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The rise of social media such as Facebook and Twitter has provided employees with means to share work-related information. Increasingly, social media governance policies are implemented to negotiate the risks and opportunities of such behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to unveil the motivations behind managers’ attempts to govern these behaviors.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten communication managers of various organizations. Higgins’ regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) was used to examine whether managers adopted a prevention or promotion focus to social media, and whether regulatory focus affected the measures taken toward social media governance.

Prevention and promotion foci were both observed among managers, and differed per communication model. Managers who employed dialogic models of communication were primarily promotion-focused and emphasized opportunities to improve stakeholder relations, while managers who employed one-way models were primarily prevention-focused and highlighted the risks of social media (e.g. the risk of employees publishing messages that contradict corporate communication and confuse stakeholders). Social media governance differed depending on regulatory focus. In the prevention scheme managers usually attempted to regain control by restricting social media to private use only, while in the promotion focus managers trained and facilitated employees for work-related social media use, to various extends.

By examining the interplay of regulatory focus, communication models and governance, this paper sheds light on the rationale behind social media governance policies that are implemented in organizations.

There is a significant difference in the perception managers have regarding the level of communications they have with their subordinates and the level of communication subordinates perceive they have with their managers. Managers in the private sector do not communicate more with their employees than managers in the public sector. Nor do private employees indicate that their managers communicate significantly more than employees in the public sector. An ex‐post facto study of 223 persons from private and public organisations was carried out in Australia to discover whether managers perceive they communicate significantly more with subordinates than subordinates perceive the managers communicate with them.

The purpose of this paper is to put forward a theoretical model which conceptualizes and clarifies the function and skills of communication consultants in terms of translation.

The paper combines theoretical underpinnings from Scandinavian institutional theory with empirical examples from an interview study with ten senior communication managers in Swedish public sector organizations.

Communication consultants are explained to perform varying translator functions ranging from a neutral transcoder to a freely interpretive translator and sensegiver. These functions are enacted as the consultant span organizational boundaries and contexts inside and outside the organization. The consultants are apt to carry out these tasks due to their translator expertise which resides in, e.g. multicontextual knowledge and bilingual skills, something which their clients lack.

The scope of the empirical material is limited to public organizations and a Swedish setting, and may therefore not be valid in other cultural contexts.

The model highlights the intersecting work of communication consultants and their clients and thus raises questions concerning the legitimacy and core responsibilities of communication managers. The paper also argues that managers and consultants need to develop their translator skills, and that higher education in communication and PR should prepare students for professions where translator skills may be of great importance.

The functions and tasks of communication consultants is a neglected area in communication research. By providing a comprehensive and pragmatic framework for communication consultants work as translation, the present research adds knowledge about the essential functions these actors perform and how they contribute to communication management as well as to organizational performance.

The big challenge for communication management is to encourage and enable line managers to improve the quality of their day‐to‐day communication. Communication is a core management competence. In the flat, devolved, team‐based organisation structures, which are fast becoming the norm, good mangement is synonymous with good communication. The role of central communication departments such as Corporate Communication or Internal Communication has to expand to meet this challenge. Traditionally, communication has focused on the production, packaging, targeting and distribution of messages — using skills which are borrowed from journalism and marketing. This skill set needs to be extended so that the centre can facilitate and support the communication of local line managers. As a first step, the centre must make managers around the organisation accept their responsibility for communicating with their staff. Developing an open and communicative style often requires a major shift of behviour for mamnagers. Organisations try to encourage this shift by broadcasting ‘open communication’ as one of their values. Including communication as a key performance indicator in the appraisal process increases managers' accountability for their daily communication with staff. Performance evaluation can be designed to make managers accept that they need to improve their communication. These are new areas for communication managers. What is clear is that unless they find effective ways to address the real issue of line managers' communication, they will miss a huge opportunity and find themselves increasingly relegated to the management side lines.

Communication about sustainability in fashion is complex. While fashion businesses have increasingly sought to manage their sustainability practices, their understanding of how to communicate about sustainability persuasively remains limited. The authors argue that a key problem with a firm’s efforts in communicating about sustainability is that it is a psychologically distant issue for both businesses and stakeholders. This paper aims to apply construal level theory to explore managers’ construal level in shaping communication about sustainability.

The paper used a two-phase qualitative methodology. Phase one involved undertaking interviews with ten managers in fashion firms to address communications about sustainability in the UK. In phase two, 16 consumers interpreted and reflected on the persuasiveness of communications about sustainability encompassing both concrete and abstract forms of messaging.

The authors identify the factors driving different approaches to communication (concrete and abstract) depending on the construal levels of managers, managers’ perceptions of the construal level of target stakeholders and the perceived authenticity of the sustainability claim. The paper highlights the conditions under which the (mis)match with the brands’ sustainable practices works in crafting communication. The authors also highlight three main communication strategies in responding to the complexity of sustainability in fashion ecosystems: amplification, quiet activist and populist coupling.

As an in-depth qualitative study, the authors seek to expose an under-researched phenomenon, yet generalisations both within the fashion industry and beyond are limited by this focus.

Fashion managers need to be flexible and evaluate how their communications about sustainability affect stakeholders’ evaluations of their brands. As sustainability in fashion brands grows, concrete and specific sustainability messaging may be necessary to improve sustainable behaviours.

The prevailing literature encourages symbiosis between sustainability practices and communications; such relationships are rare, and studies outside the consumer perspective are also rare. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this exploratory study is the first to understand how managers’ construal level influences decisions around communications about sustainability in fashion and how these messages are perceived by consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to build on the research-supported view that interactions between top and middle management enhances effective implementation of organizational strategies by exploring the role of internal actors in driving organizational strategy at the intersection between strategy formulation and strategy implementation.

Adopting a social practice perspective, we undertook semi-structured interviews of 27 top and middle level managers drawn from a single case organization. Data collected were analysed using thematic analysis.

Differences in managerial perception of strategy has significant impact on implementation of strategic decisions as well as creating tensions in recursive communication practices between internal social actors. Furthermore, individual perceptions cannot only limit the extent of strategy awareness amongst key actors, the manifestations through social interaction between top and middle managers is a critical determinant of effective communication and realization of organizational strategy.

The research contributes to the strategy process and practice literature by exploring the dynamic interactions taking place at the intersections of strategy formulation-implementation phases of organizational strategy. It particularly highlights practical issues in top and middle manager interactions and implications for successful strategy implementation.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, to investigate the interpersonal communication skills that human resource (HR) managers expect managers in supervisory positions possess. Second, to identify which of these skills HR managers expect managers use to engender subordinate commitment to the organisation. Third, the paper aims to investigate what interpersonal communication skills that enhance employee commitment to the organisation are most lacking in managers in supervisory positions.

The approach of the study is a series of in‐depth interviews with 32 senior HR managers in organisations with over 100 staff.

The paper finds that senior HR managers expected managers to be effective in interpersonal communication focusing mainly on the clarity and frequency of the messages, their ability to actively listen and the ability to lead in a collaborative way. The way messages were sent, especially their clarity, and a leadership style that engendered trust, was of the highest importance when HR managers wanted to enhance employee commitment to the organisation. However, these skills were also the ones found most lacking.

HR practitioners need to consider more explicitly what behaviours are important to promote organisational commitment.

This paper highlights that the interpersonal communication skills that enhance organisational commitment and are most valued by organisations are those that are most lacking in managers. This paper also provides insight for practitioners to the interpersonal communication skills areas that managers need to develop so that their interaction with staff may enhance commitment to the organisation.

The purpose of this article is to provide analysis of organizational communication used by one major US airline during a Teamsters unionizing campaign as a means for readers to examine what airlines do when faced with the threat of unionization, how they prepare front‐line management for communication with employees, and what role these managers play in unionizing campaigns.

A range of corporate communications from the airline were gathered within a seven‐month period and qualitatively analyzed, including management training manuals, e‐mails, and conference calls between line managers and regional directors.

Anti‐union communication strategies position front‐line managers in the key persuasive role of controlling and disseminating essential top‐down information in the effort to keep employees union‐free, utilizing a complex and multi‐layered organizational approach to train managers for employee communication during a unionizing campaign.

While granted access by America West to observe conference calls and view internal documents the authors were not granted access to listen to Teamsters Union conversations or view Teamsters' internal documents. As a result, the authors realize that their study is limited to an analysis of only one side of the story. Additional research into this topic could include data from both campaigns.

Analysis of organizational anti‐union campaigns and the role of front‐line managers in these campaigns identify key areas of interest for both organizations and unions. This analysis, in conjunction with assessment of the overall results of a unionizing campaign, provides information that organizations can use when selecting strategies for internal communication in times of potential change.

This paper provides useful information about the complex function of line management in supporting and promoting the organization when external factors are perceived as endangering internal infrastructure. It also offers a practical glimpse into a unique type of managerial communication whose aim is to be both cautious and persuasive.

Project communication is overwhelmingly viewed as the proper and timely delivery of pertinent project information. The view of communication in this way misses the constitutive nature of communication. Communication is more than message exchange but a way that project managers generate the grounds for a project. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the communicative practices of project managers creates a dialogue with stakeholders that ultimately impacts the content, direction and outcome of a project.

Semi-structured interviews were performed with project managers from the Project Management Office of a large international bank. The project managers were responsible for their own projects of varying size with scopes that included everything from marketing initiatives to heavily oriented technology projects.

Overall, the project managers interviewed for the current project do not subscribe to the belief that communication is part of a constitutive dialogue. Instead, when discussing their overall views of communication, 82 percent of the interviewees took a transmission approach to the action. To that end, they believe that the goal of communication is to send clear, unambiguous and complete information.

Unlike other studies about communication within the field of project management, the current study looks to uncover how communication is part of a constitutive dialogue between a project manager and project stakeholders. The researchers did not look just to understand the micro-level exchanges between project managers and stakeholders but how those exchanges enabled a sustained dialogue that shapes the scope and trajectory of a project.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how communication professionals enact an educational role aimed at improving organisational communication through communication training. Furthermore, this article analyses what this implementation means for the role of the communication professionals.

Qualitative interviews were conducted with seven communication professionals and ten managers in two organisations. The organisations were selected due to their involvement in developing and implementing communication training programmes. The interviews were then transcribed and analysed inductively.

This study demonstrates how communication professionals are expanding their professional role to become trainers in communication. The managers who participated reported increased awareness of the communication departments and the support they can provide. The communication departments became more visible in the organisations.

The study is qualitative and limited to two organisations. The managers' perspectives suggest that when communication professionals act as internal trainers, their role within an organisation is strengthened.

The results of this study indicate that in-house communication professionals enable managers to improve their communication, boosting their ability to implement simultaneous large-scale training and rendering the communication department more visible and available throughout the organisation.

This study adds to the existing discussion regarding the new roles of communication professionals in organisations by presenting two cases in which communication professionals are successfully functioning as internal communication trainers. The findings can help both researchers and practitioners gain insights into the future role of the communication profession.