Search results

Without doubt, communication management is an expanding and diversifying discipline and the demand for a strategic functioning is rising. Accumulation of knowledge can be seen as a major prerequisite for the development of its practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of the art of, and trends in, communication management research in Germany and The Netherlands.

Following on from a Europe‐wide Delphi research project, this study focused on two countries – Germany and The Netherlands. The study was limited to PhD theses on communication management and compares the characteristics of the doctoral research of the two countries.

The range of disciplines that study aspects of communication management is enormous and most dissertations start almost from scratch, assuming that there is no relevant research that the project can take as a starting point. This fragmentation of research hinders the development of communication management as a theoretically sound and empirically grounded academic discipline.

By comparing the development and current trends in Germany and The Netherlands, the paper provides a context for transnational reflection of the relationship between research on communication management and the professional development of communication management as an occupational field.

This chapter presents a study on the role of internal communication for diversity and inclusion (D&I) management in organisations. It sheds light on how the units D&I management and internal communication are linked to each other in terms of exchanging and sharing ideas and know-how and the (common) pursuit and achievement of strategically set objectives. In total, 20 D&I experts (17 D&I managers and three D&I management consultants) from Austria and Germany were interviewed. The focus of the interviews was on the development of D&I management strategies and concomitant measures as well as the internal D&I communication activities. The findings indicate the importance of internal communication to communicate D&I goals and measures. In this context, the internal communication department plays the role of a service provider and advisor. Numerous communication channels are used to communicate D&I initiatives, with ‘rich’ media such as interpersonal communication and social intranet being particularly common. Furthermore, the results show that storytelling is a particularly popular form of communication. The study contributes to the scholarly examination of the role of internal communication in D&I management, to what extent and how the two units collaborate, and what communication measures are taken to pursue D&I management goals.

This chapter outlines current and emerging approaches in change communication from both scholarly and practice perspectives, and what this means for organisations and practitioners, including practical implications for education. A literature review is conducted using the Kemmis and McTaggart framework for studying practice based on individual-social, objective-subjective dichotomies leading to an integrated reflexive-dialectical approach. Five roles are suggested for the practitioner in leading and influencing change, namely that of a Communication Architect, a Story-enabler, an Empathiser, an Engager and a Community Builder. These roles go beyond the traditional informative role, to practitioners co-constructing communication with stakeholders during change. With new ways of thinking about change management, there is the possibility for new methods of educating practitioners beyond the traditional qualification or professional certification. These would require greater collaboration between scholars and practitioners in creating vehicles for continuous learning.

Although there has been an increase in the application of a variety of robust technologies and systems, the oil and gas sector relies on project managers’ soft skills for success because of their vital role. Therefore, this study aims to explore the profound influence of project managers’ soft communication skills on successful risk management within Libya’s oil and gas projects.

A review of relevant literature and a quantitative approach through the administration of a questionnaire were used to determine factors impacting risk management implementation related to managerial communication skills. A total of 246 valid responses were received from the oil and gas companies in Tripoli, Libya. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to examine the direct and moderating relationship drawn by the hypotheses.

The findings suggest that managerial soft skills may be used to improve continuous risk management processes and intra-project communication. It was found that the experience is strengthening the positive relationship between written communication soft skills and project risk management implementation among Libyan oil and gas construction projects.

This study defines project managers’ soft communication skills and analyzes project managers’ soft communication skills with the role of experience as a moderator. This paper presents a valuable contribution by offering original insights tailored explicitly to the Libyan context. The information presented in this paper is relevant to project managers operating within the oil and gas industry. It also offers a novel approach to risk management in the Libyan oil and gas industry that can improve project efficiency and effectiveness.

This chapter analyses how the six undergraduate programmes in communication management in Flanders (Belgium) refer to or include management in their curricula in order to support the career plans of their students. As communication is inherently integrated in business courses, it will attempt to determine how management is included in BAs in communication management, and how it is defined both from the perspective of the programme responsible and of practitioners’. It proposes a six-point model for a ‘managerial attitude’ extracted from the interviews and reflections of the practitioners’ managerial needs for public relations to be embedded in a company’s policy and brought on the board’s agenda when strategic decisions are made.

The question of whether and how communication departments contribute to organizational value creation has rarely been addressed in research. Such evidence is crucial, however, as communications compete internally with other functions (e.g. marketing and human resources (HR)) for budgets and staff. This article fills the gap by applying the business model concept, an established approach from management theory and practice, to communication units.

Based on an interdisciplinary literature review, the authors propose the Communication Business Model (CBM) as a new management approach for communications. To this end, pertinent definitions, frameworks and typologies of business models are analyzed and combined with insights from corporate communications literature.

The CBM outlines the generic architecture of business models for communication departments. Such models describe the basic principles of how such a unit operates, what services and products it provides, how it creates value for an organization and what revenues and resources are allocated.

The approach stimulates the debate on communication units as objects of observation when researching communication management practices. Further research with appropriate empirical methods is needed to identify and study different types of business models for communications.

The CBM can be used as a management tool to analyze, explain and innovate communication management in organizations. It is a fertile approach for communication practitioners to make the work of their department visible and to position themselves internally and externally.

Transferring a well-known concept from general management to communication management enriches the value creation debate in theory and practice. It allows communication leaders to align their work with organizational goals and make it accessible to top management and other decision-makers in the organization. It also opens up new avenues for research and education.

This research aims to examine how two management strategies (symmetrical communication and inclusive management) work in handling workplace conflicts (interpersonal/organizational levels), especially with regard to employee advocacy and job turnover intentions.

A total of three employee survey datasets were used to test hypotheses and research questions. Two secondary datasets were obtained in South Korea (N = 600 and N = 285), and one dataset was collected in the USA (N = 381). A series of hierarchical multiple regressions were performed for each dataset.

All three studies showed that interpersonal workplace conflict increased not only job turnover but also advocacy. In addition, in South Korean employees, both symmetrical communication and inclusive management increased employee advocacy and decreased job turnover intentions. However, in the US data, only symmetrical communication had such effects, enhancing employee advocacy and lowering job turnover intentions.

The study provides insights for practitioners into how to handle workplace conflicts from the perspective of communication (symmetrical communication) and/or behavioral strategies (inclusive management). Also, as an index to examine the effectiveness of management strategies, this study suggests advocacy behavior of employees given its effect of “rallying the troops.”

Although the literature is clear on what comprises effective project stakeholder management, communication between key stakeholders and project managers is often ineffective. Research is silent on stakeholders' insufficient knowledge of project management terminology, which is a barrier for such effective communication. This paper aims to identify the project management concepts that key stakeholders should understand to improve effective communication.

This paper employs a three-step research design. In the first step, based on threshold concept theory, the authors identify the key project management concepts through interviews with 20 project management practitioners, trainers and trainees. In the second step, the authors confirm the findings from the first step and identify effective approaches to enhance project stakeholders' communication through seven additional interviews with project stakeholders. In the third step, the authors construct a functional model of the research findings by employing a system-level modeling tool.

This research identifies five project management threshold concepts (TC) that are challenging for project stakeholders to understand (1) project benefits, (2) the iron triangle, (3) the critical path, (4) uncertainty and (5) project leadership. Following these knowledge barriers, the paper proposes unique approaches to develop effective project stakeholder communication.

This paper advances project stakeholder management research by identifying knowledge barriers and providing project managers with more effective approaches to better engage with their stakeholders.

This paper aims to investigate the conceptualisation of corporate communication management (CCM) and its dimensionality from the practitioners’ perspectives. It proposes to validate an operational definition and dimensions of the CCM construct, which have not been identified in the literature.

The initial concepts are based on academic literature and followed by 12 face-to-face interviews with corporate communication practitioners and consultants from Malaysia to confirm the practicality of each dimension. QSR Nvivo Version 9.0 software is used to analyse the qualitative data. Then, the data are classified through deductive content analysis based on key words or themes.

The diverse perspectives are shown from the practitioners and consultants on the dimensionality of CCM. Most of the interviewees suggest that CCM dimensions include corporate advertising, corporate affairs, investor relations and employee communication within the corporate communication and other departments. They also found the public relations and media relations are clearly under corporate communications manager’s supervision. This research confirms the concept of CCM and its dimensionality to operationalise the CCM construct. The CCM dimensions also offer opportunities for further research to develop the measurement scales.

This research contributes to the clarification on the subject matter by developing clear concepts of the CCM and by offering insights about the role of the CCM dimensions, which help managers to more successfully incorporate the CCM dimension into the corporate management strategy. This paper also examines the concept of CCM and confirms its dimensionality, which helps in developing the CCM measurement for further quantitative research.