Corporate Communication

 

1.0 INTODUCTION

Corporate communication is the communication that is issued by a corporate /

organization / body / institute to all its public(s). Publics here - can be both internal

(employees, stakeholders, such as share and stock holders) and external (agencies,

channel partners, media, government, industry bodies and institutes, educational institutes

and general public). This note explains in detail what is meant by corporate

communication.

2.0 OBJECTIVES OF THE NOTE

After studying this note, you should be able to:

· Explain the meaning of corporate communication

· List what corporate communication encodes and promotes

· Describe components of corporate communication

· Discuss corporate or organization identity

· Describe what is crisis and employee communication

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Meaning of corporate communication

According to the book Essentials of Corporate Communication by Cees van Riel and

Charles Fombrun the term Corporate Communication can be defined as the set of

activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external

communications aimed at creating favorable starting points with stakeholders on which

the company depends. Corporate communication consists of the dissemination of

information by a variety of specialists and generalists in an organization, with the

common goal of enhancing the organization's ability to retain its license to operate.

As Jackson (1987) remarks: Note that it is corporate communication - without a final "s".

Tired of being called on to fix the company switchboard, recommend an answering

machine or meet a computer salesman, I long ago adopted this form as being more

accurate and left communications to the telecommunications specialists. It's a small point

but another attempt to bring clarity out of confusion. Corporate communication serves as

the liaison between an organization and its publics.

Organizations can strategically communicate to their audiences through public relations

and advertising. This may involve an employee newsletter or video, crisis management

with the news media, special events planning, building product value and communicating

with stockholders, clients or donors.

3.2 Corporate communication encodes and promotes the following.

· Strong corporate culture

· Coherent corporate identity

· Reasonable corporate philosophy

· Genuine sense of corporate citizenship

· An appropriate and professional relationship with the press, including quick,

responsible ways of communicating in a crisis

· Understanding of communication tools and technologies

· Sophisticated approaches to global communications

How an organization communicates with its employees, its extended audiences, the press

and its customers brings its values to life. Corporate communications is all about

managing perceptions and ensuring:

· Effective and timely dissemination of information

· Positive corporate image

· Smooth and affirmative relationship with all stakeholders

Be it a corporate body, company, organization, institution, non-governmental

organization, governmental body, all of them needs to have a respectable image and

reputation. In today's day and age of increasing competition, easy access to information

and the media explosion, reputation management has gained even more importance.

Therefore, corporate communications as a role has become significant and professional in

nature. Gone are the days when corporate communication merely meant 'wining and

dining the client' - it has now emerged as a science and art of perception management.

3.3 Corporate communication comprises:

3.3.1 External communication

1. Media relations

This involves building and maintaining a positive relationship with the media (television,

print, web, et cetera). This includes, but is not limited to, drafting and dissemination of

press releases, organizing  press conferences and meeting with media professionals and

organizing  events for the media as a group.

2. External events

Could involve vendor / supplier / distributor needs? meetings? Channel partner meetings,

events related to product launches, important initiatives, et cetera.

3. Company/spokesperson profiling

Ensuring that the company/organizations spokesperson is in the limelight, is well-known

and considered as an authority in the respective sector/field.

· Managing content of corporate websites and/or other external touch points

· Managing corporate publications - for the external world

· Managing print media

4. Brand management

· Development and upkeep of the corporate identity to ensure adherence to

corporate brand guidelines

To improve overall business communications so as to clearly and effectively

communicate the essence of the company.

3.4 Corporate Identity/Organizational Identity

There are two approches for Identity, respectively: Corporate Identity and Organizational

Identity.

· "Corporate Identity is the reality and uniqueness of an organization, which is

integrally related to its external and internal image and reputation through

corporate communication" (Gray and Balmer, 1998)

· "Organizational Identity comprises those characteristics of an organization that its

members believe are central, distinctive and enduring. That is, Organizational

identity consists of those attributes that members feel are fundamental to (central)

and uniquely descriptive of (distinctive) the organization and that persist within

the organization over time (enduring)". (Pratt and Foreman, 2000)

3.5 Corporate Reputation

Reputations are overall assessments of organizations by their stakeholders. They are

aggregate perceptions by stakeholders of an organization’s ability to fulfil their

expectations, whether these stakeholders are interested in buying the company's products,

working for the company, or investing in the company's shares

there are several evaluation programs that can developed by either media organizations or

market research firms, and which can be used by companies to assess or benchmark their

corporate reputations.

3.6 Crisis communication

Crisis communications is generally considered a sub-specialty of the public relations

profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization

facing a public challenge to its reputation. These challenges may come in the form of an

investigation from a government agency, a criminal allegation, a media inquiry, a

shareholders lawsuit, a violation of environmental regulations, or any of a number of

other scenarios involving the legal, ethical, or financial standing of the entity.

Crisis communications professionals preach that an organization’s reputation is often its

most valuable asset. When that reputation comes under attack, protecting and defending it

becomes the highest priority. This is particularly true in today’s 24 hour news cycle,

fuelled by government investigations, Congressional or parliamentary hearings, lawsuits,

and “gotcha” journalism. When events like these happen, the media firestorm can quickly

overwhelm the ability of the entity to effectively respond to the demands of the crisis. To

emerge with its reputation intact, an organization must anticipate every move and respond

immediately and with confidence. Companies facing such a threat will often bring in

experienced crisis communications specialists to help prepare and guide them through the

process.

Effectively responding to the challenges of a crisis requires more than the typical skills of

the public relations professional, requiring instead experience at the highest levels of the

field, such as investigative reporting, politics, and the government house

Crisis communications can include crafting thorough and compelling statements, known

as “messages,” often tested by research and polling. Additional tactics may include

proactive media outreach to get messages and context to the media, identifying and

recruiting credible third-party allies who can attest to the company’s side of the story, and

striking first, not waiting to be hit.

Crisis communications is a part of larger process referred to as crisis management though

it may well be a major tool of handling a crisis situation in government, organization or

business.

It is also considered a sub-speciality of the Business Continuity area of modern business.

The aim of crisis communications in this context is to assist organizations to achieve

continuity of critical business processes and information flows under crisis, disaster or

event driven circumstances. Responding quickly, efficiently, effectively and in a

premeditated way are the primary objectives of an effective crisis communications

strategy and/or solution. Harnessing technology and people to ensure a rapid and coordinated

response to a range of potentially crippling scenarios distinguishes a well

thought out and executed plan from a poorly or ill-considered one. The inherent lag time

in marshalling responses to a crisis can result in considerable losses to company

revenues, reputation as well as substantially impacting on costs.

Effective crisis communications strategies will typically consider achieving most, if not

all, of the following objectives;

o Maintain connectivity

o Be readily accessible to the news media

o Show empathy for the people involved

o Allow distributed access

o Streamline communication processes

o Maintain information security

o Ensure uninterrupted audit trails

o Deliver high volume communications

o Support multi-channel communications

o Remove dependencies on paper based processes

By definition a crisis is an unexpected and detrimental situation or event. Crisis

communications can play a significant role by transforming the unexpected into the

anticipated and responding accordingly.

3.7 Employee communication

· Sharing information with employees, building employer pride, managing

employee issues, et cetera.

· Manage the Intranet and other internal web portals

1. Internal communication

· Managing corporate publications for employees and partners

· Organizing  internal events for staff

2. Corporate communication officers

Recent research on the corporate communication function reports that corporate

communication officers (CCOs) in companies tend to have average tenures of about 4.5

years and that nearly one-half (48 per cent) report to the Chief Executive Officer. CCOs

say that approximately 42 per cent of their job is strategic and 58 per cent is tactical. Over

the next year, they will be focusing more on social responsibility, social media and

reputation. A research found distinct differences between CCOs in Most Admired

companies versus Contender companies (Sofoluwe ;2007).

3.8 Power of Corporate communication

The Corporate communication will involve much more than just motivating the

employees and then dispensing the good PR. It does represent the tool to be leveraged

and the process which is to be mastered. A Power of Corporate Communication shows

the managers and the executives how to communicate effectively with the fellow

employees from a mailroom to boardroom, and also between the organizations and across

the industries. Fully accessible and nonacademic refreshingly, it will create the easy-tofollow

map of world of corporate communication, with the workplace-tested approaches

for addressing the common challenges. Written by the two leaders in the today's

corporate communication field Paul Argenti is an author of 1994's Corporate

Communicational. Power of Corporate Communication is replete with the careful

analyses, the real-world examples and the case studies from leading organizations such as

Sony, Coca-Cola, and the GE who know how to manage corporate communication,

especially when problem arise. A Power of the Corporate Communication is the most

straight-talking guide of todays for mastering an art and leveraging a power of the

corporate communication. The key components of a corporate communication function.

Methods to manage the multiple constituencies and deliver consistent, the relevant

messages Crisis communication tactics, and dangers of creating the "spin" as opposed to

facing the problems head-on. The Successful communication program is central to

everything the organization accomplishes, or will hope to accomplish. Let a Power of the

Corporate Communication provide you with tools which you need to establish and

maintain the program and build the corporate communication program which provides

you with the strategic advantage. "If it is left unaddressed, issues of the corporate

communication could come back to haunt the company, and when addressed, they could

extend the success of the organization.

4.0 CONCLUSION

In order for corporate organization to excel, she must be able effectively to communicate

to her entire stake holder. Such communication must be effective and timely. Motivating

employee, crisis management, maintaining the reputation of the organization and

corporate communication have all been explained and discussed in this note

5.0 SUMMARY

In this note, we discussed corporate communication as the communication that is issued

by a corporate organization to the public. We also discussed what corporate organizations

connote and their components. Crisis communication and employee communication are

also treated as part of the obligations of corporate communication. Corporate

communication is vested with some power; the nature of power of corporate

communication was also explained.

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