s, a framework of anachronistic space and picturesque primitivism predominated in marketing campaigns. The structure of this narrative naturalized the company’s, and more broadly, US, hegemony in the region. While on cruises, tourists became witnesses to and participants in a series of spectacles and activities highlighting the company’s technological prowess and benevolence.

This analysis centers on a largely overlooked dimension of the famed banana company’s enterprise. It is grounded in a wide collection of primary sources largely untapped by researchers, a source base that brings tourist perception and experience into the story of this company’s marketing efforts. This research brings tourism and leisure into the historical discussion of US power in early-twentieth-century Latin America.

The paper seeks to examine the manifestation of management paradigms in personnel magazines of Finnish metal and forest industry corporations from the 1930s to recent years.

The research data consist of articles of personnel magazines on management. The articles were analyzed by quantitative and qualitative content analysis.

The findings indicate that normative paradigms, such as industrial betterment, human relations school, and cultural theories, have been discussed in personnel magazines more than rational paradigms, although earlier studies suggest that in general rational management paradigms have been more influential in Finland. The frequent use of normative paradigms can be seen as a tool in enforcing the role of personnel journals in generating a sense of belonging and togetherness among employees. Normative paradigms are also discussed more frequently in the articles that are written from the viewpoint of the worker than those written from the viewpoint of the manager or company.

The study offers empirical evidence on the adoption of management paradigms in different lines of industries. It also shows that personnel magazines provide a rich and interesting source of data that could be used more frequently than has traditionally been the case.

Recently, research on aging in the work-life context from the perspective of how to manage, support and retain an aging workforce has increased among management scholars, and therefore is contributing to the current societal need to extend work careers. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the articles discussing aging in the work-life context in the Finnish business magazine Talouselämä (Economic Life) during the years 2002–2017.

A total of 81 articles were included in the analysis. They were classified into seven themes as a result of a content analysis. Three levels of discussions on aging were identified: societal, organizational and individual. These levels were further analyzed in order to revel what kind of issues have been emphasized or overlooked. The results were discussed in the context of Finnish work life.

The findings showed that aging has been presented in a passive and deterministic (or at least neutral) tone. Most of the articles focused on the consequences and actions related to an aging workforce at the societal level. At the individual level, aging was mainly discussed in terms of changes related to work ability and functioning, with aging individuals as the actors responsible for managing and controlling the effects of their own aging process. The organizational-level discussion on aging was limited and narrow, mostly lacking any discussion of the role of organizations as responsible actors or from the perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Organizations could take a more active and broader role in terms of supporting the longer working careers of older employees. Professional magazines could deal more with “age-aware” research as it relates to organizations, especially the potential and opportunities of the aging workforce. Aging research could promote media level publishing and applications of knowledge.

Few critically oriented management studies have investigated how aging is presented and discussed in business magazines.

Details how T‐Mobile UK successfully transferred its employee newsletter, open, from paper to an electronic format.

Provides a case study of the T‐Mobile experience and draws out the lessons that other organizations can learn from it.

Reveals that T‐Mobile teamed up with UK editorial‐design company Words & Pictures to develop an approach involving cartoon characters, each representing a strategic business focus, which captured the imagination of the mobile operator's employees and delivered impressive online statistics of engagement, including increased reader time and 95 percent readership enjoyment.

Argues that other organizations wishing to achieve similar digital engagement should first understand the employees and their needs for communication and secondly should see the digital platform as a genuine opportunity to reinforce the brand.

Shows how to reach, as much as is possible in corporate life, the hearts and minds of employees.

Highlights a way to increase employee understanding of key strategic issues.

In recent years, Hong Kong has experienced a very low unemployment rate. Labour shortage and turnover has become a major problem for the management of the Hong Kong companies. Better education and changing environment create discontent among workers. Investigates how the companies in Hong Kong tackle the problem of labour discontent. The effectiveness of the strategies implemented by the Hong Kong companies are evaluated.

The paper aims to describe the policies that helped business‐telecommunication specialist THUS plc to win the HR Team of the Year title at the HR Network (Scotland) awards, after 12 months in which the firm saw its headcount increase by 60 percent through organic growth, winning new orders and acquiring two new businesses.

The paper outlines the importance of strong and effective policies in the areas of recruitment, retention, policy consolidation and business restructuring, but concentrates on the key role of internal communications.

The paper shows that, to ensure effective consultation throughout the integration process, THUS worked closely with its employee forums, while also making the most of its weekly all‐employee e‐newsletter, the business information team‐briefing cascade process and the quarterly employee magazine.

The case study emphasizes the role of good internal communications during a period of major organizational change.

The paper reveals that, throughout the integration process, HR team members maintained their focus firmly on delivering value to the business and its employees.