Corporate Communication

Definitions

Although the term corporate suggests a focus on for-profit institutions, the discipline defines the term in its broadest legal sense as any group that organizes together to act as if it were a single person, endowed with various legally recognized protections, rights, and responsibilities. Therefore, while corporate communication research is often focused on for-profit organizations, it is also applied to universities, local governments, hospitals, and other not-for-profits.

The term communication is defined broadly to include the internal and external messages or interactions that contribute to the organization’s identity or brand image among stakeholders. Research may examine organizational design basics such as letterhead, typography, color schemes, websites, or [Page 264]staff apparel; corporate policies, including the employee code of conduct or the organization’s environmental statements; or large-scale messaging efforts such as social media branding, product advertising, PR campaigns, crisis communication, or CEO statements.

Organizational stakeholders include stockholders, employees, unions, governmental and regulatory bodies, political groups, lobbying groups, industrial associations and trade groups, communities, suppliers, trading partners, and financiers. Stakeholder theory is rooted in the idea that a wide range of groups should play a role in determining the future direction of an organization.

According to Wim Elving, a corporate communication researcher and an editor of Corporate Communications: An International Journal, trends among stakeholders have forced organizations to link their claims for legitimacy, image, and brand to stakeholders’ demands for more environmentally and socially responsible behaviors, which are summarized in a movement called corporate social responsibility (CSR). A set of self-governing principles and ethical demands that organizations accomplish beyond profit-making, CSR includes a respect for the law and human rights as well as a commitment to shared economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and organizational transparency. Organizations are being judged by these factors more now than any time in the past.

Corporate communication researchers may examine how organizations articulate their CSR activities by studying the “green communication” on annual reports or web pages, disclosure statements in banking reports, the amount and type of dissent on organizational social media pages, corporate branding on social media, how organizations gather stakeholder perspectives, and how they adapt messages to different stakeholder groups.

Research Methods

Corporate communication researchers use multiple methods and approaches. Many studies employ content analysis of corporate communication; surveys of corporate communication practitioners, stakeholders, audiences, and journalists; interviews with practitioners and stakeholders; and traditional quantitative methods.

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