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A postal survey of directors and managers of corporate communications, communications, public relations, human resource management and marketing was con‐ducted among over 1,000 UK organizations, resulting in the views of over 200 directors and managers being captured and reported. The survey was conducted by members of a UK university research unit which focuses or the development of the emerging field of corporate communications management and the survey was spon‐sored by the UK Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Collates and interprets the data generated in order to explicate a snap‐shot view of the structure, operation, and evolution of the embryonic management field of corporate communications. Researchers recognized that many practitioners are working ahead of any major developments in significant underpinning principles of theory. The needs and possibili‐ties for future development of the field were to be exam‐ined from the results of the study.

States that the emerging economic democracy driven by electronically‐mediating communication systems (information sharing technology) is decentralizing the decision process to informed, empowered stakeholders in coalitions over rights and responsibilities. Reports that the modern world is in the throes of creating an information age in which fragmentation, competition and division is giving way to unification and co‐operation as knowledge, technology, and capital flows across the world. Reveals that electronic technology is shifting the critical factor of production from capital to knowledge. The knowledge‐based world has different economic imperatives. Democracy and enterprise have become economically efficient. Information technology provides the communication for the system of complexity which is the knowledge society. Notes that the context of communication is irreversibly changing with the advent of relationships in networked constituencies. The corporate communicator will have to deal with, and be part of, social systems which can balance the opposing forces of community (conformity, belonging, association, and collaboration) and individualism (freedom, co‐operation, conflict, and competition). Corporate communication is a part of this.

The inter‐organizational network is becoming an increasingly common form of organization. The majority of trade is carried out between organizations, rather than organizations and households. Many of these networks are concerned with the exchange of tangible goods. However, increasing numbers are concerned with the exchange of knowledge and all are dependent upon the role of knowledge in their activities. It is our assertion that with an understanding of the nature of knowledge, we may identify how, and why, certain network formations are adopted. It is asserted that links between organizations may be viewed as knowledge assets. The expression of multiple links within a corporate community may be regarded as a network of knowledge assets. From this conceptual framework, it may be possible to answer wider questions concerning the nature of networks established in the real world and how changes are wrought on a network over a period of time.

This paper explores the integration of corporate and marketing communication in tomorrow’s company, and discusses a model of the corporate communication system of managing. It defines the need for a total stakeholder perspective and to integrate communication activities around constituent‐constituent relationships. Marketing is described as a special case of human communication, in which all elements of the marketing mix are seen as communicative in action. The paper agrees with the Tomorrow’s Company study that inclusion is a necessity, and argues that new management involves a form of economic democracy, which in turn creates a need for new forms of corporate governance, monitoring, and management. This will require managers to re‐evaluate the appropriateness of their thinking. The corporate communication model of systemic managing is forwarded for this purpose

The common view of communication is of something that is not really communication. To be effective, communication effort must be seen in its holistic social context, and be managed — planned, co‐ordinated, integrated — and understood. Modern organisational communication, ie interpersonal communication in an organisational setting, must be recognised as a social integrator rather than as a mechanistic management tool. This requires managers to hold a particular concept of interpersonal communication. Evidence of the prevailing concept is provided, a more appropriate view is discussed, and a research agenda is outlined.

An eclectic view of organisational performance is presented and the ability of mass media to influence it is addressed. A number of cases are considered in the light of this including Northampton Healthcare NHS Trust and the American Electric Power system. Comments are presented in relation to a number of organisations including General Motors, The Inland Revenue and Shell UK. Concludes that communication is a core competence activity in performance management.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/02634509710193163. When citing the article, please cite: Sue Freeman, Richard Varey, (1997), “Women communicators in the workplace: natural born marketers?”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 15 Iss: 7, pp. 318 - 324.

Offers an account of communication improvement in a UK public service organisation, as part of a strategic review and re‐organisation for improved service delivery, and, with communication identified as a strategic issue during a corporate strategy development exercise, shows how a task force was initiated to drive forward some essential improvements. Discusses ways of managing the inherited approach and the development of a more responsive approach, and details an internal market orientation model which was developed and piloted. Lists benefits secured from the application of the model during a period of strategic change and describes further developments, including the implementation of standards of communication and board briefing systems. Compares the traditional employee communication and internal market orientation approaches.

The concept of relationship marketing is established in the general management and marketing literature. Almost all of the thinking and practice has emanated exclusively from marketing scholars and practitioners. A contribution towards better understanding the communication issues is presented by re‐considering the nature of managed human communication as a fundamental management function, and a re‐consideration of the social nature and function of human relationships. This requires recognition that the field of public relations also deals with relationships. Some implications for individual managers are identified which do not depend on the scgmentalist functional view of marketing as an economic tool of persuasion. As communication occurs within the context of the communicators' multiplex relationships and relational roles, and these relationships define how to interpret the content of communication episodes, business managers can benefit from awareness of the impact of relationship status on the communication process and of communication events on their relationships.

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.