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A vast array of communication and behavioural theories and models has long assisted the communication management industry in its quest for excellence. While relying upon and discussing many of these theories in relation to website communication, this paper explores the development of theoretical platforms which are unique to the website mode of communication. It asserts that investigating new and varied theoretical paradigms can assist the communication management industry in analysing, extending and optimising its efforts in cyberspace. This paper explores the potential of a generic, theoretical approach to desired behavioural response via the website. It provides a modular definition of desired behavioural response to websites. This definition comprises six potential positive outputs and has been called “positive response action”. The paper proves, via comparative analysis, that positive response action parallels established communication goals and objectives. This paper also explores the concept of any one website belonging to one of three sender motivated categories: individual, strategic stakeholder communication and non‐strategic stakeholder communication. Traditional communication and behavioural response theories are analysed in relation to positive response action as are the essential cognitive needs of a website visitor. These needs are contextualised in a critical path “user gratification” format in relation to the achievement of the goal of positive response action. Excellence in effective website communication has become a priority for the public relations profession worldwide. While exploring this quest for excellence and its relation to theoretical dynamics, this paper reinforces the universally accepted requirement of accurate audience definition in order to achieve communication success and behavioural response.

A growing body of scholarly research focuses on internal communication (IC), which, over the past decade, has become an important specialisation within the field of communication. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to IC education, resulting in a lack of academic knowledge about the state of IC education. This paper focuses on investigating IC education in communication studies curricula at Dutch universities of applied sciences.

Using a combination of content analysis of IC modules in Bachelor of Communication programmes (n = 19) and qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with IC educators (n = 8), this article sheds lights on the contours of IC education and its relationship with practice.

Education has become an integral part of the IC profession in the Netherlands. The analysis shows that while the modules address some important topics found in the literature on IC, there are some gaps. In regard to knowledge topics, the modules reflect broader trends in IC by addressing important topics like change management, internal branding and digitalisation. However, there is a gap in the competencies in the modules and what is considered important in the literature.

The findings can help educators improve the quality of their curriculum. For IC practitioners, professional associations in particular, this paper provides insight into the state of education of future IC professionals

Studies that look at the education of communication professionals have focused mainly on the field of public relations. This paper reports on the first empirical study to investigate the state of IC education in the context of higher education.

The current research is aimed at exploring entrepreneurial leadership (EL) as a mediator in perceived organizational support (POS) and organizational performance (OP) relationship. Furthermore, it also examined the impact of POS and entrepreneurial leadership on the performance of an organization.

A purposively selected sample of 216 respondents from the SME sector of Oman was chosen for the study.

The results revealed that POS and entrepreneurial leadership positively and significantly have an effect on organizational performance. Moreover, the hypothesized role of entrepreneurial leadership as a mediator between POS and OP relationship was also supported.

In spite of the novelty of the research, it was limited due to a few reasons. First, the research design is cross-sectional. Second, the research only focused SME sector. This research only focused on entrepreneurial leadership as a mediator, whereas, other mediators could have been explored as well.

The research on POS and organizational performance relationship is still in its exploration stage. Past research indicate that POS has an effect on different outcomes within an organization, including its performance. However, still, the research on the entrepreneurial leadership process is quite scarce. The current research will explore it in the context of Oman, where there is a dire need to establish SME sector performance. The unique combination between POS, entrepreneurial leadership and performance in the SME sector of Oman marks the novelty of the current research. This study contributes to the SME’s literature and it is among the pioneer studies exploring the mediating role of entrepreneurial leadership in the relationship between POS and OP.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001: 2015 quality management systems places an obligation on organizations to consider the role of organizational knowledge as a resource. The purpose of this paper is to systematically relate the key fundamentals of knowledge management to the seven quality management principles of ISO 9001: 2015. It is the first to consider this relationship.

The paper traces the history of quality standards and the background to the inclusion of an organizational knowledge clause in ISO 9001: 2015. It then systematically considers the seven quality management principles in relation to knowledge management principles.

The core elements of the knowledge management standard are incorporated with the organizational knowledge clause. Explicit and tacit knowledge are addressed by the ISO standard. Knowledge and its management will become increasingly important in organizations driven by ISO certification requirements.

ISO 9001: 2015 was released in September 2015 which means that organizations have yet to apply the organizational knowledge clause. This paper is a conceptual one which needs to be complemented with empirical research.

This paper identifies the role of knowledge management principles as they apply to ISO 9001: 2015 and the seven quality management principles. More than 1.1 million organizations are certified to ISO 9001, plus many others who use the standard informally. Those involved with organizational quality will need to understand the role of knowledge in the organization.

Quality services and products need to be underpinned with strategic knowledge management.

This paper is the first to discuss knowledge management in relation to the seven quality management principles which assist the development of policy for quality management.

This study examines how technical drivers as well as social drivers influence organic communication and top management involvement (TMI) in new product development (NPD) projects. Technical drivers are of strategic importance and product innovativeness and social drivers are of intrinsic and extrinsic relevance. Organic communication is defined as continuous, bidirectional and informal communication between top management and the NPD teams. Further, arguing that TMI must be studied as a multifaceted construct, it is conceptualized to occur as guidance, active motivation and providing resources and creating a tolerant climate. Subsequently, the effect of TMI and organic communication on NPD performance is investigated.

The data set, collected via surveys from top managers and project managers involved in 86 NPD projects in 85 firms, is analyzed using PLS structural equation modeling.

The authors show that the strategic importance of the project has a positive influence on TMI through active motivation, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate for innovation, but does not have an effect on guidance. Results also show that active motivation and organic communication improve budget and schedule adherence, whereas providing guidance and stimulating a tolerant climate have detrimental effects. In summary, the results show that only active motivation enhances all types of performance while stimulating a tolerant climate appears to have the opposite effect. The results revealed that organic communication between top management and the NPD team has a strong positive effect on all elements of TMI (providing guidance, actively motivating the NPD team, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate). In other words, when top management communicates with the NPD team throughout the project in an informal way and listens to them in addition to engaging in a one-way communication, they are more likely to be seen by the team as being deeply involved in the project.

Executives must walk a managerial tightrope to actively motivate and to assist in providing resources, yet they must not be overbearing with direct guidance and must limit their tolerance for failures.

Involvement of key organizational actors such as top management and the link to project performance has attracted significant attention in research. However, nuanced empirical insights into the dyad of top management and project teams has so far been absent. The study’s findings detail the effect of technical and social drivers of top management involvement in new product development projects. Most notably, (1) the effect of motivation and stimulating a tolerant climate on performance, and (2) the effect of organic communication on top management involvement. Moreover, this study is unique in that it empirically examines TMI from both top management and team perspectives.

This study aims to investigate how a sample of US municipalities use social media for strategic communication, focusing on efforts to effectively measure and evaluate that communication. Research questions focus on measurement and evaluation practices, as well as the motivations and impacts associated with these practices.

This research uses a qualitative approach. Interviews were conducted with 12 municipal government personnel responsible for social media communication. The self-selected participants represent 10 states and all US Census regions. Data was content analyzed and categorized according to four research questions, with emergent themes described.

The results show a diverse set of approaches and motivations, with surface-level measurement and evaluation methods. Initial efforts at more ad hoc use of social media are moving toward more deliberate strategies, but limited resources inhibit progress for some municipalities.

Few studies exist which explore how US municipalities formally measure and evaluate their social media activities as part of their overall strategic communication efforts. This study adds to the existing literature by providing insight into the measurement and evaluation practices that municipalities use to assess their social media communication. The study also provides a basis for larger and deeper investigations of municipal strategic communication practices related to measurement and evaluation.

In recent years, only a small number of studies have touched upon the question of job satisfaction of communication managers. The European Communication Monitor studies (2007–2020) series, for example, continuously returns to the issue across Europe, with its 2018 edition stating that overall job satisfaction is slowly decreasing (compared to previous studies) and connects satisfaction to an individual's willingness to change their current job profile. Recent studies in Germany (Hoffjann, Köster, & Wieczorek, 2019) indicate that communication consultants, in particular, are discontent with their current work. In general, these studies relate job satisfaction to salaries, types of organization (e.g., corporates vs NGO), the position in the organizational hierarchy, stress and pressure in a working environment.

Younger generations (e.g., Millennials; Generations Y and Z) that have entered the business over the last 10 years are known for preferring purpose-driven job profiles that are related to fields like sustainability, corporate responsibility, health, education, etc. Does this attitude also make a difference when it comes to working in communication management? This chapter discusses the connection between a good cause and job satisfaction and the difference it makes when it comes to working in communication management over time. Unlike other studies, the focus in the chapter is on purpose-driven projects as a change in business routine to stay motivated.

Public relations practitioners worldwide are attempting to enhance the overall organization–stakeholder relationships by applying strategic communication techniques and skills to corporate social responsibility (CSR) management and communications. In this light, drawing on the prosocial motivation literature, this paper aims to investigate consumers’ implicit and explicit motivations for prosocial behavior, and how these two motivations interact to affect consumers’ willingness to contribute to CSR activities. Second, through the lens of sensemaking theory, this study evaluates the influence of successful prosocial behavior engagement on consumers’ perceptions of both self and companies’ prosocial identities, CSR authenticity and company evaluations.

This study adopts a dictator game experiment with 2 × 2 factorial design to gauge consumers’ prosocial behavioral response toward companies’ CSR communication with implicit and explicit motivations and to examine its effect on company evaluation.

In all, the results of this study suggest that implicit motivation, i.e. self-affirmation intervention, in CSR communication will cause consumers to donate more money to CSR programs; whereas explicit motivation does not exert an effect on consumers’ prosocial behavior. In addition, such donation will trigger consumers’ prosocial sensemaking process and lead to strong identification with the company, positive attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the company.

This study aims to build a consumer- and social cause-oriented CSR communication model, which maximizes the impact of CSR investments on consumer relationship building, business bottom line and social causes.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.