Discussion: The Strategic Management of Corporate Communication

(Steyn and Puth – Chapter 3)

Steyn and Puth quote Tibble who postulates the difficulty in the application of a strategy in a
communication context or within the corporate communication function. He says that strategy in
particular to PR do not seem to go together. This is informed by the rarity of a strong sustained
and effective communication strategy that does not implicit a brand strategy, a marketing
strategy or an advertising strategy.
The authors add that corporate communicators oft misuse strategy for something important such
as strategic messages or direction and also as an activity such as a communication strategy. In
their view, an effective strategy should provide
• Leadership of thought and activity process for all communication programmes

• The context and guiding principle for all communication activities

• The link between the why and how that is the logic that binds both objective and tactics
together

It is therefore important to note that a strategy is the product of a well researched and thought
through process which takes the whole picture into account- the qualitative aspects of the
organization and the environment it faces. This forms part of the strategic thinking.
The importance of a strategy is that it:
• establishes a framework in which ongoing communication are tested

• helps in reviewing and questioning the decisions and direction taken by the corporate
communication function

• aids in creating a profile that helps identify the right problems to solve and priorities
issues to which communication plans are programmes are developed.

• Provides a framework for the strategic communication plan and operational plan. They
also help to choose how it should be communicated.
 • Determines what the corporate communication function should be doing in support of the
enterprise and corporate strategies

Strategy creation and implementation model

Internal
External
environment enterprise environment

Policies Identify key

Strategic issues

Internal
Implication of issues Synthesis
What to be issues
on Stakeholders
communicated

Priorities
issues

Strategic
communication plan

How it must be Analysis

communicated

Employee Crisis
communication Investor communication
Media Plan plan Plan

Specific communication
plan/campaigns/programmes

Action plan
The Corporate Environment in Strategy Development
Environment is defined as the sum total of all conditions and forces that affect strategic opinions
of an organization and define its competitive situation but are typically beyond its ability to
control. The environment is important for corporate communication policy/strategy must exist
within it.

The environment comprises facets both internal and external. Internal environment entail issues
such as corporate profile, mission, vision, values, culture, philosophy, policies etc. The external
environment consists of stakeholders and other cultural and economic conditions.

Internal Environment
i. Corporate Profile: In this context, the financial status, repute, products and services
are considered. The marketing and legal functions in light of information e.g. reports
at different functional levels are considered. The location, size and nature of
ownership of an organization also build to its profile. Such factors in a sort of
boomerang further determine the location, size and nature of supplies, customers,
competitors and shareholders. Further, corporate profile comprises the staff
component and key management in terms of formal and informal structures of
communication.
ii. Vision: It is a representation of realistic-futuristic state of expectations. It defines an
organization’s direction and intended achievement in terms of goals and objectives. It
is an organization’s ‘big picture’ – that which makes it stand out from the rest.
iii. Mission: It is the purpose or role of an organization in society and economy. It
trickles down from the intentions of stakeholders, the public, government etc. It
identifies ambition and describes the nature of work done by an organization. It is
therefore an organization’s timeless and common cause. [Vision is about goals
whereas mission is about behaviour/emotional feeling of commitment].
 iv. Corporate Values: They are sets of principles that determine standards of practice.
They emphasize the commitment of the workers of an organization. Corporate values
elicit codes of ethics that guide decision making and ensure congruity between
messages for internal and external consumption.
v. Corporate Philosophy: It is a system of concepts that determine motivation and are
derived from corporate values. Corporate philosophy bears an orientation on the
mission statement; and is a guiding principle for organizational behaviour, employee
engagement, empowerment, customer service, quality control, change, community
etc.
vi. Corporate Culture: It is a way of doing tings that is peculiar to an organization. It is a
set of shared values conveyed through symbols. Corporate culture is often a non-
written account of assumptions about what is acceptable (and otherwise) – an
intangible theme that defines overall conduct just like persona.
vii. Corporate Policy: It is an expression of strategies and plans. It comprises principles
for behaviour that define continuing basis for specific actions. It further defines
philosophy and, provides direction and guidelines. It is normally non-detailed and
exists as a set of tenets for conducting business. [Policies differ from procedures and
rules. Procedures - a detailed series of tasks for accomplishing an activity. Rules –
detailed specific requirements that relate to an employee’s conduct].

External Environment
It comprises four main categories namely remote, industry, operating and functional internal
environments.
i. Remote environment: It is also referred to as the macro or societal environment. It is
referent to sectors that affect organizations indirectly by influencing its long-term
decisions. It is a conception larger than any particular organization. It exposes
organizations to opportunities, threats and constraints against which organizations
pose no challenges in reciprocity.
Factors under the macro environment include:
 • Social factors: beliefs, values, attitudes, opinions and lifestyles of people,
emanating from cultural, ecological, demographic, educational, ethnic (etc)
conditioning. They are dynamic and subject to change.
• Economic factors: They exist at national and international level. They include
availability of credit, level of disposable income, people’s propensity towards
spending, prime interest rates, inflation rates and trends in the growth of the
gross national product.
• Political factors: These define legal and regulatory parameters through
organizations must operate.
• Technological factors: They involve rapid change or sudden breakthroughs –
factors considered paramount in avoidance of redundancy; and, promotion of
innovations and inventions.
• Ecological factors: These are relationships between humans and other living
things; and patterns of utilization of natural resources.
ii. Industry environment: It may be global or domestic. It describes an assortment of
organizations that offer (real or perceived) similar products or services. The five
forces at play in this environment are:
• Threat of new entrants
• The bargaining power of customers
• The bargaining power of suppliers
• The threat of substitute products or services
• The interplay amongst current contestants
iii. Operating/task environment: There are segments that have carry out direct
transactions with the organization thereby bearing directly on its daily operations and
goal attainment. It comprises groups such as customers, suppliers, competitors,
creditors etc. the organization has more control over the task as opposed to remote
environment because it is more susceptible to scanning, timing and predictability.
Through scanning, an organization is able to competitively strategize to market its
goods or services profitably. Factors affecting profitability of an organization in this
environment include its:
 • competitive position
• composition of its customers
• reputation amongst creditors and suppliers
• ability to attract capable employees
However issues such as consumerism, government regulations, environmental
pollution, energy costs and/or availability, inflation fed wage demands, heavy foreign
competition etc may place immediate pressure on the task environment.
iv. Functional internal environment: refers to areas of specialization within an
organization for instance finance, human resources, operations, administration,
corporate communication etc. Information from this environment is not often
emphatically sought in scanning per chance it bears strategically minimally in task
environment analysis.

Issues in the Definition of Environment

Definition of the term environment in corporate communication is elusive as it is perceived
differently by different scholars. The existing definitions include the following issues:
• The micro, macro and task environments as part of the core decision making process.
Members therefore have rights and ability determinate of the success of the organization
• The environment as a non-physical source of information. This defines environment in
terms of messages and meaning (how they react to it). Organizations in this case survive
through arbitrary intervention - not necessarily through laid down policy or procedure but
subscription to social norms and responsibilities.
• The environment as a patterning of strategic issues quite different from environment as a
set of general components, cognitive maps or a collection of stakeholders.
• Components of the macro, industry and task environment may neither be easily identified
or mutually exclusive. The impact of one element therefore affects one or more elements
in different ways.
Such deviations are however important for understanding the strategic decision process.

Boundary Spanning
It is the continuous activity of scanning the external environment to seek information pertinent
for strategic organizational decision making. It is carried out by boundary spanners and is
considered fundamental in understanding external environment. Boundary spanners bear the
ability to recognize changes in the external environment for information needed for
organizational survival. Organizations therefore develop strategies and align their resources and
competencies with the environment to survive. The boundary spanning roles involve:
i. Input: information acquisition, processing and control; also referred to as the
mirror function.
ii. Output: external representation in which information is disseminated to the
external environment to create favourable image for organizational thrive.

Boundary spanning is not hierarchical thus can be carried out by different entities at different
levels in the organizational structure. Boundary spanners make critical decisions for the
organization. They must therefore beware of different scopes of contextual information and be
able to translate feedback across communication boundaries, oversee internal distribution and
creation of important links.

Representational boundary spanning does not mediate critical resources and is non-powerful, a
reflection of roles of most corporate communicators. Further, citing the rigidity of formal
information media and limited encoding capabilities of formal systems, boundary spanning is an
effective mode of timely acquisition and interpretation of information. Boundary spanners also
offer consultancy at higher decision making levels.

It has however been observed that many authors discuss how organizations should scan the
environment or who they should observe in the environment. Fewer scholars have addressed the
role of corporate communication in helping organizations identify the most important aspects of
the environment; and even fewer scholars in strategic management have mentioned it.

Model for Developing a Corporate Communication Strategy

1.1.1 Steps in the Process

Analyze the internal environment

Identify strategic stakeholders and publics in the internal and external environment

Identify and describe key strategic issues in the internal and external environment
(differentiate between types of strategic issues)

Identify the implications of each strategic issue

(for each of the strategic stakeholders)

Decide on the corporate communication strategy

(what must be communicated to solve the problem/capitalize on the opportunity)

Set communication goals

(based on the corporate communication strategy)

Develop communication policy

(who is allowed to communicate what to who)

Draft to top management

Conduct an overall corporate communication media analysis

(which kinds of media best suit the organization)

Develop a strategic communication plan

Communication programmes, campaigns or plans
1.1.2 Analyze the internal environment

Analyze the internal environment

Corporate profile/Vision/Mission/Corporate
Culture/Values/Policies/Enterprise/Corporate Strategies

- To make communication relevant in formulation of organization’s strategy, intimately

familiarize with organization’s internal environment.

1.1.3 Identify strategic stakeholders and publics

• Draw up stakeholder map (organizational linkages, public relations audit).

• Identify organizational consequences on Stakeholders or Publics (social audit).
• Identify Stakeholder Perceptions, Attitudes or Concerns (public relations audit).
• Identify Stakeholder familiarity with organization (corporate image studies).
• Identify key stakeholder issues (both organizational and communication).

- Key component of stakeholder’s communication function – anchored around

organization’s stakeholders.
- Organization’s environment consist of different groupings of stakeholders, with each
stakeholder having significant different set of values, needs, desires, wants, goals and
objectives.
 - Management of relationships in an organization is the responsibility of corporate
communication department. To manage these relationships, the organization must first
identify different stakeholder.
- Ways of identifying strategic stakeholders: research, focus groups and surveys.

What is a stakeholder?
- Persons affected by decisions or an organization or of their decisions affect the
organization.
- Important step in developing the corporate communication strategy is to make a list of
people who are linked to the organization.
- The stakeholder map contains groups such as owners, consumer advocates, customers,
suppliers, competitors, the media, employees, special interest groups, environmentalists,
suppliers, governments, and the local community residents.
- Ongoing communication helps build stable, long-term relationships with stakeholders.

What is a strategic stakeholder?

- Those persons who are critical, essential, important, crucial, and vital for the organization
in the accomplishment of its mission.
- One method for the identification of key stakeholders is to analyse strategic linkages that
are critical for the organization to survive. The following linkages can be identified:
o Enabling linkages are with groups that provide authority to the organization and
control its resources (e.g. government regulators, stockholders, the board of
directors or donors).
o Functional linkages are with groups that provide inputs to the organization (e.g.
employees and unions) and use their outputs (e.g. consumers and graduates).
o Normative linkages are with professional or industry associations. These linkages
provide connections to similar organizations that can assist in solving shared
problems.
o Diffused linkages are connections to groupings of individuals who are not part of
any organization. Minority relations, community relations, media relations an
 environmental relations are organizational attempts to manage linkages with
diffused groupings.

- These linkages should form the basis for the corporate communication function’s in
communication programmes.

An Organization’s Strategic Linkages

Stockholders
The board of directors
National, provincial and
local government
Community leaders

Enabling Employees
Linkages Input Unions
Suppliers

Trade associations
Political groups Functional
Professional associations Organization Linkages

Normative Consumers
Linkages Output
Industrial purchasers
Users of services
Diffused Employers of graduates
Linkages

Environmentalists
Community residents
Students
Voters
Minorities
Women
Media
Other publics
The link between stakeholders and corporate communication strategy

- Managing communication with stakeholders should be a more integrated approach,

supported by well thought-through strategies, systems and behaviours, that enables
organizations to prioritize between stakeholder needs, to align strategies and activities
directed at stakeholders, and to build bridges between them.
- The corporate communication strategy entails inter alia:
• Identifying and defining strategic stakeholders groupings.
• Identifying key strategic issues around which publics may (have)
emerged.
• Determining whether the publics are in the latent, ware or active
stages or which publics have already turned activist.

- Only when organizations is ware of key strategic issues, can decisions be made as to what
should be communicated to stakeholders to solve problems or capitalize on opportunities.

Stakeholder group can be assessed in terms of the following:

♦ To what extent will an intended organizational strategy affect each group, either positively or
negatively?
♦ How far does the strategy align with their existing beliefs about the organization’s values and
purpose?
♦ How far do they share the value or purpose?
♦ What potential do they have to influence the organization directly or indirectly (via other
stakeholders), positively or negatively?
♦ How robust is the organization’s existing reputation with them?
♦ How likely is it that the effects of the intended strategy in regard to this group will act as a
prompt for action by other groups?
♦ What are the consequences if they do?

1.1.3 Identify and prioritize key strategic issues.

• Identify and describe key strategic issues in the macro task or internal environment
(environment scanning or issues tracking).

- Identify publics or activists that emerge around issues (issue tracking)

- Identify consequences for organization (e.g. SWOT analysis).
- Prioritize key strategic issues.

Differentiate between types of strategic issues:

• Organizational issues Type 1

- Communication is not the cause of the problem, but can provide a solution (e.g.
organizational change such as transformation or mergers).

• Organizational issues Type 2

- Communication is not the cause of the problem, cannot provide a solution but can explain
the issue (e.g. budget cuts or the employment equity legislation).

• Corporate communication issues

- Where too little or no communication with external stakeholders is the problem.

• Tactical Communication issues

- Where messages are sent but are not reaching the target groups i.e. coz of the
inappropriate communication channels.
1.1.4 Identify implications of strategic issues for stakeholders

- There is need to identify and understand the business or strategic issues that the
organization faces, and then determine what their implications for strategic stakeholders
might be (i.e. how the stakeholders are feeling about the issue or its consequences for
them).

1.1.5 Decide on the corporate communication strategy

- What must be communicated to each stakeholder to solve the problem or capitalize on the
opportunity presented by the strategic issue.
- A corporate communication strategy should help an organization to compete more
effectively by identifying what should be communicated to stakeholders to firstly solve
the problems; or secondly, to capitalize on the opportunities presented.

1.1.6 Set communication goals

- Set communication goals around which communication plans are developed. A

communication goal is the destination to be reached by means of the organization’s
communication.
- Based on the corporate communication strategy, (which identifies what should be
communicated about), communication goals are developed to indicate what the
organization wants to achieve with its communication regarding the situation described.
- Does the organization want to give information; change attitudes; or change behaviour.

1.1.7 Develop a communication policy

- Develop the communication policy ( who is allowed to communicate with whom).

Organizational guidelines for communication.
 - Communication policy is influenced by corporate culture, values and norms and deals
with
 Functional communication areas (internal or external communication) and
specified communication programmes e.g. lobbying or media liaison.
 Functional relationships between corporate communication and other
departments e.g. marketing or research or human resource.
 The structure of the corporate communication department, hierarchical
orientation and lines of command.
 Corporate communication goals and objectives.
 Corporate ‘do’s and donts’s’.
 The use of confidential information.

- Way of developing corporate communication policy is to make a list of:

1. what must be communicated.
2. what should be communicated.
3. what the organization prepared to communicate
4. what the organization is not prepared to communicate.
5. what is to be communicated in special situations e.g. emergencies.

1.1.8 Submit a draft of the corporate communication strategy to top management

- Obtain management support.

1.1.9 Conduct a media analysis

- Purpose is to investigate the different communication media that might be suitable for the
specific organization and its stakeholders.
- Communication media can range from interpersonal (face to face). To group or
organizational media (meetings), to public or mass media (radio or television).

1.1.10 Develop a strategic communication plan

- Develop a master plan of how to do it:
o Communication Programmes (continuous communication with strategic
stakeholders).
• i.e. – Issues management
• Change management
• Government relations/lobbying
• Industrial relations
• Social investment
• Community relations
• Publications
• Crisis communication
• Employee relation

o Communication Campaigns (single or cyclic).

o Communication Plans (implementation strategy and action plans).