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Proceedings Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 June 6 - 9, 2008 Wroxton College Wroxton, England Sponsored by Corporate Communication International at Baruch College/CUNY In association with Corporate Communications: An International Journal Michael B. Goodman, Ph.D., Director Corporate Communication International at Baruch College/CUNY, USA Associate Editor - North America Corporate Communications: An International Journal, UK Christina M. Genest, M.A., M.H.S.A., M.I.A., Associate Director Corporate Communication International at Baruch College/CUNY, USA Wim J. L. Elving, Ph.D., Editor Corporate Communications: An International Journal, UK Nicholas D. J. Baldwin, Ph.D., Dean Wroxton College Fairleigh Dickinson University, UK © June 2008. Please contact the authors for permission to reprint. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 PROCEEDINGS Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Editors Christina M. Genest Michael B. Goodman with the assistance of Cynthia Chang Mansura Ghaffar Corporate Communication International at Baruch College/CUNY Contents Introduction Michael B. Goodman, Conference General Chair……………………………….….….....v Conversations in Management: Results from a Danish Survey Study Helle Kryger Aggerholm, Mona Agerholm Andersen, Birte Asmuβ, Christa Thomsen…1 Organizational Communication in Times of Downsizing: An Explorative Study Among Danish Corporations Helle Kryger Aggerholm………………………………...………………………………17 Corporate Re-Branding Process: A Preliminary Theoretical Framework Mari Ahonen…....…..…………………………………………………………………....31 Employee Identification with Corporate Values within the Danish Windmill Company NEG Micon – A Study of Both Top Management’s View and Employee Perceptions Mona Agerholm Andersen..……………………………………………………………...39 Designing an Effective Online Corporate Training Program Joseph Basso, Suzanne FitzGerald, Alison Theaker……………………………………..53 Collaborative Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Examination of the International Public Relations Agency Involvement in the United Nations Global Compact Leslie Simone Byrd……………………………………………….……………………...59 Strategic Role of Corporate Communication for Health Care Providers Maria De Luca…..…..…………………………………………………………………...77 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 i Issues Management: An Exploratory Study of its Perceived Value for Chief Corporate Communication Managers in the Strategic Positioning of their South African Companies Gideon de Wet……………………..…………………………………………………….91 Document Cycling and Gatekeeping: A Case Study of Policy Development in a Fortune 100 Company Sam H. DeKay……………..………………………………………………………….…93 Managing Contrary Internal Communication in a Small Company Krishna S. Dhir……………………...………………………………………………….105 Communication Management in the Netherlands, Trends and Developments Wim J.L. Elving and Betteke van Ruler…………………….…………………..……...113 Corporate Social Responsibility Advertisements in Brazil and the UK: A Case of Banco Real and Chevron Francisca Farache……………………………………………………………………….115 To Be or Not to Be a Crisis Commander: An Explorative Investigation of the Crisis Management and Crisis Communication Consulting of Danish Public Relations Agencies Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen…………………….………………………………131 Coaching: Leveraging the Art of Communication Across Cultures Christina M. Genest…………………………………………………………………….133 Corporate Greening 2.0: Five Factors at Play as Executives Zero in on Climate Change E. Bruce Harrison…….……………….………………………………………………...149 Pioneering Digital Fair Trade: A New Ethical Brand Licensing Opportunity Colin Hastings………………………………………………………………...………...155 The National Football League Goes Flat: American Football’s Oct. 28 Experiment in London Wesley R. Heinel……..………………………………………………………………...161 Sarbanes-Oxley and its Effect on Markets: Investor Relations in an Increasingly Regulated Global Market Brian D. Higgins …..……………………………………………………………….…..173 Employees’ Perceptions of Company Values and Objectives and Employer-Employee Relationships Lida Holtzhausen and Lynnette Fourie………..………………………………………..181 ii Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Credibility Discourse of PR Agencies: A Cross-Cultural Study of Corporate Ethos on the Web Maria Isaksson and Poul Erik Flyvholm Jørgensen………………………………...…..193 Relational Corporate Selves – Focus on Multiplicity in Identity Construction Trine Susanne Johansen………………………………………………………………...203 Managing Projects with CSR in Mind: CSR Knowledge Communication in Project Management Constance E. Kampf and Christa Thomsen…………………………………………….217 Communication Structure of the Public Sector in India: An Empirical Analysis Saroj Koul………………………………………………………………………………229 The Campaign for U.K. Children’s Telivision: Strategies and Impact Rachel Kovacs………………………………………………………………………….241 Cross-Cultural and Translingual Communication Strategies of Official Sponsoring Corporations in Beijing Olympics Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng…………………………………………………253 The State of Leadership in the States: What Businesspeople Say They Value John S. Leipzig…………………………………………………………………...……..269 Effective Leadership in Crisis: When Should the CEO Step Up to Be the Organization’s Spokesperson? Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang…………………..………………….279 Internal Communication and Storytelling – Management by Stories Marianne Wolff Lundholt………...…………………………………………………….299 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour Alessandra Mazzei……………………………………………………………………...301 Corporate Agenda 21 Cortney C. McDermott…………………………………….…………………………...323 The Perceived Role of Blogging in the Practice of Corporate Communication Among Top Communicators in South Africa: An Exploratory Study Corné Meintjes………….........................................……………………………...….....337 European Health Policy on Anti-Tobacco: New Strategic Corporate Communication Challenges? J. Paulo Moreira………………………………………………………………………...339 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 iii Blancmange Powder and Thermostats in the Experience Economy – Modern Corporate Theme Parks as Channels of Corporate Communication Martin Nielsen.................................................................................................................347 Corporate Governance and Corporate Communication: A View from Top South African Companies Ilse Niemann-Struweg.....................................................................................................359 The Corporate Gardener: Respecting the ‘Wiki Way’? Roslyn Petelin and Caroline McKinnon…………………………………………….….361 Who Reads Corporate Websites? A Cross-Cultural Study of Audience Behavior Irene Pollach….……………………………………….………………………………..369 Project Communication in a Strategic Internal Perspective Line B. Ramsing………………………………………………………………………..387 Greening Corporate Identity: The Role of Persuasion, Responsibility and CSR in Online Identity Reporting for a Global Marketplace Deborah Rolland and Jana O’Keefe Bazzoni...............................................…………...399 From Commercial to Philosophical: An Analysis of the Shift in the Brazilian Banking Industry’s Corporate Advertising Content Gilmar J. Santos….…………….……….………………………………………………413 Destination Branding from a Corporate Branding Perspective Saila Saraniemi and Mari Ahonen……………………………………………………...435 Bernstein’s Communication Wheel Revisited Alfonso Siano and Maria Palazzo………………………………………………………449 Fortune 500 Corporations in Greater China: Does Having a Chinese Version of their Name Make a Difference? Daniel W.C. So and Cindy S. Ngai……………………………………………………..459 Pakistan Women’s Empowerment Group: Overcoming Cultural Barriers for Social Change Peter L. Walker…………………………………………………………………………471 Public Attitudes and Personal Concerns: Informing Public Policy – Engaging Civil Society Peter L. Walker…………………………………………………………………………477 Engaging Employees with Internal Corporate Communication Mary Welch…………………………………………………………………………….489 Sepsis! Cognition and Communication in Critical Care: A Narrative Analysis Michele W. Zak………………………………………………………………………...497 iv Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Introduction Meeting 21st Century Corporate Communication Challenges Corporate executives have come to recognize that a confluence of events in late 2001 – the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001; the collapse of trust in capital markets after the bursting of the high-tech investment bubble; the implosion of corporate giants in the wake of the Enron scandals – have fundamentally and dramatically changed the way corporations build, maintain, and repair relationships with their internal and external constituents. The exact manner of the change continues to be clearly defined. In a world full of ambiguity on issues of trade, nationalism, the environment, social relationships, and an increasingly Balkanized Internet, the hyper-connected communication technology environment where transparency is becoming wider and deeper, the focus is now, more than ever, on who corporations are and what they do. Consider these ten complex challenges facing corporations in the twenty-first century: • greater media democratization and individual power • greater disparity between the haves an the have-nots • greater skepticism and distrust of corporations • new issues created by the spread of global growth • increasing changes in the way people work • greater necessity for corporations to act as diplomats • growing realization that talent no longer owes loyalty to any corporations • the understanding that corporate communication is a strategic management function • increased power of NGOs to influence corporate behavior • short-term obsession of investors as a business model and focus [Goodman, Michael B. “Introduction,” Corporate Communications: An International Journal, (Vol. 13 No. 1, 2008, p.5)] What should corporations do? How should they behave? Who should join the chief executive officer in such leadership in this century? CCI’s studies suggest that the chief communication officer be given the responsibility, and that the strategic functions of corporate communication offer the right capabilities. Also, note that detailed answers to these questions are also in two new documents: Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (2000-2006) issued by the Global Reporting Initiative, and The Authentic Enterprise: An Arthur W. Page Society Report (2007). CCI Research Findings from China, the European Union & South Africa At this conference we will present CCI’s 2007 Corporate Communication Practices and Trends Study. The briefing will focus on 10 insights from the study -- key corporate communication function and budget responsibilities, the communication officer’s perceived role of corporate communication, and responses to open-ended questions related to public diplomacy, executive compensation, and appropriate management of corporate reputation. The survey was sent to Fortune 1000 companies and was followed with more extensive interviews. We will present the results of CCI’s Corporate Communication Practices and Trends: A China Study 2008 – Phase II completed in association with Purdue University and Prudential Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 v Financial as research underwriter. Jay Wang, Ph.D., associate professor, Purdue University is the principle investigator. Also at this conference Finn Frandsen, Ph.D., director for the ASB Centre for Business Communication and professor, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark, along with Winni Johansen, Ph.D., director of study, Executive Master in Corporate Communication, and associate professor, Aarhus School of Business will discuss findings of CCI’s Corporate Communication Practices and Trends: A European Union Benchmark Study 2008 undertaken in association with the ASB Centre of Business Communication, research underwriter. Finally Gideon de Wet, professor & chair, Department of Communication, University of Johannesburg, Corné Meintjes and Ilse Niemann-Struweg, lecturers, School of Business and Economics at Monash University’s South African Campus will present a report of CCI’s Corporate Communication Practices and Trends: A South Africa Benchmark Study 2008. This project is underwritten by the University of Johannesburg. These four studies, taken together, form the first global benchmark for corporate communication practices and trends. The CCI Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The annual CCI Conference on Corporate Communication is a clear opportunity for corporate communicators to develop professionally and to bring value to their companies. It is also an opportunity for scholars to share their knowledge and research. It has been the premise of this conference that relationships among scholars and practitioners are an essential element of the social glue that binds civilized people together. International meetings are important to build and maintain trust among professionals with common interests and goals, but who are disbursed around the world. It is in this spirit that once again corporate executives and university scholars met in Wroxton, England from June 6 – 9 to exchange information and explore communication from a global perspective. The CCI Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 is intended to: • Illuminate the interest in corporate communication as a strategic management function in organizational success • Explore the influence of global forces on the corporate communication profession as it relates to theory, practice, roles, processes, and ethics • Continue as a forum for the exchange of ideas and information among industry and university representatives • Indicate trends and provide analysis for communication professionals, university faculty, and others interested in corporate communication • Disseminate the conference discussions through the publication of these Proceedings. Papers will also be considered for publication in Corporate Communication: An International Journal The three-day conference features speakers from sixteen countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Italy, India, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The papers and presentation summaries that follow reflect the discussion of essential issues: • communication management vi Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 • • • • • • • • • • • • • corporate governance and corporate communication issues management corporate communication leadership green communication corporate culture and identity corporate branding cross-cultural communication issues corporate social responsibility reputation and identity global corporate relations crisis communication new media corporate communication in Greater China, South Africa, the EU, the U.S.A. And other issues such as: • stakeholder activism • health care communication • public relations and corporate reputation • document cycling and gatekeeping • theme parks as channels of corporate communication • effect of government relations on markets • the communication structure of the public sector in India • communication management in the Netherlands. And case studies on the Pakistan Women’s Empowerment Group, the National Football League, corporate advertising, and an association’s development of corporate sustainability guidelines. The papers published here were selected based on a peer review process. We are grateful to the members of the CCI Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Program Committee for their insight and expertise in making this conference a success. They are: Stacey Connaughton, Ph.D., Purdue University, USA Krishna Dhir, Ph.D., Berry College, USA Finn Frandsen, Professor, mag. art., Aarhus University, Denmark Christina Genest, MA, MHSA, Associate Director, CCI at Baruch College/CUNY, USA John Leipzig, Ph.D., Alma College, USA Roslyn Petelin, Ph.D., University of Queensland, Australia Jo-Ann Straat, M.A., Daiichi Sankyo, USA Pat Scott, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, USA Daniel W.C. So, Ed.D., The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China Don Swanson, Ed.D., Monmouth University, USA AdamYates, M.A., Fujifilm, USA Dr. Michael B. Goodman, Director Corporate Communication International at Baruch College/CUNY, USA Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 vii NOTE: The CCI Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 is sponsored by Corporate Communication International at Baruch College, City University of New York, U.S.A., in association with Corporate Communications: An International Journal, published by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., U.K.. The conference site is historic Wroxton Abbey at Wroxton College of Fairleigh Dickinson University in picturesque Wroxton Village located 70 miles north of London in the Cotswolds. For more information on CCI -- Corporate Communication International, visit its website at www.corporatecomm.org. CCI -- Corporate Communication International at Baruch College, City University of New York CCI was in transition since August 2007 when Michael B. Goodman, CCI Director, became professor at Baruch College/CUNY, and then assumed the leadership, as director, of their MA in Corporate Communication Program. Meanwhile, Christina “Tina” Genest, CCI Associate Director, managed the transition from her office at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) and periodic commutes to New York City. Then in January 2008 Tina packed up. A U-Haul symbolized the move from our birthplace to a new environment with broadening possibilities. We will be forever grateful to the FDU students, alumni, scholars, and administrators who provided us a home, and who share in our vision and work. We encourage them to stay in touch and involved. We are also thankful for our new friends and colleagues at Baruch who have warmly welcomed us. It’s a bit of a culture shock to move from the FDU’s bucolic Madison, New Jersey campus to the hub-bub of Baruch College with the Empire State building as your office’s view. The adjustment has been short lived as we settle in to build new relationships, relevant programs, and promising research. If you are in New York, you’ll find us at 25th and Lexington. Come pay us a visit. viii Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Conversations in Management: Results from a Danish Survey Study Helle Kryger Aggerholm ([email protected]) Mona Agerholm Andersen ([email protected]) Birte Asmuß ([email protected]) Christa Thomsen ([email protected]) Centre for Corporate Communication, Aarhus School of Business University of Aarhus, Denmark The lack of qualified workforce in the Danish labour market means that many Danish companies compete with each other to attract and retain the best employees. One important management tool to successfully do so, are conversations in management. Conversations in management have until now been rather less investigated within the field of corporate communication. This paper wants to contribute to this developing field of research by presenting the results of a study on conversations in management. The study investigates how different conversations in management are used in companies strategically to the benefit of the relations to the stakeholders and the image or reputation of the company. The studied conversations are: recruitment conversations, job appraisal interviews, sickness leave conversations and dismissal conversations. The study shows that the companies are aware that the conversations should be used as tools for implementing the company strategy or values. However, the strategic potential of these conversations is not fully exploited and specific crucial aspects like employer branding are more prevalent in recruitment conversations than in the other types of conversation. Conversations in management play an important role in modern societies where good stakeholder relations are crucial for the image and the reputation of the company. Conversations in management are also used as an efficient value communication tool in today’s organisations which are increasingly run on values and not on rules, and where formal structures are often replaced by more project-oriented structures. There have been some studies on the role of conversations in management (BargielaChiappini and Harris, 1997; Clifton, 2006; James, Cunningham and Dibben, 2006). However, there is still a substantial lack of empirical studies investigating from a corporate communication perspective how these conversations can be used strategically to the benefit of the relations to the stakeholders and the image or reputation of the company. In a current project at the Centre for Corporate Communication, Aarhus School of Business at the University of Aarhus, a group of researchers is in the course of conducting different studies in order to contribute to a better understanding of the interrelatedness of workplace conversations and company strategy. The purpose of this paper is to present results of one study, which is part of the ongoing project on conversations in management. The aim of the study is to investigate how different conversations actually are used in companies. The conversations in focus are: recruitment conversations, job appraisal interviews, sickness leave conversations and dismissal conversations. The main results indicate that the field of conversations in management is an area that attracts more and more interest from companies and it is developing and changing rapidly. One of the main challenges companies see themselves in is how to create and ensure a strong link between company strategy or values and the conversation itself. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 1 Helle Kryger Aggerholm, Mona Agerholm Andersen, Birte Asmuβ, Christa Thomsen Research context: The Danish labour market The study is conducted in Denmark and the Danish labour market plays a crucial role for the importance of these conversations for management. In recent years, the Danish labour market has been characterized by a substantial lack of qualified workforce. In autumn 2007, about half of the Danish companies were in lack of qualified workforce (KPMG 2007), a number, which still is increasing in the beginning of 2008. This means that many Danish companies are currently competing with each other to attract and retain the best employees. It is highly specialized workforce like medical doctors, engineers, and specialists working in the financial service sector that is required most, but also the construction sector in general is in need of more hands. This lack of workforce results in a complex competition on the labour market to attract the right job candidates and to make those with adequate qualifications stay in the company. One of the most recent trends or approaches to reach the employees is employer branding (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004), which is the sum of activities that organizations put forth in order to influence the employees to desire to work for them. The lack of workforce in the Danish labour market has a crucial impact on the employees’ expectations to their job. Influence and freedom to define the work themselves are highly appreciated values for Danish employees. Moreover, they expect their company to be a good place to work with a focus on establishing and maintaining good relationships. As a consequence, the Danish relationship between leaders and employees traditionally is a very egalitarian one. In order to meet the employees’ high expectations in this area, many of the internal conversations at the workplace have a strategic focus on democracy, equality and employee development. Hence, these organizational strategies and the market situation in general have an influence on questions of leadership and management and on the four different types of conversations. In the case of the recruitment conversations, this means that due to the competition on the labour market, this type of conversation is no longer considered as a one-way process where the employer informs the applicant about the required qualifications for the job and its content. It is rather considered as a two-way process where both employer and applicant have the possibility to meet each other’s expectations. The conversation enables the employer to learn about the applicant’s professional qualifications, personal skills, experience, expectations, attitude, beliefs and personal values. It also gives the applicant an idea of the organisation and the job requirements, organizational values, practices and opportunities for the applicant for future development (Ferris et al, 2002). One of the biggest challenges for the employer is to make the employees identify with the organisation and its organisational values. In other words when a person’s self-concept contains the same attributes as those of an organisation the person may feel a stronger commitment to the organisation and consequently stay there for many years (Dutton et al., 1994). In the case of the job appraisal interviews, this means that instead of being a measuring tool for employee performance, thereby focusing on past elements, in Denmark most companies have a focus on employee development and thereby a focus on future aspects. This also shows in the terminology for job appraisal interviews, which are called “medarbejderudviklingssamtaler”, translated into English “employee development conversations”. In the case of the sickness leave conversations, this means that instead of being a measuring tool, Danish companies increasingly focus on job retention. This also shows in the most frequent terminology for sickness leave conversations, which are called “fastholdelsessamtaler” or “rundbordssamtaler”, translated into English “job retention conversations” or “round table conversations”, i.e. conversations involving different partners 2 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Conversations in Management: Results from a Danish Survey Study (employee, nearest leader/personnel manager, doctor, consultant and others) who focus on retaining the “principal” person/the employee. The dismissal conversation is of both internal and external importance to the company, calling for a holistic understanding of this type of strategic conversation. The handling of the dismissal conversation influences the perception of the corporate image internally among the remaining employees possibly affecting employee retention as well as externally potentially influencing the companies’ future ability to attract new employees. This has to be seen as a serious disadvantage in times of scarcity of labour. Moreover, the dismissed employees will function as corporate ambassadors after leaving the company, so even though the company has decided that the employee has to leave the company, it is still essential that he or she leaves with best possible impression. Consequently, the conversation has to be diligently planned and executed in a professional fashion with respect for all parties involved. On the basis of the research context presented above, we will now present and discuss the results of our study. Research Questions and Survey Design The aim of our study being to investigate how different conversations in management are actually used in companies, an on-line questionnaire-based survey was conducted in December 2007 in 167 of the largest Danish companies. A total of 30 questions were distributed in two main parts: a) short part with general questions on strategic conversations in management, b) 4 main blocks of questions on the specific form of conversation. The questions were similar for all four kinds of conversations – with a few exceptions related to the specific character of each conversation. Respondents were asked to answer questions related to the participants, the purpose, the content and the challenges of the conversation, i.e. factors which we consider as the constituting elements of a conversation. The theoretical framework of the study is based on theories within Corporate Communication (Figure 1). Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 3 Helle Kryger Aggerholm, Mona Agerholm Andersen, Birte Asmuβ, Christa Thomsen Stakeholders Corporate Identity Corporate Identity Recruitment conversations Stakeholders Job appraisal interviews Corporate Identity Organizational identity (mission, vision, culture, values, strategy) Dismissal conversations Sickness leave conversations Stakeholders Corporate Identity Stakeholders FIGURE 1. Corporate Communication Stakeholders -- Cornelissen (2004: 69). We see the role of conversations in management as crucial for the interrelatedness between organizational and corporate identity ensuring the link between internal and external communication. Hence, these conversations constitute an important part in the implementation of a company’s values and strategy. Survey Results Out of 167 questionnaires, 70 were returned, i.e. a response rate of 42 percent. The questionnaires were mainly returned by HR-directors (77 percent). Of the companies that answered the survey, more than 40 percent had less than 1000 employees, about 30 percent had between 1000 and 2,500 employees, and about 20 percent had more than 2,500 employees. Concerning what kind of conversations the companies conduct, 85 percent have recruitment conversations, 89 percent have job appraisal interviews, 29 percent have sickness leave conversations, and 37 percent have dismissal conversations. The main results indicate that the field of conversations in management is an area of major interest for the companies and it is developing and changing rapidly. One of the main challenges companies see themselves in is how to create and ensure a strong link between company strategy or values and the conversation itself, for example is it possible to use the conversations as a tool for implementing specific values or a specific strategy. 4 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Conversations in Management: Results from a Danish Survey Study Recruitment conversations Academic research on the recruitment process has primarily focused on examining what should be contained in recruitment advertisements to attract potential employees (Mathews and Redman, 1996; Blackman, 2006). The corporate reputation of an organisation is another key factor that has been identified to have an important influence on recruitment and retention of employees in modern organisations (Gatewood et al, 1993; Fombrun, 1996; Cable and Graham, 2000). There also exists a considerable amount of prescriptive literature within the field aimed at helping managers to find the right person for the job (Carroll et al., 1999). The recruitment conversation is considered to play a significant role in the recruitment process. If management makes a wrong decision and employs the wrong person it might turn out to be very expensive for the organisation. Hence, one of the focus aspects in the prescriptive literature is how management should improve the interview process in order to employ the right person (Dipboye, 1982; Barnett, 2008). This type of conversation is the beginning of a future employment relationship between employer and employee, and thus it may have an impact on the future level of the applicant’s commitment to the organisation (Ferris et al., 2002). The findings of the survey concerning how recruitment conversations are practiced in companies are presented in the following. Participants Asked about which organizational members participate in the recruitment conversation, 100 percent indicate that the closest manager often or always participates. 82 percent answer that the HR consultant always or often is present and 81 percent say that the personnel manager always or often participates. 51 percent indicate that future colleagues are present during the conversation, and 17 percent of the respondents answer that top management is present. Purpose 59 of the responding companies (85 percent) arrange recruitment conversations. In these conversations, 96 percent of the respondents see the recruitment conversation as having an influence on the corporate image and reputation of the company. 95 percent of the companies answer that the main purpose of the conversation is to measure the applicant’s personal values. This supports the impression that it is important for the employer to know whether the applicant identify with the organisational values or not. 95 percent of the companies agree that the recruitment conversation serves as a tool to evaluate the expectations of the applicant to the organisation and vice versa and 94 percent of the companies focus on the professional qualifications of the applicant. It is also identified that 93 percent of the companies see the recruitment conversation as an opportunity to promote organisational values, which again indicate a clear focus on values in this type of conversation. The survey also shows that 68 percent of the respondents see the recruitment conversation as a way of building a social relationship between leader and employee. Content Concerning the importance of various issues in the recruitment conversation the following are identified: the personal qualifications of the applicant (100 percent), the professional qualifications of the applicant (96 percent), the applicant’s reasons for applying for the job (96 percent), the applicant’s expectations to the organisation (95 percent), presentation of the job (94 percent), presentation of the company (84 percent). However, less attention was given to salary negotiation (35 percent). Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 5 Helle Kryger Aggerholm, Mona Agerholm Andersen, Birte Asmuβ, Christa Thomsen As a part of the recruitment procedure, 78 percent of the companies answer that they follow up upon the recruitment conversation after a period of three months and 17 percent answer that they use the job appraisal interview in this respect. Challenges In the qualitative part of the study the companies were asked to define the main challenges concerning the recruitment conversation. One of the mentioned challenges was the time aspect. The companies see a challenge in the short time they often have to find and appoint the right person for a vacant position. According to the responses, the key challenges during the recruitment conversation are to evaluate the expectations of both applicant and employer and learn about the professional qualifications, motivation and personal values of the applicant. This is noteworthy as these aspects are also considered to be the main aims of this type of conversation. One group of companies also indicate that it is a challenge to learn about the applicants’ reasons for a job shift, for example prior terminations and forced resignations. This is interesting as it might be a way of testing the future commitment of the applicant. The companies also mentioned that another challenge is to conduct the interview so that an equal dialogue between the applicant and the employer is ensured. Discussion This type of management conversation has a high priority, which might have something to do with the labour market situation. The recruitment conversation has different purposes, but the most important ones are to learn about the personal values of the applicant, evaluate the expectations of both parties, learn about the applicants’ professional qualifications and promote organisational values. Another important aspect is the influence of the conversation upon the image and reputation of the company. However, these aspects are also considered to be the main challenges of the conversation, so the study indicate that the companies do not quite know how to implement these aspects in the recruitment conversation. Another finding is that most of the companies follow up upon the recruitment conversation after a period of three months, which indicates that it is taken seriously to integrate and retain the applicant in the company. Job appraisal interviews As mentioned before, 89 percent of the companies conduct job appraisal interviews. Hence, this type of conversation is the kind of management conversation that is used most in Danish companies. Participants Concerning who is participating in the job appraisal interviews, it is interesting to see that most resources are still used (in line with other studies for example Bülow Management, 1999, 2006) on leaders and permanent workforce. Much fewer resources are used on non-permanent and hourly-paid workforce. This is noteworthy, as recent studies indicate that more and more companies see the need to build up close relations also to non-permanent workforce (Bülow Management, 2006), but this contradicts with the results of this study. Purpose Most companies see the main aim of job appraisal interviews to keep competent employees in the company (95 percent). Moreover, they see the interview as an important device to ensure competency development of the employees (92 percent). This shows a clear focus on future 6 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Conversations in Management: Results from a Danish Survey Study aspects for the overall aim of the interviews. Only 68 percent of the companies see the interviews as an important device to measure job efficiency, which is in line with the prior finding, namely that the focus lies more on future aspects than on past performance. More than 77 percent of the companies point out that they do not conduct job appraisal interviews simply to live up to the Danish legal requirements in this area. This again supports the overall impression that Danish companies actually see and intend to use job appraisal interviews as an efficient tool to increase value within the company. Content Concerning the communication flow, more than 83 percent of the companies regard job appraisal interviews as an important tool to give feedback to the managers. This indicates an orientation to the dialogic aspects in the interviews. But only 66 percent state that they are aware of the importance of job appraisal interviews for the relationship between manager and employee. And concerning the link between the single conversational event and questions of corporate image and reputation, only 68 percent of the companies agree upon the fact that job appraisal interviews support corporate image and reputation. This is crucial, as research on job appraisal interviews highlights the relevance of these conversations for (re-)defining and (re-)evaluating social relationships between the manager and the subordinate (Asmuß forthcoming., Frimann, 2004). If the companies are not aware of this aspect in their strategic considerations for job appraisal interviews, they risk focusing on one aspect of the job appraisal interviews, namely the factual outcome, thereby neglecting the chance also to exploit the opportunity to optimize the social relationship between the interlocutors. Asked about what kind of issues companies regard as important for a job appraisal interview, a range of different issues were ranked as crucial: team relations, work tasks, job satisfaction, personal and professional competence development, link between the individual employee and company values. It is important to note here that actual concrete work aspects are mentioned together with questions of bridging between company values and the employee’s way to interpret these values in his/her daily work. Challenges In the more qualitative part of the survey, the companies were asked to define themselves, what they saw as the main challenges in connection with the job appraisal interview itself. The main aspects mentioned can be divided into 4 groups, stretching from the operational to the strategic level. On the operational level, one group sees time limits as a main challenge. Companies here see a problem in simply finding the time to hold these interviews regularly and to do a follow-up of the interview on a regular daily basis. On a more strategic level, one group sees a challenge in actually living up to the kind of conversation that was intended to take place in a Danish job appraisal interview, namely the dialogue. Words used to express this challenge in the study were equality, active recipient, openness, trust, and mutual respect. Another group sees the main challenge in how to develop the concept for the interview, so that it does not become a pure routine. And yet another group sees as the main challenge, how questions of overall strategy can find their way into the single conversational encounter, namely the job appraisal interview. It is noteworthy here, that the question of how to actually conduct the interview so that it lives up to the strategic considerations about the job appraisal interview being an open dialogue between equal partners, is one major point. Related to that, many companies highlight the challenge of how to bridge between overall strategy and values on the one hand, and the job appraisal interview on the other. This is very interesting, as many companies state at the same time, that the Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 7 Helle Kryger Aggerholm, Mona Agerholm Andersen, Birte Asmuβ, Christa Thomsen bridge between overall strategy and the single conversational encounter is what they see as one of the main aims of the job appraisal interviews. Another interesting outcome of the qualitative aspects of the survey deals with the way the companies themselves entitle job appraisal interviews. Here, the choice of terminology might be seen as an indication of how job appraisal interviews actually are intended to be used in the company. Five different groups could be identified. There are the traditional ones that use terms that are variations of the political correct version of job appraisal interviews in Danish (note: the official term in Denmark is “medarbejderudviklingssamtaler”- in English: employee development conversations). Here, terms like Personnel Conversations, Yearly Employee Conversations, and Employee Conversations are mentioned. There is a second group that chooses a clear focus on aspects of development. Here, terms like Employee Development Dialogue, Personal Development Planning (PDP), Individual Development Planning, and Personal Development Interview (PDI are mentioned. In a third group, the focus moves from aspects of development to aspects of knowledge (KIP-conversations, KIP=Knowledge, Insight, Perspectives, in Danish this is: VIP-samtaler (Viden Indsigt Perspektiv)). In the last group, the focus is on what kind of conversation is intended, namely a dialogue, an interview or a pure conversation. Here terms like Dialogue Conversations, Employee Development Dialogue, and Personal Development Interview can be mentioned. At last there is a rather diverse group that by using an alternative terminology tries to outline new ways for the traditional concept of job appraisal interviews, like: Goals, Performance and Appraisal; Expectation Negotiation Conversations (in Danish: forventningsafstemnings-samtale); Feedback Performance Management Process. In sum, the different terminology indicates that even though job appraisal interviews are a well-developed and long-existing form of management conversation, it is a management conversation that is constantly on its way to be adjusted to meet the needs of the company and society. Discussion The study on job appraisal interviews has shown that this type of management conversation is a well-established one conducted by most Danish companies. The study also indicates that job appraisal interviews are supposed to fulfill a variety of needs: they have to ensure employee development and hence employee satisfaction, they are the places, where strategy should be personalized through the encounter between the manager and the subordinate and relational aspects between the manager and the subordinate come into play here. Companies are aware of the relevance of these different aspects for the interview, but the study clearly indicates that the companies are unsure about how precisely to implement these aspects in the job appraisal interview itself. Sickness leave conversations The sickness leave conversation was developed in Denmark in the middle of the 1990s on the initiative of public authorities, trade unions and others (Pedersen et al., 2000), and it is used voluntarily today by big Danish companies who have felt a slight pressure to take a social responsibility. This development can be seen as a need for companies to establish and maintain good relations to their stakeholders (Freeman, 1984). In this light, the sickness leave conversation can be seen not only as a personnel political tool but also as a socially responsible activity and a stakeholder dialogue. Until now, the roundtable sickness leave conversation has only been treated in the practice literature where it is described as a meeting where a sick employee or an employee with complex health problems discusses his situation with the employer and other involved 8 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Conversations in Management: Results from a Danish Survey Study 1 persons (see for example www.virk.dk, www.via2000.dk , Pedersen et al., 2000). Our study seems to indicate that this definition is not sufficient (see also Thomsen, forthcoming.). Only 19 (out of 70) companies conduct sickness leave conversations. Hence, this form of conversation is the kind of management conversation, that is used less in Danish companies. 14 respondents (out of 19) say that the roundtable sickness leave conversation has high – or some – priority in comparison with an ordinary sickness leave conversation. Due to the small amount of answers, the numbers in this section will refer to the actual amount of answers instead of referring to the percentage, like in the other sections of the study. Participants There are many other participants in the roundtable sickness leave conversation than the person who it concerns, i.e. the employee. 17 respondents (out of 19) indicate that the nearest leader always or almost always participates in this type of conversation. 9 say that it is the personnel manager or the HR-manager who always or almost always represents the company. In some situations, the employee is supported by the representative of the personnel. 10 respondents say that the representative of the personnel always or often participates in the conversation. 7 say that this representative seldom or never participates in the conversation. In other situations, the municipal authority participates and is represented by a social adviser. Five respondents say that this is always, or often, the case. By comparison, 11 say that the municipality seldom, or never, participates. The practising doctor participates in rare cases (3), or he never participates (10). 4 respondents say that a neutral consultant sometimes participates in the conversation (4) or always participates in the conversation. 10 say that a neutral consultant never participates in the conversation. Colleagues never participate (9), seldom participate (5) or often participate (1). Others never participate (3), often participate (2) or seldom participate. Our interpretation of the answers regarding the participants in the roundtable sickness leave conversation is that there are many types of roundtable sickness leave conversations, for example the small roundtable sickness leave conversation (employee, nearest leader or HRmanager and consultant or other representing the public authority/municipality) and the big roundtable sickness leave conversation (with many different participants). Purpose Nearly all respondents (17 out of 19) consider the conversation as a job retention tool. Moreover, they see it as a possibility to create a good working environment and ensure good working conditions (15 out of 19). At the same time, they seem to agree (17 out of 19) that the conversation signals that the company gives a high priority to caring for the employees. This means that the respondents consider the sickness leave conversation as a conversation with more than one purpose. Content Our study shows that the roundtable sickness leave conversation is primarily used for different kinds of clarification. Furthermore, its function as a basis for decision is highlighted. 14 respondents out of 19 say that the sickness leave conversation is primarily used for clarification of the resources of the employee, whereas 2 say that the conversation is sometimes used for this purpose. 13 respondents say that the conversation is primarily used for clarification of the desires 1 www.via2000.dk (Danish Information System on Job Retention, Center for Aktiv BeskæftigelsesIndsats, CABI [The Danish National Centre for the Inclusive Labour Market]. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 9 Helle Kryger Aggerholm, Mona Agerholm Andersen, Birte Asmuβ, Christa Thomsen of the employee, and 3 say that the conversation is sometimes used for this purpose. 11 say that the conversation is used for clarification of the expectations of the company, whereas 4 say that this is sometimes the case. 1 says that this is seldom the case. The sickness leave conversation is also used for clarification of legal or insurance questions. 1 respondent says that this is often the case, 5 say that this is sometimes the case, and 10 say that this is only the case in rare cases. Furthermore, the conversation is used for clarification of work environment questions. 5 say that this is often the case, 8 say that this is sometimes the case, and 4 say that this is seldom the case. Finally, the conversation is used for clarification of practical problems. 7 say that this is often the case, 8 say that this is sometimes the case, and 1 says that this is seldom the case. We see that the function of the sickness leave conversation as an open forum for decision-making is highlighted by the respondents. This also shows in the answers to the questions related to the result of the conversation. Here, the respondents paint a picture of a conversation which leads to many different kinds of agreement, for example an agreement on when the employee can begin to work. Twelve respondents say that this is often the case, three say that it is always the case, and one says never; an agreement on new work tasks. 12 respondents say that it is often the case, 3 say that it is rarely the case and 1 says that it is always the case, or an agreement on internal redeployment. 9 respondents say that this is seldom the case, whereas 7 say that it is often the case. The roundtable sickness leave conversation can also lead to an agreement on job change. 10 respondents say that it is rarely the case, whereas 6 say that it is often the case or an agreement on continuing education or further training. 11 respondents say that this is seldom the case, 2 say that it is often the case and 2 say that it is never the case. Other possibilities are to make an agreement on leave of absence. 12 respondents say that this is seldom the case, whereas 2 say that it is never the case or an agreement on special considerations job. 10 respondents say that this is rarely the case whereas 6 say that it is often the case; an agreement on a partial fit-for-duty report is also an option. 9 respondents say that this is often the case, 5 say that it is seldom the case, and 1 says that it is never the case; an agreement on retirement: 12 say that this is seldom the case, 2 say never and 1 says that it is often the case; other agreement: 1 says that this is seldom the case. On the basis of this, we conclude that the roundtable sickness leave conversation seems to be a fairly open conversation or a conversation with many different “outlets”. Much effort seems to be made in order to find a flexible arrangement. The concrete result of the roundtable sickness leave conversation is often a plan. 7 respondents say that this is always the case, 7 say that it is often the case, and 2 say that it is seldom the case. The plan may contain an agreement on a second conversation. 9 respondents say that the first conversation is always followed by a second conversation, 7 say that this is often the case, and 1 says that it is seldom the case. Challenges In the qualitative part of the survey, the respondents indicate that the sickness leave conversation is a challenge to the organization. One of the major challenges is related to the resources of the organization. One respondent says that it is not evident that the organization disposes of sufficient HR and managerial resources to participate in the conversation. Another respondent says that it is not always easy to motivate the nearest leader to take the initiative to these difficult conversations. Some kind of managerial support is crucial for the successful implementation of this type of conversation. A second challenge is related to the relationship between the manager and the employees in general and the sick or absent employee in particular. One respondent says that it is a challenge to persuade the sick or absent employee to participate in the roundtable sickness leave conversation. It is for example very important to signal to the 10 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Conversations in Management: Results from a Danish Survey Study employee that the conversation will be conducted as an open dialogue and that the purpose is to reach a constructive solution for both parts. In this relation, several respondents indicate that honesty and intimacy must be governing concepts in the sickness leave conversation. Only in this way is it possible to get all the facts on the table. The third challenge to the organization highlighted by several respondents is to reach a mutually satisfactory solution, a challenge which is even bigger, when the employee is partly unable to fulfill his obligations or do his job. One respondent explains that this challenge or dilemma consists in "maintaining the business-oriented perspective while at the same time paying attention to human-oriented aspects". The statements of the respondents clearly show that the sickness leave conversation is a challenge to the organization. More precisely, it is a challenge to the organization's profit objectives, moral standards and communication strategy. Discussion points The study on sickness leave conversations has shown that this type of management conversation is not a well-established one. Sickness leave conversations are only conducted by very few Danish companies (19), and there are many different forms or definitions of sickness leave conversations. However, our study also seems to indicate that this form of management conversation will gain greater popularity in the future. Some respondents have indicated that they are on the company program for the year to come. The main challenges are linked to the purpose of the roundtable sickness leave conversation. How to manage for example the interrelatedness between effectiveness and social responsibility or between discipline and care in the actual conversation? Companies are aware of the relevance of this dilemma for the sickness leave conversation, but the study clearly indicates that they are unsure about how precisely to tackle it in the roundtable sickness leave conversation itself. Dismissal conversations When we use the term dismissal conversations in this paper, we refer to unilateral disengagements (Davis, 1973), in which only one party seeks to end the relationship. Opposed to bilateral disengagement, in which both parties desire to end the relationship, the unilateral dismissal may require direct, confrontational, disengagement strategies because these may be attempts to bring the relationship to a “sudden death” (Cox and Kramer 1995). Most writings on the dismissal process are prescriptive works designed to guide managers in their efforts to terminate employees (Coulson, 1981; Granholm, 1991; Sweet 1989), and not a lot of scholarly work has focused on the elements and dynamics of the dismissal conversation in itself. As a result, the majority of the literature within the field is written by and for practitioners with a focus on managing legal requirements and avoiding lawsuits thereby failing to present a theoretically based account of communication during the termination process (Cox and Kramer, 1995). Although some research has investigated the communication in relation to voluntary turnover (Jablin, 1987; Allen, 1996; Scott et al., 1999), little empirical research examines how employers communicate with employees during the dismissal process. However, this part of management communication is extremely relevant, since a dismissal puts the human resource policy of the organisation and managements’ communicative abilities to the test. It is important to ensure coherence with the overall organisational strategies and values, not only in relation to the dismissal conversation in it, but also with regards to the subsequent relation between management and employee. As the employee finds new career paths and time passes, the actual dismissal is Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 11 Helle Kryger Aggerholm, Mona Agerholm Andersen, Birte Asmuβ, Christa Thomsen forgotten. However, the way in which the person is dismissed, is never forgotten accentuating the importance of the dismissal conversation. A unilateral disengagement can be the last resort for various reasons. On one hand, an organisation can find itself compelled to lay off an employee, when it after informal or formal employee counselling, documented employee counselling becomes apparent that the individual either professionally nor personally can or will perform the job in an appropriate manner. On the other hand, the organisation can also be forced to part with employees due to disappointing financial reasons, strategic reorientation, market conditions or poor management (Aggerholm, 2008). It is the last type of dismissal conversation that poses the most management challenges. The logic that binds the strategic management conversations together in the daily life is the mutual perspectives, goals and aspirations in the close relation between manager and employee. The dismissal conversation constitutes a radical disruption of this relation as the perspectives are suddenly opposed as the ways are parted. The dismissal conversation puts not only strains on the redundant employee but also on the manager responsible for conveying the message of termination properly by respecting the employee as well as the corporate image. Participants The companies were asked to state which organisational members generally take part in a dismissal conversation beside the dismissed employee. Of the 44 companies, who indicated that they make formal use of this type of conversation, 91 percent indicated that the closest manager is present, while an HR consultant in 77 percent of the companies always or often participates in the conversation. 32 percent of the respondents indicate that a shop steward is always (13 percent) or often (19 percent) present. Purpose 44 companies (63 percent) arrange formal conversations with employees after a dismissal. Of these, the majority employ this type of conversation as an interpersonal tool focusing on the employee’s emotional reactions as well as his or her cognitive understanding of management’s disengagement decision. As to the emotional elements, 93 percent see the main aim of the conversation as an opportunity for the manager to end the relationship in a decent way, while 83 percent see it as a possibility to handle the emotional reactions of the employee. 73 percent perceive the dismissal conversation as a way of counselling the employee in moving on with his or her working life. With regards to the cognitive dimensions of the conversation, 88 percent see it as an opportunity to clarify and explain the reasons for the dismissal. However, the conversation does not only take on an internal purpose. From a strategic perspective, 75 percent state that the conversation in addition serves an external communicative purpose as the respondents believe that the conversations contribute to the sustention of the corporate image and reputation. Finally, two thirds (66 percent) view the conversation as an opportunity for the manager to enter into dialogue with the employee. Content The responding organisations were asked to weigh the importance of various content issues in a dismissal conversation, and the different subject matters were ranked as follows: justification of the reason for dismissal (86 percent), handling of employee reactions (85 percent), coordination of the remaining employment period after the termination meeting (78 percent), clarification of severance payment and possible compensations (78 percent), termination of employment (76 percent), and counselling with regard to future career paths (63 percent). As to the post-dismissal communication, 15 percent always follow up on the dismissal conversation, 12 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Conversations in Management: Results from a Danish Survey Study while 26 percent often do so. Fifty-two percent of the companies rarely (31 percent), or never (21 percent), offer additional counselling. Challenges In the more qualitative part of the study, the companies were asked to indicate what they see as the most important challenges when handling the dismissal conversation. Their answers can be divided into three overall clusters. The first challenge is the dismissal conversation in itself, which should be characterized by dignity, respect and sympathy. As to the content of the conversation – the second cluster – the responding organisations state the importance of providing careful explanations of the reasons for disengagement and clarifying the relation between the employee and the organisation. Finally, the managerial competences constitute a challenge. The organisations point especially to management’s ability to counsel the disengaged employee, to create confidence, openness and dialogue between the parties, to generate employee understanding as to the disengagement decision, and to retain the dismissed employee between the period of notification and the actual termination of employment. Discussion The above mentioned findings clearly indicate that the responding companies attribute both internal and external relevance to the dismissal conversation since it serves as a tool to clarify and handle the emotional, cognitive and behavioural effects of the disengagement decision in relation to the employee as well as an instrument to sustain the corporate image, identity and reputation. However, the study also shows that there is still room for improvement, since this type of conversation constitutes special challenges as to management’s abilities to communicate a difficult message to the employees in a dignified and respectful way. Conclusions and future research In our study, we have addressed the role of conversations in management. The conversations investigated are: recruitment conversations, job appraisal interviews, sickness leave conversations and dismissal conversations. On the basis of the results of an on-line questionnaire-based survey, the paper has discussed the link between company strategy or values and each type of conversation. In the study, the focus on the participants, the purpose and the content of the different types of conversations reveals that companies face a major strategic challenge. Our study shows that the companies are conscious that the conversations should be used as tools for implementing the company strategy or values. However, it also seems to indicate that the respondents do not always know how to do it. On the one hand, they highlight the influence of the conversation upon the image and reputation of the company. On the other hand, they indicate that the conversations are merely used as a practical tool to attract and retain job candidates and to ensure job satisfaction. Thus, the strategic potential of the conversations as for example employer branding and Corporate Social Responsibility is not fully exploited. Finally, our study shows that the different types of conversations are used in different ways. The focus on employer branding is for example more expressed for recruitment conversations than for the other types of conversations. Our research contributes to the general understanding of communication in organisations and of the difficult link between internal and external communication or between Organisational Identity and Corporate Identity. For the field of Corporate Communication, these results indicate that a stronger focus on the strategic dimension of these conversations is needed, rising questions such as: How do organisations ensure correlation between the various types of management Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 13 Helle Kryger Aggerholm, Mona Agerholm Andersen, Birte Asmuβ, Christa Thomsen conversation? How is it possible to ensure that the various types of conversations are truly linked to the corporate values, strategies, and image? How can a dialogue (based on equality, mutual respect and openness) be achieved in the single conversational encounter? Furthermore, there is a need to build a theoretical framework to sustain and explain the various conversations and their relation. These are aspects we would like to pursue further by conducting qualitative studies of the different forms of conversations. Qualitative studies would include interviews and videotaped ethnography. 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(in press): “Rundbordssamtaler om sygefravær: personalepolitik, social ansvarlighed og strategisk kommunikation” [Sickness leave conversations: personnel policy, social responsibility and strategic communication], in: Interpersonel organisationskommunikation. Aalborg: Aalborg Universitetsforlag [Aalborg University Press]. Homepages: www.via2000.dk (Danish Information System on Job Retention, Center for BeskæftigelsesIndsats, CABI [The Danish National Centre for the Inclusive Labour Market]. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Aktiv 15 Helle Kryger Aggerholm, Mona Agerholm Andersen, Birte Asmuβ, Christa Thomsen 16 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Organizational Communication in Times of Downsizing: An Explorative Study Among Danish Corporations Helle Kryger Aggerholm Centre for Corporate Communication, Aarhus School of Business University of Aarhus, Denmark [email protected] The purpose of this article is to clarify how organizations communicate in times of downsizing. To achieve this, the article offers a review of the extensive literature on downsizing strategies and communication. This provides a preliminary theoretical framework on the nature of organizational communication in times of downsizing. Moreover, an account is provided of an explorative, preliminary study among the 200 largest Danish corporations reporting on their experiences with workforce reductions as well as examining management activities before, during and after downsizing. In addition, from a theoretical perspective, an attempt is made to analyze and explain how the various downsizing activities and strategies in themselves communicate to the remaining employees and how this potentially influences employee motivation and commitment. On the basis of the theoretical and empirical findings, an alternative understanding of organizational communication in relation to downsizing is suggested substituting the traditional functionalistic perspective prevalent in workforce reductions with a broader, constitutive perspective. Reductions in workforces have been a major trend in both the public and private sectors over the past decades. Throughout the years studies have continually demonstrated the popularity of corporate downsizing (Conrad & Poole 1998, Henkoff 1994, Mishra et al. 1998, Schultze 2000). However, in general, the research literature has disclosed a gap between the expected goals of downsizing and what has been achieved. Kabanoff et al. (2000) has analyzed the effect of 300 downsizing events in US companies over a period of eight years, and found that ”downsizing, on average, produces no improvement in firms’ performance relative to their industry or their own performance, except for a short-lived gain in productivity” (2000: 24-25). Furthermore, Burke og Greenglass (2000) found that two-thirds of companies that downsized during the 1980s were behind industry averages on a variety of financial and productivity measures for the 1990s. Consequently, it is appropriate to raise the question why downsizing goes wrong for many companies? And which factors can explain why companies do not achieve the results intended by the workforce reductions? Downsizing constitutes a serious challenge not only to the redundant employees but also to those employees who remain in the organization. Since the future of the company is based on the abilities and well-being of the remaining employees, it makes good sense to secure their commitment, motivation and loyalty. Nevertheless, a range of empirical studies have found that the remaining employees often react negatively to workforce reductions (Brockner 1988, Davy et al. 1991, Jick 1979). A plethora of negative survivor reactions have been identified as emanating from downsizing, including stress and fatigue, dissatisfaction with planning and communication, lack of reciprocal commitment, greater resistance to change, reduced risk taking and motivation, absenteeism, reduced loyalty, dissatisfaction, increased uncertainty, lack of retention and lowered job performance (Armstrong-Stassen 1994, Brockner et al. 2004, Burke & Cooper 2000, Kozlowski et al. 1993, Noer 2000, Robbins 1999, Tourish & Hargie 2004). A vast amount of practitioner-oriented literature has been published, advising managers on how best to approach downsizing (Cameron et al. 1991, Cameron 1994, Feldman & Leana Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 17 Helle Kryger Aggerholm 1994, Heenan 1991). Underpinning much of the discussion is the assumption that most organizations have failed to adequately address the people factor in their dealings with survivors (Appelbaum et al. 1999, Tourish & Hargie 2004), raising the question whether management communication strategies may be able to eliminate or at least reduce the above-mentioned destructive consequences. Several scholars point to the survivor perception of justice as having decisive influence on their subsequent attitudes and behaviour (Brockner et al. 1995, Brockner 2002, Gopinath 2000, Monippally 2003, Sahdev 2004). Increased communication efforts as well as employee involvement in all aspects of the implementation process seem to have a significant effect on survivors’ feelings of justice (Brockner et al. 1990, Greenberg, 1987; Murphy 1994, Rousseau & Anton, 1988, Tyler & Becker, 1990). Unambiguous and distinctly communicated reasons for the unavoidability of downsizing (Feldman 1989), a dignified treatment of the redundant employees as well as the creation of a fair downsizing procedure are all essential elements for retainment of survivors’ trust and faith in management and the organization (Mishra & Spreitzer 1998). Theoretical Framework Although a substantial literature on downsizing has accumulated over the last decades, much of what is known is based on organizational experience, thus, making the bulk of our knowledge descriptive of the normative mechanisms used by organizations to downsize and prescriptive as to how reductions should be accomplished. The body of literature, therefore, has several limitations, especially from an organizational communication perspective. Firstly, downsizing and related phenomena such as communication are often not clearly distinguished. Much of the practitioner literature seems to assume that destructive organizational initiatives can be salvaged by the skilled use of communication messages to engineer internal support. The assumption is that there are no unpalatable messages, just poor communication strategies. Secondly, as mentioned above, the literature is largely descriptive and prescriptive in nature, often in the absence of a sound research foundation. Finally, downsizing theory and research has tended to compartmentalize the phenomenon fragmenting it by different levels of conceptualization, time-frames, and content areas. There is a need for a more comprehensive, integrated perspective on the phenomenon and its effect. Employee reductions are an inevitable part of running a business and should be perceived as a natural and integrated part of human relations management. However, downsizing constitutes a great organizational challenge to both the downsized employees, survivors and management. Consequently, regardless of the motives, targets and strategies of downsizing it is paramount that the organization thoroughly contemplate the process and its communicative implications for the entire organization (Appelbaum & Donia 2001, Tourish & Hargie 2004). The prevalent conceptualization of communication within the field of downsizing is managerial biased seeing communication largely a mediating device between management intentions on the one hand and their execution on the other (Appelbaum & Donia 2001, Beam 1997, Brockner 1992). Within this functionalistic, instrumentalist perspective, the moral properties of downsizing, and its psychological consequences, are largely irrelevant. The emphasis is on how particular ends will be reached, while the ends themselves are unquestioned and assumed to be value free (Tourish & Hargie 2004). The intention of this paper is to offer an alternative perspective on communication in relation to downsizing. By examining management communication from a constitutive perspective in which communication is constituent of the organization, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the communicative elements at stake before, during and after employee reductions. Within this understanding managements’ decision 18 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Organizatinal Communication in Times of Downsizing: An Explorative Study Among Danish Corporations to downsize can not be separated from managerial communication since strategy in itself conveys a message to the organizational stakeholders. Consequently, the constitutive perspective represents an interactional understanding of organizational communication in which communication first and foremost is conceived as interpretation of messages and creation of meaning within – and between – the organizational actors (Deetz 2001, Tompkins 1984, Tompkins & Wanca-Thibault 2001). The dialogic properties of the constitutive perspective have a transformative impact on management intentions and fundamental notions of what it means to do business (Deetz 1995a). Communication is regarded as an integral part of the entire organizational operation since it both reflects and shapes the way business is done. It is essential to clearly define and recognize the way in which the paper perceives the concept of downsizing since it has implications for the way in which the communication strategies and content of the communication in relation to downsizing is studied and understood. In most scholarly and practitioner-based work, the definition of the term is based on an ontological realism defining downsizing a deliberate organizational decision to reduce the workforce that is intended to improve organizational performance (Cameron et al. 1991, Freeman 1999, Hardy 1990, Kozlowski et al. 1993). Although organizational decline processes and downsizing actions often are closely associated, decline and downsizing are not isomorphic (Sutton & D’Aunno 1989). The intentional aspect of the organizational response and the objective to improve performance are what commonly distinguishes downsizing from organic decline in a given industry or sector (McKinley et al. 2000). Downsizing may occur in the absence of overt decline processes making it an anticipatory strategic response designed to realign the organization and improve performance in advance of conditions antecedent to decline (Kozlowski et al. 1993) in which case the downsizing strategy is termed proactive opposed to reactive. Downsizing initiatives, which are proactive in nature, are often used with a long-term strategic view. Opposite, reactive downsizing is conducted without concern for process and outcome consistency with business strategy, mission, and goals, or with requisite organizational culture and values. It is more typically associated with immediate short-term efforts at cost containment (Kozlowski et al. 1993) Alternatively, from an ontological perspective of nominalism, downsizing could be defined as the management, planning and execution of dialogical communication processes and activities in relation to different publics, stakeholders and target groups with an aim to intentionally reduce the number of people in the organization. Downsizing contains elements of power, politics and strategy as well as creation of new meaning, and reflects the culture and values within the organization. By understanding downsizing from the latter perspective, it becomes increasingly in sync with the constitutive understanding of organizational communication and the ‘linguistic turn’ (Deetz 2003) by providing a more critical understanding of downsizing and seeing discourse used by management and employees as the specific way the world is produced. In his reclamation of the ‘linguistic turn’, Deetz (1995b, 2003) criticizes contemporary research for applying simplistic communication models “rather than participatory interaction processes where openly conflictual social formation can occur, producing both voice and inventive ways of living together” (2003: 426). By adhering to the constitutive perspective and thereby claiming that everything is communication, it is relevant to study how companies handle the various elements of the downsizing process in relation to the remaining employees, and try to map out the level of organizational consciousness as to the messages communicated through the choice of downsizing strategies and decisions. Constituting the initial part of a PhD project, which aims at understanding the discoursive moves of management and remaining employees in relation to downsizing as well as the perception and interpretation of communication, and ultimately, its effects on employees’ Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 19 Helle Kryger Aggerholm motivation, commitment and ability to identify with the organization, the intent of this paper is to provide an alternative, broader understanding of organizational communication in relation to downsizing. Based on an explorative, preliminary study among the 200 largest Danish corporations, the paper has the following main goals: a) To record the experiences of Danish companies with workforce reductions b) To examine which management activities take place before, during and after downsizing c) To analyze from a theoretical perspective how the various downsizing activities and strategies in themselves constitute messages to the remaining employees and how these potentially affect employee motivation and commitment Methodology To address the research questions, an online questionnaire survey has been carried out among the 200 largest corporations in Denmark in November 2007. The sample frame has been derived from the 2006 edition of the Børsen 500, a comprehensive listing of the largest Danish corporations based on annual accounts, and detailing turnover, net income, net capital, net profit ration and total number of employees. Of a total of 200 corporations, 33 are holding companies with no employees, and as a result these have been eliminated from the sample leaving thereby a total of 167 companies. Of these, 71 firms have answered and returned the questionnaire equating to a response rate of 42 percent. 49 percent of the responding companies have experienced larger downsizing within the last five years (see table 1). TABLE 1 – Study Firms Number of firms 167 Number of respondents Number of downsized respondents 71 Sample as a percentage of firms in sample frame 35 49% A total of 28 questions have been distributed in four parts: a) general questions aiming at generating a respondent profile, b) description of workforce reductions with the purpose of gaining information on aims, frequency and extent of the reductions as well as insight into how organizations understand downsizing as a strategic tool, c) downsizing strategy covering identification strategies, implementation strategies, downsizing policies and the perceived effects on survivors, d) organizational communication in relation to downsizing as a way of generating knowledge on the organizational thoughts and intentions that underlie the communication in relation to the reductions. The focus of these questions is mainly on the communication with the surviving employees. Four of the survey questions are open-ended. In the treatment of these data, all answers have been closely read to identify talk relating to communication in relation to downsizing on basis of which rough categories have been generated. As Kvale (1997) instructs, this stage includes meaning condensation and coding, thereby generating abstract meanings from specific statements. Key Findings and Discussion Danish companies’ experiences with workforce reductions 20 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Organizatinal Communication in Times of Downsizing: An Explorative Study Among Danish Corporations In accordance with previous studies (Henkoff 1994, Mishra et al. 1998), this survey supports the notion that one downsizing event seldom comes alone. Over half of the respondents (57 percent) indicate that they have experienced more than one workforce reduction within the last five years. One company has even experienced downsizing more than 10 times! 97 percent of the responding companies see the workforce reductions as part of a long-term corporate strategy while 80 percent of the companies perceive downsizing as a necessary tool to improve their longterm results. Accordingly, the study indicates that the majority of the companies use downsizing as a proactive, strategic tool to optimize the organization. The greater part of the companies (51 percent) take on diligent planning and give it careful considerations before embarking on the reduction process having a downsizing policy or general plan for handling downsizing. As to the extent of the reductions, 43 percent of the responding organizations have downsized less than 5 percent of the employees, while 57 percent of the companies have downsized more than 5 percent of the employees. 34 percent have downsized between 5-10 percent, while 9 percent have downsized between 11-15 percent of the workforce. 6 percent have cut back more than 30 percent of the employees. The primary reasons for downsizing have been strategic reorientation (68 percent), market conditions (45 percent), and disappointing financial results (29 percent). Only 10 percent of the respondents imputed the necessity to downsize to bad management. Among motivation scholars there is widespread consent of the remaining employees’ need to receive an explanation of the rationale behind the decision to downsize or an account of the reasons (Brockner et al. 1990, Feldman 1989, Folger & Skarlicki 1999, Steers & Porter 1991). An insufficient or absent explanation of the underlying reasons sends a message to the employees that they are considered to be insignificant and not deservant of respect. Contrary, to give the employees a careful and detailed account of the reasons behind the decision give them a sense of procedural and interactional justice (Bies & Shapiro 1987, Brockner et al. 1990, Gopinath & Becker 2000, Rousseau & Anton 1988) which ultimately affects their motivation positively. Uncertainty and the need for information can also occur if the reductions are unexpected and contradicts with employee expectations in the light of organizational culture and previous management practices (Pyszczynski & Greenberg 1981, Wong & Weiner 1981). In addition, if the reductions appear avoidable in the minds of the survivors, their legitimacy will be questioned, which can create uncertainty as to the future management of the company (Brockner et al. 1990). Communication or lack of communication communicates something in itself and impacts employees’ perception and acceptance of management decisions. The focus of the responding companies when communicating with the remaining employees is listed in table 2 below. TABLE 2: Focus of communication with remaining employees In the communication with the remaining employees organizations focuses on: Reasons for downsizing 74 percent Competitive situation of the organization 60 percent Company visions 57 percent Role and importance of the remaining employees in the new organizations 57 percent Implementation of new strategic initiatives 54 percent Financial situation of the corporation 40 percent Criteria for identifying redundant employees 20 percent Risk of future reductions 17 percent Career opportunities 14 percent Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 21 Helle Kryger Aggerholm The study shows that 74 percent of the responding companies attach special importance to communicating the reasons behind the reductions to the remaining employees. Of these, 36 percent state a need for cost reductions, 27 percent attribute reductions to implementation of a new strategy, 27 percent substantiate it with changes in the organizational structure, and 9 percent state financial difficulties as the reason for downsizing. Eighty-eight percent of the respondents indicate that downsizing influences the motivation of the remaining employees while 59 percent recognize that employee commitment is affected. 53 percent of the companies say that downsizing affects employees’ trust in management, 25 percent believe that employee loyalty suffers during periods of downsizing, while 28 percent indicate that reduction strategies affect management trustworthiness. 50 percent indicate that downsizing influences employee satisfaction. Consequently, there seems to be a legitimate organizational problem and its solution is paramount in order for the companies to achieve the long-term goals which are the objective of the downsizing in the first place. Target identification Organizational decisions regarding target identification range from haphazard and essentially unmanaged reductions to intentional selection of specific employee segments of the organization to be downsized (Kozlowski et al. 1993). Short term interests in cost savings and time constraints may lead to reductions that are implemented rapidly and dictated by poorly articulated criteria (Kolcum 1988). Only 9 percent of the respondents employed what can be termed across-the-board reductions without specific targeting. Of these, 33 percent of the companies applied an aross-the-board cut based on seniority using a ‘last-in/first-out’ approach, while 67 percent spread cutbacks across the organization, which is often regarded as a means of maintaining a sense of equity among employees (Brockner 1988) Downsizing may also involve targeting geographic locations such as regions or countries (Fox & Krausz 1987) or specific sites such as plants or headquarters (Heenan 1989). Although locations may be targeted through the use of complex decision criteria, in practice they are often selected in an effort to generate immediate cost savings with little consideration of the long-term implications for the organization (Hardy 1990). 17 percent of the organizations used location as a selection criteria. The identification of specific levels, functions, departments, or positions is assumed to be associated with more careful planning and evaluation. An organization with long-term objectives and well-articulated decision criteria is likely to be more judicious in its selection of downsizing targets. The majority of the responding organizations employed a segmentation strategy to target the reductions. 83 percent used employee competencies as decision criteria while 74 percent targeted the employees according to their function within the company. Only 3 percent used the employee position within the organizational hierarchy as identification. Lastly, 40 percent of the companies used personal characteristics of the individual employee such as personality (31 percent) and age (9 percent) to target the redundant employees. These results indicate that the organizations target specific segments in accordance with strategic objectives and related criteria such as inefficiency, redundancy, or obsolescence, and as a result, the targeting seems to be given careful consideration by management. However, the interesting question is whether the employees also perceive the selection criteria as well-reasoned since lack of understanding of the strategy behind the target identification affects the employees’ perception of procedural and distributive justice (Bies & Shapiro 1987, Brockner 1990, Cobb et al. 1995, Folger & Skarlicki 1999, Piderit 2000, Rousseau & Anton 1988, Tyler 1990). So consciously a part of management communication or not, the management choice of 22 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Organizatinal Communication in Times of Downsizing: An Explorative Study Among Danish Corporations identification strategy convey a certain message to the rest of the organization. The study shows that only 20 percent of the organizations communicate the selection criteria to the remaining employees. Implementation strategies The strategies for implementing downsizing may be selected according to welldeveloped, multidimensional criteria (Kozlowski et al. 1991) or to simple criteria based on narrowly considered economic issues (Hardy 1987). Greenhalgh et al. (1988) propose that the various downsizing strategies can be arranged in a hierarchy to reflect the trade-offs between maintaining employee well-being and maximizing short-term cost savings for the organization (see figure 1). Downsizing without assistance 26 % Maximizing short-term cost savings Downsizing with assistance 89 % Involuntary deployment 51 % Induced redeployment 74 % Natural attrition 80 % Maintaining employee well-being + long-term cost savings FIGURE 1: The companies’ use of downsizing strategies as a trade-off between employee well-being and short-term cost savings Natural attrition offers the greatest preservation of employee well-being and the least short-term savings. It involves the natural process of employee flows entering and exiting the organization (Kozlowski et al. 1993). Of the responding organizations, 80 percent employ this strategy, while 74 percent use an induced redeployment strategy encouraging employees to comply voluntarily by the offering of financial incentives to facilitate early retirement. The involuntary deployment strategy, which is more focused on short-term cost savings and includes transfer to different job or location, demotion or job downgrading or reduced work schedules, is applied by 51 percent of the organizations. The last two strategies in the hierarchy involve regular layoffs. In 89 percent of the responding organizations employees are laid-off, but offered assistance in adjusting to the termination. Assistance may include outplacement, psychological counselling and vocational retraining. The most drastic method of downsizing is layoff without any assistance, which is employed by 26 percent of the companies. The severe downsizing strategies focusing on short-term cost savings may have unintended effects on survivors, including decreased morale and commitment, and increased stress and turnover (Hardy 1990), as Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 23 Helle Kryger Aggerholm it sends a message to the employees that their well-being is less important than quick-fix cost savings. As a result, the choice of implementation strategy in itself sends a management message to the internal stakeholders. However, the study clearly indicates that most of the responding organizations use multiple downsizing strategies in order to also ensure employee well-being. Especially the employment of natural attrition and induced redeployment indicate that the organizations are conscious of the negative effects of regular layoffs and their associated messages. Furthermore, the high percentage of companies who offer assistance to downsized employees indicates an awareness of CSR; the notion that the organizations feel an ethical responsibility to help the downsized employees to move on. The CSR-oriented implementation strategies also send an internal signal as to the organizational ability to demonstrate social responsibility such as respect, empathy and dignity, ability to listen to employee worries and explain the reasons for downsizing, having an impact on the feeling of interactional justice among the remaining employees. Bensimon (1994) has proven that dissatisfied employees can get violent as a response to workforce reductions. However, they do not react violently because of degradations or layoffs, but because the entire process in their perception has been humanly degrading. Organizational communication in relation to downsizing Both scholars and practioners (Mishra et al. 1998, Tourish & Hargie 2004, Wachtel 2003) have pointed to management communication as decisive for the remaining employees’ ability to feel a sense of control for their future and faith in management’s capability to change the current situation. When trying to minimize employee uncertainty, management communication plays a vital role. Of the companies, 88 percent state that they have tried to remedy fear of future reductions among the remaining employees through conscious efforts. By categorizing and coding 24 answers given to the open-ended questions “what has the organization done to alleviate the uncertainty of further reductions among the remaining employees?”, three overall clusters of communication strategies appeared; value-focused, content-focused, actionfocused. Examples of the categorization strategy are given in table 3 below: TABLE 3: Examples of the applied categorization strategy What has the organization done to alleviate the remaining employees? Statement Presentation of the corporate strategy and implemented undertakings at dialogue meetings. However, nothing is guaranteed Maintaining a continuous dialogue with the employees explaining developments through honest statements. It creates managerial trustworthiness to have an open, frequent and honest dialogue continuously reassuring the employees that the company aims at improving the market value of every employee. By communicating honestly and answering their questions Creation of new and more transparent organizational structure 24 uncertainty of further reductions among the Categorization of rhetorical strategies Content-focused Content-focused Value-focused Value-focused Action-focused Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Organizatinal Communication in Times of Downsizing: An Explorative Study Among Danish Corporations Some organizations apply only one strategy, while others combine several. Seventeen companies use only content-focused communication, while four organizations convey certainty by use of values. Three companies indicate that they apply content-focused as well as value-focused communication. None of the respondents make independent use of the action-focused strategy. One organization focuses both on content-driven messages and organizational actions, while one company applies all three strategies in its attempt to reduce uncertainty. However, the companies’ indication of actions as communicating to the remaining employees in terms of conveying reassurance, support the assumption of communication as constitutive for the organizations. The organizational use of the three communication strategies are distributed according to figure 2 below. FIGURE 2: Overall communication clusters Valuebased 4 3 1 1 Actionbased strategies 17 Contentbased strategies Subsequently, a coding of the various categories hs been conducted. Within the content based cluster, six different content strategies emerged: re-assurance, no guarantees, current state of affair, individual employee focus, look-ahead to the future, the past. Examples of the coding process are given below in table 4. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 25 Helle Kryger Aggerholm TABLE 4: Examples of the coding process of the content-based cluster What has the organization done to alleviate the uncertainty of further reductions among the remaining employees? Content-focused statements Coding Presentation of the corporate strategy and implemented Look-ahead to the future undertakings at dialogue meetings. However, nothing is Current state of affair guaranteed No guarantees Continuous dialogue with the employees explaining developments [and] continuously reassuring the employees that the company aims at improving the market value of every employee. Explanation of the reasons for downsizing By communicating to the employees that there will be no further downsizing, and that future reductions will occur through natural attrition Current state of affair Focus on the individual employee The past Re-assurance Within the value-based cluster, four different strategies emerged: openness, honesty, trustworthiness and respect. Honesty is the most frequent value applied by the organizations. Examples of the categorization process are given below in table 5. TABLE 5: Examples of the coding process of the value-based cluster What has the organization done to alleviate the uncertainty of further reductions among the remaining employees? Value-focused statements Coding Continuous dialogue with the employees explaining Honesty developments through honest statements. It creates Trustworthiness managerial trustworthiness to have an open, frequent and Openness honest dialogue continuously reassuring the employees that the company aims at improving the market value of every employee. By communicating honestly and answering their questions Honesty By communicating visions and plans clearly and honestly. Respect We take our employees seriously, and believe that they are just as smart as management. This approach takes us a long way… Concluding Comments On the basis of the results of the study, the paper suggests a new and broader conceptualization of organizational communication in relation to downsizing. This research raises a number of interesting issues to be taken into account when studying organizational communication in times of downsizing. The findings from the present study indicate the importance of considering all the management activities in relation to downsizing and incorporating these consciously in the dialogue between management and remaining employees, since employee perception and interpretation of the downsizing strategy, ultimately, can influence the expected results of the very same strategy. Traditionally, downsizing is viewed from a narrow, functionalistic perspective as an unpleasant, isolated event in which workforce reductions are seen as a reactive or proactive 26 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Organizatinal Communication in Times of Downsizing: An Explorative Study Among Danish Corporations adjustment of the organization after which it returns to business as usual. The communication effort is uni-vocal and considered to be an objective phenomenon controlled by management as a mean to inform the organization about the decision to downsize, the reasons behind the decision, the new strategy, etc., reducing communication to a vehicle for the transmission of facts. On the basis of the presented findings, the paper offers an alternative and broader understanding of organizational communication in times of downsizing where communication is perceived as constitutive for the organization focusing on the interpretation of messages and creation of meaning among the various organizational stakeholders. Communication is made up by social constructions, and is a process, which should focus on the redundant as well as the remaining employees based on their individual cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions to the downsizing decision. It is thereby implied that communication consists of a multi-vocal interdependency. Table 6 lists the characteristics of the two communication perspectives in relation to downsizing. TABLE 6: Two understandings of organizational communication in times of downsizing Narrow, functionalistic perspective Broad, constitutive perspective Organization Focus on organizational structure Workforce reductions Downsizing as an event and objective phenomenon Negative thinking: return to business as usual Functionalistic Focused on facts and information Combined focus on organizational structure and culture Downsizing as a cyclical process and a social construction Positive thinking: organizational learning Constitutive Focused on message interpretation and creation of meaning Receiver orientation, dialogue based on the cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions of all employees/stakeholders. Multi-vocal interdependency Emergent approach Focused on all stakeholders including both the redundant and remaining employees Complex Organizational communication Sender orientation Uni-vocal independency Planned approach Focused on the redundant employees Reductive Future Research The study pinpoints various elements such as downsizing strategies, identifications of employees to be downsized, reasons for downsizing which have communicative implications for the remaining employees’ understanding and acceptance of workforce reductions. The author recognizes, however, that how and why management communication impacts the organizational members from an employee perspective is not apparent. The survey paints a picture of managements’ perception of the organizational communication effort in times of downsizing and as such, it is problematic to read the results as representing the truth, since the study does not capture the employee interpretation and creation of meaning - a paramount element in the constitutive understanding of the organizational communication. Consequently, it would be interesting for future research to investigate and analyse management discourse in times of Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 27 Helle Kryger Aggerholm downsizing as well as provide insight into how employees react discursively to management communication thereby creating an understanding of the communicative dynamics present in the organization. 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(1981). “When people ask “why” questions, and the heuristics of attributional search”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, pp. 650-663 30 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Re-Branding Process: A Preliminary Theoretical Framework Mari Ahonen Department of Marketing, University of Oulu, Finland [email protected] This paper presents a theoretical framework for corporate re-branding as a process. The study suggests that, generally, corporate re-branding has four main phases; analyzing, planning, implementing and evaluating. Each of these phases consists of several sub-processes that might be intertwine, or overlapped, and should not be considered as static. Compared to empirical grounded models published earlier, this framework concentrates especially on describing the processes more theoretically. However, the process description lacks empirical evidence, and it should be tested empirically. The paper presents the current academic knowledge on corporate re-branding, offers preliminary framework for the corporate rebranding process, and suggests, conclusions and further studies. In discussions of corporate branding with a CEO and a manager of a small business to business (B2B) company, they revealed plans to change their company’s name. They asked to know about any theoretical descriptions on how corporate name change – or re-branding – happens. Some examples include Daffey and Abratt, 2002; Kaikati, 2003; Daly and Moloney, 2004; Muzellec, 2006. The phenomenon relatively new.. Interestingly, the descriptions are empirically grounded case studies lacking the more general theoretical background. However, to provide an answer for these managers, and this paper offers a theoretical framework on how corporate branding happens. Academic Information on Corporate Rebranding Some descriptions on corporate re-branding as a process have been established. A study of Daffey and Abratt (2002) considering South-African bank and Kaikati’s (2003) description about Accenture’s re-branding are interesting narratives (Langley, 1999) on how these companies executed their re-branding. Another important description is Daly and Moloney’s (2004) description of corporate re-branding framework, which was created on the basis of a case study of Vodafone. Muzellec and Lambkin (2006) have also established an empirically grounded model of the corporate re-branding process concentrating especially on factors affecting re-branding. These studies are important preliminary work in the area. Despite these contributions, the field still lacks a more comprehensive process model that would help understand how corporate re-branding happens. Moreover, there is no comprehensive description of the issues which are changed in the corporate re-branding process. Often corporate re-branding is defined as “the practice of building anew a name representative of a differentiated position in the mind frame of stakeholders and a distinctive identity from competitors” (Muzellec et al., 2003, p. 32) in reference to that only the name is changed in a process. Companies adopting new brand names are frequently reported in the business press but this phenomenon has as yet received little academic attention (Muzellec et. al., 2003). Changing a company’s name suggests the loss of all the values that the old name signifies in an extremely short course of time. This challenges traditional marketing wisdom with regards to corporate brand equity, because changing the brand name nullifies years of effort and Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 31 Mari Ahonen can seriously damage or even destroy the equity of the brand. (Muzellec & Lambkin, 2006.) However, the literature suggests that there are other issues that are included in the corporate rebranding process as well; e.g. logo change, slogan change (Stuart and Muzellec, 2004), and corporate value change (Lomax and Mador, 2006). Corporate rebranding is expensive and timeconsuming (Stuart and Muzellec, 2004), and may include pitfalls (Gotsi and Andriopoulos, 2007) The aim of this paper is to develop a process model of corporate re-branding that accounts for the shortcomings discussed above. A process model of corporate re-branding explains how it happens; how the corporation adopts its new name and what influences the process. Here, process refers to the nature, sequence and order of activities and events (Van de Ven, 1992; Langley, 1999) that a corporation undergoes when it changes its name. Activities and events include the actions and decisions the company takes. In addition, different time scales in the same process and the dynamic nature of processes are considered. Process explanations include, for example, and explication of the overall pattern that generates a series, e.g. when the process develops in three or more stages (Van de Ven and Poole, 1995). The following questions are answered during the journey: What kinds of potential corporate re-branding types and processes can be distinguished? Which factors influence the process? And How can corporate re-branding be described as a process? In building the model, the primary inspiration is drawn from the current literature on corporate re-branding. In addition, literature on corporate name changing, corporate visual identity system and process research for example is examined. A Process Model of Corporate Re-Branding To develop a theoretically sound and practically relevant process theory of corporate rebranding, the research questions presented earlier should be answered. The following is organized around these questions. The types of corporate re-branding Re-branding may occur in different levels in organizations; corporate, business unit, or product level (Muzellec and Lambkin, 2006). Product re-branding is a widely studied area in the marketing discipline, but corporate re-branding is quite a new phenomenon in an academic context. This study concentrates on corporate re-branding only. The literature gives a variety of definitions of what corporate re-branding is and what issues are included in it. Therefore the type of corporate re-branding is examined first. Daly and Moloney (2004) describe that the level of change in corporate brand may include minor, intermediate or complete change. According to them, the minor changes are about aesthetics, and vary from a simple face lift to restyling or revitalizing the brand which may need a change. Intermediate change is about repositioning, and use of marketing tactics, especially communication and customer service techniques to favorably reposition an existing brand name, thus giving it a new image. In complete change, the name is new to stakeholders and they do not know what the brand stands for. Values and image of the new brand are communicated to all stakeholders through an integrated marketing communications campaign. Daly and Moloney (2004) call complete change rebranding. Stuart and Muzellec (2004) suggest a continuum of corporate rebranding varying from evolutionary changes in slogan or logo only, to revolutionary change incorporating the elements of name, logo and slogan. They suggest that the types of changes made by corporate re-branders fall into three categories; name, logo, and slogan change. They suggest that permutations possible 32 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Re-Branding Process: A Preliminary Theoretical Framework are a) name and logo, b) name, logo and slogan, c) logo only, d) logo and slogan, e) slogan only. They do not clarify why name only cannot change. According to them, change in only one of the elements will result in evolutionary change to the brand, whereas changing name, logo and slogan simultaneously will cause revolutionary change. Muzellec & Lambkin (2006) suggest that corporate re-branding occurs either in an evolutionary or revolutionary manner. Evolutionary rebranding describes a fairly minor development in the company’s positioning and aesthetics that is so gradual that it is hardly perceptible to outside observers. Revolutionary rebranding describes a major, identifiable change in positioning and aesthetics that fundamentally redefines the company. According to them, this change is usually symbolized by a change of name. Lomax and Mador (2006) present a typology of branding choices on the basis of whether the name will be existing or new, and whether brand values and attributes (v&a) will be existing or new. They describe the options as re-iterating (existing name – existing v&a), re-defining (existing name – new v&a), re-naming (new name – existing v&a), and re-starting (new name – new v&a). In re-iterating, name and values are congruent and address client needs. In re-defining, values and attributes are changed to meet either external or internal identified concerns. If nothing is changed they are congruent and address client needs. If both are new, it is re-starting. All in all, corporate re-branding may vary from minor, evolutionary changes in position and aesthetics to revolutionary changes in corporate name, values, attributes and positioning. Factors affecting corporate re-branding The main drivers for corporate re-branding are decisions, events or processes causing a change in a company’s structure, strategy or performance of sufficient magnitude to suggest the need for a fundamental redefinition of its identity. Reasons for corporate re-branding include change in ownership structure (mergers & acquistions, spin-offs, private to public ownership, sponsorship), corporate strategy (diversification and divestment, internationalization and localization), competitive position (erosion of market position, outdated image, reputation problems) and in external environment (legal obligation, major crises or catastrophes). (Muzellec and Lambkin, 2006.) These drivers and reasons refer especially to corporate name change, but most of them can be considered as drivers and reasons for logo, slogan or value change. It is suggested in the literature that a change of name is unlikely to occur if the organization itself has not changed (Muzellec and Lambkin, 2006). In other words, re-branding itself is a message that something has changed in an organization (Stuart and Muzellec, 2004; Lomax and Mador, 2006). Phases in corporate re-branding process Theory development in this paper is based on two major sources: Daly and Moloney’s (2004) and Muzellec and Lambkin’s (2006) descriptions of corporate re-branding. Daly and Moloney (2004) suggest that the corporate re-branding process has the following stages: precampaign situation analysis, stage one: partnership campaign, stage two: vision and values, stage three: interim/dual branding (brand naming), stage four: pre-launch, and stage five: launch. Furthermore, they describe the phases of analysis, planning and evaluation (Daly and Moloney, 2004). Muzellec and Lambkin (2006), in contrast, concentrate especially on driving forces and reasons for corporate re-branding, but also suggest a model of the re-branding process. In their model, re-branding factors lead to the formulation of re-branding goals which reflect a new Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 33 Mari Ahonen identity and create a new image. An actual re-branding process begins after these phases including internalization (employees’ culture) and externalization (stakeholders’ images). In addition to these contributions Kaikati (2003) suggest that re-branding consists of rebranding, re-structuring and re-positioning, but does not define any of these. Muzellec et al. (2003), on the other hand, suggest that rebranding consists of re-positioning, re-naming, redesigning and re-launching. Re-positioning is often considered as an objective-setting phase (Daly and Moloney, 2003) where decisions are taken to try to create a radically new position in the minds of its customers, competitors and other stakeholders (Kotler and Keller, 2006; Keller, 2008). Re-naming or name changing is the most discussed issue in corporate re-branding studies. The brand name is the core indicator of the brand. It is the basis for awareness and communications. It is a medium by which a corporation sends signals about corporate identity to stakeholders, and the brand image results from the decoding of those signals by the receiver. (Daly and Moloney, 2003.) Choosing a name is not an easy task. Muzellec (2006) presented different kinds of corporate name types: descriptive, geographic, patronymic, acronym, associative and freestanding. There are alternative routes – or processes – to choose corporate name (Kohli and LaBahn, 1997; Kollmann and Suckow, 2007), and employee participation in name development is suggested (Kollmann and Suckow, 2007; Lomax and Mador, 2006). In redesigning, the aesthetics of a corporatation are changed (Daly and Moloney, 2003). Here it is suggested that the redesigning phase could include all corporate visual identity system (CVIS) (e.g. Baker and Balmer, 1997; Van den Bosch et al., 2005; Van den Bosch et al., 2006). CVIS plays a significant role in the way an organization presents itself to both internal and external stakeholders. It expresses the values and ambitions of an organization, its business, and its characteristics. Key elements of a CVI are the corporate name, logo, color palette, font type, and a corporate slogan, and tagline and/or descriptor. These can be applied, for instance on stationery, printed matter, advertisements, websites, vehicles, buildings, interiors, and corporate clothing (Van den Bosch et al., 2006). Even though corporate name is mentioned at this phase as well, here it differs from corporate re-naming. Re-naming is a process in which a new name is chosen, and at this phase, a visual layout of the new corporate name is created. Re-launching is mainly about communicating the new brand to the stakeholders. On the basis of these, a proposition for a process description of corporate re-branding is presented in Figure 1. Rather than trying to explain causalities, the process is seen as a complexity of events, the need to account for temporal connections among events, different time scales in the same process, and the dynamic nature of processes including, for example, the explication of the overall pattern that generates a series, e.g. when the process develops in three or more stages (Van de Ven and Poole, 2005). The model distinguishes four main phases (analyzing, planning, implementation and evaluation) in the process. The process is described here from a corporate perspective. The process may include several actors in and outside the corporation. It should be noted that the phases might be intertwined or overlapping, and do not necessarily follow each other in this order. Furthermore, the phases are seen as consisting of several sub-processes, which include several phases and can be intertwined or overlapping in a sequence of time. 34 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Re-Branding Process: A Preliminary Theoretical Framework Antecedents Driving forces behind re-branding Analyzing Decisions, events or processes causing a change Corporate re-branding decisions Stakeholders Re-positioning, re-naming, re-structuring, re-designing Re-launching Internally and externally The outcome The new corporate brand Planning Implementation Evaluation Impact FIGURE 1: A preliminary framework for the corporate re-branding process Analyzing is the first phase of the process. It includes analyzing antecedents of the current situation and the driving forces behind re-branding, including decisions, events or processes causing a change in a company’s structure, strategy, or performance (Muzellec and Lambkin, 2006; Lomax and Mador, 2006). Planning is seen here as a wide phase including several decisions and consisting of several sub-processes of re-positioning, re-naming, re-structuring and re-designing the company before the new corporate brand is launched. In addition, the decisions in this phase include in which level – corporate, business unit or product level – in the company the re-branding will be executed (Muzellec and Lambkin, 2006), and whether the change will be minor or major in nature (Daly and Moloney, 2004; Lomax and Mador, 2006; Muzellec and Lambkin, 2006). At this stage, stakeholders, like customers and employees, might be important sources e.g. for pretesting or even developing a logo or a new name. Implementation includes the re-launching of the new corporate brand planned before. Launching the new brand is a twofold area including launching first for internal stakeholders and after that for external stakeholders (Gotsi & Andriopoulos, 2007). Daly and Moloney (2003) suggest that internally the brand can be introduced through internal brochures, newspapers, annual meetings, workshops or intranet. To external stakeholders the new brand can be communicated through press releases and advertising. In corporate re-branding, planning and pretesting should be considered carefully, because launching a new name and CVIS is an expensive operation. Evaluation includes measuring the success or failure of the process. Measuring is difficult, and therefore it is suggested that corporate re-branding should be evaluated with regards of its initial goals (Stuart and Muzellec, 2004). Kaikati (2003) suggests monitoring and tracking reactions periodically. At its best, evaluation covers all the phases of the process. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 35 Mari Ahonen Corporate rebranding necessitates synergy between marketing, human resource management and strategy (Hatch & Schultz, 2003). Context determines the involvement of different stakeholder groups in the process. Staff, customer and agency involvement at varying levels are found. Agencies help especially with communications, advertising, media buying and/or in new brand development. Often the process is more complex and time consuming than the companies anticipate. (Lomax and Mador, 2006.) In addition, the phases are more or less intertwined and overlapped. Even though corporate re-branding is an issue which is conducted in several levels in organization and it is assumed that the corporate re-branding process is purposeful and adaptive in interaction with several actors, here the phenomenon is described from the perspective of the internal development of a single organizational entity, a company. For corporate re-branding an envisioned end stage is formulated, and in an organization actions for reaching the goal are taken (Van de Ven, 1992). In addition, it is suggested that the process is seen as a repetitive sequence of goal formulation, implementation, evaluation, and modification of goals based on what was learned during the process (Van de Ven and Poole, 1995). In so doing, the process description leans towards life cycle and teleological process theories. As suggested earlier, there are different types of re-branding that corporations may execute. Therefore, it is assumed that corporate re-branding may be conducted in several ways. A general model of corporate re-branding aims to consider all these situations. Conclusions and Further Studies Because the current literature lacks a general model of corporate re-branding, this paper concentrated on creating a preliminary theoretical framework for corporate re-branding as a process. The study revealed that corporate re-branding may occur in different levels in organizations; corporate, business unit, or product level, and vary from minor, evolutionary changes in position and aesthetics to revolutionary changes in corporate name, values, attributes and positioning. The main drivers for corporate re-branding are decisions, events or processes causing a change in a company’s structure, strategy or performance. Reasons for corporate rebranding include change in ownership structure, corporate strategy, competitive position and in external environment. On the basis of some earlier corporate re-branding studies and literature on topics such as corporate name changing, corporate visual identity system and process research, the study suggests that corporate re-branding in general consists of four phases; analyzing, planning, implementing and evaluation. In more detail, the analyzing phase includes antecedents and driving forces behind re-branding. The planning phase includes decisions about corporate repositioning, re-naming, re-structuring and re-designing. The implementation phase consists of launching the new corporate brand both internally and externally. The analyzing phase includes measuring and analyzing the success of the re-branding process. All the phases are intertwined and overlap one another.. In addition, all these phases are seen as sub-processes. For example, renaming is a process in itself and may consist of alternative routes (Kollmann and Suckow, 2007). The framework is created from the perspective of a corporation. However, it is suggested that corporate brand is co-created in co-operation with employees, customers and other stakeholders rather than being developed purely by a company. The study does not consider whether the corporate re-branding process is expensive or not, and if it is, how expensive and where the costs come from. 36 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Re-Branding Process: A Preliminary Theoretical Framework From practical perspective, the process description may give new insights for managers who are about to convey corporate re-branding issues in their companies. It clarifies that corporate re-branding is a holistic, complex and multilevel issue during which several perspectives, processes, actions and actors need to be taken into the account. During the study some issues worth further study were raised. First, the study suggested that all the phases consist of sub-processes. It would be vital to describe these sub-processes in more detail. Second, because this suggestion is a general description on the basis of previous literature, the process might vary depending on the industry and companies. Therefore the framework needs to be further developed by creating an empirically grounded framework of the phenomenon. The process description can be considered as a preliminary theoretical framework the purpose of which is to guide the empirical data gathering. A useful route could be first to interview managers that have participated in corporate re-branding to find out whether there are inconsistencies in the framework, and after that, validate the framework by executing a survey. Yet, interviews and surveys help only to clarify if and what phases/issues occurred. For understanding how something happens, also real-time observation is needed. (Van de Ven, 1992.) Third, as suggested earlier, the process may vary depending on the type of re-branding. It would be interesting to clarify how the processes vary depending on whether the question is about corporate, business unit, or product re-branding, or whether the change is evolutionary or revolutionary in nature. Finally, the study raised an interesting question. The corporate branding literature suggests that development of corporate brand takes several years. If corporate re-branding can happen overnight, who can say the new name is a brand immediately? References Baker, M.J. & Balmer, J.M.T. (1997), “Visual identity: trappings or substance?”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31, No. 5/6, pp. 366-382. Daffey, A. and Abratt, R. (2002), "Corporate branding in a banking environment", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 87-91. Daly, A. and Moloney, D. (2004), "Managing Corporate Rebranding", Irish Marketing Review, Vol. 17, No. 1/2, pp. 30. Gotsi, M. and Andriopoulos, C. (2007), "Understanding the pitfalls in the corporate rebranding process", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 341 - 355. Hatch, M. J. and Schultz, M. 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(2005), “Alternative approaches for studying organizational change”, Organization Studies, Vol. 26, No. 9, pp. 1377-1404. 38 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employee Identification with Corporate Values within the Danish Windmill Company NEG Micon: A Study of Both Top Management’s View and Employee Perceptions Mona Agerholm Andersen Centre for Corporate Communication, Aarhus School of Business University of Aarhus, Denmark [email protected] This paper presents the findings of a holistic study of the communication processes during a corporate value implementation within the Danish windmill company NEG Micon. This implies firstly a study of the different processes of management’s formulation, construction and communication of the value statement and secondly, how the employees receive the values. The paper illuminates the potential problems that may occur during such a process and offer recommendations for future value implementation efforts in organisations. Organizational Context In February 2002 the employees of the Danish windmill company NEG Micon received a new set of corporate values. They were printed on a poster, which was attached to the internal employee magazine. The idea was that the employees should put the poster on the wall beside their desks and act according to them in their everyday practices. According to top management, the purpose of the new values was to launch a change process towards a new corporate culture within the organization and improve esprit de corps among the employees. Growth and value for our shareholders Our customers’ preferred partner Employees in the centre – as individuals and as a team A sustainable contribution to society Figure 1: NEG Micon group core values 2002. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 39 Mona Agerholm Andersen However, it was not the first time the employees in NEG Micon had been presented to a new set of corporate values with this purpose. The first time was in 1997 when the company merged with Nordtank Energy Group, another Danish windmill company. The second time was in 1999 when NEG Micon faced serious financial crisis that almost lead to the company’s bankruptcy. Due to this, an internal change process was initiated which included the appointment of a new managing director, rounds of dismissals and an internal restructuring of the organisation. In 2001 the organisation still suffered the after-effects of both the merger and the crisis. The merger had caused a divided organisation with groups of “us and them” and the crisis had led to insecurity among the employees because they feared to loose their jobs. In order to strengthen the corporate culture, top management decided to initiate a new internal change process and one of the tools in this process was the introduction of the four new values. In the beginning of 2003, NEG Micon faced another financial crisis which caused new rounds of dismissals and the company still suffered from the crisis when this case study was conducted in autumn 2003. Motivation and Research Purpose Since the 1980s leadership based on values has come to play an important role in organisations. The shared values of an organisation are viewed as an important tool to create commitment, ensure motivation and focus, particularly among the knowledge generation of employees (Pruzan, 1998). In this respect, values are considered to underpin how organisations are operated and organised and form the basis for organisational goals, individual and organisational identity, corporate responsibility and future success of the organisation (Morsing and Pruzan, 2002). In order to create a common understanding among the employees of the organisational goals, value based leadership involves the formulation of an organisation’s vision, mission and value statement (Thyssen, 1997). Within the field of corporate communication there have been some previous studies on internal communication of corporate values, missions and visions (Johansson, 2003; Llewellyn and Harrison, 2006). However, little efforts have been devoted to investigate how employees receive and identify with the values, taking both a study of the value text on a micro level and the organisational context into consideration (Dahl, 1999, Johansson, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a holistic study of the communication processes during the corporate value implementation within the Danish windmill company NEG Micon from 2002 to 2003. I combined analysis of communication at both microand macro levels, which means that I analysed the value text on a micro level and placed this within its organizational context by interviewing management and employees. In this respect both the historical and situational context of the organisation were also considered. Firstly, the aim of the study is to investigate the different processes of managements’ formulation, construction and internal communication of the value statement. Secondly, to analyze which strategies are applied from a discursive point of view in the value statement. Thirdly, how the employees receive, or read, the values on different levels within the organisation. To obtain an in-depth insight into the employees’ readings of the values and their identification with them, this paper also presents a multidimensional reception model. 40 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employee Identification with Corporate Values within Danish Windmill Company NEG Micon A Study of Both Top Management’s View and Employee Perceptions Methodology The data for this paper originate from an empirical case study of NEG Micon, an international Danish windmill company with headquarters in Denmark. In 2001 when the study started, the company had 2,500 employees worldwide. The collection of material started in 2001 and the case study was conducted from September 2003 to December 2003. A qualitative research method was chosen in order to closely examine the communication process during the implementation of the values. Other qualitative methods such as interviews and discourse analysis of the written and verbal communication were also applied. The discourse approach used in this study is Norman Fairclough’s (1995) critical discourse analysis. The design of this case study is also inspired by his holistic approach, which includes text analysis, discursive practice and social practice. I conducted in-depth interviews with a total of 15 employees within the organisation. This interview approach was chosen because it allows communication experiences to be explored in detail, thus producing insights that survey questionnaires, for example, may miss (Hargie and Tourish, 2004). Three managers from the top management group who had participated in the value process were interviewed. The overall focus here was the production processes of the value statement, its content and the communication of it to the employees. In order to make a reception study of the core values I conducted in-depth interviews with 12 employees at different levels within the organisation. Participants for the interviews were selected in an effort to reflect the diversity of the workforce. A total of 12 respondents from four different departments were chosen; Production, Sales Department, After Sales Department and Research & Development. All interviews were carried out at NEG Micon and lasted for approximately one hour. The interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. At the beginning of the interview, each participant was asked if he knew or remembered the four core values, and where and how he had been introduced to them. Following this, the participant was presented with the values poster. He was asked if he recognized it and used it as a guide in his daily working routines. Following this, each employee was presented with a copy of each of the four values and was asked to read it through. The aim was to explore the employee’s reading and interpretation of the value text in his own terms. Having completed reading the employee would either spontaneously offer his interpretations, or I would ask how he interpreted or understood the value text. This was followed by questions on: “Are you able to act according to the value text in your daily working routines?”, “Do you consider yourself as a part of the pronoun ‘we’ in the value text?”, “Do you think the value text reflects the culture within the company?” and “Do you think the value text has been implemented?”. Theoretical Framework Since the early 1980s the value concept has occupied a prominent place in management literature especially concerning value based leadership. Values are also viewed as important components of organizational culture (Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Peters and Waterman, 1982; Schein, 1985) and organizational identity (Hatch and Schultz, 1997). It is characteristic for these concepts that values are defined as a frame of reference or guidelines for internal organizational behaviour. Values have also become a buzzword and a very popular concept among practitioners and consultancy-based literature as an instrument to achieve company goals (Kotter, 1996; Kunde, 1997; Jacobsen, 1999; Beyer, 2000). Especially within the consultancy-based literature, Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 41 Mona Agerholm Andersen the line of thinking is that values should serve as an instrument to discipline the organization and its employees during change processes. Here values are considered as a kind of magic tool to ensure motivation and commitment within organizations in change. But how are values defined? Rokeach (1973) defines values as “An enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence” (1973: 5). According to Rokeach values result in a preference for one behaviour over another. They serve as criteria for making decisions and setting priorities and lie behind our actions as individuals. In a leadership context Morsing and Pruzan (2002) distinguish between three categories of values: - Terminal goals: goals that are pursued for their own sake – vis-á-vis means or instruments to serve other, higher order goals. - A frame of reference for personal and organisational reflection: Who am I/who are we? What do I/what do we stand for? What is a “good life” for me/for us? - Standards: Do I/we live up to the demands we and others place on us as to our behaviour and performance? Morsing and Pruzan (2002) also distinguish between “tacit values” and “articulated values”. Tacit values are those that we draw upon in our everyday lives, when we have to make decisions or judgements. Articulated values are the “shared values” of the members of an organisation and are often explicated and communicated in various forms, such as value statements, ethical and social reports (ibid, 2002). It is also important to distinguish between “personal values” and “organisational values”. The personal values are the result of our upbringing and provide the background for our behaviour in a certain cultural context. These values form the basis of the values that we develop in life and commit to in organisations, the socalled organisational values (op.cit. 2002). There are two approaches to initiating an organisational value process. One is the topdown approach; the other is the bottom-up approach. Within the top-down approach, values are viewed from a management perspective as a tool to “discipline the corporate body by collective seduction” (Christensen and Morsing, 2005 p. 102). Top management define the values and in the hope to create uniformity within the organisation, top-down communication is applied. The media and channels used to communicate the values internally to the employees are often department meetings, seminars, introduction courses, internal employee magazines and the intranet (Miller 2003). Previous studies show that within this approach management often holds a transmission view of communication (Axley, 1984, Varey, 2000). In a bottom-up approach, the values are created and defined in a dialogue between top management and employees. The employees are viewed as the most important resource of the organisation and diversity among the employees is accepted (Miller, 2003) Here communication is not based on standardisation and discipline, but on the opportunity for each employee to contribute to the value creation process. One of the problems with this approach is that different interpretations and understandings of reality and values may occur when employees with different perspectives and backgrounds discuss the issue. However, it is presumed that a more common understanding of the values will take place in an environment where dialogue and conversations are important elements (Johansson 2003). Data Analysis Reception researcher Kim Schrøder (2000, 2003) has elaborated a multidimensional model of mass media reception. The purpose of the model is to capture the complexity of 42 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employee Identification with Corporate Values within Danish Windmill Company NEG Micon A Study of Both Top Management’s View and Employee Perceptions actualized readings when analyzing qualitative reception data. The model is dimensional, which means that the various dimensions of readings shall not be considered as happening in the same kind of order. On the contrary, the dimensions should try to capture signifying processes that might take place simultaneously, or near-simultaneously, in connection with media reception (Schrøder, 2000). The model is designed as a pyramid in order to demonstrate that the five dimensions are related to the text and to each other. The five dimensions of reception that Schrøder includes in his model are: Comprehension, Discrimination, Implementation, Motivation and Position. Text Motivation Comprehension Position Implementation Discrimination FIGURE 2: Multidimensional model. Adopted by Schrøder 2003: 67. The overall purpose with the heuristic multidimensional model is to provide the researcher with a systematic analytical tool for the analysis of qualitative interview data. The five dimensions should also make it possible for the researcher to interpret and categorize interview data in such a systematically way that each dimension receives the proper analytical attention. For these reasons and in order to obtain an in-depth insight into the employees’ readings of the core values and their identification with them, I adapted the model to my reception data and reformulated the questions asked to the interview material from each dimension. The five dimensions are as follows: Motivation: This dimension deals with the link of relevance between the readers’ personal universe and the universe presented by the text and the situation surrounding its consumption (Schrøder, 2000: 245) How motivated is the reader and does he feel a strong or a weak involvement in the personal pronoun ’we’ in the value text? The reader may ‘commute’ between different degrees of motivation (from strong to weak) as he reads the value text. Comprehension: How does the reader comprehend the meaning of a text both denotatively and connotatively? Comprehension should be understood as a decoding continuum from complete ‘divergence from’ to complete ‘correspondence to’ the encoders’ intended Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 43 Mona Agerholm Andersen meanings (ibid, 2000: 246). The reader may ‘commute’ between different degrees of comprehension (from high to low) as he reads the value text. Discrimination: Does the reader adopt a critical stance towards the text or is it perceived as an unquestionable transparent representation of social reality within the organization? The dimension of discrimination takes the form of a continuum from immersion to critical distance, which means that the reader may commute between immersion and critical distance. Thus, he may either simultaneously appreciate or ridicule a text or simply adopt one of them. A distance from the text could for example be expressed through ironic readings (op.cit. 2000: 248). Position: What is the reader’s subjective attitude towards the text and its practical implementation within the organization? The dimension deals with a continuum of attitudinal responses from the readers in order to either characterize them as an acceptance or a rejection of the text (Schrøder, 2000: 249). Implementation: How does the reader use the content of the text in his daily working routines or how does he act according to it? The dimension deals with whether the reader is able, or not, to use the text as a point of departure for action in relation to other individuals, groups or institutions (ibid, 2000:252). In figure 2, I have designed a framework that seeks to grasp the multidimensionality of the employees’ reception of each of the value texts. I have categorized and matched the five dimensions of reception in order to analyze the complexity of the employees’ different levels of identification. Comprehension/ Discrimincation Implementation/ Motivation Position Identification FIGURE 3: Identification with values. To be able to distinguish between different levels of employee identification with each of the value texts and the corporate value text as a whole, I work with a scale that incorporates four different levels of identification: High level of identification: The employee has a high comprehension and a positive stance towards the value text. He is able to use the content of the value text in his daily working routines. He has a high degree of motivation and a strong involvement in the personal pronoun ‘we’ in the value text. He has a positive attitude towards its practical implementation within the organization. Medium level of identification: The employee has a high comprehension and commute between a positive and a negative stance towards the value text. He is able to use the whole 44 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employee Identification with Corporate Values within Danish Windmill Company NEG Micon A Study of Both Top Management’s View and Employee Perceptions content of the value text or part of it in his daily working routines. He commutes between a high or a medium degree of motivation and feel a high or medium involvement in the personal pronoun ‘we’ in the value text. He commutes between a positive and a negative attitude towards its practical implementation within the organization. Low level of identification: The employee has a high, a medium or no comprehension and has a negative stance towards the value text. He is both able and not able to use the content of the value text in his daily working routines. He does not feel any involvement in the personal pronoun ‘we’ in the value text and his motivation is low. The employee has a negative attitude towards its practical implementation within the organization. No identification: The employee has a high, a medium or no comprehension and has a negative stance towards the value text. He is not able to use the content of the value text in his daily working routines. He does not feel any involvement in the personal pronoun ‘we’ in the value text and his motivation is either low or non-existing. The employee has a negative or a neutral attitude towards its practical implementation within the organization. Top Management’s View on the Value Process The three interviewed managers had four to five years of work experience in the company and had all participated in creating and writing the value statement. They all found that values were important as a management tool in order to create a new culture within the organisation. They explained that the ambition was that the employees should commit themselves to the values and use them as a guiding line in their daily work. The managers also agreed upon the value formulation process. They said that the value statement was created primarily by the top management and to some extend the middle managers. Other members of the organization had not been involved in the process. They all gave more or less the same explanations of the meaning and content of the value statement and explained that it was concentrated on the four main stakeholders of the company. Their comments clearly showed that a top-down approach had been applied and that the values were regarded as a management tool to obtain company goals. They also explained that the formal communication flow in the organization had run from top management down to departments and divisions. When top management initiated the change process in February 2002 an internal “Roll out Plan” was launched. Managers and local management should act as change agents and communicators in order to implement the new values in each department’s daily operations. Beside the internal employee magazine, other mediums were used during the implementation process such as oral presentations of the values on department meetings, strategy seminars, introduction courses for new employees and the intranet. Regarding their view on communication there was a clear difference between them. Two of the managers held a transmission view as they indicated that it was enough to communicate the values to the employees either orally or written. The third manager held a more interpretive perspective as he said that it was necessary to involve the employees in a value discussion on a local department level. The managers also differed in their views upon the practical implementation of the values and their comments clearly showed that they had not made any evaluation of the process. Thus, their comments were based more on their own estimations than on real knowledge. Two of the managers believed that the employees were able to use the values in their daily work, but they differed in their arguments. One of them argued that he believed the values had been Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 45 Mona Agerholm Andersen communicated to the employees in such ways that they should be able to comprehend the meaning and relate to them in their daily work. The other manager believed that theoretically the employees should be able to use the content of the values, but it was indirectly shown in his statements that he did not know for sure. The third manager expressed certain doubts whether the employees were able to use the content of the values. He believed the values were directed more at the different management levels within the company than at the employees. However, the only value text that the managers all believed was implemented was “A sustainable contribution to society.” Summary of Text Analysis The NEG Micon core values are concentrated on four main themes: owners, customers, employees and society. The values have a short descriptive introduction and the composition of the value text is the same for each theme. It starts with a value headline, and then a value statement followed by a small headline “therefore we must” and points of direction. The value headlines are: “Growth and value for our shareholders”, “Our customers’ preferred partner”, “Employees in the centre – as individuals and as a team” and “A sustainable contribution to society” In the following I will give a short overview of the analyzed strategies applied by top management in the value statement from a discursive point of view. Table I shows a selection of textual fragments categorized according to the topics that I consider crucial for considering the strategies applied by management. TABLE 1. Summary of discourse analysis Category Usage in text Analyst’s interpretation Wording “The global market for modern, efficient wind energy is booming – and so is NEG Micon” Positive wording that describes a company in expansion. An indirect argument so that the employees will identify with the values. Pronoun use, first person plural “When we all keep our core values in mind” Establishment of a social relation between management and employees - Transitivity “Therefore we must” Management’s instructions to the employees of how they should act according to the points of direction - theme “The core values as guiding principles for everyone” The values are important for the survival of the company - modality (time) “We want to create a business that every employee is proud to be a part of” Focus on the desired future instead of the “problematic past”. To encourage the employees to identify with the values. Cohesion “When we all keep our core values in mind, each day brings us closer to our ambitious business goals” If the employees identify with the values and use them in their daily work the company will survive “A globally oriented company”, “delivering promised results”, “perform risk assessments”, “sound financial basis”, “monitor our costs”, “good business ability “, “prepared for changes Management discourse. This discourse may seem unfamiliar to employees of other discourse orders. - Argumentation Discourse order - discourse types 46 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employee Identification with Corporate Values within Danish Windmill Company NEG Micon A Study of Both Top Management’s View and Employee Perceptions as part of the rapid growth”, “a marketdriven company”, “the entire value chain”, “work as a responsible partner”. By describing the company in positive words and by arguing for the values as important guidelines for the survival of the company, top management intends to persuade the employees to identify with them. Talking of a positive future and using the personal pronoun “we” top management intend to create a positive relation with the employees and to flatten hierarchies. However, the use of transitivity “therefore we must” indicate that top management has already decided how the employees should act, which is in line with a top-down approach. The value statement is dominated by a management discourse that may seem unfamiliar to employees belonging to other discourse orders. In this respect, I consider the middle managers to be the primer receivers of the value statement instead of the rest of the employees. Employee identification with the corporate values The findings of the empirical reception study concerning the different levels of the employee identifications with each of the core values and the entire value statement are presented in Table II. TABLE 2. Summary of employee value identification Growth and value for our shareholders Our customers’ preferred partner Employees in the centre – as individuals and as a team A sustainable contribution to society Identification with the entire value statement Engineer R&D No identification No identification No identification No identification No identification Middle Manager R&D Medium Low Medium No identification Medium/low Middle Manager R&D High High High High High Secretary Sales Support No identification No identification No identification No identification No identification Sales Assistant Sales Support No identification Medium Low Low Low Sales Manager Sales Support Medium Medium Medium High Medium Electrician Product Division No identification No identification Medium Low Low Machine fitter Product Division No identification No identification No identification No identification No identification Middle Manager Product Division High High High High High Electrician After Sales Division No identification Medium Low Low Low Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 47 Mona Agerholm Andersen Electrician After Sales Division Low High Medium No identification Medium/low Electrician After Sales Division No identification High Medium High Medium As can be seen from Table II the employees do not present the same identification level with the entire value statement in any of the four departments. It also shows that the two values “Growth and value for our shareholders” and “A sustainable contribution to society” are the two values with the lowest identification score. The interviews illustrated that the middle managers was the highest placed group of employees on the identification scale. The remaining employees represented an identification level which was distributed on a medium, a medium/low, a low or a non-existing level. More than half of the employees were placed in the low end of the identification scale. The employees had a very good knowledge of the values. They said that they had been introduced to them at department meetings, courses and seminars. Most of the employees could also remember the headlines of the value texts but it appeared in the interviews that their knowledge of the values had no influence on their identification level. Throughout the interviews it emerged that the hierarchical position of the middle managers and their contribution to the value process was decisive for their high level of identification. This was not the case for the rest of the employees. Instead their responses indicated that it was the same positive and negative factors across the departments that had influenced their level. On the basis of my analysis of the interview material I concluded that the following positive and negative factors influenced the identification level concerning all four value texts. TABLE 3. Positive factors Negative factors A positive stance towards the wording of the value text 1. A critical stance towards the wording of the value text 2. Comprehends the meaning within the ‘intended meaning’ 2. 3. Able to use the content of the value text in his daily working routines Does not feel that the wording of the value text is directed at him 3. A strong involvement in the personal pronoun ‘we’ in the value text Does not comprehend the meaning within the ’intended meaning’ 4. A positive attitude towards the practical implementation of the value text within the organisation Not able to use the content of the value text in his daily working routines 5. No involvement in the personal pronoun ‘we’ in the value text 6. Management does not live up to the wording of the value text 7. A negative attitude towards the practical implementation of the value text within the organisation due to the financial situation 1. 4. 5. To clarify and demonstrate how some of the above factors appeared in the interview materiel I will give some examples in the following. The passage below is taken from an interview with a middle manager working in Research and Development. In this passage, he 48 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employee Identification with Corporate Values within Danish Windmill Company NEG Micon A Study of Both Top Management’s View and Employee Perceptions comments on the value text “A sustainable contribution to society” and the reading dimensions analyzed are “comprehension and discrimination”: Of course, we all have a part in creating renewable energy whether you are sweeping floors or (.) you’re a manager somewhere in the organization, well, you’re playing your part and you contribute to creating a sustainable contribution to society. […] It says that we must perform with honesty on all our markets er (..) yes, of course we must, we have to vouch for what we sell, of course it is the seller who communicates these messages to a buyer in a given market er, but of course he can’t do that without having (.) er, the support of both Production and Research and Development, so er we all play our part as an organization being able to communicate that message further (..). What can be noted in this example is that the participant has a positive stance towards the wording (“we all have a part in creating renewable energy”) and that he comprehends the meaning of them (“of course it is the seller who communicates these messages to a buyer in a given market”). It was characteristic for the employees who were placed in the lower end of the identification scale that they distanced themselves from the wording of the values with ironic readings. This is illustrated in the following quote which is from an interview with an engineer from Research and Development. In this passage, he comments on the value text “A sustainable contribution to society” and the reading dimensions analyzed are “comprehension and discrimination”: Why then do top management drive such big cars, eh? (.) Aim to optimise our environmental impact. The way I understand it, they want a green image which you can’t blame them [...] But I still think that it is very easy to write this, any Tom, Dick and Harry could also do that, now couldn’t they. So if he is – in every market of his, that could be Funen or Zealand or – perform with openness and honesty right?, it is really easy and it doesn’t cost them anything to announce this, does it […] If you gave me a couple of hours I really believe that I could come up with something better. In this statement, the employee has no problems with the wording but he adopts a critical stance towards the text drawing on irony and humour (“why then do top management drive such big cars, eh?”) and (“any Tom, Dick and Harry could also do that”). The irony and humour is also apparent below. The financially difficult situation in which the organization found itself at the time of the interviews turned out to be one of the most important factors why more than half of the employees ended up in the low end of the identification scale. The rounds of dismissals had caused great uncertainty among the employees and fear of losing their jobs. Another decisive factor was that the employees did not feel that top management lived up to the value statement themselves. In the following example an electrician from Product Division comments upon the value text “Growth and value for our shareholders” and whether he is able to act according to it in his daily work. The reading dimensions analyzed are “implementation and motivation”: Employee: Aim for clear financial goals internally, and have everyone be resonsible for delivering results well personally I think that is a very, very important passage that one (.) er and it ought to be printed above the door when you arrive in the morning so that management can Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 49 Mona Agerholm Andersen see it, too, especially underlining have everyone be resonsible for delivering results because that’s where the problem is. Interviewer: It says er therefore we must, who do you feel that this “we” applies to? Employee: Well, that is clearly the management. Interviewer: Yes (.) do you feel that it also applies to you as an employee? Employee: No - [snort] in my opinion it certainly doesn’t. Again drawing on irony and humour, the employee distance, himself from using the content of the value text in his daily working routines, because he feels that it is top management who is responsible for the financial situation (“it ought to be printed above the door when you arrive in the morning so that management can see it, too”). It is also shown that the participant has no motivation for acting because he does not feel any involvement in the personal pronoun “we”. The financial problems also played an important role in the employees’ attitudes towards the practical implementation of the values within the organisation. This is illustrated in the following passage. Here, a machine fitter from Product Division comments on his view on the practical implementation of the value text “Employees in the centre – as individuals and as a team”. The reading dimension being analyzed is “position”: I mean (.) one of the things that they do, they put so much pressure on people on the shop floor the whole time, well for the past six months, and they pressure people into working as much as 10 and 12 hours a day and I don’t think that is […]. That is one of the things at least that (.) they could have done and that was to consider the people on the shop floor. In this statement, he expresses his disappointment with management. Clearly, he does not feel that they live up to the value “employee in the centre” topic in the text “they put so much pressure on people on the shop floor the whole time”. Discussion of Results The merger in 1997 and the financial problems in 1999 were the main reasons why top management introduced the new value statement in 2002. It emerged during the interviews with the managers that the values were considered a very important tool in the process of creating a new culture within the organisation. In order to create this new culture the employees should act according to the values in their daily work. This goal was also pursued in the written value statement. By describing the company in positive words and by arguing for the values as important guidelines for the survival of the company, top management intends to persuade the employees to identify with the values. Talking of a positive future and using the personal pronoun “we” top management intend to create a positive relation with the employees and to flatten hierarchies. 50 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employee Identification with Corporate Values within Danish Windmill Company NEG Micon A Study of Both Top Management’s View and Employee Perceptions However, the use of transitivity indicates that top management has already decided how the employees should act, which is in line with a top-down approach. An approach which the dominating management discourse also indicates. The top-down approach was confirmed in the interviews with the managers. They all said that the top management and to some extend the middle managers had participated in the value process. The value statement had primarily been communicated to the middle managers who should act as change agents and communicators. The results of the employee interviews also indicated that the communication had most influence upon the identification level of the middle managers. The rest of the employees had a good knowledge of the values, but their knowledge had no influence upon their identification level. It was characteristic for the employees in the lower end of the identification scale that they distanced themselves from the wording of the values by ironic and humorous readings and that they did not feel that the wording was directed at them. In the interviews with the managers two of them hold the view that it is enough to communicate the values to the employees. However, the interviews with the employees clearly showed that top management has not considered who they were in dialogue with, because the employees in the lower end of the identification scale did not feel the wording was directed at them. The wording of the value statement was also a problem for the employees when it came to acting. The employees in the lower end of the identification scale did not feel that the wording was directed at them, and thus they were not able to use it in their daily work. This was clearly a consequence of the dominating management discourse. The managers all differed in their opinions concerning the implementation of the values. The only value that they considered implemented was “A sustainable contribution to society.” However, the results of the employee interviews showed that this value had a low identification score compared to the others. No doubt that the historical and situational context of NEG Micon had an important impact upon the implementation of the value statement. The financial problems in 1999 and particularly in 2003 were very important factors why the majority of the employees’ placed themselves at the lower end of the identification scale. In this respect, it seems relevant to ask the question whether values are the ideal management tool in times of a financial crisis? It would be easier to work with values within a financially healthy organisation and easier for the employees to support a value project if they do not feel an increasing work pressure and fear of loosing their jobs. It would also be easier for the managers themselves to live up to the values. Hence, managers ought to consider the situational context of an organisation before they launch an internal value project. 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In: Journal of Communication Management, 4:4, 328-34 52 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Designing an Effective Online Corporate Training Program Joseph Basso, APR and Suzanne FitzGerald, APR, Fellow - PRSA Department of Public Relations & Advertising Rowan University, USA [email protected] / [email protected] Alison Theaker University College Plymouth St. Mark and St. John Marjon University, UK [email protected] This study explores the efficacy of online versus traditional training found among human resource professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom. First, using a DELPHI technique, the authors were able to draw consensus among human resource professionals about the impact of online training programs. Next, the authors conducted personal interviews with human resource managers in the United States and in the United Kingdom. The study revealed that online training, or e-learning, continues to be grow in importance in corporate training programs. The data from this study supports earlier findings showing that e-learning is a cost effective way to provide training. However, respondents in both countries overwhelming support the idea of blended learning as the best way to reach diverse age groups in the workforce, and to support complicated compliance training courses such as sexual harassment. Finally, the data indicated that human resource professionals in the United Kingdom were more comfortable with instituting e-learning and blended learning programs somewhat faster than their counterparts in the United States. The authors explored the efficacy of online versus traditional training programs by conducting a DELPHI study of US human resource professionals to ascertain how they currently train as well as design online training programs. In addition, the authors conducted face-to-face interviews with human resource executives in the UK. This research investigates both compliance courses (mandated by law) as well as training programs designed to improve organizational effectiveness. By study corporate human resource professionals, the authors created a model for designing and implementing effective online programs. The use of the DELPHI technique provided the authors with consensus among human resource professionals as to the techniques and tools necessary to reach employees in this information age. The face-to-face interviews supplemented the quantitative research and offered the opportunity to explore training from a cross-cultural perspective. Because human resources professionals face increased numbers of displaced employees but retain the need to provide comprehensive training programs, effective online and traditional training becomes mandatory. This research explores compliance and non-compliance training in an online versus a traditional format as well as the benefits of blended training (i.e. some format of both online and traditional training). The following literature review is taken primarily from the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) publications. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 53 Joseph Basso, Suzanne FitzGerald and Alison Theaker Relevant Background Literature concerning traditional training versus online training indicates that each serves an important purpose. Traditional training works well for soft skills using role play, group activities, and interactivity. Online training works particularly well for content that doesn’t change but needs to be viewed every year by a large number of employees. Many companies use online learning for required compliance training. Blended learning is seen by many human resources managers/trainers as an excellent means of reinforcing classroom training with online follow up. According to Carol Auerbach in a SHRM white paper, content is the most important factor. Auerbach notes that once you determine the purpose of the content, you can choose among the following delivery methods: print materials such as manuals; multimedia materials such as CDs; formal presentations at a conference; informal discussion groups; classroom training; computer-based training; web-based training or distance learning. Auerbach suggests that a combination of training methods often produces the best results (Tyler, 2005). Frances Lilly in a similar white paper distributed by SHRM refers to classroom learning as synchronous learning with the following advantages: less expensive than asynchronous learning, appropriate for time-critical materials, familiar to most learners, provides real-time interaction and application, and promotes coaching and mentoring. Further, Lilly indicates that the advantages of asynchronous learning include: flexibility, privacy, allows the learner to proceed at own pace and with a selected learning path. Her recommendation is to use blended learning where possible using web-based training or computer-based training to introduce facts, concepts and ideas and then bringing these individuals together for classroom learning (Lilly, 2002). If web-based learning is selected, Lilly offers the following tips: focus on the business advantage, provide introductory training for learners, provide online support, provide a group of coaches, and foster e-learning communities. Lin Grensing-Pohal in an article on the benefits and pitfalls of e-learning notes that the benefits include: saving money, reducing travel costs, reducing employee time away from the office, as well as providing convenient access to training and information. It also offers consistency in content/delivery because of no instructor variation; faster delivery of timesensitive information; broader access to recognized experts; and greater productivity and cost savings. The primary barrier to instituting internet-based training is the sufficiency of computer systems and the system support necessary to maintain the training programs. According to Grensing-Pohal, e-learning should not substitute for face-to-face learning. E-learning is an alternative delivery mechanism that can provide tremendous benefits in terms of accessibility and reach (Lilly, 2002). Compliance Training Government regulations have mandated a flood of compliance training across the country. According to an article in HR Magazine, much of this training concerns corporate ethics (Grossman, 2008). Other compliance training concerns AB1825 or a California law prompting companies to offer preventive sexual harassment training. According to anti-harassment training vendors, online harassment training is favored by employees because they can take it on their own time in a private setting. Training vendors also suggest that online courses are easier to manage and more convenient for all. 54 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Designing an Effective Online Corporate Training Program And, according to the EEOC, the best practice is to provide training that addresses all forms of unlawful workplace harassment, not just sexual harassment. Spurred, at least in part, by laws in several states requiring employee sexual harassment training, many companies are taking the mandate further and educating all their employees about sexual harassment, regardless of where they work. (A state-by-state listing of sexual harassment training laws is included in the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Sexual Harassment Toolkit.) Some employers are turning to the Internet to deliver, at a fraction of the cost, the same content once taught in a classroom setting. However, legal experts advise that providing the training is not necessarily enough to shield a company from hostile workplace claims. Effective online training programs must insure that content, as well as the effectiveness of the material, must be present in order to present a worthwhile program. According to Joe Beachboard, a shareholder with Atlanta-based labor and employment law firm Ogletree Deakins, the stakes for employers to ensure a harassment-free workplace are especially high in California, where damages in hostile workplace lawsuits have no caps. Beachboard reports that large California-based employers have been fined up to $25 million. Even in other states where fines are capped at $300,000, costs can still cascade when multiple plaintiffs and attorney fees are added to the cost of litigation. (Johnson, 2007) One HR manager with a large California-based oil company who asked not to be identified used Anderson-Davis online training in 2001 to educate more than 25,000 U.S.-based employees and is now rolling out refresher training that 3,000 supervisors must take every two years. In addition, the company is translating the training into several languages and soon will require managers around the world to take it. The streaming video vignettes and the interactivity features make the program particularly engaging, she said. She added, “You don’t suffer like you do with reading long text in an online course.” Training a global workforce may be easier with the advent of technology, but many social and cultural issues are not resolved by language translation and electronic delivery of learning. For example, cultural differences may make the use of metaphors, colors and symbols offensive for certain users. Many cultures have important meanings associated with certain colors. In Korea, for example, the color yellow is associated with funerals. Therefore, designing a training program for a global company takes careful planning and adherence to cultural norms and values at every facet of the design and development process. Making Training Work Suzy goes to her manager, upset: I’ve got a real problem. I’m not sure I know what to call it, but I think I can explain it easily enough. My colleague Jackie is, well, let’s just say she’s quite the party girl… The thing is, I just don’t want to hear about it every Monday morning ad nauseam. I mean she really gets around, and she feels compelled to tell me all about the past weekend’s marathon activities in excruciating detail, and when I say excruciating, trust me, that is really putting it mildly! So first, it’s really gross. Second, it’s inappropriate. Third, I’ve got work to do, and fourth, I just have no interest. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 55 Joseph Basso, Suzanne FitzGerald and Alison Theaker This audio-photo vignette is from “Workplace Harassment II,” an online sexual harassment prevention course offered by San Francisco-based Employment Law Training Inc. (ELT). (It also is offered through SHRM’s e-learning program.) The course uses an evolving story that presents students with workplace scenarios. After watching the vignette—created with photos, audio and text—users must answer interactive questions dealing with, among other things, appropriate content for discussion in the office and who should be contacted when problems arise. The course has manager and supervisor versions; the supervisor version includes simulations of workers going to supervisors with problems and explains how to react and recognize potential harassment and retaliation issues. Paul Mohnkern, HR manager for McLean, Va.-based MorganFranklin, a professional services firm, said he purchased ELT’s program partly because of built-in mechanisms that prevent employees from breezing through the course or setting the program to play and then heading out to lunch. In other words, employees have to allow for the material to sink in to get credit for taking it (Grossman, 2008). Such safeguards are important, since courts are demanding that employers do more than simply go through the motions of providing training, according to Shanti Atkins, president and CEO of ELT. Concerned that its sexual harassment training approach couldn’t pass legal muster, the state of Illinois in 2006 forced thousands of employees to retake the course because records showed they had completed the training in as little as 10 minutes. Effectiveness of courses can be difficult to measure, however, especially since most vendors don’t track test or quiz results. That’s by customer design; at least some employers fear that poor employee test scores could be used against them by a plaintiff building a hostile workplace case. “There are published cases where training is scrutinized by a judge and a jury,” says Atkins. “Ten years ago they asked, ‘Did you do the training?’ Today they are asking ‘How did you do it, and what did you use?’ ” Atkins said that to pass muster in court, training programs should be at least 30 minutes long, containing enough content and interactivity to make the estimated times real, and use realistic scenarios and hypothetical situations. “If employees can blast through the training quickly, they will,” Atkins said. “It’s human nature.” Methodology The authors first conducted a DELPHI study with twelve human resource managers to arrive at a consensus on three issues with respect to e-learning. Respondents participated in three rounds of questions for purposes of this study. In round one, respondents were asked to provide their answer to the question in list form. In the second round, the authors gave respondents a complete list of all answers for each question. Respondents then rank ordered the answers beginning with their highest ranked answer to their lowest ranked answer. In the third round, the authors sent respondents the tabulated results from the second round. They were asked to re-rank the responses to see if any changes occurred. The questions respondents replied to are as follows: 1) What are the primary reasons that companies now use e-learning as part of their human resources training program? 56 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Designing an Effective Online Corporate Training Program 2) With respect to learning effectiveness, what benefits do participants receive from elearning? 3) What, if any, problems do organizations encounter with e-learning? After completing the DELPHI study, the authors conducted a series of personal interviews with human resources professionals in both the United States and England. Respondents were asked a series of questions to determine their feelings toward e-learning and to see how it fits into their organization’s business model. Results As an answer to the question regarding primary reasons for using e-learning as part of their human resource training program, respondents listed the following in rank order: 1) E-learning saves time because participants do not have to be pulled from their job to participate. E-learning participants can receive training in short blocks of time during lunch breaks or at times before and after work. 2) E-learning is a cost-effective way to deliver training, especially for exempt employees because they are not separated from daily activities and may elect to receive training outside of the workplace. 3) Training works well in intervals thereby improving retention and satisfaction. 4) Compliance courses can be outsourced and thus the organization does not have to shoulder the financial burden of bringing in live experts such as attorneys to facilitate learning. The cost of live experts is prohibitive for many companies. 5) E-learning saves the cost of hiring additional staff such as program designers and facilitators. With respect to learning effectiveness, human resource professionals listed the following participant benefits of e-learning. 1) Younger employees (those who fall into the classification of Generation X or Generation Y) feel comfortable with e-learning because it mirrors a learning style that they constantly use. 2) E-learning allows learners to choose their learning path. 3) E-learning offers privacy where participants can experiment. 4) Participants enjoy the scheduling flexibility of e-learning. 5) E-learning provides standard, consistent information. The third question concerning problems with e-learning elicited the following responses. These responses are ranked in order of most problematic to least problematic. 1) E-learning is not appropriate for dynamic content. These programs have a short shelf life and require frequent updates. 2) E-learning does not work well for complex material. This type of training works most effectively with an expert facilitator present to address questions. 3) E-training is time consuming to develop. In summary, the literature review predicted that e-learning is effective for some types of training, particularly compliance training. These respondents verified that prediction. The literature review also cited examples of blended learning to convey more complex topics and allow for question and answer sessions. This study confirms that finding. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 57 Joseph Basso, Suzanne FitzGerald and Alison Theaker Personal Interviews In general, respondents from both the United States and the United Kingdom agreed that e-learning has become a vital part of organizational training programs. The human resource professionals who participated in the study felt that e-learning was particularly important for younger workers who weren’t daunted by spending long blocks of time online. However, respondents indicated that the mature generation (workers 55 and older) were less comfortable with e-learning. According to HR managers, the BBC has adopted a considered approach to e-learning. As an early adopter of e-learning, the BBC has developed a “learner centered” design. Rachel Simmons of the BBC notes that training 16,000 employees (mostly compliance training) in a tight timeframe with a small budget necessitates e-learning. According to Charles Jennings, Head of Global Learning and Development at Reuters, elearning has been successful, but only accounts for 5-10% of all training there. He also notes the problems of e-learning include user access and technology. Reuters uses virtual classroom online seminars to update worldwide staff on changing applications. And according to Marten Staps of Hilton International, Hilton has discovered a good mechanism for delivering e-learning worldwide through its university—www.hiltonuniversity.com. Most Hilton Hotels now have an e-learning champion or learning manager. Staps feels that e-learning will continue to play an important role in training and development for Hilton International. All respondents agreed that e-learning works well for certain compliance programs, but more complex topics require a trained facilitator. Blended learning, combining live facilitation with e-learning was deemed as the best method for organizational training within and across cultures. Respondents from the United Kingdom appeared most ready to implement blended learning into their current e-learning design. However, respondents from both the United States and United Kingdom universally agree that blended learning provides the best option for successful e-learning programs. According to one respondent from the United States, “Corporate culture is a difficult thing to change, and the age diversity that still exists in today’s workforce prevents organizations from making radical changes too quickly.” She added, though, that the shift to blended learning or complete online learning will eventually become the dominant force in corporate training programs. Respondents seemed to universally agree that the younger workers are more responsive and comfortable with e-learning, and that the potential savings for companies will make traditional facilitator centered training more of a specialty rather than the norm. References Grossman, R. (January 2008). Hard facts about soft skills e-learning, HR Magazine, vol. 53, No. 1. Johnson, M. (March/April 2007). A “Bifocal Approach” to anti-harassment training. SHRM White Paper. Lilly, F. (May 2002). Web-based training: Moving from C-learning to E-learning, SHRM White Paper. Tyler, K. (February 2005). Do the right thing, HR Magazine, vol. 50, No. 2). 58 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Collaborative Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Examination of the International Public Relations Agency Involvement in the United Nations Global Compact Leslie Simone Byrd Howard University, USA [email protected] This research explored how two international public relations agencies—Ketchum, Inc., and Ruder Finn, Inc.—came to participate in the United Nations (UN) Global Compact. The UN Global Compact is a voluntary, multi-sector partnership organization, which encourages participants to address complex social issues. Participants must integrate the 10 Compact Principles—grouped around the themes of anticorruption, and human, labor and environmental rights—into their business practices. Incorporating Grunig’s situational theory of publics to interpret the findings, the research questions sought to identify: (a) the events that led these agencies to initiate participation in the Global Compact, (b) what, if any challenges were presented before the agency joined the Global Compact, and (c) how the agency has integrated the 10 Compact Principles into the agency’s practice areas. To evaluate these research questions, a case study was created and included two in-depth interviews with one senior-level executive in each agency, as well as analysis of primary and secondary documents. Findings indicated that both agencies had yet to fully integrate the Compact Principles into their own internal functions and primarily used the Global Compact as a tool for counseling clients. However, both agency executives revealed that it was going to become necessary for their agency to involve themselves in the Global Compact, within and across the entire agency, particularly in terms of confronting issues such as ethics and diversity. This research extends the body of knowledge in public relations by examining the growing interest in corporate social responsibility initiatives and how it influences the practice of public relations. The concept of globalization is quite broad and invokes a multitude of ideas and thoughts about the subject. Furthermore, it is a concept that is frequently mentioned and asserted in politically-charged discourse, but at the same time, not easily defined or understood. In general, globalization is the process by which a country and their government embrace and participate in a global, free market economy and political democracy. Although this provides a broad understanding of the concept, others have narrowed the definition, specifically in terms of “three democratizations—technology, information and finance” (Friedman, 2000, as cited in Wolf, 2004, p. 16), which have brought prosperity to already well-established, industrial nations, while simultaneously accelerating the devastating effects of this global economy, particularly on those in developing countries. Because of these economic and political movements in society, opponents of globalization argue that “it has made the corporation the most powerful institution on earth” (Frank, 2000, as cited in Jandt, 2006, p. 10). In addition, Clapham and Cooper (2005) note that “large corporations in control of significant assets wield their power and influence to create a favorable environment in order to be more profitable” (p. 288). On the other end of the spectrum, supporters of globalization assert that because the process opens up previously closed economies to global trade, it can be beneficial to people in countries where certain goods and services, such as medicine and general healthcare, are a necessity. Friedman (2006) suggested that globalization has helped to ‘flatten’ the world, and thus: Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 59 Leslie Simone Byrd We are now connecting to all the knowledge centers on the planet together in a single global network, which—if politics and terrorism did not get in the way, could usher in an amazing era of prosperity, innovation and collaboration, by companies, communities, and individuals (p. 8). Although, Friedman attempts to convey infinite optimism, he seems to understand that on the other end of the spectrum the very same ‘flattening’ that has helped to connect the world and should, in theory, bridge the gap between wealth and poverty, has also fueled the deep divide between vast groups of people in terms of access to equal shares of wealth, medical care, technological infrastructure and economic resources. As a result, there is an ominous side to globalization that causes the playing field to be “leveled in a way that draws in and suprempowers [sic] a whole new group of angry, frustrated, and humiliated men and women” (Friedman, 2006, p. 8). Those who have been negatively affected by the globalization process and feel powerless in bringing the attention of their plight to their government officials, have engaged in violent acts to demonstrate their opposition to these changes, or lack thereof, in their own societies. At first glance, it may be difficult to conceptualize how the public relations practice could be useful in managing issues related to globalization. However, after further exploration, it is understood among public relations professionals that if a communication program or campaign is to have the slightest opportunity for success in the global marketplace, it is going to be contingent upon the practitioner’s awareness of world affairs, local and national media systems. Finally, there must be some basic understanding of the public relations practice in a particular country and region. The globalization of business has “created the need for international public relations practitioners to identify, study and understand world views, mindsets, and habits of their global public in order to effectively communicate” (Ihator, 2000, p. 38). Furthermore, the public relations practice is being influenced by the changes that have grown out of the globalization process. Thus, identifying the role of public relations, especially in the age of globalization, remains a daunting task. This is because practitioners who are charged with developing global CSR programs need to understand that with the emergence of globalization, they can no longer convey messages and build relationships with organizational stakeholders in a vacuum. Therefore, it is imperative for public relations professionals to extend themselves by acting as the conscience of the organization they represent and to act in a similar fashion on behalf of the publics that they are accountable to. Moreover, it is necessary for these professionals to inquire about and determine what is best for the organization. At the same time, they must also consider what is best for the internal and external publics that have vested interest in the organization’s competitiveness and survival. Focus of the Study At some point, the leadership in two American-based, international public relations agencies recognized a need to address global citizenship issues more thoroughly through their own work—particularly in an era where external publics demand greater accountability and socially responsible behavior from organizations functioning in their communities. The demands of creating transparent measures, such as allowing public access of annual report information as stipulated by the Federal government, has also become a common practice in today’s corporate environment. However, there has been little research that examines how large corporations manage relationships with external, partnership organizations. 60 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Collaborative Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Examination of the International Public Relations Agency Involvement in the United Nations Global Compact The United Nations (UN) Global Compact was developed to encourage participation from organizations in a variety of sectors, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), other UN agencies, business associations, academic institutions, labor organizations and private business. These organizations formed a multi-sector partnership, which essentially works to achieve the common goal of addressing human and environmental rights issues through their organizational operations. The Global Compact encourages these organizations to facilitate the use of the most applicable of the 10 stipulated Compact Principles into their business operations. Participation in the Global Compact could be viewed as a proactive measure on the part of the participating organization because of its voluntary nature. Furthermore, participation in the Global Compact has the potential to reaffirm the organization’s commitment to social justice and human rights through the endorsement and use of the Compact Principles. Finally, it is possible that this participation demonstrates the organization’s long-term interest in satisfying more than financial outcomes. There have been studies that have addressed the relevance and the effectiveness of the Global Compact in the current business environment. However, most of these studies have not examined how the leadership or dominant coalition 1 of an organization came to recognize that joining the Global Compact was to their benefit. These studies have not addressed how these organizations initiated their participation in the Global Compact. Moreover, these examinations have not identified how members of the dominant coalition have begun to make use of their involvement in the Global Compact, nor have they determined how these participating organizations have integrated the Compact Principles into their business practices. To address these deficiencies in the public relations body of knowledge, this study will incorporate an interpretive approach to explore the senior-level executives who form the dominant coalition in two international public relations agencies that participate in the Global Compact. Specifically, this research will be aimed at identifying how these senior-level executives: (a) decided that joining the Global Compact was beneficial and necessary for their agency, (b) integrated the ten Compact Principles are integrated into agency’s operations and negotiated their use, and (c) if, by participation in the Global Compact, display activist behavior in their interactions and decision-making tasks within the organization. These concepts are most applicable to this research for several reasons. First, the concept of problem recognition was developed in order to identify the process in which people determine that there is a situation that needs to be addressed. This concept also includes consideration of what steps should be taken in order to deal with an issue. The second independent concept of constraint recognition seeks to explore how these parties determine the stumbling blocks that might impede their ability to properly address the situation. The final concept, level of involvement, examines the connection that people feel to the situation that they are confronting. Research Questions RQ1: What dynamics led the dominant coalition members in these international public relations agencies to initiate participation in the Global Compact? RQ2: What obstacles did these individual dominant coalition members identify as challenges to their agency’s participation in the Global Compact? 1 The term dominant coalition will be used to refer to group of people in leadership positions responsible for the organization’s decision-making practices, specifically senior-level executives. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 61 Leslie Simone Byrd RQ3: How are the 10 Compact Principles integrated into the agency’s work? Theoretical Framework The use of the situational theory of publics is incorporated into this research to help situate the conceptual underpinnings of the study. Situational theory originated out of the positivist paradigm and has traditionally been incorporated into quantitative studies. Although this has been the case for quite some time, the independent concepts 2 of problem recognition, constraint recognition, and level of involvement will be applied in a qualitative study. Specifically, these concepts will be used to identify how dominant coalition members initiated participation of their agencies in the Global Compact, what obstacles emerged that might have hindered participation in the Global Compact from occurring, and to what extent the agency has integrated the ten Compact Principles within their agency operations. The third research question seeks to develop an understanding of how the ten Compact Principles are included into the agency’s business operations Over time, the theory continued to be developed and was eventually used as a way to examine the management viewpoint of the public relations practice, as a tool for segmenting and communicating more effectively with desired and intended publics. Today, the theory continues to undergo many transformations along its path of development. From primarily being used in studies that examined public relations from an organizational-management perspective, it continues to be broadly applied and studied in various contexts and methodological approaches. Because public relations professionals often use campaigns to communicate with various publics on issues, goods and services, it is necessary to identify significant publics that are most closely related to the messages that are being communicated. Not only is selection of target publics important, but determining the channels that will be most effective for the communication of these messages are also critical to the success of a public relations campaign. A public is best defined as, “a homogeneous group of people who face and recognize a similar problem and organize for action” (J.E. Grunig, 1997; J.E. Grunig & Hunt, 1984; J.E. Grunig & Repper, 1992, as cited in Sung, 2007, p. 177). The situational theory of publics incorporates three independent variables and two dependent variables in order to “forecast the differential responses from publics to important issues. These variables are situational in that they explain the cognitions, attitudes and behaviors that individuals have of specific situations” (Sung, 2007, p. 177). The independent variables consist of: (a) problem recognition, (b) constraint recognition and (c) level of involvement, and the two dependent variables are: (a) information-seeking, and (b) information-processing. Problem recognition encompasses how individuals who pursue and are actively engaged in a particular concern or issue fall into the category of information-seeking, while those who are passive bystanders of information are more aligned with information-processing behavior. In regard to the present study, senior-level executives were examined as being members in their agencies’ dominant coalition. Therefore, the three independent concepts of situational theory of publics were used to examine these dominant coalition members as a public of the UN Global Compact. The goal was to identify: (a) the events that prompted their agency to pursue participation in the Global Compact, (b) what, if any, challenges emerged before the agency could participate in the Global Compact, and (c) how each agency had begun to incorporate the 10 Compact Principles into their business functions. 2 This study will refer to the situational theory’s “variables” as “concepts” from this point forward, as to avoid using terms that are more commonly applicable to quantitative studies. 62 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Collaborative Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Examination of the International Public Relations Agency Involvement in the United Nations Global Compact While the situational theory has its origins in quantitative studies, a new generation of scholars is beginning to emerge and contest the status quo. For instance, Aldoory and Sha (2007) argued for further exploration of the theory using qualitative methods. Pompper (2005) contests “the positivist paradigm—assuming a stable, law-like reality by using primarily quantitative methods—remains the institutional norm for prestigious academic journals and for policymakers” arguing that the interpretive approach allows scholars to explore alternative avenues and bring overlapping and divergent experiences to the surface that address a particular phenomenon. Because of this shift, there has been gradual progress in the acceptance of qualitative approaches in mainstream public relations research, and although this evolution has been slow, the advocacy for more interpretive studies in the field, has not been in vain. Addressing the growing difficulty in obtaining quantitative data, Aldoory and Sha (2007) also found that soliciting feedback from participants and respondents using survey methodologies in situational theory-focused research became a daunting process. Therefore, the use of qualitative methods would provide the researcher with “ways to gauge publics’ levels of problem recognition, involvement and constraint recognition” (p. 349). Review of Relevant Literature The current scholarly contributions in contemporary public relations research which have introduced numerous international and alternative perspectives, continues to vigorously manifest itself as a relatively new phenomenon within the discipline. Furthermore, a great deal of this scholarship is positioned to challenge the dominant, post-positivist applications to contemporary examinations of the field. Though much of the focus has been from the dominant paradigm, there have been various scholars (Cheney & Christensen, 2001; Curtain & Gaither, 2005; Berger, 2005; Berger, 2007; Holtzhausen, 2000; Holtzhausen, 2002; Holtzhausen and Voto, 2002; Holtzhausen, Petersen & Tindall, 2003; Mickey, 1997; Motion and Weaver, 2005; Pompper, 2005; Schultz, 1996; Toth, 2002) that have begun to challenge the prevailing approaches, and rallied for a paradigm shift. In doing so, these scholars have sought to introduce and apply alternative perspectives to scholarly public relations analyses, specifically by questioning the dominant, organizational-focused perspective. This area of inquiry must continue to be developed by public relations scholars because: It is important that a discipline’s theoretical agenda not simple be beholden to trends already present or incipient in the larger society. Otherwise, a discipline can fail to exercise its own capacity for leadership on both practical and moral grounds (Cheney & Christensen, 2001, p. 167). CULTURAL and international public relations Studying public relations from an ethnocentric (i.e., American, Western) angle is not necessarily an unhealthy approach, because without many of the scholars approaching the discipline from this viewpoint, the Excellence Theory may not have ever been posited and become the seminal work in the study of public relations. However, by continuing to narrowly focus public relations scholarship in this direction, it has facilitated a narrow scope upon which the study of the discipline has been viewed, thus removing or casting significant global perspectives out of the mainstream and into secondary status. With the emergent and promising research within this area of public relations, one of the most evident voids in the public relations literature has been the lack of an established, clear understanding of what international public Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 63 Leslie Simone Byrd relations is. Certainly, ideas and interpretations have been placed within the public sphere for discussion and debate, but without some evident prescription of how global public relations differs from our widely-used, domestic definitions, it will be difficult to move forward with the proper expansion and theory-building in the discipline’s body of knowledge. According to Wakefield (2008), one of major issues is that, from his perspective, “most people don’t yet have even a basic understand—at least not in the United States” (p.140) of what defines international public relations. Oftentimes in the educational, public relations setting, students are presented with case studies of how public relations is practiced in other regions/countries, but are infrequently exposed to how a multinational corporation, which is American-based, handles communications efforts in those regions. To better position communication strategy that spans cross-cultural channels, Zaharna (2001) addressed this concern by positing an in-awareness approach that could be applied to international public relations practice. With foundations in the intercultural communication discipline, the inawareness approach is beneficial for public relations practitioners whose work functions on an international stage because “by bringing aspects of culture ‘in-awareness’, the many distortions and misunderstandings that plague cross-cultural communication could be explained and even compensated for” (p. 136). Overall, this approach calls for an exhaustive examination of the location where communication will be targeted. This is done through the development of three, key profiles of the country itself, its cultural characteristics and attributes, and an assessment of traditionally used communication practices, in order to understand how public relations strategy might be more efficiently developed. Within each profile, there are sub-categories that can be used to guide practitioners toward a more holistic analysis of their target audience. For example, the country profile includes an assessment of a particular country’s economic, media, political and geographic infrastructure. These elements alone are critical to a communicator’s appreciation for the publics with whom they want to communicate. ORGANIZATIONAL Management Organizations that have a clear dominant coalition positioned at the top are more apt to display cultural traits that are more centralized, and highly authoritative. Centralized organizational cultures are inclined to lean towards “top management, including the board, explicitly reserving the right to decide all appointments, major decisions and universal control” (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 2002, p. 197). Highly authoritative, organizational cultures tend to prefer employees to exhibit highly formal behavior, including they way in which communication activities which are situated in an asymmetrical approach. In addition, employees are not consulted on or included in major decision-making processes. Thus, “bureaucracies fragment organizations by developing detailed, overlapping requirements that necessitate managerial oversight” (Cloke & Goldsmith, 2002, p. 93). In contrast, if an organization operates from a perspective that is more participative, the organization will likely tend to lean toward an environment that supports greater, dialogic communication. In addition, these are environments where teamwork is valued, and decisionmaking is extended towards all members of the team. In this setting, communication is both twoway and symmetrical and often more effective than highly authoritative organizations. For example, Cloke and Goldsmith (2002) note that highly effective teams tend to exhibit one or more of the following qualities: focused goals and objectives, consumer-oriented, shared leadership among those involved, as well as a “high-level of trust, respect and honesty; a willingness to work through and resolve conflicts; respect for diversity and strong organizational 64 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Collaborative Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Examination of the International Public Relations Agency Involvement in the United Nations Global Compact support” (p. 201). Essentially, these organizations are not just concerned with building and maintaining relationships outside the organization, but internally as well. The level of sophistication in determining how an organization will approach communication with a global audience is inspired by how the organization operates its own cultural landscape. Therefore, the position is that if culture is truly going to influence the practice of international public relations, in a more expansive and socially responsible way, then it is to the organization’s benefit to move toward adopting an organizational culture that is both decentralized, or at the very least, attempts to foster a more participative, cultural environment. CSR and Coalition-Building While it is imperative to describe the activities that constitute a CSR program, it is similarly important to identify and review some of the seminal definitions of the concept. Therefore, in order to appropriately place the context for the proposed research, this section will define the concept of CSR, as well as discuss its application and influence on the public relations practice. Carroll (1979, as cited in Pirsch, Gupta & Grau, 2006) posited that CSR—as a construct—“encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time” (p. 126). Furthermore, according to Pirsch, Gupta, and Grau (2006), Carroll also “argued that these responsibilities are not only performed for the firm’s sake, but also for the sake of society at large” (p. 126). Ledingham and Bruning (2001) indicated that “although the relationship [that is formed through community involvement] is mutually dependent, it is not necessarily mutually beneficial” (p. 527). This means that any involvement in a community setting must be carefully planned as to maximize the benefit to both the community that is receiving the benefit, as well as to the company, so as to maintain their status within the community in which they operate. When the Global Compact was initially established by former Secretary General, Kofi Annan in 1999, it seemed like a partnership from which both parties—the organization and participant—could benefit, especially in light of the rise in activism during the mid-1990s against globalization. Perhaps this is because, as noted by Deva (2006), corporations may have begun to think that “this partnership could somewhat soften the resistance that they were facing from anticapitalism, anti-WTO and anti-globalization movements” (p. 110). The UN Global Compact was developed to provide an avenue for the UN to address and persuade action from a formative coalition of multi-sector signatories, which are brought together and assembled in order to confront corporate citizenship and development issues around the world. In addition, the Global Compact has experienced rapid growth among its participant base. For example, in 2005, there were over 2,000 companies and organizations from over 80 countries (Global Compact Office), and the most recent figures, as of June 2007, report that there are now more than 4,000 participants from more than 100 countries (Global Compact Annual Review, 2007). Consisting of diverse signatories/members, the Global Compact initiative actively encourages participant organizations and their executive leadership to enter into a voluntary partnership to maximize societal benefits, by endorsing and effectively integrating the guiding principles of the program philosophy into their daily business practices. Four themes were established, and within those, ten Compact Principles emerged. Addressed in the Global Compact Office (2005) literature, the principles are developed around and address concerns related to human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. Sustained participation in the Global Compact is contingent on the organization’s timely submission of annual Communication on Progress (COP) reports, which became a standard practice in 2005. These documents are mandatory and specifically outline how the participating organization has used the selected Compact Principles—based on their Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 65 Leslie Simone Byrd organizational needs—to develop their practices and tasks. In addition to providing basic information on how the Global Compact influences the organization’s business functions, the COP documents, they help to preserve “the integrity of the initiative, but also builds the Global Compact brand and the broader business case for corporate citizenship” (UN Global Compact Annual Review, 2007, p. 51). Williams (2004), in a study that examined both praise and criticism of the Global Compact, began his analysis with a discussion of how the initiative came to fruition. In doing so, the author stressed that the Compact was developed as a voluntary process, however “U.S. businesses, for the most part, have not signed on”. There could be many reasons for this. Perhaps the most glaring cause is the litigious nature within the United States. Aside from fear of having their organization’s so-called, ‘dirty laundry’ aired for public scrutiny, most companies tend to remain hesitant on the issue of the Global Compact and instead opt to funnel energy, time and financial support to the development of their own charitable activities and causes. Another possibility as to why more U.S.-based companies haven’t signed on to the Compact surrounds the issue of how to precisely measure accountability standards. In this regard, most of the criticisms are coming from scholars who study codes of conduct and “see the Compact as another code without accountability, a public relations document without substance” (p. 757). Still, those who suggest strengthening organizational codes of conduct must be well aware that, even in spite of the best intentions, wrongdoing could occur at any time by a variety of organizational actors. A code of conduct is merely a composition of words strung together and placed on a corporate website; unless organizational leadership give it meaning and value by their actions and behavior, then it is highly unlikely it would be strictly adhered to. Though the Global Compact is praised as a well-intentioned program for global social responsibility, Prasad (2004) argues that the Compact has largely been more beneficial to developed nations, rather than those who are in dire need. In his specific analysis of the Pacific Forum Island Countries (FICs); in countries such as Papua New Ginuea and the Solomon Islands, he asserts that the majority of the environment in this location is still very much fragile, not having the basic necessities such as “clean water, sanitation and access to health and education”. Additionally, markets are restricted in what they can do, locally, for citizens (p. 66). The truth of the matter is that the Global Compact is not a quick-fix, nor is it a utopian solution to a multifaceted problem that has existed for quite some time. Nevertheless, the initiative should be understood as a work in progress and recognized as one of the few large, international organizations that has been successful in fostering such an endeavor. Using the premise set forth by Theiren and Pouliot (2006), the Global Compact can be viewed as an expression of an emerging trend of international cooperation. Whereas for decades, the business sector was seen by UN agencies as contributing the problem of development, it is now considered as part of the solution. Because of this change in thinking on the part of the UN, the Global Compact stands out because it offers an opportunity to build a coalition among the private sector and the UN to encourage partnerships and diplomatic efforts. Methodology Overall, a single, embedded case study was developed which included three subunits of analysis: (a) in-depth interviews, (b) primary document analysis, and (c) secondary document analysis. In-depth interviews were conducted with one senior-level executive from each of the two agencies that were examined. Primary document analysis focused solely on the Communication on Progress (COP) reports which must be submitted on a bi-annual basis by 66 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Collaborative Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Examination of the International Public Relations Agency Involvement in the United Nations Global Compact every Global Compact participant. Secondary document analysis included any agency-produced materials, such as speeches/presentations, as well as articles written for business publications. Interviews lasted between 30-45 minutes, and used a semi-structured interview protocol. Questions were developed around the three independent concepts of: (a) problem recognition, (b) constraint recognition, and (c) level of involvement. In terms of identifying the issues that relate to problem recognition, the research participants were asked about how the management and leadership in the agency arrived at the decision to join the Global Compact and how they felt about their agency’s participation in the Global Compact. Because constraint recognition identifies what obstacles might prevent change from occurring, participants were asked questions about how others in dominant coalition assessed the worthiness of joining the Global Compact, and what steps were taken to determine how the Compact Principles would be integrated into the agency’s practice. Two COP reports were analyzed from each agency. Also, a third document which was not characterized as a COP, but rather a case study from that agency’s work with the Global Compact Learning Forum, was included because it was listed among the COP reports. It should be noted that these COP documents are purely self-reported data from the agencies. Aside from this fact, these COP reports do provide a starting point in understanding how organizations that participate in the Global Compact say how they have adopted and integrated the most applicable of the 10 Compact Principles into its operations. Secondary document analysis examined and described the additional documents that were provided by each agency executive. In order to adequately address the desired goals of the research, open coding techniques to both the interview and document data were applied. In terms of the in-depth interviews and the document analysis, this analysis integrates “the initial, unrestricted code of data, where the analyst usually goes through the text line by line and marks those chunks of text that suggest a category (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002, p. 219). Specifically, the data was framed around the research questions and theoretical frameworks that were integrated to drive this research. After the completion of each interview session, the participant’s responses were fully transcribed and examined to establish patterns or themes that emerged. Interview data that corresponded to the situational theory of publics concepts of: (a) problem recognition, (b) constraint recognition and (c) level of involvement were assessed by applying a textual analysis. Textual analysis was selected over traditional content analysis because the latter tends to “obscure the interpretive processes that turn talk into text” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 640), while the textual approach allows for greater understanding of the social world that is being observed. Results Both Ketchum and Ruder Finn were two of the first American-based, international public relations agencies to become active participants in the Global Compact in 2001—a year after the initiative was formally launched. Since that time, both agencies have pursued integration of the Compact Principles through both similar, and diverse ways. What sets these agencies apart from the more than 3,500 corporate participants, is that the work of their organizations is not rooted in the manufacturing of products and services—at least in the traditional sense. For instance, neither Ketchum nor Ruder Finn produces computer hardware or apparel. However, international public relations agencies are in the business of creating and disseminating strategic communication—on behalf of their clients which do include manufacturing companies. Although many of the Compact Principles are more in keeping with manufacturing companies, public relations agencies must still consider the most applicable of the 10 existing Compact Principles that might fit into the overall operation of the agency. In a preliminary examination of the interview transcripts and documents that were examined, involvement in the Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 67 Leslie Simone Byrd Global Compact was focused to occur on two levels within the agencies. On the internal level, there are a number of Compact Principles, particularly those that relate to labor practices, which are applicable and can potentially assist in the shaping of organizational policies and initiatives within the agency. On the other end of the spectrum and from an external perspective, the results have suggested that while they are not able to integrate the use of all ten Compact Principles, these agency executives have used their participatory status in the Global Compact to educate and counsel current and potential clients as to the benefits of belonging to an international initiative. AGENCY Motivation for Joining the Global Compact The first of the three independent concepts of situational theory, problem recognition, revolves around the identification and understanding of how a situation, or in this case, an opportunity is discovered. Although the point at which these agencies officially became participants in the Global Compact is significant to this research, the theoretical framework also suggests that the desire to seek further information about the problem or opportunity must be present in order to proceed with taking action. Therefore, it was just as important to understand what events led these agency executives to pursue participation in the Global Compact. Additionally, Grunig posited that based on the circumstances involved, decision-makers will determine how to proceed based on the analysis of events that prompted a move in this direction and the information that was obtained. As such, the first research question was developed around this theoretical concept of problem recognition, and sought to lay the foundation for understanding how leaders in American-based, international public relations agencies decided to pursue participation in the Global Compact. During the in-depth interview sessions, a series of questions were asked of these seniorlevel executives that directly related to how the agency arrived at the decision to join the Global Compact. While the primary questions asked how the members of the agency’s dominant coalition decided to join the Global Compact, there were follow-up questions that sought to extract additional information as to the identity of other key decision-makers who might have played a role in this process. Specifically speaking to his agency’s decision to join the Global Compact, one executive said: It was a natural decision to become part of an organization that would promote the concept [of corporate social responsibility] not only domestically but globally; to contribute to that organization in terms of the experience and acumen that we had acquired of the many years; it certainly was a place where our expertise could be exhibited. In contrast to the first agency’s motivation for joining the Global Compact, the response from the second agency executive interviewed suggested that this agency’s participation in the Global Compact emerged “in an unusual way”, through a previous interpersonal relationship between the agency’s chairman, David Finn, and former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Because of this close relationship, this agency executive noted: We worked closely with him [former Secretary-General Kofi Annan] on different projects and when his idea of the Global Compact came up, we were strong supporters. We actually did some PR work to publicize this program. 68 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Collaborative Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Examination of the International Public Relations Agency Involvement in the United Nations Global Compact PERCIEVED Obstacles to Participation in the Global Compact The second independent concept of the situational theory, constraint recognition, rests on uncovering what if any obstacles or protests there may have been to the acceptance of a particular message by the intended audience. In analysis of this second concept is also when hesitation might arise because individuals feel limited in terms of their ability to influence a situation. In this research, this concept of constraint recognition was examined by asking the interview participants if there were individuals, specifically those in positions of power, who voiced opposition to the agency’s interest in participating in the Global Compact. In the event that responses were not as detailed, accompanying questions sought to uncover if interview participants had personal concerns that the voiced about participation in the Global Compact, what those exact issues were and how they were resolved. On a broader level, the participants were asked if: (a) there were other members of the dominant coalition who were not in favor of joining the Global Compact, (b) what issues were raised during the discussion and how did they bring to discussion, and (c) how their concerns were addressed. While both participants noted that there was virtually no existing hesitation to the Compact, they did note difficulties on the part of the organizations, mostly corporate, to which they frequently provided counseling services. On the issue of whether or not there were individuals in the organization who voiced concern and protest against the agency’s participation in the Global Compact, the interviewee indicated that while the internal process of joining the Global Compact “moved up the chain very rapidly”, there were some difficulties in terms of legal department necessitating an evaluation of the agency’s liability, if any, would surface because of the participation in the Global Compact. For instance, some companies that are clients that represent American-based multinational corporations are hesitant to join the Global Compact because of the legal atmosphere in the United States. Particularly, there has always been a culture that relies on vigorous litigation, especially as it relates to and involves large, multi-billion dollar corporations, and because of this, the agency executive said, “that is why if you study the membership rolls, you will find that American-based companies are not as heavily represented in the membership ranks as companies that are headquartered in Europe or Asia”. Furthermore, he added: That is largely a question of the legal counsel officers in many of these companies who have raised concerns about what truly membership in the Compact represents, and what obligations it really requires, and whether there are legal commitments that could be costly and could be difficult to implement. So that was not a problem with us but with some companies that has become a problem. The Compact has addressed that in terms of securing a letter from the American Bar Association, which I think ameliorates some of those concerns. INTEGRATION of the Compact Principles into the Agency Business In addition, one of the interview participants openly discussed how agency employees in other practice areas had no genuine knowledge or insight into the agency’s involvement in the Global Compact. Because of this, the agency is seeking to increase internal awareness of the Global Compact by developing a new campaign that will specifically target all agency employees. The overall goal is to make employees more of the central focus for the application of the Compact Principles because “it is based primarily on seeing to it that our employees around the world understand that we indeed do want to walk the talk”. In addition, he also added: Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 69 Leslie Simone Byrd It is not a matter of simply advising our clients, but that we want to act responsibly and so we will be encouraging our employees to be much more environmentally conscious; they are, as well. A lot of this program development is really responsive to the initiatives of employees themselves, who want to work for a company that clearly, not only meets the standards of the Compact but in day-to-day operations - to use a terribly overworked word - that it is truly green. So we are working at that and we will have a comprehensive program that we will announce very shortly. The second agency executive said that his agency’s emphasis on integrating the Compact principles, has been concentrated in “the communications area in terms of how we, first of all promote the Compact. Second, how we encourage our clients and others to join the Compact and we generally operate in a corporate responsibility mode”. Analysis of the interview data and COP documents indicate that dominant coalition members determined that there was some level of difficulty in integrating the majority of the 10 Compact Principles into their agency’s practice. Both suggested, in the interview sessions, that although communications firms do provide a service, they differ from corporations that manufacture consumer goods, such as apparel or food products. They also implied that the Compact Principles are of more use to such corporations, and because many are clients of their agencies, they counsel clients on the benefits of participating in the Global Compact. Of the two agencies examined in this research, Ketchum’s approach to engaging in the Global Compact appeared to take a more holistic approach. Among the two sets of available COPs, the documents provided by Ketchum were much more exhaustive in terms of (a) describing what the agency has done to address the current Compact Principles, as well as (b) outlining other initiatives that the agency has pursued on its own accord that would be commendable by Global Compact standards. While Ruder Finn’s COP did not engage in as much detail as Ketchum’s COPs, they engaged in a somewhat thorough description of each enterprise that the agency has pursued in the spirit of the Global Compact. In particular, various programs including a global HIV/AIDS campaign in China and an integrated marketing communications program to support the sale of baskets made by Rwandan women were included in this COP installment. Overall, these programs adhere to the Compact Principles, and though specific Compact Principles are not identified by name, these initiatives most closely relate to the principles that address human rights. While the COPs provided a fitting introduction as to how these agencies have negotiated their participation in the Global Compact within their respective organizations, secondary document analysis was adapted towards comprehension of how the agency’s commitment to upholding the Compact Principles converged with documents that emerged from speaking engagements at trade association meetings, and through articles composed by agency executives. The glaring difference is that Ruder Finn’s COP lacks the detail of Ketchum’s COP. SECONDARY Document Analysis The secondary documents collected were analyzed using the same criteria applied to the primary documentation. These documents are also self-reported, and extend the information that was retrieved through the COP reports. In the Winter 2006 issue of Corporate Responsibility Officer, which is described as a “useful editorial for executives faced with making corporate responsibility decisions for their organization” (CRO, Media Kit, 2007), an article was written by one of the agency executives who participated in this research. The article was shared as a way to demonstrate how this agency has worked to involve the mission of the Global Compact into the goals of the agency, but to also convey those sentiments and provide valuable advice to other 70 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Collaborative Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Examination of the International Public Relations Agency Involvement in the United Nations Global Compact CSR officers. The piece emphasizes how to approach engaging in dialogue with the other seniorlevel executives, notably those with a high degree of decision-making ability, about CSR issues. Although this article is appropriately targeted towards individuals who develop CSR programs, the publication’s existence speaks to the embrace among corporations to take CSR programs and initiatives seriously. In addition, the walls that once guarded CEOs and other top executives from the general employee population are coming down as a result of corporate scandals and ethics violations. Therefore, corporate leaders those have begun to understand the necessity of communication, with both their internal and external audiences. Moreover, this piece accentuates the continuing conversation on CSR initiatives. However, the article barely mentions the benefits of participating in the Global Compact. Specifically, the Global Compact is only mentioned once when the author identifies the various organizations that are leading the charge in the CSR arena, including The Conference Board and The Business Roundtable. One of the reasons for this might be because the intent of the article is to not necessarily convey to readers that the need to convince the CEOs of their organizations to buy into the Global Compact, but rather start down that path by merely having an open dialogue about CSR with their organizational leadership. Attempts were made to search, through the use of the Internet, and by contacting the executive that was interviewed from Ruder Finn to request any additional documents. These internet searches for agency-produced search were unsuccessful in obtaining external materials that would speak to Ruder Finn’s ongoing involvement in the Global Compact. The difficulty in obtaining additional documentation that spoke to Ruder Finn’s involvement in the Global Compact suggests a larger problem. First, it exhibits neglect on the part of agency leaders to ensure that its voluntary obligations are being met by providing data that is only required on an annual basis. Second, it brings up the issue transparency and how many American-based corporations continue to see full disclosure of financial or other corporate information as insignificant. Finally, the inability to locate pertinent documents from these agencies reinforces the negative perception of the public relations practice, while making it all the more difficult to encourage change. INDEPENDENT Sources: Criticisms of Public Relations and the Global Compact As addressed in the literature review, generally views on the Global Compact and many of its participants are mixed. For example, there are factions that support the organization and what it is attempting to do because they, as suggested by Soederberg (2007) “believe that voluntary measures are more effective and viable in achieving socially accountable behavior than regulatory means” (p. 502). In contrast, others emphasize the initiative’s shortcomings and call for further enforcement among participants if the organization is to be truly committed to addressing social issues. For instance, in a critical assessment of the Global Compact, Soederberg (2007) indicates that too much of the analysis that has examined the Global Compact thus far and praised it for its initiatives, has spent an overwhelming amount of time on its problem-solving potential, and fails to analyze the partnership thorough a critical approach, “which would seek to explain social change by making sense of the underlying contradictions and struggles associated with the UN strategy of corporate citizenship” (p. 503). Therefore, this section extends the discussion of these concerns to examine and understand: (a) the criticisms aimed at the Global Compact in general and (b) the critics who specifically examine the participation of public relations agencies in the Global Compact. By engaging in this discussion, it will provide an understanding as to why the Global Compact continues to be criticized by NGOs and activist groups. Currently, the overarching criticism is Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 71 Leslie Simone Byrd that the Global Compact is nothing more than a comprehensive public relations campaign for participants and lacks any significant ability to influence change in business practices among corporations. Reinforcing this idea, Furchtgott-Roth (2007) explained in a New York Sun article that “the vast majority of American companies do not participate. For the corporations that participate, the benefit is supposedly public relations, particularly for corporations with spotty records on labor and the environment”. Another resource that focuses on critiquing the Global Compact, is the Global Compact Critics weblog, which is an extensive site which includes a wealth of information that is updated regularly (primarily on a daily basis) and is critical of every facet of the Global Compact organization. The site is managed through the Netherlands-based, Center for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and is described as: An informal network of organizations and people with concerns about the UN Global Compact. On this blog we gather and share information about the Global Compact, partnerships between the United Nations and companies, and corporate accountability. It is not a database, but rather a collection of opinions, news items and background information (Global Compact Critics, 2008). In early 2008, this weblog reported and provided a link to a press release on the Global Compact’s website which indicated that the organization moved to permanently removed nearly 400 corporate participants who had not provided a COP report in more than a year. This move comes shortly after “the initiative’s multi-stakeholder Board meeting in November 2007” (United Nations Global Compact News & Events, 2008). Also in regard to the controversy surrounding the COP reports, the weblog contained a Financial Times article from mid-January in which Mackintosh (2008) reported that investors of some European companies have protested the lack of oversight in submitting timely COP reports, and accuse nearly 80 companies of “breaching pledges to a United Nations agreement on society and the environment by failing to publish progress reports”. The mixed results of these agencies involvement in the Global Compact suggests that the public relations field has quite a distance to go in changing the perception of the practice. Those on the academic side of public relations understand that the practice is not truly about spin or manipulation, even though these are the roots that have defined it. Discussion/Conclusion Overall, the findings revealed that among the two agencies, Ketchum is currently pursuing a more holistic approach to integrating the Compact Principles into their practice. Not only did they report that they are actively advising clients on the benefits of involvement in the Global Compact, but the agency executives who were most invested in this pursuit, frequently sought additional ways opportunities outside the agency to strengthen its commitment. In the analysis of problem recognition, neither agency executive indicated that a significant event, such as a crisis, led either agency dominant coalition to participate in the Global Compact. Instead, Ketchum’s executive suggested that his agency wanted to reaffirm and strengthen its commitment to address the issues that the Global Compact promotes. To fulfill this goal, the agency had begun to explore internal avenues for emphasizing the importance of the Global Compact to employees to reiterate that they must practice what they preach. In contrast, the Ruder Finn’s executive noted that his agency’s participation in the Global Compact stemmed from a pre-existing, interpersonal relationship between the agency’s chairman and the formerSecretary General of the United Nations. And based on the minimal information obtained through 72 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Collaborative Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Examination of the International Public Relations Agency Involvement in the United Nations Global Compact the interview data and document analysis, it seemed that there was very little support for the Global Compact within this particular agency among leaders and employees. This void in documentation that could have spoken to this agency’s overall role and specific level of involvement in the Global Compact was alarming, especially when the personal connection of this agency to the Global Compact and its founder is considered. Furthermore, this lack of information raises concerns about the level of commitment, not to mention credibility, this agency has for using their skills and abilities to adequately address the themes that the Global Compact supports. In terms of constraint recognition, both agency executives noted that there were no major internal obstacles that hindered their plans to join the Global Compact. However, the agency executive from Ketchum did point out that legal counsel required a review of the Global Compact materials before they could officially endorse and participate in the initiative. If there were additional constraints that might have presented a problem for either agency to participate in the Global Compact, they were minimal and not addressed by the agency executives during the interview sessions. Part of Grunig’s situational theory assumes that the absence of or few constraints which can hinder the ability to become involved in addressing a problem or opportunity would result in a higher degree of involvement. While there was some support for this, the findings were not unanimous. For example, both agency executives agreed that there were very few internal obstacles when participation in the Global Compact was sought. However, the findings also revealed that the lack of numerous obstacles does not automatically translate to extensive involvement. This minimal integration of the Compact Principles into these agencies practice of public relations, at this point is inadequate. Not only was there no information available for this research that could confirm and reveal how the Compact Principles were used in client sessions, it calls into question the true motivation for these agency’s involvement in the Global Compact. The question also remains if these agencies joined the Global Compact precisely because they saw their participation as less risky because they do not manufacture consumer products, and are thus, less liable than other corporate and/or business participants. In addition, this research reinforced the need for public relations professionals to aggressively advocate for greater transparent measures to be developed and enforced within their organizations. It would also be fruitful for professionals to be introspective of how they handle their daily tasks and projects to reflect on how they might modify their own behavior. Overall, the involvement in international CSR programs and activities are commendable, but this participation is futile if professionals are not doing as they advise their clients to do. In fact, participation in CSR, without these changes to the public relations practice, are nothing more than a ‘spin’ job and does a disservice to those actively involved in wanting to change the practice of public relations for the better. On a broader level, future research initiatives in this area should continue to explore the relationship between the contemporary public relations profession and CSR programs— especially in the United States. The obstacles that confronted this research process in its early stages should be viewed as opportunities to widen the call for greater collaboration. Public relations professionals and academicians who study the public relations discipline must begin to bridge the gap if change is to be made possible. As it relates to public relations research, there are a variety of channels that are available for the application of alternative perspectives. Moreover, future research can embrace the idea that public relations professionals can begin to use their talents and expertise to be more influential, especially to address social issues. A viable CSR effort can act as a catalyst to extend symmetrical research because it has the ability to relegate the role of the organization as ‘part’ of the community in which it operates, as opposed Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 73 Leslie Simone Byrd to being considered ‘the’ entity that the community is centered around. This would facilitate greater two-way communication between the organization and its publics. Therefore, not only should future research continue to add to the general body of knowledge, but it should also provide useful prescriptions to professionals who are engaged in the daily practice of public relations. References Aldoory, L., Sha, B-L. (2007). The situational theory of publics: Practical applications, methodological challenges and theoretical horizons. In E.L. 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Why globalization works. Yale University Press: New Haven, CT. Zaharna, R.S. (2001). “In-awareness” approach to international public relations. Public Relations Review, 27, 135-148. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 75 Leslie Simone Byrd 76 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Strategic Role of Corporate Communication for Health Care Provider Maria De Luca University of Studies of Insubria, Italy [email protected] Health care providers seem to have introduced, at large, corporate communication activity within their organizations, but this function is often perceived and managed as an operative rather than a strategic tool. This approach seems to be inappropriate under a theoretical point of view, nor effective under a practical one. This paper aims at analyzing the strategic correlation between the systemic nature of organizations, relational approaches development, communication needs evolution, corporate communication function introduction and management by service providers and, in particular, by those providing “credence goods”. The analysis has been made on a peculiar kind of “credence goods” providers: health care ones. The nature of the service they provide and the role of internal and external stakeholders they are influenced by, make their systemic nature evident, and their relational capability strategic. Health care providers seem to have introduced, at large, corporate communication activity within their organizations. They begin to manage communication towards patients and have a press office, or a public relations bureau 1, but what kind of approach do they adopt? Do they recognize the strategic relevance of corporate communication, and do they manage it as a strategic activity, or rather as an operative function, useful to facilitate problem solving? The analysis of the evolving context, in which health care providers perform their activity, may help us to answer these questions. A Context Analysis Health care services in Europe 2, in the past, have often been provided by private and public entities. They are product oriented, and busy in offering the better disease treatment 3 without being worried of the cost level achieved in their institutional activity. While private entities were influenced, in their entrepreneurial decisions, by the necessity to respect economic and financial equilibrium constrain, public ones were not worried about this topic, because local 1 For example, in Italy, a law concerning the duty, for public entities, to have an office directed to manage relationships with clients/consumers has been established through D.Lgs n. 29 in 1993 and, with separate acts (Law n. 150/2000, DPR n. 422/2001 and D.P.C.M. on 07.02.2002), Italian government has given instructions about the duties and organization form of these offices. So their establishment and operational activity is interested , in Italy, by a recent evolution. 2 The European welfare states are still different from the USA one, characterized by high degree of tax financing, public ownership of production of resources and political responsibility for welfare, whereas the US system, in spite of efforts to introduce managed care, is more fragmented (Normann, Adrvisson, 2006, p.1) 3 Considered as the better treatment possible inside each organization, because the absence of competitive pressures has mitigated the necessity of comparison with competitors and also external impulses towards higher service quality standards. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 77 Maria de Luca governments provide themselves the economic and financial resources they need. Nowadays, in a context characterized by limited public financial resources and by limitations to public expenses, and also to those directed to health care sector, health care organizations are all forced to consider their institutional activity exercised under economic and financial constrains, in order to research higher efficiency and efficacy of the services produced and delivered and to manage strategically distinctive resources and capabilities, as well as, environmental opportunities and threats (Grant, 1998). There is a general trend in business: to look at customers as resources of value creation and not only as passive receivers or consumers. Can this concept be applied successfully to the health care sector? The word chosen to define the receiver of health care services is not merely a semantic question, but a conceptual and strategic one: it implies very different perspectives of an individual’s relationship to care. A distinction may be made between the terms patient and customer. Considering the individual as a customer, and not as a mere patient, implies: - recognizing that the relationship between the individual and the health care provider is not limited to the treatment of an acute illness state, but continues after and beyond the actual care episode, through the activities of prevention, wealth promotion, diagnosis, care, follow-up and long term assistance; - assuming a more humanistic perspective of individuals, rather than a diagnosisrelated one; - focusing on health and wellness, rather than on disease; - considering the individual not as a powerless receiver of treatments, but as a value co-producer, interacting with health care providers in defining, producing and delivering health care services. According to this perspective, he may not be considered a consumer, but a pro-sumer (Toffler, 1980 in Normann, 2002 – p.110), because he not only receives something, but takes part to service-producing activity. Both information diffusion and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) development contribute to an increase in individual knowledge on health. 4 The diversity of demands on caregivers act as development catalysts. The emerging trend is that of a customer driven health care demand, and competition between health care providers is based on their capability to satisfy this emerging differentiate demand; mass market strategies in the health care sector are no more successful, unless for minor, not complex, repetitive services (for example, check-ups, physicals reservation, examinations outcomes delivery, archives management), which might be made more efficient through ICT tools introduction. Towards Post-Modern Approach to Health Care Providers Management and Communication The traditional ontology of management sciences is based on Newton’s discoveries and his description of the world in a set of laws of nature, which give the key to man not being controlled by, but influencing and dominating the world. When Newton’s theories are translated into managerial practices, management sees its role as reducing conflict, creating order, controlling chaos and simplifying all the complexities created by the environment. According to this, the traditional approach to strategic management is based on a set of goals and objectives. Possible outcomes are predicted and alternatives for action are planned. Adopting a planned approach to strategic management implies considering strategy as a plan (Graetz et al., 2002; p. 4 Individuals have an extremely high “health creating potential”, especially concerning prevention, diagnosis, assistance and health problems deriving from personal lifestyle. 78 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Strategic Role of Corporate Communication for Health Care Provider 51), to provide a framework for decision making, to control and manage environmental influences, to make results tangible, controlling processes, achieving competitive advantage (Sanders, 1998), providing security around uncertainties, adopting fixed patterns and plans with limited flexibility. The strategic process is usually described as well defined steps or stages, that follow one another: research, planning, implementation and evaluation (Cutlip et al., 1994; Kendall, 1992; Oliver 2001; Smith, 2002). The European welfare states, and most European health care providers, are modelled on this traditional framework. Even the introduction of managerial tools in public entities has not changed this approach, based on standardizing, cost reduction, mass production and the so-called industrialism 5. Identical treatment of everyone continues to be a word of honour, often protected by confused reasoning about democracy. Customers continue to be seen as passive receivers, as patients who are supposed to be satisfied with the services they receive (Normann, Ardvisson, 2006). Mass communication approach, from the organization to the environment, is typical of this evolutionary stage. Successive recognition of clients as single entities, and not only as an undiversified market and shift, from production to relation with clients and from transaction to relationship development, was at the basis of the service approach (Eigler, Langeard, 1987) and of a new strategic paradigm: the customer based management (Normann, 2002, p. 25). According to this approach, customers are vital sources of information for the organization. They are to be gathered and managed, and the productive process became more strategic than product/service itself. Moreover, productive process effectiveness was based on the consonance between customers’ claims and the organizations’ activity output and depends on the capability to refocus the whole organization activity around customer satisfaction goal. The critical role performed by employees and by internal communication development emerges, together with an increasing necessity to manage an organizational change consonant with customer claims. Corporate communication among health care providers appears very much in line with the aforementioned general strategic management views of structured planning and decision making, adopting a top-down, technical and tactical approach, whose emphasis is on the planning process of campaigns and communication plans. Some authors call this process “communication management planning” (Steyn and Puth, 2000; Gruning and Repper, 1992; White and Dozier, 1992) and distinguish it from “corporate communication strategy”. Steyn (2002) refers to this difference when he explains that “where strategic thinking determines the strategy (i.e. what the organization should be doing), strategic, long term and operational planning helps to choose how to get there, by programming the strategies, making them operational”. Strategy is the outcome of strategic thinking. It has an external, long term focus, and is proactive and not adaptive. The emerging of a more self-conscious and critical consumer, and of his increasing capability to establish relationships and communicate his needs, and eventual dissatisfaction for the service received, force health care providers, and public entities, to integrate their corporate communication function. They create an office, a structure, and a team to manage these bottomup communications, but the approach is still adaptive and operative: they act as facilitators and problem solvers. At the same time, even internal communication, at first, follows a top/down approach, seen as relations facilitator or problem solver inside the organization and, only in some cases, as a value driver for improving the rapidity or effectiveness of organizational change focused on customer satisfaction goal. Traditional approach to health care providers management and corporate communication appears to be inappropriate: 5 It is the result of the “Production-line Approach to Service” theorized by Levitt in 1972. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 79 Maria de Luca - environmental complexity cannot be manipulated nor governed; facing environmental changes, only through an adaptive approach, makes organizations unable to anticipate and influence consumers needs and demand evolution; - thinking of organizations as “isolatable real entities or attributes which can be systematically described and explained and therefore, meaningfully compared” (Chia, 1995, p. 583) implies not considering their actual complexity, in terms of intricate patterns and networks of interactions and relationships; - managerial and communication top-down approaches have a limited capability to be effective in this complex context and - thinking of corporate communication as a mere operative activity, or as a conflicting relationships facilitator, is reductive, misunderstanding its strategic potential, and not effective, bringing organizations to suffer relationships rather than to manage and develop them in a profitable way. The so-called post-modernism arises as a response to the failure or natural consequence of the shortcomings of traditional scientific approach to strategic management theory (Chia, 1995; Cova, 1996; Jackson and Carter, 1992) and customer based management. It is described by Cova as the integration of new models into a generic perspective on life and human condition (1996, p. 15), which arises from a more organic world view of science, management and basic thinking methodologies. This accentuates the importance of interaction, relationships and selfregulation. Productive and relational competence, in a customer based perspective, are no more sufficient, the new strategic paradigm is based on the recognition of the active role of customers, as value co-producers, and on strategic capability of organizations of managing complex relational systems, co-producing value for customers (Normann, 2002, p.27); a reticular organization structure emerges 6. The corporate communication process of strategic thinking evolves with “senior communicators and top managers taking strategic decisions with regard to the identification and management of, and communication with, strategic stakeholders” (Steyn, 2002, p. 126). Strategic corporate communication is based on the identification of the strategic stakeholders and publics of the organization through environmental analysis (Ferguson, 1999; Grunig and Repper, 1992; Grunig et al., 2002; Steyn and Puth, 2000), both external and internal (Ferguson, 1999), followed by definition of problems, which could have an impact on the organization or the stakeholders. This would lead to the setting of communication strategies, goals and objectives of the organization, out of which communication plans are developed. This view of strategic corporate communication coincides with the strategic management perspective of the organization as a network of relationships (Harrison, 2003; Steyn and Puth, 2000), which considers its strategic interest and will change its behaviour, in order to cooperate with critical stakeholders in co-producing value for the whole system. But are health care providers the result of a network of relationships? And is their relational capability strategically crucial? 6 For more details about the concept and model of reticular organizations and their communication needs, cfr Invernizzi et al., 2000, p.147ss) 80 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Strategic Role of Corporate Communication for Health Care Provider Health Care Providers as Systemic Organizations Organizations are complex systems, in which the interaction, between the components of the system and between the system and the environment, are so intricate that it is impossible to completely understand the system by simple studying the components (Cilliers, 1998). Relationships and interactions of complex systems shift, change and transform. All the subsystems of a complex system interact and form relationships, creating information and knowledge through these interactions. According to Cilliers, a system will develop a selforganizing process, as a result of complex interactions between the environment, the current state of the system and the history of the system itself (Cilliers 1998, 89). Self-organization is a “property of complex systems which enables them to develop or change internal structure spontaneously and adaptively, in order to cope with or manipulate, their environment” (Cilliers, 1998; 90). The use of the term system, as referred to economic entities and applied to business management, is not a recent discovery. It was adopted, for example, by those scientists who developed the tailored organization of work and the concept of the men-machine system or by those theorists studying the reciprocity of relationships between the individuals inside an organization. Its application to productive and decisional units of the firms is relatively recent (Panati, Golinelli; 1994). In this field, the system is referred to as “a set of interacting elements” (Von Bertalanffy, 1971). So, for being a system, an organization must be: - composed by a certain number of material and intangible elements, constituting the structure of the system (i.e. technical factors: knowledge, capital, human resources, work,...); - those elements must interact and communicate, between themselves and with the environment; - each interaction must be functional to the achievement of goals, defined by an internal or external decision centre (Panati, Golinelli, 1994). The definition of system, applied to business management studies, extends those applied to organizations. Although each economic organization is an open system, there are systems which could not be considered economic organizations, because of the absence of an autonomous decision making centre towards which the organizational activity is directed. However, there is another relevant difference between economic organizations and organizations. Systems can be open or closed, depending on the degree of interaction they have with the environment: - if interaction is negative or equal to zero, the elements composing the system will interact only between themselves, and the system will be considered closed; - if interaction is positive, and the elements composing the system bargain material goods and intangibles with the environment, the system will be considered open. According to the definition, economic organizations are always open systems, and their bonds are established according to the way in which the lifecycle “inputs-transformation-outputs” is influenced by positive interaction between the firm itself and its environment. According to this approach, they overcome the traditional meaning of organization, becoming more like a biological organism, part of a vast system and composed of interacting sub-systems. Relational implications of this approach are obvious. If economic organizations are open systems, their survival capability depends on their attitude to manage relationships with internal sub-systems and external systems (Golinelli, 2000; Cafferata, 1995). Moreover, economic organizations cannot be considered a result of isolated cause-effect events, as it was in a deterministic Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 81 Maria de Luca traditional perspective, but as the result of multiple interrelations in a complex context, in a more holistic and modern perception. Economic organizations, operating in complex contexts, have a relevant relational and social dimension. They influence, and are influenced by, the environment and their capability to develop and maintain long-term repeated interactions with internal and external stakeholders. This represents a survival condition and strategic opportunity for achieving competitive advantage and making inter-systemic equilibrium evolve dynamically by improving the entity and the quality of these interactions (Gatti, 2000; Cafferata, 1995). Building relationships between organizations and publics are becoming crucial functions for achieving competitive advantage in a complex context. Bonds between the organization and the publics should be eliminated so that publics become part of the organization and the creation of meaning (Sherman, Shultz, 1998, p. 169). Modern organizations must rethink their traditional organizational approach for a new one. It demands efficient production, as it was in the industrial era, plus a high ability to handle relations and organize value creation according to the following criteria (Normann, Ardvisson, 2006, p.18): - being focused on the customer and the customer value-creation process instead of a certain type of product/service or technology; - managing competition among value creating systems, and not single entities; - mobilizing and combining partners activity in order to form an offering which fits customers’ needs and value creating processes; - considering customers under an enabling, rather than a relieving point of view, not as passive receivers, but as active value co-producers able to contribute to the value creation process The same shift is present in corporate communication, where publics want to be active participants in the creation of meaning -two-way symmetrical model- in contrast with merely being told and persuaded by the organization -asymmetric models (Grunig, 1992; Spicer, 1997). Stakeholders and publics want to participate fully in strategy creation, and not only be recipients of well formulated messages from the top-down. Health care providers, being economic organizations, are complex open systems characterized by a social and relational dimension, stronger than each other, in spite of their peculiar activity. Health Care Providers as Service Enterprises Health care providers are service enterprises affected by all the characteristics typical of services: processes 7, often defined as intangibles 8, changeable, perishable, characterized by absence of property and substantial coincidence of production, delivery, consume and quality evaluation (Darby and Karni, 1973) 9. The following analysis tries to provide evidence of stakeholders’ capability to influence service production and quality appraisal. Health care services are produced through a two level organizational framework, characterized by a different degree of visibility among the stakeholders (Gronroos, 2002): 7 Activities or series of activities, according to Gronroos, 2002, p. 59. Even if this characteristic sometimes does not distinguish services from goods: cfr. Zeithaml, Bitner, (2000) and Lovelock (1991). 9 For more details on services definition and classification cfr Gronroos (1994); Gronroos (2002), pp. 5764 and Lovelock (1983), pp.9-20. 8 82 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Strategic Role of Corporate Communication for Health Care Provider - a back office level, composed of technology and technicians, pharmaceuticals, archives management and maintenance, cleaning services, laundry - a front office level, characterized by the presence of an operating structure (doctors, nurses, emergency department...), whose activity and utility is directly perceived by customers Both levels influence the effective and perceived total quality of the health care service, affecting the technical value of the care received (front-office) as well as the peripherals related to service production-delivery process (back-office). Moreover, goods consume is a “result consume”, in which production and consume moments are distinct and separate, while service consume is a “process consume”, in which production and consume moments take place simultaneously and producer/consumer interaction is critical (Gronroos, 2002, p 65) for service quality appraisal 10. According to this framework, not only are doctors and nurses fundamental in determining the quality of the service produced and delivered; all those employees and partners, who take part to the production-delivery process, at different levels, directly and indirectly are crucial. All these partners represent fundamental “internal” stakeholders for health care providers, because the quality of interactions between the sub-systems present inside the organization and the “external” stakeholders (the customer is the fundamental referee, but not the only one), affects the quality of the service produced and perceived. This framework of analysis suggests that the theoretical model, describing marketing, or rather communication interactions, within service providers, must be reviewed in a critical perspective. Traditional model (Gronroos, 2002, p.69) based on Enternal, Internal and Interactive marketing 11 has the merit to appreciate the strategic role of employees and internal communication and to consider clients as value co-producers, interacting with providers’ employees, confirming the necessity of achieving consonance between these two actors claims and acts, but presents also some limits: - it considers only two explicit categories of stakeholders, influencing the effectiveness of producing and delivering a service; - it considers the organizational model as a traditional closed model, with definite bonds and a clear separation between internal and external, employees and other cooperative partners, service providers and their clients; - do not consider the influence the provider has on the environment, and the influence the environment itself exercises on the organization, its clients and its employees. As described in paragraph 3, each economic organization is a dynamic open system, whose interactive capability with all external and internal systems and sub-systems is crucial in determining survival and competitive advantage. Service providers do not deviate from this framework. Indeed, the main characteristics of their business activity make their relational capability and stakeholders interaction much more critical and strategic. Stakeholder interactions become much more fundamental for health care providers, because of the peculiar nature of their business, and traditional distinction between internal, external communication and public relations activity loses meaning in the actual complex context (Invernizzi, 2000). 10 Service quality appraisal is based on process appraisal which is evaluated by customers under technical and functional point of view and if technical quality depends on technical capability, instruments, innovations and may be appraised on objective enough based, functional quality is a more subjective dimension. Cfr Gronroos, 2002, pp. 78-80 and 90. 11 Respectively “making promises” to clients, “building legitimacy” of the promises made to clients, by improving communication towards employees, and “maintaining promises”, by exploiting interaction between employees and clients. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 83 Maria de Luca Health care services are complex in the eyes of customers, not only because of the complexity of the object of care or of the productive and delivery process, but also because of the information asymmetry between the customer himself and health care providers. This situation makes core services difficult for customers to evaluate on parameters of clinical efficacy. So they focus on the quality of peripherals characteristics of the care process (doctors’ and nurses’ empathic capability, cleaning of the structure, quality of food or of interactions with physicians and administrative employees, etc). These elements, in the customers mind, compose quality evaluation which is extended or reduced by the influence of health care provider corporate image, which affects both customers expectations and perception of the service received, and both levels are fundamental in the eyes of customers, because customer satisfaction is the result of their comparison 12. At the same time, expected quality is influenced by corporate activity through communication realized by service providers, corporate image and reputation policies, public relations activities, the value proposition offered, as well as independent elements such as word of mouth 13. According to this framework, health care providers are driven towards competitive strategies based on “what is observed” (Olmsted, Teisberg et al., 1994). This approach alone might not be successful if short term oriented and if not supported by a strong commitment in reducing information asymmetries and strengthening cooperative relationships, not only towards customers but also those operators who act as intermediates between customers and health care providers. In the health care system, patients do no act as common customers in a market mechanism: - they are influenced by a “gate keeping” mechanism, because they do not chose autonomously the health care provider, but are supported in this choice by doctors, often suffering of a minor, but however present, information asymmetry towards the provider and the clinic application, - and by a “third party system of payment 14” (Kotler, Clarke, 1987). Other strategic stakeholders emerge in influencing the relationships between health care providers and final consumers, confirming the necessity to adopt a more pervasive systemic approach to management and corporate communication strategies to be successful. But one more element makes corporate communication strategic for health care providers: they are “credence goods” providers. 12 For more details on service quality appraisal models, cfr. Gronroos, 2002, pp.75-116. Whose impact on communication cycle is determinant for service providers. Cfr Gronroos, 2002, pp.322324. 14 Unless out-of the pocket services, private or social insurance based contribution, or tax based financing, provide to insurance operators or governmental institutions financial resources to pay for customers and, often, identify allowed providers and structures to be claimed, reducing, at the same time, price sensibility and choice freedom for the customer and allowing, sometimes, the adoption of an adverse selection behaviour, more present in tax based financing health care systems. Paying on the bases of personal income and not of the effective amount of health care services received, the customer seems to be stimulated to consume more health care services than his effective needs, regardless to the economic behaviour of the consumer, which do not represent ad economic entry barrier, unless for “fee for services” (ticket, deductibles, co-payments, balance billing,...), whose reduced amount may not provide appreciable effects on reducing demand. 13 84 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Strategic Role of Corporate Communication for Health Care Provider Health Care Providers as Credence Goods Providers According to Nelson (1970, 1974) goods may be defined as “search goods.” This is characterized by the buyers ability to find the best quality specimen by simple inspection. It depends on goods characteristics and it is equal for all consumers, as opposite to “experience goods”, for which the buyer obtains quality information only through the use of goods after purchase.” It depends not only on the technical quality of the goods themselves, but also on the quality of the productive and delivery process, and of the interaction between consumers and the organizations producing these goods. Health care services are experience goods, whose quality evaluation is a complex process, described in paragraph 4, with a relevant subjective and relational component. If the real quality of experience goods may be appreciated only after consume practice, the buyer’s decision making is dominated by concerns about credence characteristics. Darby and Karni (1973, p.68) talk of credence qualities as “those which, although worthwhile, cannot be evaluated in normal use because are expensive to judge even after purchase.” They began to use the term “credence goods” to define goods “laden with credence qualities”, such as hidden qualities of production process, large set of minimum standards of quality and a “brand” having relevant probabilistic characteristics (Andersen, 1994). Credence goods are characterized by asymmetry between the buyer and the seller, with respect to knowledge acquisition. This approach emphasises the seller’s responsibility for possible quality defects, as well as, the need for the buyer to combine the quality claims of the seller with information about the credibility of these claims, which depends on the seller ‘s credentials, reputation, image, honesty, competence determinedness with respect to the quality of supply (Andersen, 1994). According to this framework, credence goods characteristics are not given, but evolve, as the result of an evolutionary process, originated by the interaction between sellers and buyers; furthermore, the buyers process of quality detection is to a large extent collective and not individual and the credentials of the sellers depend on their ability to survive and prosper in an evolutionary process in which, not only consumers, but also third parties, play a fundamental role. Health care services are credence goods, affected by all the described characteristics and health care providers systemic and relational nature emerges again, as the key for understanding their complex nature. Strategic Role of Relational Approaches Development The adoption of a systemic approach to the study of economic organizations provides a new point of view for analyzing competition dynamics. 15 Nowadays, competition may not be appreciated regarding single organizations forcing other single organizations inside a sector, because each organization is a system, part of a greater system, and each system tries to achieve dynamic equilibrium through interrelations with systems and sub-systems composing its internal and external environment, as a survival first than as a competitive advantage value driver. So, critical competence in systemic context is not the mere value creation goal, but is the competence to organize value creation inside co-productive systems (Normann, 2002) because: - competition evolves from a micro level (single organizations as antagonists) to a macro level (co-productive systems as antagonists) and 15 For more details on competition dynamics, redefining health care sector Cfr Porter, Olmsted Teisberg, 2006. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 85 Maria de Luca - cumulated value creation capability of a co-productive system is higher than the sum of value creation capability of each system composing the constellation stand alone. According to this framework, Normann and Ramirez (1993, pp. 49-59) distinguish between linear value chains, characteristics of the industrial economy, and constellations of value-adding services, that are increasingly central to the post-industrial economy, because implicit in the idea of a linear value chain there is the assumption that producers produce (goods or services) and customers consume, with precise and separate roles. But, as seen in the analysis made in former paragraphs, these roles are no longer separate, and this distinction becomes less evident in an economic context customer oriented (Normann 1992; Eigler, Langeard, 1987). New relationship models bring to crises traditional concepts of value chain and competitors (Porter, 1986). Integrated value chains and partnerships management hypothesis emerge (Normann, Ramirez, 1993 and 1994; Moore, 1996; Davis and Mayer, 1998; Ramirez and Wallin, 2000). Producers and customers strongly interact among themselves and with third parties in producing and delivering goods and services. The relevance of this complex interaction process becomes more and more evident for each economic organization because of its systemic nature. Traditional Michael Porter models of market segmentation and positioning are starting points for strategic approaches to organizational management. The linear, closed, value chain model and even his hypothesis of major integration between IPU (Integrated Practice Unit) value chains inside health care organizations (Porter, Olmsted Teisberg, 2006 pp. 203-208) have the merit to introduce concrete guidelines for health care providers improving efficiency and efficacy. Yet it continues to consider them as single competing organizations inside the environment and not systemic relational organizations. These models may be successfully adapted to the new competitive context. For example, if we suppose that each system or subsystem has its own traditional value chain and that interacting each other, systems may contribute to add value to single parts of the major value chain of the co-productive system, so as that the value created is higher than the mere sum of value of single systems, according to Normann and Ramirez model of value constellations 16, the value chains integration model appears suitable to be applied to this complex environment. Service providers and credence goods providers, seem to be affected by stronger relevance of the described interaction mechanism, because services, production, delivery process, and the social dimension of credential attributes critical for credence goods appraisal, make their interdependence from external and internal stakeholders crucial. The necessity to improve interaction mechanism is fundamental, because value creation capability depends on it. According to this approach corporate communication is strategic for service providers, credence goods providers, and for health care ones, because: - the sellers public relation and internal communication activities acquire higher relevance because they are fundamental for reputation management, which becomes a key evaluation element for customers choosing credence goods. - credence goods customers are generally loyal and constant customers because transaction costs in acquiring information on alternative suppliers are very high and they may not evaluate the quality of their offer by simple inspection. Customers tend to buy credence goods from their usual sellers and to develop an idiosyncratic relationship with them. - communication plays a fundamental role in developing and maintaining long-term profitable relations between sellers and buyers, as the key for promoting loyalty, 16 For more details cfr Normann, 2002. 86 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Strategic Role of Corporate Communication for Health Care Provider - fidelity and stronger positive expectations, resulting from cumulated communication processes which may positively influence sellers reputation Customers are very sensible to malfunction, mistakes, lack of transparency and information from the seller (Gronroos, 2002), and communication plays, again, a critical role in managing these problems. Overcoming Traditional Approach to Corporate Communication in a Strategic Perspective Organizational evolution influences communication needs which affect corporate communication approaches adopted inside the organizations. Environmental evolution guides theoretic evolution of organizational theories: - from “scientific organization” of labour and taylored organizations, supported by Weber bureaucratic theory, - to the necessity to “enhance human factor” inside the organization; - from “contingency governing”, in an adaptive approach, - to a “proactive approach”, both internal and external, and, then, - to “reticular organizations management” theories 17. At the same time, corporate communication evolution follows emerging communication needs: - to give instructions and control (classic top-down approach); - to motivate individuals to cooperate, for achieving organizational goals; - to gather information from external environment, for supporting decision making; - to create organizational legitimacy and distinctive identity, both internal and external; - to create and improve relational interactions inside a systemic organization 18. The analysis made on health care providers reveals that these credence goods providers are adopting organizational frameworks belonging to one of the first four described models and by consequence, their communication needs seem to evolve from the aim to facilitate contingency governing and problem solving, to the necessity of providing support to organizational change. This is influenced by the desire to improve service production and delivery process efficacy by investing in human resources and not only on technology and sophisticated medical instruments, to the achievement of organizational legitimacy and positive reputation, in the eyes of more critic and informed customers and environment. Anyway, they still undervalue some fundamental elements: - social dimension of systemic organizations and, in particular, of service providers; - social dimension of credence goods demand; - critical role played by communication in influencing organizational reputation and credibility, crucial for credence goods appraisal, but also for quality evaluation of services and expectations formation among customers; - critical role played by communication in improving value creation capability inside value constellations. The main mistake is to consider each economic actor as distinct and separate from each other, operating in a classical market competition framework, a vision which does not reflect actual context. 17 18 Cfr Invernizzi, 2000, pp. 56-165. Cfr supra, note n. 16. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 87 Maria de Luca The same mistake is reflected by corporate communication practices, developed on the basis of an organizational approach which appear no more effective because they seem to be affected by some limits: - usual distinction between organizations publics (internal, and external) is no longer clear; - as a consequence, the effectiveness of traditional distinction and claim for higher specialization of communication in three distinct fields (internal, external and marketing communication), often managed by separate functions inside the organization, seems to be overcome by the necessity to improve their capability to influence positively each other, enriching their activities directed to intersected and interacting publics (Invernizzi, 2000); - economic actors interactions, within this framework are repeated and self influencing and their cumulated result affects value creation and delivery process at different levels; - relational and social component of health care service represents, its fundamental value driver. Communication plays a critical role in sustaining stakeholders value chains integration for improving value added creation for the whole value constellation and the health care system. Conclusions The analysis confirms the existence and the necessity of an incoming strategic evolution of traditional organizational and communication paradigms in systemic open organizations. In particular, in service/credence goods providers. Health care providers are emblematic, because the nature of the service they produce and deliver emphasizes strategic importance of relational and communicational management for these actors. The adoption of a strategic approach to corporate communication must not be considered as the necessary consequence of a legal or of a market driven duty, but as an opportunity: - for filling the distance between traditional theories and reality which supports the necessity of strategic organizational and communication paradigm change (Kuhn, 1962) and, moreover, - for improving health care value constellations capability to create value for customers and, at the same time, for all the components of the system, under an economic, but also a social perspective. The new challenge is the development of strategic and operative processes, directed to creation, bargain and sharing of informative and value-driven messages inside relational networks composed by multiple stakeholders (both internal and external, actual and potential), and of a corporate communication activity able to manage and develop these relations (Invernizzi, 2000; p.195), supporting all the strategies, policies and goals of health care providers. Organizations remaining fixed on their old frameworks when the environment changes, may lose their identity. In redesigning organizational and communication frameworks, they maintain and strengthen that identity, achieving competitive advantage and performance opportunities. 88 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Strategic Role of Corporate Communication for Health Care Provider References Andersen E. 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Von Bertalanffy, (1971), Teoria generale dei sistemi, ILI, Milano. White J., Dozier D.M., (1992), Public Relations and Management Decision Making, in Grunig J.E., Excellence in Public Relations and Effective Organizations: The study of Communication Management, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ. Zeithaml V. A., Bitner M. J., (2000), Services Marketing. Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm, McGraw-Hill, New York. 90 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Issues Management: An Exploratory Study of its Perceived Value for Chief Corporate Communication Managers in the Strategic Positioning of their South African Companies Gideon de Wet Department of Communications University of Johannesburg, South Africa [email protected] Since the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994 the public sphere has been flooded by public policy matters. The private sector’s response to these far reaching policies and programmes forms an integral part of the larger transformational agenda driven by the public sector. The public policy process can be regarded as the meeting ground of the private and the public sector. It is an acknowledged fact that the business world is not only influenced and controlled by the economic contexts of their existence but most definitely also by the social and political environments in which they operate. This is also the case, and increasingly so, in a regional as well as in a global context. However, issues management cannot be looked at in an ad hoc manner. The strategic positioning of the organization expressed in terms of the mission, vision strategic values, goals and objectives all need to be aligned. Managing and monitoring become crucial activities as continuous processes. From a theoretical perspective the dynamic interrelatedness of companies and their environments serves as the key conceptual and practical premise. In this regard not only does information play a central role but power as process and construct becomes an immensely important ingredient. This is especially important in socio-political transformational environments where symmetry is occasionally negotiated and renegotiated through proactive strategic corporate communication initiatives. In South Africa public sector programmes such as black economic empowerment (BEE), accelerated growth initiatives (ASGISA) The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) as well as social issues including crime, violence against women and children, HIV/Aids, etc. are embedded in the economic and socio-political environments. There is no way that corporate communication professional can turn a blind eye to these processes and situations. Against this background this study will attempt to address the following central research question: What is the perception of Chief Corporate Communication Managers of the impact of selected socio-political policies and programmes as issue management matters on their strategic corporate communication practices in their South African companies? Thirty randomly selected companies from the top 500 South African companies will be selected to take part in the survey. In depth interviews will be conducted over a few weeks. The interviewer will be assisted by a moderator in order to ensure a greater sense of consistency and reliability during and after the interview and data collection process. The qualitative data will be organized and analyzed by the application of the Huberman and Miles (1994) model consisting of data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing and verification processes. The emphasis is on similarities, and differences as unique and cross cutting issues. (Abstract Only) Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 91 Gideon de Wet 92 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Document Cycling and Gatekeeping: A Case Study of Policy Development in a Fortune 100 Company Sam H. DeKay The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, USA [email protected] The purpose of this study is to analyze specific elements of the document cycling process that permit—or inhibit—the transformation of texts produced by individual writers into documents that articulate corporate policy. A case study was conducted during a nine-month period commencing in January 2006. The study focused upon the work of two writers, employed in a Fortune 100 Company, who generate documents intended to communicate corporate policy to 23,000 employees worldwide. The study presents qualitative and quantitative evidence that document cycling is an effective means of developing policy within a large corporation. In addition, the investigation concludes that cycling successfully results in the development of corporate policy if (1) the cycling process occurs within the context of a hierarchy of power relations and (2) knowledgeable “gatekeepers” within the organization are assigned responsibility to grant corporate authority to documents that meet specific criteria. In 1985, the term “document cycling” entered the lexicon of business communication. In a case study describing writing practices at Exxon ITD, Paradis, Dobrin, & Miller explicated a process involving supervisory review of documents composed by staff writers. This practice, designated by the term “document cycling,” was defined as “the editorial process by which they [supervisors] helped staff members restructure, focus, and clarify their written work” (p. 285). The supervisory review may involve editing for content, style, organization, tone, or grammar (pp. 300, 301). Additional reviews may follow as the writer further refines text in accordance with the supervisor’s recommendations; the document is “cycled” several times prior to final approval. At Exxon ITD, document cycling played a key role in making the individual’s work advance the organization’s established objectives (p. 293). In their seminal study, Paradis et al. (1985) did not suggest that cycling is a phenomenon that may apply to writing practices beyond workplaces specializing in research and development tasks. However, subsequent researchers indicate that “document cycling” may be the most common form of collaborative writing in business and professional environments (Adam, 2000; Couture, 1991; Couture, 1993; Debs, 1993; Locker, 2006; Lunsford, 1990). Several studies indicate that this process may involve not merely a writer and supervisor or manager; document cycling can also encompass review by many individuals, including peers and stakeholders throughout an organization (Adam, 2000; Couture, 1993; Locker, 2006; Smart, 1993; Weber, 1991). Since the early 1990s, an extensive corpus of research, including case studies and surveys, has explored the practice of document cycling from multiple perspectives. Attention has especially focused upon the effects of cycling, both positive and detrimental, upon interpersonal relationships between writers and their reviewing supervisors (Couture, 1993; Locker, 1992; Palmeri, 2004; Paradis, 1985; Smart, 1993). However, little research has considered the processes by which document cycling actually achieves its intended purpose: the transformation of a document, originally composed by a single author, into a text that has attained the sanction of corporate authority. Studies of the cycling phenomenon have not examined the organizational Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 93 Sam H. DeKay dynamics involved with the evolution of writing that originates as the voice of its original author and ultimately emerges as a pronouncement of the corporation. Researchers have long recognized that organizational dynamics provide a broader context within which the document cycling process is sustained. However, identification and examination of these dynamics have often been relegated to the indefinite direction of “future research.” Paradis (1985), for example, comments that the editorial reviews that occur during cycling serve to shape documents composed by individual writers into texts that are “fitted to the organization’s needs” (p. 306). Paradis also notes “we need a better understanding of how this process actually takes place” (p. 306). Debs (1993) asserts that we have only a “limited understanding of authorship as it is shaped in the workplace and the significance of the organization’s role in authorizing tasks produced by its makers” (p. 160). As a result, Debs insists, we need “to unveil the organization, to identify more carefully the relationships that exist between the individual and groups within society” (p. 170). Locker (1992) maintains that “research on collaborative writing in the workplace cannot focus simply upon the group’s activities but must consider the larger organizational context as well” (p. 59). This study is intended to identify and investigate specific elements of the cycling process that permit—or inhibit—the gradual transformation of texts produced by individual writers into documents that represent the pronouncements of corporate authority. To borrow Debs’s metaphor, the study attempts to “unveil” organizational dynamics that facilitate, or impede, the process of document cycling as a strategy intended to achieve corporate goals. The results of a case study involving two writers who work in a Fortune 100 company will be presented. Both writers are employed in the information security function, the division of the organization responsible for the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of information processed and stored by the Company’s computer systems. These writers were selected for this study because (1) both are experienced with the process of document cycling and (2) these persons generate documents addressed to the Company’s 23,000 employees and intended to define and communicate corporate policy. The study examines the invention and drafting processes of these writers. However, attention is primarily focused upon the organizational roles occupied by the authors and their reviewers and the manner by which power relations represented by these roles contribute to, or detract from, the ability of document cycling to attain corporate goals. The study is guided by three research questions: 1. Has the cycling process, as exemplified by the two writers in this case study, resulted in the generation of documents that effectively contribute to organizational needs? 2. What elements of the cycling process facilitate, or impede, the transformation of single-authored texts into documents that have been granted corporate authority? 3. What are the pedagogical implications, if any, of the analysis of the document cycling process emerging from this study? Method The research method selected for this study is that of participant-observer ethnography, similar to that adopted by Smart (1993) in his examination of the writing processes used by policy and administrative staff at the Bank of Canada. Between January 4 and September 18, 2006, I met daily for 20 minutes with two writers, Jim and Bert (pseudonyms, although both are male) to discuss the processes by which their texts 94 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Document Cycling and Gatekeeping: A Case Study of Policy Development in a Fortune 100 Company are drafted, reviewed, revised, and, ultimately, published for corporate readership. In this timeframe, I conducted a total of 123 interviews; they focused upon the following issues: 1. What are your responsibilities within the organization? 2. What is your role in the corporation, especially in relation to your supervisor, other levels of senior management, technical specialists, reviewers of documents, and readers? 3. What documents currently occupy your time? 4. What are the purposes of these documents, and who are the intended readers? 5. Have you recently met or communicated with technical specialists concerning the content of documents that you are currently drafting? 6. Are the contents of the documents sufficiently clear in your mind that you can compose a cogent and structured text? 7. How much time did you devote to writing during the previous day? What phase of the writing process (e.g., planning, drafting, editing, reviewing) was the focus of your attention? 8. Have you communicated with your supervisor or other reviewers concerning their reactions to the document? What suggestions or other comments have they offered? 9. Have you incorporated the comments of your supervisor and other reviewers into the draft document? 10. What obstacles, if any, have you encountered while preparing the document for publication? How will these obstacles be surmounted? 11. What feedback, if any, have you received concerning a published document? 12. Do you feel that the document cycling process generally results in the publication of documents that meet the organization’s needs? Why or why not? I retained written notes of the responses gathered during all interviews. During the nine-month span of the study, Jim published 42 texts and Bert generated 20 documents. Frequent interaction with the writers was possible because I am a co-worker, employed in another department of the Information Security function. My work is not directly related to the work performed by Jim or Bert, although all three of us report to the same supervisor. I am also a friend of these colleagues, having known each for several years. I informed Jim and Bert that their responses to interview questions and copies of any documents supplied to me—including electronic mail correspondence with supervisors and reviewers—would remain confidential. In addition to the interviews, I was provided access to drafts of all documents generated by the writers, and also to copies of written comments prepared by reviewers and to the responses to these comments. In addition, I conducted two interviews with the writers’ supervisor and other major stakeholders responsible for reviewing the documents (e.g., the Head of Internal Audit, the Global Compliance Officer assigned to Information Security, and Information Security Officers assigned to all affiliates and subsidiaries of the Corporation.) These interviews focused on the following topics: 1. As you read the documents submitted by Jim and Bert, what are your primary concerns—grammar, the mechanics of writing, accuracy and thoroughness of content, clarity of written expression, the potential reactions of other readers? 2. When you suggest changes to a text, do you propose alternate wording, offer a general direction for improvement, or both? Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 95 Sam H. DeKay 3. Do you expect all your suggestions to be reflected in the published documents? 4. Do you feel that the document cycling process generally results in the publication of documents that meet the organization’s needs? Why or why not? I also retained written notes of all responses to these interview queries. Jim: Developer of Corporate Policy Jim is currently 59 years old; he has worked in the field of information security for 22 years, the last seven of which have been at the Fortune 100 Company. During the past five years, his work has focused entirely upon the production of written texts. Jim’s experience and training is that of an information security specialist, not a professional writer. Like many employees in business environments, he has been assigned writing tasks because management has determined that he “has a way with words.” His current work consists of developing the Company’s information security policies and standards. As he explains, a policy is a “broad statement of the company’s position concerning information security practices, such as appropriate email usage.” A standard is “a more detailed description of provisions by which the company ensures that the policies are implemented. For example, the Company has an ‘Authentication’ standard that describes, among other details, the minimum length of passwords used to access computer systems.” Currently, the Company has six information security policies and 24 standards; each policy is approximately 10 pages in length, and standards are usually 4-8 pages long. Most documents consist of a numbered, and sometimes bulleted, list of rules that must be enforced throughout the Company to assure the security of corporate information processed by or stored in computer systems. One or more of the policies or standards are revised on a monthly basis, depending upon the concerns of senior management. According to Jim, these documents are developed because “they provide guidelines by which information technology professionals and employees in business units understand and comply with a set of authorized rules; the policies and standards ensure that acceptable practices—such as the minimum length of a password—do not have to be reinvented whenever a problem arises.” Most of Jim’s writing consists of revising existing standards to resolve issues that, in the opinion of management, have become controversial or are perceived to fill gaps in current rules. Although Jim occasionally generates some of these revisions on his own initiative, most of the assignments originate from his supervisor, the Head of Information Security. This individual is also designated the corporate “owner” of all information security policies and standards and is considered responsible, by the organization’s senior management, for the content of these documents. When a specific rule requires modification, Jim and his supervisor meet face-to-face and the supervisor describes a desired revision. This description is not usually an explicit formulation of the written rule; rather, the supervisor explains the problem requiring resolution and suggests general wording for the rule change. Prior to commencing a draft, Jim often must consult with technical specialists in order to clarify specific issues or to acquire a coherent, structured arrangement of ideas that can be comprehended by non-technical readers. Often, this phase of clarification is quite lengthy. “Once,” Jim admitted, “we were developing a policy concerning the security of wireless networks. The topic is so complex, and is evolving at such a rapid rate, that I had to meet with telecommunications personnel for nearly a year before writing one word of the first draft.” Following his meetings with technicians, Jim drafts a proposed text, based on the supervisor’s recommendations. During the drafting process, as the proposed text reveals logical 96 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Document Cycling and Gatekeeping: A Case Study of Policy Development in a Fortune 100 Company gaps or transitions, Jim may further consult with other information security or technical specialists to obtain additional information. After the draft is prepared, Jim returns to his manager to review the wording. At this meeting, the supervisor may approve the whole of Jim’s document, suggest further modification, or reject the proposal and recommend a re-write. Jim usually accepts these changes, although he occasionally proposes alternate wording that may further clarify the rule. The manager considers Jim’s comments before making a final decision concerning the wording; however, Jim cannot proceed with the cycling process until his supervisor has approved the document. On average, a document will be cycled, or reviewed, two times before supervisory approval is granted. In some instances, however, a single sentence may require a full month to draft. After obtaining his manager’s authorization, Jim forwards an email message, with the proposed rule change attached, to 16 members of the Information Security Steering Committee (ISSC). Members of this group comprise stakeholders throughout the Corporation whose functions involve oversight or implementation of the Company’s information security program. These stakeholders include representatives of the Compliance Division, the Internal Audit function, and information security managers in all corporate subsidiaries throughout the world. Jim’s email message requests each member to review the proposed text, to offer comments or alternate wording, and to email his or her suggestions to Jim within a few days. Although the individuals belonging to this committee are all concerned with developing a strong security program, the members do not interact as a group. Rather, they are expected to offer responses that reflect the unique concerns and practices of their own divisions or geographic locations. Most members of the committee provide no feedback. However, whenever Jim forwards a “request for comments,” at least one individual offers a response. In many instances, the comments are editorial—requests to modify one or two words. Occasionally, stakeholders will propose alternate text that modifies the meaning of the original draft. Jim develops a summary of all responses and reviews this summary with his supervisor. Suggested editorial changes are generally accepted, unless they are clearly inaccurate or inappropriate. Together, Jim and the supervisor discuss responses that may alter the document’s original meaning; if the proposal represents an improved formulation of the proposed rule, and if it preserves the intent of the rule, the suggestion will be approved. However, if a comment alters the purpose of the rule, the supervisor will reject it. In these instances, the supervisor will personally contact the individual who has objected to the rule and negotiate a settlement. Although the supervisor would prefer that a final policy reflect a consensus of stakeholders, complete agreement is not always possible. In these instances, Jim’s supervisor—the Head of Information Security—has a corporate responsibility to ensure that suggestions that are not technically feasible, or impossible to implement due to resource or other constraints, will not be incorporated into corporate policy. After this final session with his supervisor, Jim incorporates all approved changes into the revised policy and forwards it, via email, to the Corporation’s Compliance Division for publication. “I’m always careful,” Jim mentioned, “that the email message contains the sentence: ‘This modification has been approved by the senior management of Information Security.’ Also, I always send a copy of the final document to my supervisor.” Within two days, the new text is published in the Company’s Policy Directory, a Lotus Notes database accessible to all employees worldwide. Jim’s name does not appear on the document; however, the title of his supervisor, the “Head of Information Security,” is described as the policy “owner.” Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 97 Sam H. DeKay Bert: Corporate Security Educator Bert is 55 years old and has been employed at the Company for nearly 30 years. During his first two decades with the organization, Bert worked as a programmer and as a supervisor of information technology personnel. He joined the information security function about 10 years ago, and has been writing security awareness bulletins for approximately half that time. Like Jim, Bert is assigned to writing tasks because his managers are pleased with his clear prose and its conversational tone; however, Bert’s formal education and training is that of a technician, not a writer or professional communicator. Bert’s awareness bulletins are written for an intended readership of all Company employees, nearly 23,000 worldwide. These bulletins, called “Smart Tips”, are brief messages— usually no more than two full computer screens in length—intended to provide instruction concerning good security practices. Many of these practices are applicable to computer users in any organization: never share your passwords with another person; don’t open email messages from an untrusted source. Occasionally, however, the messages refer to policies unique to the Company: always select a password that is at least eight characters in length; never divulge personal information concerning customers to non-employees. Bert writes at least one awareness message each month. His supervisor frequently selects the topics of these bulletins, although any employee of the Company can suggest potential subjects. Occasionally, Bert develops topics on his own initiative. His writing process proceeds in defined stages. First, he selects a title intended to draw the reader’s attention (e.g., “Have You Been Spoofed Lately?”). Then, in the first paragraph, Bert relates an anecdote or describes a recent event that serves as “lead-in” to the basic lesson. As he explains, “I try to adopt a conversational tone that will be friendly while, at the same time, cause the reader to become engaged with the subject.” After the first paragraph, Bert introduces a specific “best practice.” He explains why employees should adopt this practice and often provides “how-to” instructions if the topic describes a behavior or procedure. The Smart Tip concludes by informing employees that they may send an email to Bert if they have additional questions or request further assistance. In the process of composing his message, Bert may require clarification concerning corporate policy, legal issues, or technical matters. When this specialized information is required, Bert consults with subject matter experts within the organization. As with Jim, this process of obtaining information is often time-consuming. “One of my Smart Tips,” Bert explained, “dealt with the importance of employees making copies of information stored on their Company-owned laptops. Unfortunately, there was no authorized method for making these copies. Jim and I had to meet with seven different technical specialists before I could write a document that described one method that all could agree upon. These meetings took nearly two months!” After completing his first draft, Bert sends a copy via email to his supervisor. Only rarely does the manager correct spelling, grammar, or mechanical errors. Rather, the supervisor reviews the document to ensure that information is accurate and that the text conveys its intended message. Sometimes, the manager eliminates specific words and substitutes new terms or phrases deemed more appropriate. Bert occasionally discusses these suggestions and persuades his supervisor that the original wording is more consistent with the document’s purpose. More frequently, however, Bert accepts the manager’s recommendations. As with documents produced by Jim, Bert’s work will usually be reviewed an average of two times prior to approval. When the supervisor’s review is complete and Bert has revised the document to conform to the recommendations, he forwards a copy of the document to a representative of the Corporate Communications Division. Corporate Communications is responsible for reviewing and 98 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Document Cycling and Gatekeeping: A Case Study of Policy Development in a Fortune 100 Company approving all documents sent via email to employees. Even though Bert’s Smart Tips will be transmitted under his own name, Corporate Communications must ensure that the text contains no content that may be deemed offensive or inappropriate. Several years ago, when Bert commenced writing his security awareness bulletins, he frequently encountered conflicts with Corporate Communications. “They really didn’t understand why or what I was writing,” he confessed. “At first, Corporate Communications felt that the content and tone of many messages conveyed subtle, inappropriate subtexts. When I wrote a message explaining that employees should not share their passwords, the Communications Division claimed I was implying that the employees were careless and oblivious to the need for confidentiality. When I prepared a Smart Tip about the dangers of opening email messages from unknown sources, Communications said that I should not frighten the staff.” Apparently, the Information Security and Communications Divisions maintained divergent perspectives concerning the anticipated reactions to security awareness messages. In fact, these perspectives were sufficiently dissimilar that Bert’s supervisor was required to meet with Corporate Communications personnel and clarify the needs of Information Security. The meeting was successful, and these conflicts were not repeated. Since that time, the reviews conducted by Corporate Communications have consisted primarily of correcting grammatical errors and copyediting text to replace infelicitous wording. For example, Bert once introduced a sentence with the phrase: “The Bank’s employees.” Corporate Communications, recognizing that the organization includes subsidiaries and affiliates that are not banks, altered the phrase to a more inclusive “The Company’s employees.” Bert says that his supervisor “doesn’t want to see the revisions made by Corporate Communications, because they have the final approval concerning the contents of documents. I am ready to publish after Communications completes its edit.” Thus, following any corrections and modifications made by the representative of Corporate Communications, Bert forwards an email copy of the message to all Company employees. He is clearly attributed as author of the text, and many employees respond to him directly if they request clarification of the contents. Discussion 1. Has the cycling process, as exemplified by the two writers in this case study, resulted in the generation of documents that effectively contribute to organizational needs? Since April 2003 Jim has written 30 policies and standards and also composed 192 revisions to these documents; Bert has published 86 Smart Tips during the same timeframe. The policies, standards, and security awareness bulletins have received favorable review from Internal Audit, the Company’s external auditors, and from state and federal bank examiners. In addition, senior managers from other financial service organizations have contacted Jim and Bert to obtain advice concerning methods for producing policies and security awareness bulletins. All individuals interviewed—including the two writers, their supervisor, and major reviewers— agreed that the document cycling process exemplified by Jim and Bert resulted in the generation of documents that effectively contributed to organizational needs. Most respondents indicated that document cycling was an efficient method of generating text when time constraints are a significant consideration. Also, the majority of persons interviewed believed that cycling ensures that individuals most affected by policies will have an influence upon the contents of finished documents. Assessed by these factors, it seems that the document cycling process, as practiced by these writers, is an effective method for generating text that has a “strategic impact” (Lowry, 2004, p. 95) upon the Company. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 99 Sam H. DeKay 2. What elements of the cycling process facilitate, or impede, the transformation of singleauthored texts into documents that have been granted corporate authority? An integral element of the cycling process, as exemplified in this study, is the role played by corporate “gatekeepers” during the cycling process. For Jim, the primary gatekeeper is his supervisor; for Bert, Corporate Communications performs this function. A “gatekeeper” may be defined as an individual responsible for granting approval for the publication of a document. In this capacity, the gatekeeper has authority to determine content, to make editorial corrections, and to reject wording that is deemed inappropriate. Gatekeepers retain the power to transform text written by a single individual into a document that reflects and articulates a corporate perspective. This power is not a merely arbitrary assumption of authority. Rather, the gatekeepers who oversee the work produced by Jim and Bert are also individuals held responsible by their senior management for the contents of documents. Jim’s supervisor, for example, is considered the owner of information security policies and is accountable for their effectiveness. Similarly, Corporate Communications has been granted authority to ensure that all email messages transmitted to employees accurately represent a corporate perspective. An equally significant element of the document cycling process exemplified by Jim and Bert is that all participants occupy unique roles within the organization and these roles are structured within a hierarchy of power relations. The most obvious of these power relations exists between Jim, Bert, and their supervisor. However, relationships of power are not necessarily determined by the structure of a formal corporate organization chart. For example, the representative of Corporate Communications holds the title of Managing Director, the same title held by Jim and Bert’s supervisor. Yet the supervisor recognizes that Corporate Communications retains ultimate authority concerning the publication of awareness bulletins. The reviewers of policy documents, even though they may retain high status on a formal organization chart, recognize that Jim and Bert’s supervisor is usually responsible for the contents of security policy; therefore, the reviewers defer to the supervisor as the final arbiter concerning the contents of policies and standards. It seems, therefore, that the hierarchy of power relations— and the concept of “gatekeeper”—are both based upon the assignment of corporate responsibility for a specific function. The Head of Information Security, for example, is held accountable for the contents of policies; the Corporate Communications function is assigned responsibility for messages transmitted to all employees. The document-cycling process must occur in accordance with these recognized power relationships. Bert’s occasional conflicts with Corporate Communications illustrate a significant element that may impede document-cycling. The Corporate Communications function maintained that Bert’s guidelines for information security “best practices” did not convey a tone of respect toward employees and were, therefore, inconsistent with the respectful messages approved for corporate distribution. Until Corporate Communications was persuaded that Bert’s Smart Tips were, in fact, consistent with this respectful approach, his security awareness documents could not be disseminated. Policy gatekeepers in this organization are required to balance three roles: 1. Gatekeepers must ensure that policies and standards are internally consistent, are consistent with each other, and do not conflict with the broader values of corporate culture. 2. Gatekeepers are responsible for ensuring that policy innovations are introduced in a manner that minimizes disruption to business operations and processes. 100 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Document Cycling and Gatekeeping: A Case Study of Policy Development in a Fortune 100 Company 3. Gatekeepers must manage the production and communication of policies in order that business needs are addressed in a timely manner. If a gatekeeper lacks adequate knowledge of the content of policies, or is reluctant to introduce innovation, or is unable properly to manage the process of communicating policy, then document cycling fails to serve its intended function. In Bert’s case, for example, Corporate Communications did not initially understand that the Smart Tips were compatible with the Company’s broader culture; until this issue was resolved, Bert’s messages were not granted the status of corporate authority. A further example of gatekeeper misunderstanding, and its influence as an impediment upon the cycling process, occurred in another department of the same company and at the same time as the current study. This department had adopted a cycling methodology very similar to that employed by Jim and Bert. However, the department’s policy gatekeeper had been recently promoted to this position and was reluctant to approve new policies. According to staff writers and supervisors in the department, the new gatekeeper was fearful of “making waves.” As a result, policies necessary to the conduct of business were not published. However, senior management perceived this inactivity as a lack of the gatekeeper’s ability to manage the production and communication of policies. In order to address this perception, the gatekeeper reluctantly commenced to approve policies. It seems, then, that the policy gatekeeper’s ability to fulfill the three above-mentioned roles is a significant factor contributing to or detracting from the efficiency of the documentcycling process. 3. What are the pedagogical implications, if any, of the analysis of the document cycling process emerging from this study? Collaborative writing, as described in many business communication textbooks, is often described as an effort involving a group of authors jointly contributing to a single document. However, as mentioned previously, research does not sustain this view. Indeed, most prior research concerning collaborative writing in workplace environments emphasizes that document cycling—single-authored documents reviewed by supervisors and other stakeholders—is the most common form of collaboration. From this perspective, the case study of Jim and Bert has potential pedagogical significance. The process of document cycling, as described in this study and in prior research (Adam, 2000; Couture, 1993; Freedman, 2000; Lowry, 2004; Paradis, 1985; Paré, 2000; Smart, 1993), involves individuals who are assigned specific roles within an organization. In turn, these roles are structured within formal or informal power relationships. Although Jim and Bert may engage in dialogic interaction with their supervisor and others, the writers recognize that they do not retain authority to transform their texts into pronouncements that reflect corporate perspectives. Only the “gatekeeper” can perform this function. From a pedagogical perspective, this form of document cycling may be simulated with exercises that incorporate specific roles, a power hierarchy, and a gatekeeper. For example, the instructor can divide the class into groups of three. One student in each group assumes the role of a staff writer, one represents the writer’s supervisor, and the third adopts the persona of a representative of Corporate Communications. All students are presented with a checklist of guidelines that specifies the major concerns of each role. Checklists will include a description of the document purpose (the text should have broad corporate implications, such as a Human Resources policy), its approximate length (perhaps no more than 250 words), and its intended audience (e.g., all employees). Additionally, the writer’s checklist will explain expectations Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 101 Sam H. DeKay concerning language and style. The supervisor’s list will include the task of assessing accuracy of contents. Corporate Communications is charged with ensuring that documents will not reflect adversely upon the organization or any employee and also that text is grammatically correct. Each member of the group will receive a copy of all three checklists. After completing an acceptable draft, the “writer” will submit the document to the “supervisor” for review. Face-to-face discussion of the supervisor’s comments will occur, and the writer will have an opportunity to negotiate differing views with the supervisor; however, the latter retains authority concerning the contents of the document. In addition, both writer and supervisor must consider the likely reactions of Corporate Communications, the third reviewer, when conducting their revisions. The writer and supervisor continue to cycle, or review, the text until an acceptable product is generated. The representative of Corporate Communications, the ultimate gatekeeper, will next review the document. Suggestions and comments should reflect the perspective of this function; however, the writer and supervisor will retain the right to dissent and offer persuasive arguments regarding alternate views. However, only Corporate Communications has authority to grant approval for publication. The full simulation is intended to focus upon the process of revising texts multiple times, a process driven by the needs and expectations of individuals who occupy differing roles within a corporate hierarchy. Students are thus provided an opportunity to experience the manner by which textual content and rhetorical features of written documents are influenced by the roles and responsibilities assigned to individuals within an organization. Most important, the exercise focuses upon the significance of a gatekeeper who must approve the completed text in order to grant to it the status of an authorized corporate statement. This process is repeated two more times within the group, to provide an opportunity for each student to assume one of the roles. Evaluation of each group’s effort will consider the adequacy with which members have assumed specific roles, the appropriateness of reviewers’ suggestions, the effectiveness of personal interaction between the writer and reviewers, and the extent to which the final written product addresses its originally stated purpose. Conclusion Commencing with the publication of the Paradis (1985) study that identified document cycling as an integral element of writing in the workplace, numerous researchers have examined cycling as a method of conducting collaborative editing. This study identifies an additional function performed by cycling. More specifically, the case study of Jim and Bert demonstrates that document cycling serves to transform single-authored texts into pronouncements that reflect and articulate a corporate perspective. Two major factors contribute to this transformation: (1) the presence of a hierarchy of power relations comprised of clearly demarcated sets of roles and responsibilities and (2) the existence of “gatekeepers” who are assigned responsibility to grant corporate authority to documents that meet specific criteria. Document-cycling, as exemplified by Jim and Bert, occurs within the broader context of the organizational dynamics created by these power relations. Thus, cycling is not merely a form of collaborative writing; rather, this process is one among many activities—such as establishing budget priorities and making purchasing decisions—that depend upon the review and approval of authorized members of an established corporate hierarchy. 102 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Document Cycling and Gatekeeping: A Case Study of Policy Development in a Fortune 100 Company References Adam, C. (2000), “What do we learn from the reader? 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(2004), “When discourses collide: A case study of interprofessional collaborative writing in a medically oriented law firm”, Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 37-65. Paradis, J., Dobrin, D., & Miller, R. (1985), “Writing at Exxon ITD: Notes on the writing environment of an R&D organization”, in L. Odell & D. Goswami (eds), Writing in nonacademic settings, The Guilford Press, New York, pp. 281-307. Paré, A. (2000), “Writing as a way into social work: Genre sets, genre systems, and distributed cognition”, in P. Dias & A. Paré (eds), Transitions: Writing in academic and workplace settings, Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ, pp. 145-166. Smart, G. (1993), “Genre as community invention: A central bank’s response to its executives’ expectations as readers”, in R. Spilka (ed), Writing in the workplace: New research perspectives, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL, pp. 124-140. Weber, J. R. (1991), “The construction of multi-authored texts in one laboratory setting”, in M.M. Lay & W. M. Karis (eds), Collaborative writing in industry: Investigations in theory and practice,Baywood Publishing Company, Amityville, NY, pp. 49-63. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 103 Sam H. DeKay 104 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Contrary Internal Communication in a Small Company Krishna S. Dhir Campbell School of Business, Berry College, USA [email protected] Organizational communication behavior that is at variance with or contrary to reason, or not guided by sound judgment, can have a crippling effect on efficient functioning of an organization. The effect of contrarian communication can be particularly devastating for a small organization, especially when its productivity is mainly dependent of human factors. This paper explores a literary case study of management of seemingly unreasonable, willful and stubborn communicative behaviors in a small organizational setting. The case of interest is Herman Melville’s work, Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. The paper finds high agreement between Melville’s insights into the elements of employeeorganizational linkage and the model developed by Mowday, Porter & Steers more than a century later. The paper describes how Melville’s organizational dynamics operates in the context of contrasting employee communicative behaviors. The individual characteristics of the decision-maker become critical when the situation has an element of irrationality. This paper explores the process of rational management of irrational contrary behavior in a small organizational setting, as illustrated by Herman Melville in his work, Bartleby, the Scrivener (Melville, 1969). With a subsidiary title, A Story of Wall Street, in this work Melville addressed the darker, dehumanizing aspects of the emerging American financial district. He tells a story of a Wall Street lawyer’s small business organization, narrated in the first person by the lawyer. The origins of the New York Stock Exchange can be traced to the Buttonwood Agreement of 1792, when on May 17th 24 stock brokers met outside of 68 Wall Street in New York in the shade of a buttonwood tree. Twenty five years later, in 1817, the stock brokers adopted a constitution and a name, “New York Stock & Exchange Board”, and moved into a $200-per-month room at 40 Wall Street. Melville leaves the narrator unnamed. The story was written a decade before the New York Stock & Exchange Board renamed itself yet again as it is known to this day, the “New York Stock Exchange”. This lawyer has a practice that focuses on processing various legal documents such as bonds and title-deeds. The operation of the Exchange was relatively simple then. Availability of stocks would be announced on the floor of the Exchange and the announcer would ask, “Any bids, gentlemen?” A handshake would seal a bid and the parties would seek services of a lawyer, such as Melville’s narrator – “conveyancer and title hunter, and drawer-up pf recondite documents of all sorts…” – to make up the documents of the purchase. “There was now great work for scriveners…I must have additional help.” To run his business our narrator employs three individuals, including two scriveners, men who copy legal documents, descriptively nicknamed Turkey and Nippers and a young apprentice named Ginger Nut. The title character, Bartleby, is hired by the narrator as a fourth employee, when he needs another scrivener to handle the heavy workload of a growing firm. Events start on a positive note between the narrator and Bartleby. Bartleby is a conscientious, if reclusive worker. He is a thin, pale, mysterious character. Unfortunately, the situation soon deteriorates as Bartleby refuses to perform the tasks for which he was hired. This creates a crisis situation for the small legal firm. Strategies deployed by the narrator offer an opportune case study analyzed Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 105 Krishna S. Dhir in this paper. This story is no less that of the narrator than of Bartleby. This narrative of the biography of a scrivener is also an autobiography of an entrepreneur, the story’s narrator himself. The story describes the conditions leading to Bartleby’s noncompliance, the consequential challenges created for the narrator and other employees of the organization, and approaches adopted by each of them to overcome their respective problems. The Social Environment Melville wrote Bartleby, the Scrivener in 1853. Earlier, in his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin had described the American man as archetypal, self-made individual (Franklin, 1964), “new son of Adam” in “the new Eden.” Early in the narrative, the narrator, in Bartleby, the Scrivener, describes both himself and Bartleby as “sons of Adams.” According to Geoff H. Johnson (Johnson, 1993), Franklin’s description of the American man as the son of Adam was not generally applicable. By any account, it was not applicable across the broad spectrum of the population. Not all “new son(s) of Adam,” in America, “the new Eden,” were destined to become rich individuals like John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Franklin. According to Johnson, Melville’s “son of Adam” was like the majority of Americans, who were poor and worked hard at mundane jobs and tasks. They were very different from those few who constituted the growing class of capitalists who placed a higher value on utilitarian ethics than, apparently, on humanity. Through the description of the narrator in his story of Wall Street, and through Bartleby, Melville condemns “those character traits most valued by early American autobiographers like Franklin” (Johnson, 1993). Melville’s Wall Street is not a temple of the possibilities of tomorrow, but, as Michael Turro puts it, a “stifling environment of repression” (Turro, 1993). Turro describes Wall Street as a religion, through which we define our professional occupation, our identity, our needs and wants, and even what we should become. The Characters The narrator The narrator is about 60 years of age. Before describing Bartleby, Melville states through the narrator that the description of himself, his employees, his business, chambers, and general surroundings “...is indispensable to an adequate understanding of the chief character about to be presented.” Through the narrator, Melville demonstrates a remarkable insight into organizational dynamics that was to be revealed more than a century later by Mowday, Porter and Steers in 1982. To describe the case of his business, and the commitment, effort on the job, and retention of his employees, the narrator explores the personal characteristics, role-related characteristics, structural characteristics and work experiences of his employees entirely in keeping with the Mowday, Porter and Steers Model (see Figure 1 below): It is no accident that Melville’s narrator is a professional lawyer. As Turro states, “Smothering the certainty of death, our occupational obsessiveness is an effort to firmly plant our minds, if not our bodies, in the physical world.” (Turro, 1993) To be connected, to be wanted, to be wanting, and to be networked, is to be alive. The narrator in this story of Wall Street does indeed value highly prominent social connections, and admits that he was not “insensible to the late John Jacob Astor’s good opinion” which afforded him good business prospects. In this respect he is not different from Benjamin Franklin, who in his Autobiography (Franklin, 1964) writes about acquiring important connections very soon after arrival in New Jersey, and names among his friends “... Judge Allen, Samuel Bustill, the Secretary of the Province, Isaac Pearson, 106 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Contrary Internal Communication in a Small Company Joseph Cooper and several of the Smiths, Members of the Assembly, and Isaac Decow, the Surveyor General ... These Friends were afterwards of great Use to me, as I occasionally was to some of them.” (Franklin, 1964) Personal Characteristics Employee Commitment Role-related Characteristics Structural Characteristics Work Experiences Job Effort Retention FIGURE 1. Mowday, Porter and Steers Model The narrator describes himself as one “... with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.” He prefers conducting “... a snug business among rich men’s bonds and mortgages and title-deeds” in the “cool tranquility of a snug retreat”, which is his office, and shuns addressing a jury or engaging in activities which might draw public attention. Significantly, though narrating his own experience, he remains anonymous, never divulging his own name. He insulates himself, in this way, from the “proverbially energetic and nervous,” even turbulent, environment of Wall Street, safeguarding his peace. He describes himself as unambitious and states that “all who know me consider me an eminently safe man.” He states, “I seldom lose my temper; much more seldom indulge in dangerous indignation at wrongs and outrages...” Bartleby Bartleby seems to the narrator to be a mysterious individual, “a scrivener…I believe that no materials exist for a full and satisfactory biography of this man.” At his very first meeting with Bartleby, the narrator thought him to be “...a motionless young man…pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn!” The narrator does not understand Bartleby, not when he first meets him and not at any other time through the story. Nevertheless, he offers Bartleby the job. Bartleby takes on an uneventful, mundane occupation of law-copyist in the narrator’s organization, “...a very dull, wearisome and lethargic affair” in which the only mental activity required is to give careful attention to someone else’s work of hundreds of pages. This requires of him no self expression, no creativity, no exploration of the depths of the soul, no decisions. In the environment of Bartleby’s Wall Street that is devoid of opportunity for creative expression, the futility of activity, connectedness, involvement, and life, and indeed the inevitability of death, is emphasized. As it turns out, for Bartleby, this is not a new experience. He brought to the narrator’s organization his experience as a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office in Washington. “Dead Letters! does it not sound like dead men?” (Melville, 1969; Also see Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 107 Krishna S. Dhir Mitchell, 1990). At first, “Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of work. As if long famished for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my documents ... He ran a day and night line, copying by sun-light and by candle-light ... he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically.” However, gradually, he began to indicate his preference not to perform the various tasks he is assigned. Over time, he succumbs to the futility of activity, the inevitability of death, and suffered a complete breakdown of all repressive mechanisms. As described by Turro, “...Just as Bartleby disrupts the working dynamic of the office, he disrupts the reader’s notion of productivity and ultimately the reader’s notion of the purpose of life.” (Turro, 1993) Bartleby offers no clue for his stubbornness, no explanation for his inability to perform his tasks, other than a persistent, “I prefer not to.” Throughout the story, the narrator is clearly concerned with efficiency of his organization and successfully operating his business. He is dependent upon his business, which seems successful enough to afford him employees. Yet, he himself is affected, or perhaps infected, by Bartleby’s inactivity. The narrator describes the first time Bartleby refuses to cooperate when asked by him to examine a small document with him. “I would prefer not to,” Bartleby had said. The narrator studied Bartleby, “...His face was leanly composed; his gray eye dimly calm. Not a wrinkle of agitation rippled him. Had there been the least uneasiness, anger, impatience or impertinence in his manner; in other words, had there been any thing ordinarily human about him, doubtless I should have violently dismissed him from the premises. But as it was, I should have as soon thought of turning my pale plaster-of-paris bust of Cicero out of doors ...” (Melville, 1969) Other employees Turkey and Nippers are about 60 and 25 years old, respectively. They have developed their own mechanisms for coping with the mundane nature of their occupation. Turkey spends most of his money on liquor, imbibes heavily at lunch-time, supposedly to reinforce himself to face the rest of the day, but unfortunately rendering him unsuitable for product work thereafter. Nippers is different. He needs no artificial stimulant. He endlessly rearranges his desk, never finding a comfortable configuration. He is, at least, active. Both these individuals are trying to keep their individuality alive, but are least useful when most alive. While much of what work Turkey produces happens before lunch, Nippers seems to settle down, somewhat, after lunch. The narrator states that “…I never had to do with their eccentricities at one time…When Nippers’ was on, Turkey’s was off; and vice versa.” The two, together, present some sense of a day’s worth of work, keeping the business in motion. Ginger Nut, the third employee, was a young boy about 12 years old. He mainly functioned as an errand boy, mostly fetching snacks for Turkey and Nippers. The Physical Environment During Melville’s time, New York City was already a city of tall buildings crowding each other. The story is set in an office setting located on the second floor of a multistoried building on Wall Street. It has a dull, even oppressive atmosphere of constriction with a view the narrator refers to as “deficient in what landscape painters call “life.” The view from the other end of the narrator’s chambers offered nothing more. “In that direction, my window commanded an unobstructed view of a lofty brick wall, black by age and everlasting shade; which wall required 108 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Contrary Internal Communication in a Small Company no spyglass to bring out its lurking beauties...” Once recruited, Bartleby is assigned a corner by the folding-doors. His desk was close up to a small side-window “...which, owing to subsequent erections, commanded at present no view at all, though it gave some light.” (Melville, 1969) The absence of “life” is what ails Bartleby, and threatens the narrator who seeks “the easiest way of life” in the “everlasting shade.” The underlying current of death permeates the story. The Nature of the Task As stated earlier, the business of the narrator was one of drawing up legal documents. For all documents involving agreements between parties, at least two copies were required. Therefore, on each job, at least two scriveners teamed up. “It is, of course, an indispensable part of a scrivener’s business to verify the accuracy of his copy, word by word. Where there are two or more scriveners in an office, they assist each other in this examination, one reading from the copy, the other holding the original.” This job is “very dull, wearisome, and lethargic affair.” Some documents ran into “say five hundred pages, closely written in a crimpy hand.” Nevertheless, the narrator sees himself providing a critical service to his clients, without the performance of which Wall Street could not function. It was a job that the narrator believes to be at the very heart of the system of that binds and secures the society. Facing the Irrational As the story progresses, it offers opportunities for various observations. For instance: After working feverishly for the first couple of days, mechanically “copying by sun-light and by candlelight”, Bartleby begins to show signs of being a contrarian. “It was on the third day, I think, of his being with me…I called him…to examine a small paper with me.” Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied, “I would prefer not to.” As stated above, the narrator observes that “not a wrinkle of agitation rippled” Bartleby. He shows no anger, impatience or impertinence. The narrator calls to Bartleby yet again, “The copies, the copies…We are going to examine them…” Bartleby simply states, “I prefer not to,” as a genuine act of will. In a dull working environment, devoid of opportunities to be creative and original, Bartleby was asserting his right to make a decision. When asked by the narrator why he refuses, Bartleby yet again states, “I would prefer not to.” The narrator’s encounter with Bartleby seems to be a metaphor for facing the irrational – Bartleby’s behavior is characterized as “moon-struck” and “luny,” and he appears to respond to “the laws of magical invocation” rather than reason. Bartleby begins to reason with him. The narrator’s rational response to Bartleby’s behavior is summed up in his words “come forth and do your duty.” But the narrator is himself unable to “do his duty” in a forthright manner: rather than take responsibility for a decision which implies the inevitable action of removing Bartleby, he himself prefers (!) to postpone, rationalize, observe, empathize – all of which results in merely transferring the inevitable action to others. Over subsequent days the narrator has not been able to change the state of affairs. He questions his own actions and seeks the opinion of other employees. “Turkey, what do you think of this? Am I right?” Turkey replies blandly, “With submission, sir, I think that you are.” “Nippers,” says the narrator, “what do you think of it?” Nippers is forthright, “I think I should kick him out of the office.” Even Ginger Nut’s opinion is sought, who opines with a grin, “I think, sir, he’s a little luny.” Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 109 Krishna S. Dhir As days pass, the narrator begins to justify Bartleby’s behavior. He reports, “Poor fellow! Thought I, he means no mischief…intends no insolence…He is useful to me…If I turn him away, the chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer…” Yet another, once more the narrator asks Turkey for his opinion. It is afternoon. Turkey is loud, “Think of it? I think I’ll just…black his eyes for him!” The narrator has to calm Turkey down, “Sit down, Turkey.” Then he turns to Nippers, “What do you think of it, Nippers? Would I not be justified in immediately dismissing Bartleby?” “Excuse me, that is for you to decide, sir…”, says Nippers. Turkey is still excited, “Shall I go and black his eyes?” “No, not today, Turkey.” Bartleby progresses from responding to requests for work with the statement, “I prefer not to,” to remaining silent. He makes the office his home. He stops copying. Other employees begin to be infected by Bartleby and adopt his language: Annoyed, Nippers utters, “Prefer not, eh? I’d give him preferences, the stubborn mule!” The narrator discourages Nippers, “Mr. Nippers, I’d prefer that you would withdraw for the present.” Finally, the narrator is concerned for his business. The narrator gives Bartleby six days to leave the office. Six days come and go, and Bartleby states that he prefers not to. Eventually, the narrator moves his office and business out of that address, leaving Bartleby behind. Bartleby is taken to the prison without protest, where he is free to wander about. There is no charge against him. A few days later, Bartleby is dead. There are some noteworthy observations in these interactions. Bartleby is like a barometer of the narrator’s conscience—for example, at the end of the story he calmly accepts being taken away by the constables, but with the narrator he displays an attitude of having been betrayed. • Consider: although Bartleby’s personality and orientation to society are unconventional, he at least seems to know himself; whereas the narrator seems to be in denial and hiding--isn’t this why the narrator finds his relationship to Bartleby so compelling? • The narrative points to the fact that human judgment, or one’s overall mental state, is strongly influenced by the mental states of others with whom one associates. The narrator notices that he and his other employees are beginning to unconsciously imitate Bartleby’s use of the word “prefer,” and he fears that they will be affected further by his mental state. Elements Observed in the Contrary Organizational Communication With respect to his ability to make decisions and handle practical matters, the narrator prides himself on his “prudence” and his “method.” From his description of his interactions with employees (Turkey and Nippers) we can infer the elements of his decision process. This process seems to work well enough for him when conditions are normal or mildly irrational; but it is challenged when a serious case of irrationality prevails in the situation, which is the case with the contrarian, Bartleby. Faced with eccentricities and mild irrationality, the narrator’s managerial response seems to begin with an attempt to determine the nature and cause of the problem, by observation. For instance, the narrator describes Turkey’s recklessness in the afternoon; Nippers’ irritability in the morning. He observes that as a team the two offer him one man-day of work. He seems to advocate that contrary situation should not be confronted too strongly. Instead, the manager should try to influence a solution to the situation by subtle, gentle methods. For example, he encourages Turkey to shorten his work day. If the situation doesn’t change, the employee resists 110 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Contrary Internal Communication in a Small Company or doesn’t respond, consider the value that the employee brings, accept the limitations of the employee’s failings and resist strong reactions. For example, the narrator remarks that Turkey and Nippers are very “valuable” and “useful” to him, in spite of their eccentricities. Finally, the narrator tries to minimize the possibility of negative effects by regulating the “system”. For instance, he gives the more important papers to Turkey in the morning and to Nippers in the afternoon. He gives Turkey a new coat. Now let us consider the elements of the narrator’s approach to Bartleby’s irrationality. As before, he tries to determine the nature and cause of the problem, through observation. The narrator observes Bartleby more closely to see if there’s a hint of a reasonable explanation for his behavior, even his diet. He does not confront the situation too strongly, but try to influence it by appealing to rationality. He tries to reason with Bartleby about his behavior, “…say now that in a day or two you will begin to be a little reasonable: -- say so, Bartleby.” If the situation doesn’t change, the employee doesn’t respond, and the basis for the employee’s behavior is irrational, obtain the “disinterested opinion” of others. The narrator asks for Turkey’s and Nippers’ opinions. If no solution emerges, consider the positive aspects of the situation, such as the value that the employee brings, accept the limitations or the employee’s failings, and resist strong reactions, reconciling oneself to the new situation. The narrator reframes the context of Bartleby’s behavior by considering it to represent a “tacit stipulation” between them. The narrator realizes that his attempts to influence Bartleby will not succeed because there is no apparent way to regulate the effects of an irrational element in the system. So he empathizes with the individual displaying irrational behavior, on the basis of the bond of a common humanity – he calls it "fraternal melancholy" – and extends sincere friendliness. If there is still no success, recognize the internal dangers of not acting. The narrator fears that he and the other employees are becoming more like Bartleby in their mental states. He reviews the various options that had previously been dismissed, such as forceful removal of Bartleby, recourse to legal authorities and re-evaluation of his own assumptions. He makes further attempts to influence the situation. But then he falls back on "prudent principles." He reflects, and reads writings that might provide spiritual assistance and guidance. He reads Edwards and Priestley, which "induced a salutary feeling." Unable to change the situation, he resigns himself to "providence" with an attitude of spiritual acquiescence. "At last I see it, I feel it; I penetrate to the predestinated purpose of my life. I am content…this wise and blessed frame of mind would have continued with me…" Now the narrator recognizes the external dangers of not acting. "Business necessities tyrannized over all other considerations." The narrator's professional reputation was at stake and forced an action. As a last recourse, he divorces himself from the insoluble problem. Since Bartleby will not leave, the narrator himself leaves. Although this desperate action might not solve the fundamental problem, it relieves the immediate symptoms. The decision-maker must bear the consequences of the decision. The fact that an action was taken that minimized the distasteful aspects of the decision does not change the fact that the decision has clear consequences. Covert Elements Inferred in the Decision Process Not all elements in the narrator’s decision process are overt. Faced with unexpected, or irrational behavior, the decision maker may tend to avoid or postpone action, e.g., “put off for leisure” due to pressing business demands. The decision-maker can be “disarmed” by behaviors that are not expected or understood. The decision maker may seek rationalization, accepting any interpretation of the situation that allows one to avoid taking action, e.g., “He is useful to me…If Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 111 Krishna S. Dhir I turn him away, the chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer…”, or the narrator’s conclusion that eye strain must be the reason Bartleby has stopped working. The decision maker may attempt to force someone into a reaction so as to provide justification for a decision, or to shift responsibility for the outcome, e.g., the narrator’s giving in to temptations to “bait” Bartleby. The decision maker may tend to seek out opinions of others in order to relieve oneself of full responsibility for the decision or action. The decision maker may “reframe” the context of the problem, or reevaluate the decision-maker’s assumptions, to enable one to accommodate oneself to an unexpected or confusing situation. The inability to influence another to change their behavior may cause the decision maker to divorce himself or herself from the problem by escaping it through any means available Concluding Remarks Certain basic conclusions that may be drawn from this narrative are as follows. Who the decision-maker is has a significant impact on the decision-making process. The individual characteristics of the decision-maker become more critical when the situation has an element of irrationality. The narrator’s life philosophy seemed to be rationalization as evidenced by his acceptance of Nippers and Turkeys behavioral flip-flop between morning and afternoon. If the decision-maker had been Nippers or Turkey, a more forceful or direct solution might have been taken earlier. The step-by-step decision-making process may be the same for most individuals but the results tend to be different because of the person’s background, life experiences, or simply ‘who they are’. Example of how applying rational decision-making fails when it is applied to an irrational situation. Acknowledgement I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of my students Kim E. Bateman, William J. Corbin, Richard F. Long, David P. Welliver and Michael D. Zawrotuk in the development of this paper. References Benjamin Franklin (1964), In Leonard W. Labaree (Ed.), The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. Geoff H. Johnson (1993), “Melville’s New Fallen American Adam.” 1993 Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, July 13, 1993, http://condor.depaul.edu/~gjohnson/ameradam.html, Seen on May 4, 2008. Herman Melville (1969), “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” Great Short Works of Herman Melville, Harper & Row, New York. Michael Turro. Bartleby, Wall Street and the Occupational Repression of Death.” Formerly at: http://odin.he.net/~bluepear/melville.html, Seen on August 9, 1993. Thomas R. Mitchell (1990), “Dead Letters and Dead Men: Narrative Purpose in ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 27, pp. 329-338. Richard T. Mowday, Lyman W. Porter and Richard M. Steers (1982), Employee-Organization Linkages: The Psychology of Commitment, Absenteeism, and Turnover, Academic Press, New York. 112 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Communication Management in the Netherlands, Trends and Developments Wim J.L. Elving & Betteke van Ruler Department of Communication, University of Amsterdam The Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR), The Netherlands [email protected] Knowledge of how communication professionals work, what their main tasks are, how their position is in the organization and in society will lead to a better understanding of the needs of society on corporate communication and related areas. Previous studies in the Netherlands has shown that the field is emerging and that a glass ceiling existed for female professionals in 1995 and in 1999 (Van Ruler, 1995; Van Ruler & De Lange, 1999). The current study is the first on communication professionals we executed in the new century and will address the findings of the previous studies. Besides that we will compare the position of the Dutch communication professionals with international studies The research was aimed at communication departments of large Dutch organizations and at professionals working at communication consultancies. With the databases of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce we selected all Dutch organizations which had at least 50 employees, of which we selected 25% randomly for our sample. We also took a sample of 25% of all agencies registered as public relations or marketing (as the way it is listed) from the Chambers of Commerce. Because of the increasing importance of communication management at municipalities and governments we also included these by listing all of them and selected 25% of these. The invitations were send to the head of the communication department, or the head of the agency. Because we had initially low response rates we conducted an non response study and to enlarge our sample we send out the questionnaire to members of the Dutch professional Communication Association (Logeion) as well. The results will be presented separately for communication professionals working in organizations and in agencies, and we will test differences between the way respondents were selected. On the basis of our results and the population information we obtained we calculated that the size of communication management in the Netherlands exceeds 90.000 (on a population of 16 million). This is an increase in comparison to the 1995 and 1999 studies. Also the total budget for communication management had a increase, from 5 million guilders (= 2.25 million euros) in 1999 to 5,5 milliard euros in 2006). From our analysis it shows that the glass ceiling for female communication managers seemed to have disappeared, since there are more female had of departments in 2006. Furthermore, the encroachment (not having a training in communication) seem to become less in comparison to previous studies. A remarkable result was that communication managers who had an professional or university training in communication, identified themselves significantly stronger with the communication profession than the communication managers who did not have a professional background training in communication. The main issues for the upcoming next five years that were listed by the respondents were: the positioning of the profession, knowledge development and exchange, receivers and context influences, including issue management, new media as instrument in the profession, and accountability and return on investment The low response rate we originally had are a bit worrisome, although from our non response study it showed that there are no main differences between responding and non-responding organizations and agencies, a response rate of 8% was too low for extensive conclusions. The size of communication management in the Netherlands lead to a discussion within the association of professionals in the Netherlands, whether all professionals could be labeled as so, and if there are needs for certifications. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 113 Wim J L. Elving and Bette van Ruler Communication is becoming more and more important in Dutch organizations. Not only the size and the budgets of the communication departments are increasing, but also their position in the organization seems to be more significant. (Abstract Only) 114 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Advertisements in Brazil and the UK: A Case Study of Banco Real and Chevron Francisca Farache Brighton School of Business, University of Brighton, UK [email protected] Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication is an emerging field, with research focusing on corporate social disclosure mainly through websites and corporate reports. However, little is known regarding CSR advertisements. The present paper evaluates CSR advertisements from Chevron and Banco Real which were the most publicised in the UK and Brazil, respectively, over a one-year period from May 2006 to April 2007 in The Economist, Time, Veja and Exame, magazine leaders in their categories. The companies use different strategies for publicizing corporate social responsibility. On the one hand, there are campaigns that appeal to the consumer rationality and, on the other hand, there are campaigns that appeal to the emotions. There is also evidence that companies use advertisements as a means to create or maintain legitimacy through different strategies. Companies are faced with an increasing expectation on the part of stakeholders to engage in social responsibility and, consequently, are expected to communicate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts to a varied, influential, alert audience (Beckman, Morsing and Reisch, 2006). Despite this, CSR communication is still an emerging field in academia, with research focusing on corporate social disclosure mainly through websites and corporate reports, while little is known regarding CSR advertisements (some examples are Zeghal and Ahmed, 1990 and Drumwright, 1996). Even the term CSR advertisement is not widely used. Thus, further research is needed on this topic in order to determine how advertisements are processed, what strategies are employed and on what bases they are established. The present paper evaluates advertisements used by corporations to publicise their CSR activities through print magazines. It analyses ads from Banco Real and Chevron, which were the most publicised in Brazil and the UK, respectively, over a one-year period from May 2006 to April 2007. The ads were gathered from four weekly news/business magazines – two from each country. The Brazilian magazines analysed were Veja and Exame, and for the UK, The Economist and Time Magazine (Europe Edition) were chosen. From these analyses, the paper employs Lindblom’s legitimacy strategies (1994) to explore how the selected companies advertise corporate social responsibility in two different contexts (Brazil and the UK), investigating communicational strategies that attempt to legitimise their activity in society through CSR advertising. CSR in Brazil and the UK Brazil is well known as a country with strong economic inequalities and social problems. The income of the richest one percent of the Brazilian population is nearly equal to that of the poorest 50 percent, leading a shameful list of the most unequal countries in terms of income distribution (Young, 2004). The Gini index (a measurement of income inequality) is 59.7 in Brazil (CIA, 2006), making the country notorious for the concentration of its income and wealth (The Economist, 17 June 2006). However, what happens in a developing country such as Brazil, where civil society is poorly organised and the government lacks accountability and social Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 115 Francisca Farache responsibility? Research suggests that the media in Brazil does not play the role of watchdog. In a study on CSR coverage in 54 Brazilian newspapers, Vivarta and Canela (2006) found that (1) the media has a superficial perception of CSR, (2) when detailed coverage is supplied, it lacks critical analysis and a pluralistic view of the subject, and (3) distinctions between social action and CSR are unclear. The nature of the coverage demonstrates that, as a rule, the press has yet to assume its role as a CSR watchdog. The evidence suggests that CSR is in its infancy in Brazil. It first appeared on the agenda of corporations and academia in the 1990s (Beghin, 2005). The main organisation responsible for the implementation of the CSR concept in Brazil is the Instituto Ethos de Empresas e Responsabilidade Social (Ethos Institute for Companies and Social Responsibility), established in 1998. This is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation with 1,156 members and is comprised of companies from different segments and of different sizes, accounting for annual revenues of approximately 30% of the Brazilian GDP and employing roughly 1.2 million people (Ethos, 2006). According to Beghin (2005), corporations in Brazil tend to act as a charity rather than being socially responsible. Azevedo (2004) reinforces this belief by arguing that Brazilian corporations, especially those in the south of the country, have incorporated CSR actions, even though the corporations still act in their traditional manner, mainly based on philanthropy and paternalism with regard to the community and their employees. By contrast, the UK is a country with a strong tradition of CSR, where consumers are aware of the social impact of a corporation. For instance, the UK was the first European country to have a governmental minister of CSR (Moon, 2004). The GINI index in UK is 36.8, which is compatible with the European Union figures (CIA, 2006). The main drivers of CSR are believed to be business, civil society and government (Moon, 2004). The UK, alongside the Netherlands, is considered one of the most advanced nations in the world with regard to CSR (Aaronson and Reeves, 2002). One of the reasons the UK is a point of reference in this field is its essential part in CSR learning through organisations such as AccountAbility and Business in the Community. Moreover, companies and institutional investors focus on issues of long-term social and environmental risks in the UK (Aguilera et al, 2006).The government plays a pivotal role in the development of CSR in the UK, having identified CSR as a potential contributor toward national advancement (Aaronson, 2003). CSR has grown more in the UK than in any other comparable country and has been encouraged through ministerial leadership, stimulation of the development of business associations and CSR organisations, and the adoption of ‘flexible’ regulation by the Thatcher and Blair governments (Moon, 2004). Beyond governmental interference, Solomon et al (2004) identify three sociological factors that appear to promote the growth of CSR in the UK: an increased concern regarding ethics in British society; the growth in media coverage on CSR issues; and the keen interest in risks and risk management. Advertisement self-regulation codes Corporate behaviour is a sensitive subject, as the stakes are raised for those who expect to protect consumers from improper business practices as well as for businesses that believe good corporate conduct will have a positive effect on its finances. This represents a very special case of advertising, for which it is especially important that such marketing is carried out in a responsible manner, as many practices commonly used in marketing are thoroughly inappropriate for advertising good corporate conduct (Stoll, 2002). Thus, companies that advertise their ethical stance and CSR are expected to follow the self-regulation code of advertising. Both Brazil and the UK have adopted a self-regulatory system in which the industry or the professional body is in charge of the regulation, with varying levels of contribution from external groups such as governments and consumer groups. This results in a setting in which the government grants the 116 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Advertisements in Brazil and the UK: A Case of Banco Real and Chevron industry the power to regulate, which develops its own standards of behaviour, creating and maintaining a code of conduct, ethics, standards or principles (Spence and Van Heekeren, 2004). This results in a type of “private government” made up of industry peers rather than external control, where the role of regulator is internalised via the delegation of power and authority (Boddewyn, 1989). In the UK, the Committee of Advertising Practices (CAP) is the self-regulatory body that creates, revises and reinforces the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing, entitled the Code. This is the rule book for non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing communication (marketing communication), the main function of which is to regulate the content of marketing communication not dealing with the product or business itself. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) endorses and administers the Code, ensuring that the self-regulatory system works with the public in mind. Its major activities are investigating and judging complaints as well as doing research. The Brazilian equivalent is the CONAR (Conselho Nacional de Auto-regulamentação Publicitária – National Council of Advertising Self-regulation) code, which is based upon the British version and aims to secure freedom of speech, the interests of the advertising market and the interest of consumers. CONAR has the functions of both the CAP and the ASA. Although there is no standard set of codes for advertising self-regulation operating globally, a study by Spence and Van Heekeren on codes in Australia, the UK, the USA and Canada found a common set of commitments to the following principles: (a) responsibility towards consumers and society; (b) truth, decency and honesty; (c) avoidance of misrepresentation and deception; (d) a sense of fair competition; and (e) the protection and promotion of the reputation of the advertising industry (2004). Even though the Brazilian code of self-regulation was not included in the former study, the author found the five principles set above to be the foundations of the CONAR code. Case #1 -- Banco Real Banco Real is the third largest private-sector bank in Brazil, behind Banco Itau and Bradesco, two national banks (Banco Central do Brasil, 2007). Originally a Brazilian bank founded in 1925, Banco Real was bought by the Dutch ABN Amro Bank in 1998. However, the merger only occurred in 2000, changing the name to Banco Real ABN Amro. Last October, a consortium formed by The Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Santander bought 86% of shares from the Dutch Bank for 71 billion Euros. This was considered the largest deal in the banking industry worldwide. In the deal, the Spanish bank Santander will be the new owner of the ABN Brazilian unit. It is expected that the merger will preserve both brands names: Banco Real and Santander (Istoé Dinheiro, 26 Sept 2007). The market is speculating that after the merger, the new Banco Real could occupy the second or even the first place in the national ranking, as Santander Bank occupies the fifth place in the private-sector banking list (Valor Econômico, 8 Oct 2007). Banco Real has 1,138 branches throughout the country, with 33,004 employees and 4,048,163 account holders. In 2007, its net profits were R$ 2,975 billion, with a 45% growth in relation to 2006. The excessive growth the occurred in Brazilian bank industry led to a heavy flow of criticism. In the first semester of 2007, Brazilian banks reported greater profitability than American banks. In fact, the Brazilian banks had nearly double the profitability of the American banks in the same period (Estadão, 14 Aug 2007). Although Banco Real is not on this list (the Brazilians banks listed were Itau, Bradesco, Unibanco and Banco do Brasil), the banking industry is receiving a lot of criticism for its exorbitant profits in such a controversial economic climate as Brazil (Folha de São Paulo, 17 Feb 2008). In order to compensate the losses the end of inflation caused, banks had to increase lending to companies and individuals. They began to charge more Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 117 Francisca Farache for their services, which had previously been either free of charge or inexpensive. As a result, the revenues from banking services increased nearly four fold between 2000 to 2006, from R$ 13.4 billion to R$ 52.6 billion. This caused a lot of indignation and also the threat that the government would have to intervene in the banking sector to control its tariffs, which did not occur (Veja, 3 Oct 2007). On the other hand, Banco Real has a reputation in CSR, recognised through its practices and awards received, such as ECO Award from Amcham (American Chamber of Commerce); Valor Social Award from Valor Social Magazine; and Sustainable Company Award from Exame Magazine. Furthermore, the Bank is member of the Ethos Institute and (as part of the ABN AMRO Bank) has adopted the Equator Principles. Banks that have signed the Equator Principles assume a public commitment to ensure that the projects financed by their institutions are developed in a socially responsible way, reflecting environmental management practices. The Equator Principles operate as a basis for the implementation of social and environmental policies within its member institutions (Wright and Rwabizambuga, 2006). Case #2 -- Chevron With U$ 17.14 billion in profits, Chevron is the 19th largest company in the world according to Forbes list of the World’s 2000 largest public companies in 2007 (2007). Chevron is an American company, headquartered in California that operates in more than 100 countries. Chevron is in the oil & gas operation industry and its roots can be traced back to 1879 to the Pacific Coast Oil Company. In 2001, Chevron merged with Texaco and became Chevron Texaco. In 2005, the company name was changed to Chevron. Globally, it has more than 59,000 employees and, in 2007, the company produced 2.62 million barrels of oil per day (Chevron, 2007). Due to the nature of their activities, companies in the oil industry are under close scrutiny from the public and are pressured to demonstrate social and environmental responsibility (Coupland, 2005). As an industry, it is strongly linked to environmental and human rights scandals around the globe. In the last two decades all the largest companies have been linked to scandals: Shell/Brent Spar, Exxon/Alaskan oil spill, BP/Texas oil refinery explosion and Total/Burma. It is no different with Chevron. In Ecuador, the company (the former Texaco) is accused of dumping wastewater in the rainforest. Protesters claim that the company discarded 18.5 billion gallons of highly carcinogenic toxic waste into swamps, streams and rivers between 1970 and 1992 (Amazon Watch, 2008). These activists have embraced a campaign called ChevronToxico, making an analogy with former name of the company (ChevronToxico, 2007). The case was referred to Ecuadorian courts (Time Magazine, 1 Aug 2007). Chevron has acknowledged that bribes were paid for oil the company obtained under the United Nations oilfor-food programme in Iraq (Financial Times, 14 Nov 2007). These controversies have not prevented Chevron from being recognised for its CSR practices and performance. The company occupied 9th place in the Accountability Rating 2007 and was the only American company to be in the top 10 (Fortune, 1 Nov 2007). Accountability is an international non-profit organisation that promotes accountability for sustainable development. Chevron is also included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for North America 2007 (Dow Jones, 2007). 118 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Advertisements in Brazil and the UK: A Case of Banco Real and Chevron Legitimacy Theory Legitimacy theory states that organisations can only secure their existence if they are perceived to operate within the values and norms of society (Gray et al, 1996). Legitimacy is based on the idea that a social contract exists between business and society in which society allows the company to operate as long as the business behaves according to society expectations. When the behaviour of company either is not or is perceived as not being in accordance with society creeds, it runs the risk of losing its legitimacy. In light of this, companies within industries that may cause greater environmental and social impact are expected to disclose environmental information in order to secure legitimacy (Branco and Rodrigues, 2006). The authors cited argue that companies that deal directly with consumers, especially those with greater visibility among them, will tend to take issues of community involvement into more consideration. Larger companies are predisposed to receive more attention from the public than smaller companies. Thus, it is believed that larger companies need to employ greater effort in communicating CSR actions than their smaller counterparts (Patten, 1991). As companies disclose social responsibility information to present a socially responsible image, their behaviour can be legitimised to their constituents. As a result, legitimacy theory has been widely used to explain social and environmental disclosure by corporations focusing mainly on corporate social reports and environmental reports (e.g. Gray et al, 1995; Neu et al. 1998, Hooghiemstra, 2000; Branco and Castelo, 2006). The corporate report is considered by the latter authors as a response from public pressure and increased media attention. Alternatively, the researcher considers that CSR advertisements extrapolate corporate reports, as they can reach a higher number of stakeholders than reports that are mainly directed at shareholders, the government, non-governmental organisations, the financial community and research institutions. The advertisements analysed in this paper were published in print media with an average circulation of 1,460,000 issues in Brazil and the UK alone. Therefore, the author disagrees with the latter authors, as she strongly believes that CSR advertising is a corporate response to public pressure and media attention. Thus, the author expects to encounter examples of the legitimisation strategies described by Lindblom (1994) in the advertisements. She states that (1994) an organisation can make use of four different strategies to respond to public pressure: (a) inform stakeholders about the intentions of the organisation to improve its performance; (b) attempt to change the perception of stakeholders regarding events without changing corporate behaviour; (c) divert attention from the problem by focusing on a positive activity that is not linked to the problem; and (d) attempt to change the stakeholders’ expectations regarding the performance of the company. However, Clarke and Gibson-Sweet (1999) argue that, rather than assuming CSR is a crisis management tool, it can be better understood as a means of reinforcing both reputation and legitimacy, as it provides an opportunity to communicate to stakeholders the congruence of the organisation with societal concerns. This leads to the development of the research proposition: Research Proposition: CSR advertisements are used by companies as a form to create or maintain their organisational legitimacy. Through advertisements, it is possible to identify what strategies organisations use in order to respond to public pressure. Method Veja and Exame were the Brazilian magazines analysed. Veja is the leading weekly news magazine in the country, with an average circulation of more than 1 million (Instituto Verificador de Circulação - IVC, 2007). Exame is a leading business magazine in the country, Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 119 Francisca Farache with a circulation of 180,000 (IVC, 2007). For the UK, The Economist was chosen, considered Britain’s most successful political and business magazine, with a circulation of more than 180,000 per week in the UK (Audit Bureau of Circulation - ABC, 2007); and Time Magazine, Europe Edition, a leading weekly news magazine with average circulation figures of 550,000 in Europe and 135,000 in the UK (ABC, 2007). The magazines used in this research were analysed from May 2006 to April 2007. During this time period, the researcher identified Chevron to be the company that advertised most in the UK, with 41 insertions. In Brazil, Banco Real was advertised most, with 27 insertions. The author chose one campaign from each company; both campaigns were made up of three advertisements apiece. The researcher uses a set of semiotic concepts developed by Roland Barthes in his article Rhetoric of Image, based on work by Ferdinand de Saussure, for the structural analysis of the advertisements (Barthes, 1977). Therefore, the paper will consider the image system of connotation and denotation; the text functions of anchorage and relay in relation to the images; and the question of the reader identification with the advertisement. Within this perspective, the text facilitates the understanding of the image and has two functions: anchorage and relay. Anchorage is the most common function when the linguistic message provides an image explanation restricted to its polysemy. Relay is the explanation from the linguistic message that the image would hardly obtain on its own accord. With reference to the image, Barthes produces two types of messages: denoted (visually explicit) and connotated (in which one can find the symbolic aspects of the advertisements). The denoted message is literal. Advertisement Analysis Chevron The advertisement from Chevron, entitled here “A 5% reduction” (Figure 1), was the most publicised CSR advertisement in the UK magazines during the data collection period. This advertisement was publicised in one-page format (12 times) and in a double-page spread (3 times). It is part of an advertising campaign that publicised two advertisements during the research (Figures 2 and 3). Within the set of its constituent elements (visual and textual), the advertisement revolves around the worldwide need to conserve energy; simultaneous demonstrating what Chevron has been in favour of this practice. Although it addressed the environment, the company does not make use of any image that relates to the environment or nature; its message is supported by common elements of a work environment. It has a clear rational appeal, as it lacks elements that could stimulate emotiveness in the reader. At first observation, the advertisement is divided into clearly defined two parts. At the top of the page, the hook is written in white letters on a green background; underneath, there is an image with diverse elements represented, such as a clipboard, notepad, ruler, notebook, paper, automatic pencil, chart, figure and picture. These elements do not indicate individual peculiarities, thereby producing an impersonal environment. 120 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Advertisements in Brazil and the UK: A Case of Banco Real and Chevron FIGURE. 1 – A 5% reduction Although the upper part occupies less space in the composition, it provides the reader a direct linguistic message (the need for energy conservation) without being immediately associated with the actions developed by Chevron. Thus, the linguistic message assumes the relay function. Despite this, it is emphatic, using text in a clear, legible typography in a formation that leads to a continuous assimilation. The lower part of the advertisement offers the idea of a random puzzle – a set of elements that correspond to diverse levels of interest that could be stimulated in the reader. The Chevron advertisement is structured following a model in which its diverse elements (title, subtitle, text, signature, charts, pictures), although connected, have relative autonomy from one another, permitting both isolated and complementary readings. The reader can linger on a detailed reading or merely skim the ad as a whole. One may focus on the title, the chart or even one of the shorter texts presented in the small notebook. The hook is in the upper part of the advertisement – a text in the form of a newspaper heading stating that a 5% reduction in global energy use will be enough to power Australia, Mexico and the UK. This information is followed by a question: “so what are we waiting for?” There is an evident relationship between this part of the advertisement and the image printed below, as it is obvious that the answer to this question is among the diverse elements in the second part of the advertisement. On the denoted level, there are various objects on a desk; on the connotated level, these same elements suggest the existence of a person who is thinking of a solution to the energy crises. Who might that person be? It is evidently a Chevron employee, which is demonstrated by the presence of brands associating the objects to the company. On the other hand, the advertisement also suggests that the reader can find a solution to the energetic crisis; in other words, it leads the reader to identification. There is a long text that develops the premises of the hook. The issue is gone into in greater detail, addressing the reasons that lead to growing energy usage and the need for usage control. Furthermore, an image shows mechanics alterations to a automobile, probably aimed at energy saving; a chart illustrates the level of energy consumption within different sectors, such as industry, transportation and others; a small picture of a man wearing a helmet, standing on a coal pile holding a light bulb illustrates the text alongside that exemplifies how simply replacing a light bulb leads to conserving coal and contributes toward improving the environment. However, the corporate message of the advertisement seems to be founded in the text contained in the small notebook located on the right side of the page, where the company emphasises actions that are being adopted for its own energy reduction. In this brief text, the company basically demonstrates Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 121 Francisca Farache what it has been doing internally since 1992 to avoid its own energy waste, resulting a savings of 24%. The company also states that it has helped other people and the government save energy. The text reads: Chevron steps taken: Saving our own energy: since 1992, Chevron has reduced its own energy consumption by 24%; we use cogeneration technology at our refineries to produce additional electricity from otherwise wasted energy. Saving other people’s energy: Chevron has a separate, proven business dedicated to energy efficiency. Success stories include: improvements that will lower a region’s postal service electricity spending by 46%; helping the US government save taxpayers $151 million while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an expected 1.5 million tons. In the way it is laid out, the advertisement produces two simultaneous effects: the first is to divulge the possibilities of a reduction in energy consumption through diverse alternatives – ideas that circulate on an individual level as well as on a corporative level, including here its research and technology branches. The second effect is to address Chevron’s corporate contribution to this arrangement, highlighting the company’s responsible characteristics, going back to 1992 and the results reached. The piece therefore suggests the figure of a responsible, well-informed, well-educated consumer capable of connecting distinct elements in the perspective of a set of actions that associate individual efforts and corporative action. The ad also addresses the consumer/reader in such a way that leads one to believe the company is actually concerned with the global energy challenge. This communication strategy becomes even more evident when one compares this advertisement to the others in the same campaign. The visual and textual structure of the advertisements “Russia, Iran and Qatar” (Figure 2) and “There are 193 countries” (Figure 3) follows the same structure introduced in the previous advertisement. Here again, elements commonly used in work and research environments are displayed, such as a pen, glasses, palmtop, folders, keys and even a small cup of black coffee – in an allusion to such exhausting work that a stimulant is needed. The text, again, follows the idea of providing the reader with different reading levels according to his or her interests. Finally, the object that returns and reaffirms the fundamental corporation character is the little notebook with the contributions made by Chevron Corporation. It should be stressed that it is in the little notebook image where the company signs the ad with its logo and slogan Human Energy. FIGURE. 2 - Russia, Iran and Qatar FIGURE 3 – There are 193 122 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Advertisements in Brazil and the UK: A Case of Banco Real and Chevron The advertisement in Figure 2 has the following hook: “Russia, Iran and Qatar have 585 of the world’s natural gas reserves. The U.S. has 3%,” followed by the question: So what does that mean for us? In order to assist the reader in answering this question, a text is presented with further information on the subject. Chevron’s contribution in this sense is again demonstrated in the little notebook, where it is stated that, in the upcoming years, the company will invest more than $ 10 billion in research and promote the largest LNG project in the world. Its text affirms: Chevron steps taken: planning to invest more than $10 billion in developing gas projects over the next five years; developing one of the largest integrated LNG projects in the world; created a four-country partnership to build West Africa’s first regional gas pipeline; spending more than $1 billion over the next several years on next generation, ultra-clean diesel fuel from natural gas. The last Chevron advertisement to be analysed offers the following hook: “There are 193 countries in the world. None of them are energy independent,” followed by the question: So who's holding whom over a barrel? The longer text states that even countries like Saudi Arabia – the biggest oil exporter in the world – imports its refined products, such as gasoline. Chevron once again states in its little notebook that, since 1992, the company has been reducing its energy consumption and affirms that it spends more than $15 billion per year getting energy to the market. Its text announces: Chevron steps taken: investing over $15 billion a year to bring energy to market; developing energy through partnerships in 26 countries; committing hundreds of millions annually to alternative and renewable energies to diversify supply; since 1992, have made our own energy go further by increasing our efficiency by 24%. All the three advertisements in Chevron’s energy campaign divulge the corporate social responsibility, in which consumers can have access to further information on the topic as well as information related to the industry. All of advertisements were also published in a double-page spread format, although in a lesser amount (10 times). Banco Real Banco Real’s sustainability campaign was propagated with three double-spread advertisements in the same issue of Veja and published only once. The advertisements were distributed between the pages 100 to 150, with an average of 20 pages between them. The three advertisements have very similar structures: a general layout of a landscape photograph (beach or field), cut in the lower part by a white bar and a superimposed image of the graphic elements of a cheque from a Banco Real chequebook. In all the advertisements, one or more personages with common Brazilians names such as "Norberto Ramos Monteiro", "Paulo Jorge Couto de Melo and his son Matheus", "Diana Tedeschi" (all classified as “Real clients”) are positioned over the signature field of the check. The value of the cheque is replaced with the hook, a different one for each advertisement. In the white strip that overlaps the picture, there is the same copy that repeats in all the ads: Environmentally friendly chequebooks. When you use it, you are saying what you expect from a Bank and from your life. And you are contributing in one of the many ways to preserve our natural resources. Banco Real uses recycled paper or white paper produced in an environmentally friendly manner in 100% of its materials. Banco Real also gives you the opportunity to choose which type Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 123 Francisca Farache of paper you want in your chequebook. For further details, visit www.bancoreal.com.br/sustentabilidade. Apart from their hooks, what, in fact, differentiates the three pieces is the landscape photograph that composes the background. The images present very well-preserved places from an environmental standpoint. In the first one (Figure 4), there is a steep cliff by a calm sea at sunset. On the top of the cliff, a young man contemplates the sea and the hills in the background. Above this image, in the area that evokes the cheque, the hook states: “A world where nobody loses when somebody wins”. On the connotated level, the connection between the hook and the photograph is a relay function, constructed around a vague statement, merely indicative of a supposed bank client’s comfort, who would be capable of enjoying the landscape as much as the peace of mind of doing business without harming others. This character visits an idealised landscape as well as idealises business affairs. FIGURE 4 – A world where nobody loses In the second advertisement, the photograph depicts a portion of forest at the banks of a river. On a large rock, a small camping tent shelters a child and an adult, who read a book. The forest is magnificent and closed, but the scene causes a sensation of great tranquillity. The hook, handwritten in this case, reads: “A society that thinks about the consequence of everything it does”. It is clear that the connotation of this advertisement can be summarised by the idea of security: the son who feels calm and safe next to his father, even on the edge of a closed forest; the client, who plans the future and preserves the natural world, thereby guaranteeing his son’s quality of life. 124 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Advertisements in Brazil and the UK: A Case of Banco Real and Chevron FIGURE 5 – A society that thinks Finally, the third advertisement displays a young woman running along a tree-lined road, perhaps in a well-treated suburb. The photograph has an early morning atmosphere without any kind of disturbance such as traffic, noise or pollution. The hook affirms: “A well-lived life today without harming tomorrow”. Like the previous advertisements, the image is idealised, with a precise graphic treatment, aiming to give the landscape the appearance of cleanness. In this third advertisement, what is connotated is the idea of planning associated with the quality of life. FIGURE 6 - A well-lived life Therefore, the three pieces generally function from the connotation of an idealised context (landscape and relationships) and the text accompanying the images performs the relay function. The campaign general strategy is to address environmental issues by appealing to the emotions (sensations, including aesthetics), thereby concealing the discrepancy between natural landscapes and the impact of paper products. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 125 Francisca Farache Discussion The Chevron CSR campaign – composed of 3 different advertisements - was inserted individually a total 34 times (5% reduction - 15 times, Russia, Iran and Qatar - 4 times and “There are 193 countries” - 15 times) in both The Economist and Time magazines during the research period. Conversely, the Banco Real campaign – also made up of three advertisements – was published just once (all the advertisements in the same issue) in only one magazine (Veja). Chevron used the repetition strategy that, according to studies, increases consumer awareness of the message/brand (Schumann, Petty and Clemons, 1990). Moreover, Chevron campaign offers a large amount of information that is difficult for the reader to assimilate in a single exposure. Thus, the advertisements in this campaign need to be repeated. In contrast, the Banco Real advertisements display the same text in all three ads. What changes from ad to ad are the hook and the image, while all refer to the same topics. In this case, the audience does not need a second reading to fully understand the ad. The Chevron advertisements display visual evidence that they are directed to a male audience, whereas the Banco Real campaign depicts a more heterogenic audience, as it portrays a woman, a man and a family (formed by father and son). One can infer that the ads are directed at a broader audience than Chevron's campaign. While Chevron - one of the biggest oil companies in the world - associates itself with energy saving, energy security and natural gas reserves, Banco Real is connected to the natural environment. The images propagated in these two campaigns go beyond the industries of the companies. At first glance, the Chevron campaign could have been made by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), whereas the Banco Real campaign appears to be a tourist destination or made by an environmental NGO. The biggest threat faced by Banco Real (as for the majority of Brazilian banks) in relation to its consumers is the fact that it charges high interest rates and, consequently, the banks have greater profits in comparison to the other financial service companies. In order to legitimize its performance and justify charges, the bank demonstrated that part of its profits is reverted to CSR actions. However, despite its awareness towards the preservation of the environment (an attitude amply associated with CSR), the campaign does not make any direct allusion to investments applied in its conduct. Thus, it Banco Real is more heavily using the legitimacy strategy that diverts attention from the problem by focusing on a positive activity not linked to the problem. All the ads seek to associate chequebooks made from recycled paper to sustainability, equity and nature. While it is very respectable for the company to only use recycled and environmentally friendly paper (whatever that means) in its material, the issue does not link elevated services costs or higher rates to the banks. Banco Real could, at least, attempt to publish its environmental actions by providing more substantial data. Chevron not only faces accusations directed at the oil industry in general, but is also involved in scandals correlated with judicial courts and probes, as discussed previously. Thus, in this campaign, Chevron does not fully respond to the more usual critiques from society. The advertisement “5% reduction” comes closest to the legitimacy strategy of “informing stakeholders of the intentions of the organization to improve its performance” when divulging its energy saving. In this case, the company is attempting to show that, despite being in an industry that is highly associated to environmental problems, Chevron is concerned with making consumers save energy and also offers viable alternatives. In its advertisement “Iran, Russia and Qatar,” the company uses the more explicit the strategy of “attempting to change the perception of stakeholders regarding events without changing corporate behaviour.” This piece addressed the 126 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Advertisements in Brazil and the UK: A Case of Banco Real and Chevron need for diversifying energy sources and introduces natural gas as a solution. It should be stressed that no attempt is made in the advertisement to explain that, although natural gas is less of a pollutant than oil, it is not a renewable energy source. A company that wants to invest in gas natural is only expanding its energy sources in a traditional way. When discussing energy security, a problem that does not appear as one of the main critiques against the oil industry made by society, the advertisement “193 countries” gives priority to the strategy of diverting attention from the problem by focusing on a positive activity not linked to the problem. The analysis of the Chevron and Banco Real campaigns also allows the establishment of other two distinct strategies of corporate social responsibility advertising. On one hand, the Chevron campaign that appeals to the consumer rationality, incorporating complex data to the ad in order to construct the idea of a responsible company. On the other hand, the Banco Real campaign that appeals to the emotions, working mainly with visual impact in order to produce consumer adherence to company policy. 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Ahmed (1990) “Comparison of social responsibility information disclosure media by Canadians firms.” Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 38-53 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 129 Francisca Farache 130 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 To Be or Not to Be a Crisis Commander: An Explorative Investigation of the Crisis Management and Crisis Communication Consulting of Danish Public Relations Agencies Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen ASB Centre for Business Communication Aarhus School of Business, University of Aarhus, Denmark [email protected] / [email protected] Public relations agencies play an important role when organizations are in need of crisis consulting. ”Use crisis management consultants (advice by objectivity of PR consultants is important)”, claims one of the many web sites promoting the expertise of a public relations agency. However, we are still without scientific and empirical investigations concerning the form and function of the crisis consulting ”products and services” delivered by the agencies. The aim of this paper is to present the results of an explorative investigation of the approaches and consulting skills of Danish public relations agencies within the field of crisis mangement and crisis communication. The questions we want to answer are: • • • • • • • How do public relations agencies define and typologize organizational crises? What are the most widespread approaches to crisis management among consultants (within a prescriptive and/or emergent perspective)? What are the most widespread approaches to crisis communication among consultants (type of crisis response strategies, stakeholder relations approach, etc.)? What is the typical form and function of the crisis consulting ”services and products” delivered by the agencies (lists of good advices, procedures, models, etc.)? What is the role of crisis management consultants with regard to the organizations before, during and after a crisis? How do the public relations agencies communicate about their crisis consulting skills (using metaphors like ”crisis experts” and ”crisis commanders”)? To what degree do public relations agencies make use of scientific research findings in their crisis consulting? How do consultants view public relations theory within the field of crisis management and crisis communication? The research design comprises three elements: 1) a quantitative survey consisting of a questionnaire sent to 39 Danish public relations agencies, 2) qualitative semi-structured interviews based on the findings of the survey with representatives of 10 Danish public relations agencies, and 3) archive studies focusing on how the public relations agencies present their approaches and crisis consulting skills on their corporate web sites and how the models and methods used and/or created by the agencies are described and promoted in specially designed documents. The results of the investigation are of importance to both organizations, public relations agencies and researchers within the field of crisis management and crisis communication. The organizations acquire a useful knowledge concerning the nature and quality of the crisis consulting they are asking for, the public relations agencies can form a general view of differences and similarities in their approaches to crisis management and crisis communication consulting, and the researchers can observe to what extent public relations agencies introduce research findings in their consulting practices. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 131 Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen (Abstract Only) 132 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Coaching: Leveraging the Art of Communication Across Cultures Christina M. Genest, CEC Corporate Communication International (C.C.I.) at Baruch College/CUNY, USA [email protected] In January 2007 160 top public relations professionals, through the auspices of the PR Coalition and U.S. State Department, gathered to explore how the private sector could become more engaged in U.S. public diplomacy. Why? Given the state of the U.S.’ image abroad, there is growing concern about the ability of American global companies to do business. Eleven models of action were adopted. In a group of esteemed communicators, leaders in their profession, intercultural communication and competency did not head the list. And yet, in this age of globalization, cultural intelligence is a prerequisite to managing across cultures, whether those borders are national, ethnic, racial, gender, corporate or professional. Imbedded in each of these cultural environments are values that inform thinking and behavior – a complex thicket even for the most experienced cultural navigator. At the core of intercultural competence is personal openness and adaptability – the willingness to traverse across personal boundaries to gain a new insight, to consider a new paradigm and then, while maintaining personal authenticity, adopting new behaviors and solutions. Simply put, personal transformation is hard work, an on-going process and not one achieved by a day long training program or reading a book about cultural do’s and don’ts. A new partnership is emerging between the fields of intercultural communication and coaching whether in the areas of life, corporate, or executive coaching. In my view, it presents exciting possibilities, in particular for communicators who share a common language with the practice of coaching. This paper will address communicators and will explore from the current literature and practice: coaching; the language of coaching; how the language of coaching resonates with that of communication; the art of coaching across cultures today; practices that have evolved from the influences of intercultural communication and coaching; coaching’s potential as a leverage for communicating across cultures. When 160 leading U.S. public relations professionals gathered at the U.S. State Department in Janaury 2007 to determine models for action that the private sector can use to support U.S. public diplomacy, their favored responses were tactical and reflected a doing orientation rather than a being form of activity. American (U.S.) thinking, according to Stewart and Bennett (1991) is functional and pragmatic, inductive and operational. (p. 28-31) Its emphasis is on solving problems and accomplishing results. Its orientation is outward – influencing the environment, rather than inward, transforming our own internal landscape. Among the tactics adopted were: 1. 2. 3. 4. Make public diplomacy actions a corporate officer’s responsibility. Make U.S. business practices consistent with U.S. values. Become a part of the local community through relationships with organizations, chambers of commerce, journalists and local business leaders. Create “circles of influence” through relationships with organizations, chambers of commerce, journalists and local business leaders. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 133 Christina M. Genest 5. 6. 7. Create local opportunities to win internship opportunities in the U.S. Provide English language training and oversee studies for disadvantaged students. Support the creation of a corps of “foreign service officers” made up of academics and business people with specialized expertise who would work abroad on shortterm assignments. 8. Provide incentives for the non-U.S. work force to visit America and for the U.S. work force to travel overseas. 9. Sponsor international short-term assignments for U.S. employees. 10. Hold public diplomacy summits in key geographies. 11. Provide financial support for some State Department educational and cultural exchanges. (PR Coalition, 2007, pp. 12-13) Note the verbs: make, become (as in join), create, support, provide, sponsor, hold – all action oriented, implying an agent. As Stewart and Bennett note, for Americans, “decisions have their makers, problems their solvers, accidents their causes, success and failures their heroes and villains” (p. 62). The above are all laudable objectives. Yet they do not respond to how we got ourselves in this fix in the first place. Participants may have been avoiding the political and diplomatic decisions and actions that created the concern for “America’s reputation.” In my opinion we were also avoiding the heart of the matter, those values that influence American cultural patterns and thus inform American actions at home and abroad. I would submit, that as a culture, we are unaware of why we behave as we do. And when intercultural communication discussions arise they are generally about the other guy, not us. The hard work of intercultural intelligence requires us to journey inward in order to become open to another’s cultural milieu, to create a context in which relationships can be built, work can get done, mutual goals can be met, joint meaning can be created. But in order to do this we first need to know where the journey begins. Yet as communicators, we are well aware that values inform our thoughts, thus influencing our actions. In order to operate effectively at home and abroad, we must continually traverse cultural environments, whether national, ethnic, racial, professional, organizational, community or family. We know that communication always occurs in a cultural context. In my recent study of national values and their relationship to corporate values, a significant difference arose. (Genest, 2004, p. 10) From an anthropologist’s viewpoint, those values that inform human behavior are often hidden from view. This is certainly true when we discuss the influence of national values on our activities. However, corporate cultures are influenced by founder/leader values and corporate members are socialized into those values. (Hofstede, 1991, p. 182-183) They are not inherently held They are visible and imbedded in the corporate language. This may be the key to understanding why communicators, such as the PR Coalition members, not versed in the findings of interculturalists but working daily in corporate environments, didn’t adopt intercultural competence as a key requirement to building U.S. reputation abroad. Most of us don’t see the cultural context created by cultural patterns, particularly our own, without being made aware of them. In addition, we all carry beliefs, also hidden from our view, that inform our decision making and behavior and that have arisen from our personal histories, interpretations of events, and assumptions. These beliefs can support or detract from our effectiveness in relationships and in meeting personal and professional objectives. Enter the field of coaching. 134 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Coaching: Leveraging the Art of Communication Across Cultures What is coaching? You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi First, let’s explore some definitions: Professional coaching is an ongoing partnership that helps clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life. In each meeting, the client chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the client into action. Coaching accelerates the client’s progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice. Coaching concentrates on where clients are today and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be tomorrow. – International Coaching Federation (iPEC Coaching Training Manual, 2006, p.9) Coaching is a healthy, positive, and enabling process that develops the capacity of people to solve today’s business problems. Touching people’s spirits and rekindling what deeply matters to them is what [coaching] is all about. – The Heart of Coaching by Thomas G. Crane (iPEC Coaching Training Manual, 2006, p.9) …coaching is the art of facilitating the unleashing of people’s potential to reach meaningful, important objectives. (Rosinski, 2003, p.4) Coaching is not consulting, therapy or mentoring. Although coaches may also, with the client’s permission, consult or mentor, the key elements of coaching are that the client sets the agenda and is the expert. The coach’s role is not to fix problems, heal emotional scars, nor deal with mental illness. Nor is it the purpose of a coach to be a role model and share ones personal or professional experiences. Coaches initially create a foundation to co-create a relationship in an environment of authenticity and trust. In the coaching session coaches ask open-ended questions. They listen, acknowledge, and validate. They employ creativity to enable the client to think outside of the box, to reframe an issue, to design a solution, to vision a future reality, and to stretch the client beyond their comfort zone. They break through limiting beliefs, assumptions and interpretations by reframing. They may focus on “doing” to achieve results by goal setting, forwarding the action, clarifying, and establishing accountability. They are cheerleaders, championing, celebrating and empathizing with the client. They also manage a learning process in which they may inquire, negotiate, probe, strategize or summarize. Simply put, coaches facilitate a change process within the client that results in a new way of thinking or perceiving that alters behavior to achieve desired outcomes in the client’s work and life. According to Phillippe Rosinski (2007, p. 4-5) the key elements of coaching are: 1. Objectives: Coaching is oriented toward the achievement of results. It’s orientation is the present and the future. 2. Meaningful, important: Coaching is an authentic process. It is understood that to gain a coachees’ commitment, objectives must be meaningful to them, deriving from their core motives and values. Coaching’s purpose is to enable clients to engage in a Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 135 Christina M. Genest 3. 4. 5. 6. life of meaning, serving not only clients’ innermost hopes and desires but also empowering them to pursue activities in service to other stakeholders, such as family, friends, employees, colleagues, community and society. Potential: At the heart of coaching is the belief that We are greater than we appear to be (iPEC Coaching Manual, 2006, p. 45). The coach’s goal is to help people “discover, develop, and overcome obstacles to realize that potential” (Rosinski, 2007, p. 4). Facilitating: Coaching is interactive and promotes growth. The coach facilitates the ability of coachees to develop solutions, unearth opportunities, and pursue them through thoughtful, planned and meaningful action. People: Coaching can involve individuals or teams. As a team the goal is to create team synergy, to pursue win-win solutions, while working toward each individual reaching his or her objectives. Art: Coaching involves creativity on the coach’s part. It takes skill, know-how and experience. It also takes innovation and intuition. The coaching process relies on authenticity to build trust and to champion internal transformation and results. What is the language of coaching? The specific words used in coaching are Who, What, Why, Where, When, Which, If and How? These indirect questions: 1. Determine the client’s agenda. 2. Create and hold a space of inquiry by asking empowering questions that: trigger lines of inquiry, deepen and explore that inquiry, and bring up issues to pursue as new trigger questions. The objective is to use intuition to gain new insights and learning. The need is to move the client from head to heart. 3. Support the client in producing results through action by planning and strategizing or reframing and removing obstacles. Indirect questions are also used to engage inner motivation and to shift energy; to produce new choices for different results, and to attain client commitment and accountability. (C. Leo, personal communication, 2006) Coaching is a process of communicating authentically. The coach creates an environment of trust and empathy providing the client a context to explore the inner territory of values and beliefs, both empowering and limiting, and to fully engage the coachee’s commitment to produce meaningful results. To be successful the process is developmental and transformative, resulting in new behaviors in order to achieve desired outcomes. In a corporate setting, the client remains the center of the process and that process is confidential. If it is discovered that management objectives and the client’s are at odds, then the coaching process will support the coachee in pursuing objectives that best meet his/her needs, which may include, leaving the organization. How does the language of coaching resonate with that of communication? My first experience with the field of corporate communication was before the term was coined, and we spoke of being in “pubic relations.” I was an executive of a major community nonprofit organization and found myself managing a variety of stakeholder relationships. Colleagues encouraged me to attend our local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. 136 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Coaching: Leveraging the Art of Communication Across Cultures There I was introduced to the field by Patrick Jackson, APR, a recognized thought leader in the profession. Patrick spoke of behavioral public relations. The objective of our work was to change attitudes and opinions in order to change behavior. We wanted our audience to stop smoking, not drink and drive, make a donation to our organization or cause, vote for us, or buy our product. Jackson would further explain that the foundation for effective public relations is the effective organization. These organizations possess: • • • • strong organizational cultures, nurtured by visionary leadership, and a mission moored to the heart of the organization; and a mission, a statement of organizational values and belief that engender trust and are embedded in organizational culture. These adopted values and beliefs are articulated to all publics by being consistently manifested in behavior, practices, relationships, and communications. These organizations speak with ONE CLEAR VOICE. Earning reputations for credibility and integrity, these corporations enjoy positive images. These are the organizations that we trust with our health, our families, and our consumer needs. These organizations and their spokespeople could persuade us to change our thinking, beliefs and attitudes and to adopt new behaviors. Authenticity is at the core of Jackson’s message. These organizations know who they are and why they are in business. Their mission and purpose speaks to their values and those values inform their behavior and practices. Therefore, they communicate with ONE CLEAR VOICE resulting in reputations of credibility and integrity. I was recently asked to speak to a group of coaches about public relations. I realized that through my professional life I had to ask the questions Who, What, Why, Where, When, and How and for Whom not only to write a press release but also to strategize a public relations plan. I had to be clear who I was representing, what their purpose was, why was that purpose meaningful and valuable to whom and for whom. I also had to articulate when, where, and how that purpose would be executed and who would be the beneficiaries. And finally, how that benefit changed lives. I had to communicate in a manner that not only created understanding, but also touched the core of who they are to motivate commitment. (Genest, personal communication, November 16, 2006) To be successful when representing nonprofit organizations, I had to encourage affiliation with our organizational purpose. That purpose had to be meaningful to stakeholders. It had to speak to their values and motivate them to volunteer, give funds, join a committee, become a member, or participate in a program or activity. In the end, I was in the business of communication to build community. Not only organizational community but a sustainable society. This was at its core a transformative and developmental process not only for the individual but also for the organization and the community it served. These questions resonated with my audience of life and corporate coaches. This is their language as well. They are in the business of authenticity, of unearthing values that inform beliefs and behaviors. Their job is to help their clients find their core ‘voice’, and speak with ONE CLEAR VOICE, based on their beliefs and values that inform their purpose, and act upon them to create a meaningful life that not only serves them, but all their life/work relationships. In 2007, the Arthur W. Page Society, a U.S. based public relations professional organization, who counts in its membership the corporate leaders in the profession, published a Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 137 Christina M. Genest white paper titled “The Authentic Enterprise.” message. Patrick Jackson would have applauded its Business and institutions today are facing a rapidly changing landscape: • the emergence of a new digital information commons; • the reality of a global economy; and • the appearance and empowerment of myriad new stakeholders ….In such an environment, the corporation that wants to establish a distinctive brand and achieve long-term success must, more than ever before, be grounded in a sure sense of what defines it – why it exits, what it stands for and what differentiates it in a marketplace of customers, investors, and workers. Those definitions – call them values, principles, beliefs, mission, purpose or value proposition – must dictate consistent behavior and actions. …In a word, authenticity will be the coin of the realm for successful corporations and for those who lead them. (p. 6) Asking who, what, why explores values, beliefs, mission and purpose which are then adopted in consistent behavior, practices and relationships in response to when, how and for whom. This is the language of authentic enterprises and the individuals who lead them and communicate for them. It is also the language of coaching whose purpose is to unleash individual potential to create authentic lives. What is the art of coaching across cultures today? When the practice of coaching is shared across national boundaries, it will be at its best only to the extent that it is informed by wisdom from the field of intercultural consulting. As researchers, theorists, and practitioners since 1960, interculturalists have attained indepth awareness of the differences and similarities among the value systems of various human groups. They have learned how to transmit to others skills that enable people to interact effectively when they travel abroad to immerse themselves in a different valuesystem (Hallowell, Molloy, Grove, 2003). Does coaching reflect American patterns, assumptions and values? Yes, said Eric Kruger, a European, with an expertise in intercultural communication trained to be a coach in the United States. (E. Kruger, personal communication, August 31, 2007) Coaching from an American mind-set: 1. Assumes the individual as an agent of change. 2. Emphasizes solving problems and accomplishing results. 3. Is tasks/goal oriented. 4. Is future oriented. 5. Focuses on obstacles that block action. 6. Promotes measurable objectives. 7. Is abundance based. 8. Takes place in an informal interaction. 9. Assumes relative equality. 10. Relies on explicit versus implicit communication. (Genest, personal communication, January 5, 2006) 138 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Coaching: Leveraging the Art of Communication Across Cultures Dr. Keith E. Webb suggests “coaches from individualist, egalitarian cultural milieus may be blind to the complex social contexts, obligations, and politics of their client’s situation. Yet, because of the client’s respect for the coach, they may assume that the coach is aware of all those things, trust that the coach knows what he or she is doing, and choose a course of action that is culturally inappropriate” (Webb, 2007). Coaching, however, does stress empathy versus sympathy, intuitive listening on the part of the coach and intuitive reflection on the part of the client. The work of the coach and the client is to build a co-active relationship, built on the client’s agenda and for the purpose of the client’s empowerment. The practice reflects an open, nonjudgmental stance. When coaches approach their work with intercultural knowledge and sensitivity, choosing coaching strategies that honor the client’s cultural context, coaching can have powerful implications in multi-cultural and intercultural coach/client interactions. Willa Hallowell, Kathy Molloy and Cornelius Grove, interculturalists and executive coaches, who now see the exportation of executive coaching as “Made in America” foresee “a breakthrough in which the wisdom of intercultural consulting is used to contextualize and enhance current approaches to executive coaching. The outcome is that the values and expectations of executives abroad are not ignored, but rather are anticipated and welcomed as legitimate, indeed necessary, contributions to their own coaching process. Only then can we speak of a genuinely GLOBAL coaching program. Only then will such programs generate lasting beneficial impact for all coaches and their companies everywhere” (2003). Their professional consulting firm , Grovewell, LLC, has married the two disciplines creating “Coaching for Global Advantage SM” The following depicts their “Coaching Conversation:” Building the Relationship Across Mindsets Understanding the Coachees’ Structure of Interpretation Outcomes of CGA Coaching • Consistent on-the-job goal attainment • More versatile performance repertoire • Self-correcting behavior in new environments • Enhanced global leadership competencies • Better relationships with diverse colleagues • Capacity for intentional leadership anywhere Presenting Powerful Distinctions to the Coachee Co-Creating Appropriate Practices Based on Standards The Development Path: Putting New Practices into Action Assessment Based on Company Standards; Coach & Stakeholder Feedback to Coachee FIGURE 1. Coaching for Global Advantage. Adapted from James Flaherty, Coaching: Evolving Excellence in Others, 1999 (Grovewell, LLC) Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 139 Christina M. Genest Beyond meeting coachee and client identified needs, Grovewell’s goal is to meet the following objectives for coached leaders working internationally. Accurate Interpretation of events and behaviors enacted by counterparts in or from other backgrounds Cultural Self-Knowledge so that difference can be recognized as precisely “different from what?” Confident Adaptability based on knowing how to learn and how to make subtle behavioral responses Appropriate Performance so that executives can fine-tune actions to be acceptable to local stakeholders Empathic Collegiality leading to trust with colleagues and counterparts across mindsets and values Organization Resonance to align the performance of each and all on the company’s global objectives. (Grovewell, LLC) The marriage of intercultural communication and the field of coaching is a new phenomenon. To date only one book has been written on the subject, Coaching Across Cultures: New Tools for Leveraging National,Corporate & Professional Differences by Phillippe Rosinski. What concrete practices have evolved from the influences of intercultural communication and coaching? Philippe Rosinski’s pioneering work melds theory with practice. He was the first European to be designated a Master Certified Coach by the International Coaching Federation. Previously director of Custom Programs for Creative Leadership Europe, he is now principal of his own firm, Rosinski & Company. His seminal work introduces the findings of interculturalists to coaching. For their use, he has created a Cultural Orientations Framework, COF. (See Appendix I). In it, he presents cultural dimensions in a usable format. He encourages coaches to adopt a “dialectic” versus “binary” way of thinking. He explains that Western cultures, since Aristotle, have tended to choose one cultural orientation over another thus discouraging opportunities to discover new thinking to create new alternatives. He recommends that in using the COF coaches look at contrasts, “for opposite poles and viewpoints” with the goal of creating “new ideas, solutions, and options.” Rosinski makes a critical point. “When describing a culture, however, it is easy to confuse orientations (What do you prefer?), abilities (What are you capable of?) and behaviors (What do you do in reality?)” (Rosinski, 2003, p. 58). When coaching it is critical to assess the influences of orientation and ability on behavior. Using the deductive/inductive cultural dimension as an example, he recommends assessing the issues of orientation and ability by asking the following questions. 1. Orientation (What do you prefer?) Questions: • Does this individual (or group) prefer to think deductively or inductively? • What is he (are they) most comfortable with? 140 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Coaching: Leveraging the Art of Communication Across Cultures An orientation is neither good or bad. The individual’s (or group’s) orientation can be plotted on the continuum for the deductive extreme pole to the inductive extreme pole. It could be represented by a discrete number from –2 to +2. (p. 59) Deductive Inductive -2 Clear -1 Mild 0 Neutral +1 Mild +2 Clear FIGURE 2. Orientation (p. 60) 2. Abilities (What are you capable of?) Questions: • What is the behavioral flexibility? • If the individual (or group) prefers inductive thinking, how able is he (are they) to think deductively? The behavioral flexibility could be represented by scores for each possible orientation. The scale could be from –2 to +2. (p. 59) Excellent +2 Good -1 Fair 0 Limited -1 Poor -2 FIGURE 3. Ability (p. 60) Ability +2 +1 Orientation 0 -2 +1 -1 +2 -1 FIGURE 4. Orientation and Ability (p. 60) +2 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 141 Christina M. Genest 3. Behaviors (What do you do in reality?) Questions: • What is the actual behavior? • What appears to be the orientation(s)? • How does an individual’s orientation translate into his approach to solving a problem? …I suggest adding qualitative comments and evidence to describe the styles most often used and their impact. (p. 61) As a global executive coach, and a European, Rosinski is familiar with “scorecards” being adopted in global corporations today. Examples are the U.N. Global Compact, the Balanced Scorecard, the EFQM Model (European Foundation for Quality Management), SA8000 (Social Accountability) and the ISO14000 (International Organization for Standardization). (p. 213) These standards may solely examine organizational metrics, may add a societal component and, in some cases, may adopt global improvement targets. They are responses to stakeholder concerns and to pressing sustainability issues: ecological, economical, political and social. In order to meet these standards, corporations must test their internal policies and procedures and achieve a sophisticated understanding of their behavior and resulting local and global stakeholder relationships. In corporate communication parlance these needs relate to corporate culture, employee and customer relations, public affairs, issues management, media relations, community relations, corporate social responsibility, and the fundamental work of public relations in bridging corporate values and goals with community needs and perceptions. Along with executive leadership, it is the purview of corporate communication to have a deep understanding of corporate mission and values and articulate these to build common meaning internally and mutually beneficial relationships externally. It is the role of global coaching to facilitate a goal-setting process to support individuals in adopting the global perspective needed for success in this demanding and complex environment. For global communicators, this personal work should resonate with held professional values and related objectives. From a coaching viewpoint a global perspective, refers to what and how questions. “What are the objectives that could truly indicate that you are achieving global success? How could you go about determining these objectives?” (p.211). To address the what question Rosinski has created the Global Scorecard. To address the how question he recommends the acronym GLOBAL which addresses six goal-setting principles. (p. 211) The Global Scorecard is a coaching framework to facilitate goal setting. It is designed to explore two types of objectives: “projected outcomes and drivers of success.’’ “Profit, for example, can be viewed as the ultimate outcome, and employee satisfaction as an enabler. Alternatively, profit may be the driver and employee satisfaction the desired outcome” (p.211). According to Rosinski, The Global Scorecard is ‘global’ in three ways: 1. It seeks to serve a variety of stakeholders, from self to community and world Life coaching tends to emphasize the self, while executive coaching has as it major focus the organization. This model offers a global perspective of stakeholders, creating opportunities for synergistic responses to multiple needs, thus leveraging drivers and outcomes. It presents a comprehensive methodology that goes beyond other scorecards. It promotes the setting of targets that encourage high performance and high fulfillment in the service of multiple stakeholders: the self, family and friends, the organization, the community and the world. 142 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Coaching: Leveraging the Art of Communication Across Cultures 2. It seeks integration: internal and external Returning to cultural orientations, the Global Scorecard navigates internal and external environments, the being and doing orientations. Fulfillment, happiness, and personal meaning leverage productivity and visible outcomes and achievements. 3. It seeks to “evoke wholeness and unity” (p. 214) Rosinski’s ‘global’ describes wholeness and unity on the individual as well as social levels. Internal and external measures contribute to personal growth and transformation. Talents and cultural and psychological orientations are leveraged to create alternative perspectives and solutions resulting in enhanced external performance benefiting multiple stakeholders from family to the broader society. These new orientations and behaviors then serve social, political, ecological, economic, scientific and artistic cultures in which differences are not only respected, but appreciated as opportunities to develop alternative solutions for adding value and creating mature, sustainable communities. (p. 212-214) The Global Scorecard Devising appropriate measures of global success (drivers and outcomes) Self Taking great self- care Internal measures Sources of motivation Family and Friends Organization Adding value to the organization’s stakeholders Sharing love and friendship Community and World Improving the World External measures External measures Life balance Financial Ecological Feelings Health & Fitness Customers Social Beliefs Pleasurable/ enriching activities Employees Economic Accomplishments Internal processes and Resources Political Partnerships Scientific & Artistic Desires Values Psychological preferences Preferences Cultural orientations Strengths and Weaknesses FIGURE 5. The Global Scorecard (Rosinski, p. 212) Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 143 Christina M. Genest Rosinski uses the acronym GLOBAL to represent the principles coaches and coaches should consider in developing objectives. G Genuine: The goals you set have to resonate with your desires so that you genuinely and passionately want to achieve them. L Leverage: To leverage, you have to consider various cultural perspectives and make the most of them through synthesis (e.g., leveraging economic, social, and ecological cultures.) O Outcomes. These outcomes should provide an accurate picture of where you set out to go. B Balance. Achieving balance is your next best tactic when leveraging appears inaccessible. A Assessment. The goal-setting process is based on a thorough assessment. Moreover, once you have determined your indicators of success, you will assess the present value of these indicators. This will give you a point of reference. L Limited. You cannot do it all. Setting priorities and concentrating your efforts accordingly is a key success factor. Articulating a limited set of objectives will allow you to focus on and shoot for what really matters. (p. 238-239) What is coaching’s potential as a leverage for communicating across cultures? Corporations are being challenged to put corporate values to practice across cultures. They are responding to the needs of the corporation to be ‘authentic’ as advocated by the Arthur W. Page Society. To maintain their license to operate, they and the people who represent them must walk with integrity. To do so they must personify values that engender trust. To achieve trust, the men and the women of the global corporation must exercise social responsibility. To behave responsibly, they must acquire cultural intelligence, developing the ability to traverse cultures: social, political, economic, professional and ecological while articulating the values of their corporate sponsors. Organizational adaptation across cultures can only occur when global leaders, managers, and organizational members transform themselves to meet the new global reality. Corporate communicators are charged with enabling their organizations to speak with ONE CLEAR VOICE. Coaches facilitate a process to enable their coaching clients to do the same. Questions of who, what, why, where, when, for whom, and how relate to purpose, values, behavior and performance in communication and in coaching. Both endeavors have as their ultimate goal to build relationships in response to a meaningful purpose. Today the challenge for individuals and for organizations is to behave authentically and effectively across layers of culture globally. As coaching develops as a profession it has significant potential as a lever to enable communicators to improve their personal communication with themselves and with other stakeholders. The contribution of intercultural communication to global coaching practice creates opportunities to enhance relationships, to leverage difference into opportunities for new thinking and new solutions, and to build communities across cultures of shared meaning and purpose. 144 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Coaching: Leveraging the Art of Communication Across Cultures References Arthur W. Page Society (2007). The authentic enterprise: An Arthur W. Page Society report. New York, New York: Author. Genest, C. M. (2004). Cultures, organizations and philanthropy: The impact of culture on corporate culture and the practice of corporate philanthropy in a global environment. Unpublished master’s thesis, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ. Genest, C. M. (2007, January 5). Coaching between cultures. Presentation conducted at iPEC Coaching Training, Edison, NJ. Genest, C.M. (2008, November 16). PR for Coaching Entrepreneurs. Presentation for Northern NJ Master Mind Coaching Group, Mountain Lakes, NJ. Grovewell LLC. Coaching for Global Advantage. Retrieved October 31, 2007 from http://www.grovewell.com/CGA-conversation.html. Hallowell, W., Molloy, K. and Grove, C. (2003). What is “Global Executive Coaching.” Grovewell, LLC. Retrieved October 31, 2007 from http://www.grovewell.com/pub-global-coaching.html. Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. Berkshire, England: McGraw Hill. iPEC Coaching (2006). Coach training manual. Manasquan, NJ: Author. Leo, C. (2006). Coaching Skill Mastery. Teleclass conducted by iPEC Coaching, Manasquan, NJ. PR Coalition (2007). Private sector summit on public diplomacy, New York, NY. Rosinski, P. (2003). Coaching across cultures: New tools for leveraging national, corporate & professional differences. London, England: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Stewart, E. C. and Bennett, M. (1991) American cultural patterns: A cross-cultural perspective. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, Inc. Webb, K.E. (2007). Coaching & culture. Creative Results Management. Retrieved October 24, 2007 from http://www.creativeresultsmanagement.com/newsletter/back20070801.htm. Related reading: Banks, S. P. (1995). Multicultural public relations: A social-interpretative approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Brake, T., & Sullivan, K. (1992). Doing business internationally: The cross-cultural challenges. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Training Press. Catell, T. B. and Moore, K. with Rifkin, G. (2004). The CEO and the monk: One company’s journey to profit and purpose. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Crane, T.G. (2002). The heart of coaching: Using transformational coaching to create a high-performance coaching culture. San Diego, CA: FTA Press. Drobis, D. R., (1998, July). “Borderless believability: Building trust around the globe”. Academy Monograph. New York: Public Relations Society of America. Fortgang, L. B. (2004). Now what? 90 days to a new life direction. New York, NY: Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Galen, Michele. (2003, March 28). “Global citizenship: A business imperative”. Symposium conducted at a meeting of the Corporate Communication Institute at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Genest, C.M. (2005). “Cultures, organizations and philanthropy.” Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 10 (4), 315-327. Goodman, M.B. (1998). Corporate communications for executives. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Goodman, M. B. (2006). Work with anyone anywhere: A guide to global business. Belmont, CA: Professional Publications, Inc. Harris, P. R., & Moran, R. T. (1996). Managing cultural differences: Leadership strategies for a new world of business. Houston, TX: Golf Press. Hendricks, G. and Ludeman, K. (1997). The corporate mystic. New York, NY: Bantam Books. Holden, N. J., (2002). Cross-cultural management: A knowledge management perspective. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 145 Christina M. Genest Morgan, H., Harkins, P, & Goldsmith, M. (2005). The art and practice of leadership coaching. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Rhinesmith, S. H. (1993). Globalization: Six keys to success in a changing world. New York: Irwin. Richardson, C. (1999). Take time for your life. New York, NY: Broadway Books, a div. of Random House, Inc. Roth, Juliana. (2003, October 7). “Intercultural communication in an uncertain world: The challenges for global managers and the intercultural communication professionals who counsel them”. Briefing conducted at a meeting of the Corporate Communication Institute at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey. Schneider, B.D. (2008). Energy leadership: Transforming your workplace and your life from the core. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Shames, G. W. & Glover, W. G. (1989). World class service. Yarmouth, Me.: Intercultural Press. Shane, S. (1994, Summer). “Cultural values and the champion process”. [on-line]. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 18 (4) 25-42. Abstract from: Business Collection: 83S0112. Wright, K. (1998). Breaking the rules: Removing the obstacles to effortless high performance. Boise, ID: CPM Publishing. 146 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Coaching: Leveraging the Art of Communication Across Cultures Appendix I Cultural Orientations Framework Categories Dimensions Sense of Power and Responsibility Control/Harmony/ Humility Scarce/Plentiful Time Management Approaches Monochronic/ Polychronic Past/Present/Future Description Control: people have a determinant power and responsibility to forge the life they want. Harmony: Strive for balance and harmony with nature. Humility: Accept inevitable natural limitations Scarce: Time is a scarce resource. Manage it carefully! Plentiful: Time is abundant. Relax! Monochronic: Concentrate on one activity and/or relationship at a time Polychronic: Concentrate simultaneously on multiple tasks and/or relationships. Past: Learn from the past. The present is essentially a continuation or a repetition of past occurrences. Present: Focus on the “here and now” and short-term benefits. Future: Have a bias toward long-term benefits. Promote a farreaching vision. Being/Doing Being: Stress living itself and the development of talents and relationships. Doing: Focus on accomplishments and visible achievements. Individualistic/ Collectivistic Individualistic: Emphasize individual attributes and projects Collectivistic: Emphasize affiliation with a group Definitions of Identity and Purpose Hierarchy/Equality Universalist/ Particularist Organizational Arrangements Stability/Change Competitive/ Collaborative Hierarchy: Society and organizations must be socially stratified to function properly. Equality: People are equals who often happen to play different roles. Universalist: All cases should be treated in the same universal manner. Adopt common processes for consistency and economics of scale. Particularlist: Emphasize particular circumstances. Favor decentralization and tailored solutions. Stability: Value a static and orderly environment. Encourage efficiency through systematic and disciplined work. Minimize change and ambiguity, perceived and disruptive. Change: Value a dynamic and flexible environment. Promote effectiveness through adaptability and innovation. Avoid routine, perceived as boring. Competitive: promote success and progress through competitive stimulation. Collaborative: Promote success and progress through mutual support, sharing of best practices and solidarity Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 147 Christina M. Genest Categories Notions of Territory and Boundaries Dimensions Description Protective/Sharing Protective: Protect yourself by keeping personal life and feelings private (mental boundaries), and by minimizing intrusions in your physical space (physical boundaries). Sharing: Build closer relationships by sharing our psychological and physical domains. High Context/ Low Context High Context: Rely on implicit communication. Appreciate the meaning of gestures, posture, voice and context. Low Context: Rely on explicit communication. Favor clear and detailed instructions. Direct/Indirect Direct: In conflict or with a tough message to deliver, get your point across clearly at the risk of offending or hurting. Indirect: In a conflict or with a tough message to deliver, favor maintaining a cordial relationship at the risk of misunderstanding. Communication Patterns Affective/Neutral Affective: Display emotions and warmth when communicating. Establishing and maintaining personal and social connections is key. Neutral: Stress conciseness, precision and detachment when communicating. Formal/Informal Formal: Observe strict protocols and rituals. Informal: Favor familiarity and spontaneity. Deductive/Inductive Deductive: Emphasize concepts, theories and general principles. Then, through logical reasoning, derive practical applications and solutions. Inductive: Start with experiences, concrete situations and cases. Then, using intuition, formulate general models and theories. Analytical/Systemic Analytical: Separate a whole into its constituent elements. Dissect a problem into smaller chunks. Systemic: Assemble the parts into a cohesive whole. Explore connections between elements and focus on the whole system. Modes of Thinking Cultural Orientations Framework (Rosinski, 2003, p. 54-55) 148 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Greening 2.0: Five Factors in Play as Executives Zero in on Climate Change E. Bruce Harrison, APR, Fellow-PRSA EnviroComm International, USA [email protected] This paper explores five factors corporate executives must consider to meet the contemporary challenges of environmental issues: 1) the war on carbon, 2) a revival of environmental political activism, 3) pressure from activist investors, 4) green collar executives, 5) corporate communication’s move toward sustainability. Green is the comeback kid of American corporate sociopolitical issues. C-suite executives who thought for a time that dealing with pollution was pretty much under control are now looking at the deal differently. The many years of deliberate and progressively effective environmental management at the operations level—call it the era of corporate greening 1.0—now provide the backdrop for a bigger and broader challenge. Top management must now and in the decades ahead come to grips with the sociopolitical conditions arising from emphasis on climate change and carbon emissions. This realization has pushed environment up the ladder of corporate agendas. More than half of the 2,687 chief executive respondents in a McKinsey survey in 2007 zeroed in on the environment, including climate change, as one of the top three issues grabbing public and political attention during the next five years. The implication was that top-level executives worldwide knew that their games were subject to change. They were looking at their business options in a widely perceived necessity to stop global warming. We are in a period in the world of business that can be called Corporate Greening 2.0. It involves economic, social and political factors. As CEOs and chief communications officers—CCOs—move toward answers within the specific questions affecting their business, it is useful to review the factors that have made “green” the comeback kid and, more importantly, will shape conditions for business decisions in the decade ahead. Factor 1: Green has enlisted in the war on carbon. The old-guard green issue, preoccupied with air and water pollution, waste, recycling, public health and wildlife protection, barged back into the C-suite with new vigor by holding hands with the issue of climate change. The political and social consensus on global warming has given rise to the war on carbon, resulting in two major areas of impact on business: First: operational. Beyond the ongoing accountability for established environmental matters, companies must get their heads around new linkages of the environment with carbonconnected energy. Power, fuel, products, carbon footprints – a fresh supply of questions is thereby pushed onto the business strategy table. Second: economic and financial. Among the multitude of new green-plus-black topics that apply to virtually every company is risk exposure re-evaluation, moves to bank carbon credits—cushions against future shocks of emission limits. Company business communications will need to reflect and reinforce the company’s social or green accountability in its dialogue with critical stakeholders. CCOs must clearly Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 149 E. Bruce Harrison understand that the carbon war has the momentum to keep green issues alive in new contexts, linked in new ways to essential corporate energy needs, and, at the same time, enlivening some positive prospects for new technologies, products, processes and markets. Management will need to stay close to what’s happening in Congress, in the states and in other countries that impact company strategies. Green activism in the form of politics and public policy are in for the long term. Factor 2: Green political activism has been strongly revived. While corporate executives, including communicators, plan winning moves in the new green/energy game, they realize that the game has changed in another way. It has brought onto the political or policy field a refreshed group of players. Like the patient Russian home guard troops in WWII who waited for the weather to change so they could retake Moscow under conditions they favored, green activists in 2007 took back Capitol Hill and quickly flexed their muscles in Washington as well as in key states. When the Supreme Court subsequently ruled that carbon dioxide could go into the basket of regulated pollutants, when California rolled up its sleeves to lead the new wave of black-plusgreen controls (a lead that at least 15 states said they will follow), the course was set for environmental policy making of unprecedented intensity and staying power. By the time of the 2008 presidential and congressional elections, as in no previous election period, there was a collaboration of attention on a central environmental issue. Climate change became an organizing principle in virtually every area of social accountability. Ecoactivism became mainstream. Political hammers began nailing down the future for business and its green/climate challenges. Environmental groups, the news media, politicians in and out of office and federal and state regulatory authorities are now energized and looking to the business community both as part of the problem and as a substantial part of “the answer to global warming.” Factor 3: Pressure is mounting from investor activists. In addition to sociopolitical activists, there are new green socioeconomic activists. Main stream investors and customers are demanding corporate insights on the potential for global warming to burn an investment portfolio. Wall Street, pension fund managers and others invested in corporate well-being have put their spotlights on companies positioned to capitalize on carbon-war conditions; and they are probing for vulnerabilities in others, raising questions such as these: Is the company a winner or a loser as carbon is constrained? Can the company withstand physical climate change, energy cuts, environmental responsibility, social and cultural demands? Can this company’s executives beat the competitions’? Gadflies from the first green wave who stung companies to move on pollution cleanup are meanwhile reinvigorated by global warming. As an example, Ceres, the corporate governance hawk that was born during the time of acid rain and the Valdez oil spill, now challenges corporate management to disclose climate change risk that investors should factor in. “It’s no different from litigation risk or hazardous-waste risks or anything else disclosed in normal financial filings," said a Ceres official, indicating the level of inquiry now on C-suite desks. Investors filed a record 54 global warming shareholder resolutions with U.S. companies during the 2008 proxy season—nearly double the number filed two years previous—despite the fact that the number was held down somewhat by companies agreeing to eco-friendly moves in 150 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Greening 2.0: Five Factors in Play as Executives Zero in on Climate Change advance of the proxy season. With climate change now rooted, groups such as the Carbon Disclosure Project, a not-for-profit group with more than 300 institutional investors including Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch (among the several major firms that have set up green business practices focused on climate change), have pushed companies and their business partners to reveal carbon footprints in a consistent quantitative way, to enable investors and the public to evaluate the companies’ sustainability. Business executives, CEOs and CCOs, must now answer a question posed by a growing base of old and new stakeholders: What is the exact nature of our new green strategy, now that climate change is in play? What are the dynamics of Greening 2.0, with its focus on energy and climate threats, how can we leverage what’s been learned and achieved in managing the large, common environmental challenges of Greening 1.0? Factor 4: Green-collar executives can and will make a difference. Surveys and the media have brought ample evidence of global C-suite awareness of the challenges. A burst of activism in Washington in 2007 and 2008 established a sociopolitical front for Corporate Greening 2.0. Across the U.S.—in Sacramento and many other state capitals— executives, and often chief executives—were engaged in the climate-altered process of public policy formation. The unusual green collaboration known as the U. S. Climate Action Partnership put CEOs and green activists into the earliest rounds of congressional negotiations on energy and climate change legislation. Older line executive conclaves such as the Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber and the National Association of Manufacturers have wrestled with ways to adapt their business-based focus on public policy to deal with the changing green dynamics. While, as McKinsey’s research showed, chief executives have increasingly incorporated environmental, social, and governance issues into core strategies, many of them are increasingly involved in climate-change public policy. What motivates this involvement? McKinsey’s pollsters found a sizable group of executives personally worried about global warming and presumably motivated to rethink green policies out of fear. My sense is that for most C-suite executives, the greatest fear is not about change, climate or otherwise. It’s about uncertainty. That is the motivator that puts corporate leaders into policy formation, to understand social and political forces, to grasp the prospects of business accountability, and to negotiate the terms of change. In short, the best outcome will be one that is effective and achievable. A significant example of executive acceptance of changed social and political conditions has occurred in the American auto industry. Long a target of green activism against fossil-fuel use, company leaders became actively engaged in the federal policy process on climate change with the benefit of strategic political guidance from the veteran lawmaker John Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, who came back as chairman of the jurisdictional committee as the result of the 2006 congressional elections. Understanding the realities of politics and markets, sensing the prospect of customer as well as political support for advancing the required technology, Ford’s top executives went green-proactive. They agreed to tough future rules on fuel efficiency, assuring some level of certainty as to what is expected of them, and releasing them now to work with suppliers, customers, dealers, unions—in short, all the company’s stakeholders—to move toward compliance. There was a move to mobilize around the idea that policy makers who want autos to do their part to answer the global-warming challenges will assist business by favoring technology advancements, tax and trading rules that surround the prospects for clean, green vehicles. USCAP, led by some of the same companies that wrestled with government policy from positions of weakness during the early waves of Greening 1.0, started its drive to shape regulatory Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 151 E. Bruce Harrison expectations by okaying mechanisms like carbon caps. Similarly, before national leaders locked in on green policies at the United Nations climate conference in December, more than 150 global companies signed on to a call initiated by England’s Prince Charles for mandatory greenhouse gas controls. Dozens of industry-specific organizations such as the Edison Electric Institute were quick to engage in the congressional policy process with positions favoring government action shaped with them at the table. These and similar moves led by Western, primarily American corporate executives have led to some sense of common expectations at a time of uncommon conditions. To summarize, the green comeback kid is considerably more muscular with energy and climate change now added to its traditional environment orientation. As McKinsey found, this newly raging sociopolitical issue has awakened executives not to retreat but to engage. Especially in North America, where democracy provides a bowl match for this type of policy game, corporate leaders are in a pragmatic green-collar stance, agreeing to certain mandates to mitigate the dangers of climate change while working with lawmakers toward achievable, market-based compliance, reliable long-term carbon price signals, regulatory certainty and economic safety valves. Factor 5: Corporate communications move toward sustainability. Respondents in the McKinsey survey identified environmental concerns as the most important trend influencing public expectations of business. With stakeholder expectations in the wheelhouse of corporate communications, this puts CCOs in an important carbon-war role. Company communication strategies, methods and tools must be tooled to engage with specific, critical stakeholders to determine exactly what are their concerns and expectations. This starts with research into make-up and attitudes of specific stakeholder groups, a process necessary because of the heightened awareness of global warming as an issue of major concern and of the changes occurring in markets and financial circles. In major large companies, communications are now being approached with a corporate sustainability mindset. Corporate sustainability means essentially a workable, synergistic approach in addressing social expectations while succeeding at the main goal of any enterprise and that is satisfactory economic or financial performance. The sustainability mindset says that social accountability— in this case, social impact resulting from climate change putting energy into green contexts—has taken on full acknowledgement of economic accountability. It acknowledges that companies are judged first and foremost for their financial performance. In his incisive, pragmatic book on “the halo effect”, Phil Rosenzweig underscores the fact that good scores (“halos”) chalked up by a company on social, cultural and other accounts are almost always just an extension of the good scores on the financial front—profitable products and operations, return on investment and the like. 1 With sustainability, as I interpret it based on conversations inside companies as well as studying what experts and major players are saying, social accountability meets the hard road of economic accountability. Each enables the other, but social good without financial soundness is a frail foundation for enterprise endurance. This is not to suggest that what we’ve been calling 1 The Halo Effect, by Philip M. Rosenzweig, Simon and Schuster, 2007. 152 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Corporate Greening 2.0: Five Factors in Play as Executives Zero in on Climate Change “corporate social responsibility” is abandoned. 2 In fact, the socioeconomic melding that’s forced by climate change should mean an elevation of CSR as a substantial C-suite consideration. CCOs and executive level peers who have found any resistance to bringing up “CSR” as a serious agenda topic may find it getting more respect when it’s part of the corporate sustainability agenda. In my view, this can be taken one step farther. I believe it is practical and necessary to bring politics into the mix for the simple, and simply profound, reason that companies must be set on the sustainability course as the result of government. If politicians and government officials did not recognize the necessity for all-out war on carbon, did not declare that carbon dioxide is a pollutant to be regulated, did not embark aggressively to change current market economic factors into what I call carbonomics—then C-suite discussions about social good and environmental protection and energy factors might still be separable. My contention is that the silo days are done. Greening 1.0—clean it up, manage it, pay the price—is supplanted by a new tripartite accountability that is social, economic and political: Greening 2.0, driven by climate change and energy interactions. This is the sustainable business communications platform that puts chief communications officers at the C-suite strategy table as well as in the various field positions of identified stakeholders, ready to address the impact of climate change and to contribute their special insights, gained from their study of stakeholder instincts and interactions, to the company efforts in the next levels of corporate greening. I won’t at this point cover the evidence of strategic moves under way to advance corporate sustainability. These have to do with adjusted commitments, both economic and social, necessitated by climate change and carbonomics. These adjustments are bringing about new collaborations, engaging with stakeholders either concerned about or excited by the initiatives created by climate change and carbonomics, including new collaborations with environmental organizations. Examples in the U.S. include the remarkable alliance of environmental leaders, Wall Street financiers, government regulators and corporate executives to solve the future of the coal-power utility, TXU, in Texas. Internationally, there are at least a dozen recent economic and social linkups generated by the realities of carbonomics. A recent example here, announced in May 2008, is the partnership of the giant buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which owns 46 companies including TXU, with the advocacy group Environmental Defense. 3 This is aimed at creating measurement tools for environmental performance in energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and other social issues—in other words, aiming at future sustainability. There are many more examples, with which I treat in my book, now at the publisher. Let me just observe now that a great many corporate Web sites (many now rebranded as “sustainability”), investor relations, executive speeches, interviews at shows and publications of various kinds are coming into alignment to deliver the company sustainability pledge, which I would generalize as the following: Our business, adjusted for climate change, is sustainable. Here is our record, here is our evidence, and this is how we will move forward with our stakeholders’ interests in mind. With internal and external evaluators looking at the company through lenses changed by their perceptions of global warming, communication recalibrations are in order. The chief communications officer’s role is as always about two things: managing information flow and managing expectations. Information must get to the right place at the right time. It must be 2 CSR is firmly established as a business function and service practice, backed by scholarly research and academic studies. This is comprehensively demonstrated in Andrew Crane’s The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility (Oxford Handbooks in Business & Management), published in April 2008. 3 “Prominent Green Group to Help Buyout Firm,” article by Felicity Barringer and Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times, page C1, May 1, 2008. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 153 E. Bruce Harrison transparent and bidirectional. Expectations inside the company and with all stakeholders must be as close to realistic as possible. Stakeholder approval has to be earned, over and over again, always starting with what each stakeholder is expected to approve. Senior executives generally know by now that “PR” can’t fix bad judgment and loose commitments. In the near-term phases of the war on carbon, the best achievable outcome for corporate communicators—who I consider to be stewards of stakeholder trust in the company—is to help others in the C-suite rethink green so when decisions are made the message is true, consistent and understood by the stakeholders. Greening 2.0—with energy joining and leading environmental factors as the result of climate change—is the new sociopolitical front. Inside the business organization and along the company’s external interfaces, strategic business communication will help shape the odds for success. 154 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Pioneering Digital Fair Trade: A New Ethical Brand Licensing Opportunity Colin Hastings Majority World CIC, Bangladesh & UK [email protected] The concept of Fair Trade has so far been applied mainly to food and handicraft products. Majority World CIC is the pioneer in applying these principles to photography. Our mission is to help photographers from the developing world to overcome the many barriers they face competing in the world economy, gaining a fair share of global markets, and building successful and sustainable businesses. Our first step has been to establish a unique web based picture library www.majorityworld.com which specializes solely in selling pictures taken by photographers born in and working in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Rigorous editing ensures that all stock images meet only the highest international standards of technical and artistic quality. Trends in Corporate Social Responsibility “We aim to achieve the objectives of the European Employment Strategy and, at a global level, to fight against poverty and for decent employment. These goals are, just to mention a few: employability, well-being at work, integration of diversity, grass roots work to combat poverty, the UN millennium goals and social corporate responsibility in the subcontracting chain.” (Spidla, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, 2007) The growth of ethical consumerism, concern about the environment and growing suspicion about the motives and practices of "big business" flowing from business scandals, have put increasing pressure on large businesses to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility. Indeed this has gone further and there is an increasing expectation even that NGO's, charities and international organisations should do the same. It is difficult to quantify the growth in the “CSR market”. But the new section of the website of the Corporate Social Responsibility Forum (http://intranet.csreurope.org/) reveals how active the sector is. Here are a few extracts to demonstrate this: - The world’s first Corporate Social responsibility Minister, Steven Timms of the UK Government, announced that from October 2007, the 2006 Companies Act requires all directors for the first time to have regard for the interests of their staff, their suppliers and customers, the community and the environment. - IBM and the Grameen Foundation have announced a collaborative project to help microfinance institutions (MFIs) better serve poor communities around the world by expanding Mifos, Grameen Foundation's open source microfinance software platform. - The first ever Corporate Responsibility Week took place in Ireland. Ex Irish PresidentMary Robinson is acting as a champion of the need for CSR initiatives. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 155 Colin Hastings Trends in the Ehical Consumerism Market “Ethical consumers play a vital role in the early adoption and development of ethical products and services, but it will only be through legislation that we will secure the necessary changes to deliver mass market, low carbon lifestyles.” (Williams, Director of Corporate Affairs for the Cooperative Group, 2007) In the UK there is a well established trend towards the growth of ethical consumerism. The Co-operative Bank (part of the Co-operative Group), is one of the most respected ethical businesses. Each year they carry out a survey of the ethical business markets. Key findings from their 2006 survey concluded that ethical consumerism in 2005 was up 11 percent on the previous year. Over the same period, UK household expenditure increased by only 1,4%. One other key indicator of the growth of ethical consumerism is the development of the Fair Trade movement. This is a worldwide movement and provides insights into the growth of ethical consumerism outside the UK. FLO, the international Fair Trade certification organisation details the following in its 2006 report: - In the UK, the estimated fair-trade retail value rose by 48% from 2005 to 2006. - The number of Fairtrade licensees (companies that sell the final packaged Fairtrade - products) reached 1954 in 2006, increasing by 29% on 2005. - In 2006, consumers worldwide bought 1.6 billion Euros worth of Fairtrade certified products, 42% more than the year before. - Dr Alex Nicholls, a researcher at the Said Business School at Oxford University sums up the situation succinctly in a research report: "Consumers clearly like Fairtrade. Sales of Fairtrade products in Europe, North America, and Japan have grown exponentially in recent years… global sales of all Fairtrade products amounted to approximately £500m in 2003 (Vidal, 2004) up from an estimated £335m in 2002 (Leatherhead Food International, 2003) To date, these figures include the initially small, but rapidly growing, US market. If US market development follows the pattern of European markets - and there is evidence to believe that it may be moving even faster - global sales of Fairtrade will increase by a factor of 10-15 in the next few years.” Majority World: The Legal Structure Global marketing, fundraising, advocacy, PR and brand development are services provided to Majority World photographers at no cost through the London based “Community Interest Company”, Majority World CIC. The CIC is a new company form created by the UK government to encourage the development of social enterprises, companies pursuing profit for social purposes. It is a key requirement of the Majority World concept that there should be expertise available to developing world photographers to access and benefit from the global market. Majority World CIC is co-owned by the Drik Group in Bangladesh, a major innovator and pioneer in photography and digital services in the region. Its activities will be funded through donations, membership schemes, grant funding and, most notably, sponsorship and licensing of the brand. All profits made will be channelled back into supporting and promoting developing world photographers. This arrangement ensures we meet international and contemporary standards of quality and creativity, but also ensures that business development will be driven from, controlled by, and delivered by the developing world, thus challenging Western assumptions of power and control. It also ensures that the brand is truly owned by and faithful to 156 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Pioneering Digital Fair Trade: A New Ethical Brand Licensing Opportunity the aspirations of the developing world. At a later stage, once the CIC generates profits, then some of these too will be channelled into the social programme. Grant funding and sponsorship for non commercial activities will also be sought to contribute to achieving the wider social objectives of Majority World which include the provision of advanced training, provision of high quality digital equipment and opportunities for travel. As well as benefiting photographers, the maximisation of benefits that can be brought to target groups in the developing world will also benefit the business. For example, by helping photographers scan, caption and key word their film archives, more images can then be placed onto the website. How the Ethical Brand gives added value to sponsors and licensees “There was a time when coffee was what you drank for breakfast. Until Fair Trade coffee came along. There was a time when Nike used child labour to make their trainers until campaign groups exposed the exploitation. More and more people care about where their products come from. And more and more organisations are beginning to pay attention to Corporate Social Responsibility and the commercial and reputational benefits of ethical sourcing.” (Hastings,2006) Majority World CIC is committed to building a unique ethical brand which clearly identifies and authenticates creative photographic work carried out by skilled people from the developing world. Our brand mark , which has some similarities to a Fair Trade mark or label, links high quality images with a strong ethical position which ensure that our photographers get a fair deal both financially and in terms of wider support and promotion, whilst also providing many opportunities for sponsors and product partners to benefit through the licensing of the brand. Over the past three years, the potential of the Majority World brand has been emerging, attributing it with several unique characteristics. Though further brand definition and development is undoubtedly required, its added value to sponsors and licensees is already clear. Key attributes at the strategic level include: Differentiation - In an increasingly visually crowded market place - In an increasingly ethically aware market place - In a media environment that increasingly puts the spotlight on behaviour of organisations and institutions - Association with an artistic and aesthetic product can provide an attractive way to engage a business audience with the “problems” and opportunities within the developing world. It will help to ease the communication of social responsibility and attract the target audiences. Relevance - In the rapidly growing ethical sector - To the increasing demand for corporate social responsibility Esteem - Unique mix of social responsibility, education and art A new tool for demonstrating Corporate Social Responsibility Contributing to economic development and job creation in the developing world Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 157 Colin Hastings - Visible tool for communicating practical action not words Stands for the skill, pride, confidence and aspirations of the peoples of the developing world, Reduction of carbon footprint by commissioning local photographers not Europeans or Americans At the practical level, association with the Majority World brand provides multiple opportunities for: Events: exhibitions around the world, brand launches etc. Photographic art as a way of engaging with issues of development. Great opportunities for engaging with your various key stakeholder groups Publications and communications: Featuring the relationship with Majority World, highlighting the “mark” and telling the story through fine photography by Majority World photographers Involvement of staff around the world: raising money for training, equipment and travel, building personal links with photographers, personally sponsored travel to provide market know how and other assistance to photographers, secondments to Majority World for development purposes PR resulting from the above: acknowledgement in all Majority World communications, web sites, events etc, unique human stories uncovered by our locally based photographers. The brand and the related kite mark will be continuously communicated by Majority World CIC in the UK to European and American markets and by Majority World Ltd in Bangladesh to Asian, African and Latin American markets. The brand will be particularly attractive to organisations who want to build relationships with stakeholders in the developing world or who are committed to stimulating socially responsible economic development in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Creative and responsible use of the Majority World brand will be an important tool for enhancing effective corporate communications and reinforcing the credibility of the company’s intentions. This market place is also becoming increasingly visually sophisticated, yet at the same time it is suffering from ‘brand fatigue’ or ‘compassion fatigue’. In a media environment that now puts the spotlight on behaviour of organisations and institutions to a greater extent than ever before, it is important for product partners and sponsors to stand out in what has become an ethically aware market place. Thus, the Majority World brand captures the mood of our times and has genuine global potential. Further opportunities will be created for marginalised photographers as all profits made from the licensing of the kite mark will be reinvested in extending market and capacity development opportunities developing world photographers. In short it provides: - A visible symbol of commitment to fair trade principles - A visible symbol of corporate social responsibility - A visible symbol of ethical credentials and corporate reputation - A visible symbol of a desire to change perceptions of the majority world - A visible symbol of carbon footprint reduction through commissioning developing world photographers 158 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Pioneering Digital Fair Trade: A New Ethical Brand Licensing Opportunity How the Ethical Brand Gives Added Value and Appeals to Consumers The consumer base of developing world imagery of course extends far wider than just developmental organizations and NGO’s. In fact, the Majority World brand will appeal to the growing number of consumers recognising the value of purchasing products that are sourced and produced from the developing world itself. The combination of its strong identity and effective communications will extract a specific rational and emotional response, discriminating Majority World CIC in the minds of its various stakeholders. It will be available for licensing to selected product partners and organisations that can benefit from the brand’s added value. Such a unique mix of social responsibility, education and art provides varied applications, with high potential for outreach and multiple opportunities for creating recognition. More importantly, it will be a significant contribution to these organisations’ Corporate Social Responsibility programmes, providing new tools for such organisations through the use of high quality creative photography sourced from the developing world and visibly authenticated by the brand and mark. These products will also serve as an important educational tool to provide a more balanced and informed view of life in the developing world. There are many untapped possibilities in the creation of unique products featuring the work of developing world photographers, both in existing and new markets. These can be paperbased or digital, and their potential is even greater when combined with the branding power of our kite mark, which serves to authenticate and position the product in the growing ethical consumer markets. Applications include all forms of paper based and digital communications products (annual reports, cards, leaflets, posters, calendars, diaries, workplace art, advertising, press releases CD’s and DVD’s), as well as PR opportunities based round events such as exhibitions and competitions. Target customer groups for these products vary, but many will be aimed at picture editors, corporate communications, marketing and corporate social responsibility roles in travel businesses, western corporates operating in the developing world, international organisations and NGO’s, fair trade organisations, media and publishing, advertising, retail co-operative groups, card publishers and wholesalers, giftware suppliers, ethical retailers, corporate art suppliers and diaspora organisations. We see the licensing of the brand to organisations providing them with new tools to communicate their corporate social responsibility. James Morrison, Brand Identity Manager of the UK’s Co-operative Group, one of the top ethical brands in the UK, summarized the benefit by saying “if we could use your photos and your brand in all our relevant products and communications, it would give us a significant new source of added value” How the Ethical Brand Helps Developing World Photographers “By invoking ethical standards in the trading of images, Majority World addresses not only the distorted and disrespectful depiction of people of the global South, but also the economic divide.” (Alam, 2007) The Majority World brand also guarantees fair treatment of photographers in the following ways: - Photographers receive international, not local rates for commissions and image sales which are considerably higher. - Intellectual property is protected through retention of copyright and non-exclusivity - The net percentage of image sales received by photographers is at least as good as average international standards. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 159 Colin Hastings - There will be provision of many other ‘value added services’, for example market information, technical advice, feedback on submissions, global marketing and advocacy and website advice provided without charge to the photographers The brand guarantees the authenticity of the photographers’ work and affords them the opportunity to tell their own stories through their own eyes. By giving more visibility to the emerging wealth of real photographic talent in the majority world, those who ultimately use and view their images will be exposed to a unique and fresh reality. Numerous obstacles exist which make it difficult for developing world photographers to have a chance to tell their own stories. Such obstacles include the following: - Lack of training - Lack of modern photographic equipment - Lack of access to high quality scanning equipment to digitise film-based archives - Language difficulties affect ability to do quality key wording and captioning - Difficulties faced in accessing global image markets - Ignorance of market opportunities and trends - Lack of money to travel to widen image portfolio It is vital that we are shown a more balanced portrayal of life – one which casts light on the culture, traditions, society and people in question. The vision of Majority World is to provide a picture of life that is more positive, balanced, better-informed, accurate and educational – as told by the peoples of the majority world itself. “Research proves that British people are not only ready for information more complex than the usual images of doom and disaster - but also that they will resent both development agencies and the media if we don't promote a more balanced world view.” (Goldring, Chief Executive of VSO, 2002) Developing world photographers are at a clear advantage over their western counterparts where cultural understanding is concerned. Knowing the local people and speaking the language, they have an innate understanding of local context. To put this in its opposing context, predominantly white, European & American photographers commonly visit majority world countries on rushed assignments and even the best intentioned amongst them are unlikely to have an in depth understanding of their subject matter. The results of these assignments raise powerful ethical questions for arguably, such images are sourced by photographers who are up against a multitude of barriers: time constraints, lack of cultural understanding and local knowledge to name but a few. The result is often a one sided and frequently negative view of the developing world, one which distorts the reality of life in those countries. WEBSITES: www.majorityworld.org www.majorityworld.com References Alam, S (2007), “The Majority World looks back”, New Internationalist August 2007. p.2 Goldring, M (2002), “The Live Aid Legacy”, VSO Press Release January 2002 Hastings,C. (2006), “Selling the ethical dimension”, Montage November 2006, p.1 Spidla,V. (2007), “European MarketPlace on Corporate Social Responsibility, Opening Speech”, pp.1-2 Vidal, J. (2004), “Fair Trade sales hit £100m a year”, Guardian 28 February 2004 Williams, S. (2007), “Ethical Consumerism Report 2007” 160 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The National Football League Goes Flat: American Football’s Oct. 28 Experiment in London Wesley R. Heinel Department of Athletics, Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA [email protected] or [email protected] On Oct. 28, 2007, the National Football League – a multi-billion dollar entity – invaded London, England, as the New York Giants played the Miami Dolphins. The contest marked the first regular-season game played outside of North America. Historic Wembley Stadium served as the venue. With the National Basketball Association’s emergence on the global level, second-year NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pulled the trigger to sell the United States of America’s style of football worldwide. The first shot was London’s notoriously passionate fan base, and the league succeeded in putting on a show. Of the 22 possible global perspective areas addressed by Corporate Communication International’s “Call for Papers,” this paper attacks two elements: “image, identity, and reputation management,” as well as “integrated advertising and marketing.” I will provide thorough analysis of the NFL’s project, encompassing three areas – events prior to the contest, the game itself, and byproducts of the event (including hindsight). The paper explores issues that allowed the NFL to bring its sport to a global platform: The NFL is a brand leader; NFL as a member of the “Tough Guy, Macho Tribe.”; marketing the event, and the sport, to another culture; Cultural dissonance in marketing; predisposed attitudes and beliefs exhibited by another culture;how the NFL effectively combats those predisposed attitudes and beliefs; an overview of the NFL’s two previous failed attempts in Europe; initial push of going global; the action on game day and performance by the teams; future plans for the NFL globally; recommendations for future NFL strategy. The NFL's Oct. 28 game in London, England proved one of global proportion, not limited to just the United States or the host nation of the contest. The competition marked a test ground for future, strategic NFL enterprises. “Globalization is one of the drivers of growing workforce diversity in almost every industry, raising critical questions about ways to coordinate people of markedly different backgrounds to promote organizational and personal goals.” (Eisenberg & Riley, 2001) The realm of professional athletics, particularly the US' most popular sport, football, proves no different than that of the business world. Basketball’s popularity has been sustained as an Olympic sport, but American football has yet to establish itself. Despite failed organizations such as NFL Europe and the also departed World League of American Football (WLAF) – which broke through for two seasons in 1991, then again in 1995 – the NFL continues its effort to integrate itself globally. However, soccer stands as the world’s most popular sport, in addition to rugby (shared principles of football, but without extensive equipment). Despite the NFL’s well-marketed strategic plan to gain popularity for the sport and the league, the Oct. 28 contest gained a marginal amount of fans. “Basketball thrives internationally, because it does not require much equipment and does not directly compete with already entrenched, similar sports. … Football, on the other hand, requires a tremendous amount of equipment, special facilities, and isn't much fun for the schmucks (I speak from experience) who block and tackle. Europe already has football – a type that allows everyone to play, that requires everyone to run and get fit rather than pork up.” (Barlow, 2007) Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 161 Wesley R. Heinel The focus of this paper is the age-old question, “How to sell another culture on something new?” With obvious negative predisposed attitudes and beliefs, the NFL faced an uphill battle with its endeavor. The NFL as a Brand Leader With the Canadian Football League representing the NFL’s primary competition, the NFL is defined as a “brand leader.” According to Goodman, there are six characteristics of a brand leader: 1. It owns or defines the product. 2. It’s the largest. 3. Its quality is the best. 4. It has the greatest longevity. 5. It has the greatest range. 6. It has the highest profile. “We’ve come a long way since we started bringing our game overseas,” Goodell said while addressing the media in London before the game. “While we are the No. 1 sport in the U.S., our future success will depend in large part on our ability to globalize. As the world shrinks, thanks to emerging technology, we will increasingly become partners with many of you in this room." (Bloom, 2007) Since merging with the American Football League in 1970, the NFL embodies all six brand leader qualities. Goodell’s decision to go abroad was aimed at strengthening the fifth and sixth characteristics (range and profile). "The market is not saturated in the UK yet, but it will be at some point in time," said Alistair Kirkwood, managing director of NFL UK, a creation of the league with a London office and 14-person staff. (Kelso, 2007) Added Goodell, "We are doing incredibly well by every consideration, but if in the next 20 years you want to grow the support base from 400 million to four billion, you're going to have to sacrifice, take some short-term hits and gamble. This is a major statement and a major commitment.” (Bloom, 2007) Defining the NFL Despite the long-term plan documented, courtesy of Goodell, the NFL is a member of the “tough guy, macho tribe.” The league “regularly takes high risks and gets quick feedback on whether their actions are right or wrong.” (Deal & Kennedy, 1982) Some examples are: 1. An extremely high player and coach turnover rate. 2. Short careers due to injury. 3. Goodell’s recently established Player Code of Conduct. 4. Fan sentiment and media portrayal. The NFL desires to protect its system, placing football legends/heroes in high regard. Every few years, the “poster children” of the NFL change. Today, it is Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and San Diego Chargers running back LaDanian Tomlinson. Five years ago, it was Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and Kansas City Chiefs 162 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The National Footbal League Goes Flat: American Football’s Oct. 28 Experiment in London running back Priest Holmes. Ten years ago, it was Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway and Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith. Within the five elements of culture, the top area of NFL notoriety is heroes, as they “personify the culture’s values and provide tangible role models for employees to follow … Smart companies take a direct hand in choosing people to play these heroic roles, knowing full well that others try to emulate their behavior. Strong culture companies have many heroes.” (Deal & Kennedy, 1982) Where else can the average individual purchase the work attire of professionals besides professional sports? According to the Associated Press, the NFL sells between three and four million jerseys per season. The final link to the “tough guy, macho tribe” is that the financial stakes are high. The rewards may come early, but “the intense pressure and frenetic pace of the culture often burns people out before they reach middle age. The all or nothing of this environment encourages the value of risk taking.” (Deal & Kennedy, 1982) The NFL has enjoyed immense commercial success in recent years, generating close to $7 billion annually. The value of television contracts in the US over the next eight years is almost $18 billion. American networks annually pay the NFL $3.75 billion in rights fees. "Sports is truly a branded consumer product of the utmost value," Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars and a co-owner of Liverpool’s Premiership ‘football club’ Tom Hicks said in an interview with the Manchester Guardian. "It's a unique media, and in the US, we have seen media revenues grow dramatically with the NFL. It's a big business.” (Bloom, 2007) The NFL is an entity that generates approximately $7 billion in annual income. Yet according to a 2005 Associated Press report, just one percent of that revenue comes from its overseas operations. The Oct. 28 contest represented an aggressive effort to export that success overseas. Marketing Corporations, as well as the NFL, have two commonalities: money and a mission. People depend on corporations for meaning, while NFL fans rely on teams for entertainment, city pride and social responsibility. Owners dole out more than a quarter billion dollars to acquire a professional football franchise then build multi-million dollar stadiums that create jobs. The majority of teams desire to win, but all seek to turn a profit. When marketing the game, the league pitched the fact that it was a regular-season contest, whereas in previous years, London had only witnessed preseason action. More so, two other principles were marketed: the “ideological dream” and an opportunity to “be something.” (Goodman, 2006) The “ideological dream” enables a customer to belong – an invitation to join the community of NFL fans. “Being something” creates a link to personal identification – a chance to find something within the game that parallels one’s personality. Goodell stated, “The NFL is the ultimate reality TV – three hours of unscripted and unrehearsed moments. 30 million Americans watched the Dallas Cowboys versus the New England Patriots a couple of weeks ago. It was the most-watched event in the US for the week by a margin of ten million viewers. Our goal is to translate America’s obsession into the world’s passion.” (Szczepanik, 2007) Until Oct. 28, the NFL had only been willing to give other continents exhibition football. The league has played international preseason games in North America, Asia and Europe going back to 1976. Two years ago the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals played before an NFL-record crowd of 103,467 at Mexico City's Azteca Stadium. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 163 Wesley R. Heinel "This step comes in response to the tremendous and growing interest in the NFL around the world," Goodell said. "The owners believe that hosting regular-season games outside the United States is in the best interest of the league and will help to increase the fan base, build awareness of the NFL and grow the sport worldwide." (NFL.com Press Release, 2007) Team owners, presidents, general managers and head coaches are expected to exhibit the principle of Level Five Leadership: a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. While the NFL’s upper brass accomplished such cohesion well, the Giants struggled with this ideal and the Dolphins embraced the situation. "From an ownership standpoint, we all realize that as popular as the NFL is, the globe really is shrinking," Dolphins team president and chief operating officer Brian Wiedmeier said. "Just look at a franchise like Manchester United in soccer – they’re big all over the world. The technology is there to do this and the corporate sponsorship community is looking at things more globally." (Chadiha, 2007) “Good management rituals provide collective cohesion and solidarity, all the while conveying a solid image to the outside.” (Deal & Kennedy, 1982) There was plausible incongruence between management of the two competing franchises – both part of the NFL family. New York Giants president John Mara portrayed the image that he was neutral on the event saying, "Giving up a home game was a big concern for me. Seeing our best product [overseas] gives me confidence that this is a viable strategy, but the real test for us will be how people respond once the league has held its third or fourth regular-season game over there. Will the fans stay passionate, or will they lose interest?" (Chadiha, 2007) Conversely, Wiedmeier exhibited the principle of Level 5 Leadership. "In a perfect world nobody would have to give up a home game," Wiedmeier responded. "But the league has made the commitment to this and we feel like it's an honor to be part of it. Plus, the league has done a good job of trying to keep the schedule as normal as possible for the players and the coaches." (Chadiha, 2007) Cultural Dissonance When league officials announced on January 16, 2007 the plan to play its first European regular-season game in London, Goodell said, “We have a great history of NFL football in London – the British fans have been great fans of NFL football for several years and London is a tremendous international city. We have a great relationship with the City of London and that was another important factor.” (NFL.com Press Release, 2007) The NFL and the city of London united to promote the game. However, some of the NFL’s marketing schemes were a bit too sensationalized and overbearing. For instance, a 26-foot robot of Dolphins defensive lineman Jason Taylor, nicknamed "Big JT," was unveiled Monday, Oct. 22 in London's Trafalgar Square. Engineering took just under ten weeks to construct, with a team of more than 40 people working around the clock to build the superstructure. Trafalgar Square is an area in London, commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The Square remains renowned as a symbolic social and political location for visitors and Londoners. The area is home to Nelson's Column, fountains, bronze lions, and a statue of a British Fleet commander. On the north side of the square is the National Gallery where two statues, James II to the west of the portico entrance and George Washington to the east, stand. Washington’s statue was a gift from the state of Virginia and stands on soil imported from the 164 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The National Footbal League Goes Flat: American Football’s Oct. 28 Experiment in London United States – an action done to honor Washington's declaration that he would never again set foot on British soil. The NFL coming to England is an attempt to share a part of US culture. Since The Square serves as a shared location for visitors and Londoners, it seemed fitting at first glance. Yet, the robot overshadowed the surrounding historical landmarks and somewhat claimed an area of British pride as a platform for the US to glamorize its most popular sport. "The game on Oct. 28 is a world first,” Kirkwood said. “It will be the first time that a competitive NFL game is being played outside of North America. So it seems only fitting that we create something that reflects the scale of this event – and it doesn't come much bigger than a 26foot tall American Football player!” (NFLLondon2007.com Press Release 2007) Predisposed Negative Attitudes “Will people around the world really want to become consumers of American sport, the way that they consume American music, electronics and fast food? Big professional team sports in the US have been almost perfect examples of American exclusivity.” (Baker, 2007) The task of altering mindsets about American culture, and sport, was and is daunting. Cuisine and music only take a few seconds to evaluate; however, a football game takes over three hours. The complexity of the final two minutes versus the entire first-half is one of numerous deterrents. "The thing about the NFL is that it's so specific to the States," said Chris Burdon, a 26year-old business analyst from London. "You guys need your own sports over there. Football and baseball – it is part of your identity. I don't think it needs to be big over here." (Phillips, 2007) Burdon’s beliefs reflect one of Dick Martin’s five types of anti-Americanism personalities. The aforementioned quote “rejects American culture as commercial and appealing to crude popular taste.” (Martin, 2006) Burdon would be labeled a “cultural elitist.” Sport brings out an unbridled passion for individuals. The passion for a favorite team has often parlayed into soccer riots in London. Many refuse to watch a franchise other than their own, let alone give an entirely new sport an opportunity. Below are five quotes from the British, in anticipation of the Oct. 28 game: 1. "It just doesn't appeal to me," said Simon Aaronson, a 26-year-old physics teacher. "It seems like a bunch of men in crash helmets running into each other. However, everything in America eventually catches on in England – American culture infiltrates British society." (Phillips, 2007) According to Martin, Aaronson exhibits “radical” anti-Americanism, as he “rejects America’s dominant role on the world stage and wants to weaken US influence.” (Martin, 2007) 2. “There is only one sport in the UK and that's soccer," insists Stephen McGowan, a sportswriter for The Daily Mail. "It's almost the US in reverse. We're so entrenched in our own sports that we don't want to give anything new a chance in the same way soccer struggles over there." (Woods, 2007) 3. "I'm not going to spend £50 ($102) to see a cheap imitation of rugby," says Rickell Samon, a 20-year-old street campaigner for British charity Oxfam. (Thompson, 2007) 4. “I know you are trying to broaden the rest of the world to a sport whose market in the U.S. has pretty much reached its peak, but seriously, sending it to London isn't going to do that ... Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 165 Wesley R. Heinel The only passion Europeans, especially the British, possess when it comes to football involves kicking a round ball into a net.” (Parker, 2007) Parker certainly stereotyped an entire continent. 5. "I watch it now and again, but it doesn't appeal to me," said Ronald Brown, an 83-yearold retiree from the printing business. "Some of the tackling they do is so bloody cruel." (Phillips, 2007) Unfortunately, the game’s criticism was not only a British concern. Many key contributors towards NFL publicity also created a negative aura before the event even kicked-off. The major issue was denigrations that came from many of the NFL’s former heroes, who double as analysts and employees. "What if the Giants and Dolphins were undefeated," Hall of Fame quarterback and Fox NFL analyst Terry Bradshaw asked. "What's the point ... Get a team out here in Los Angeles before you start taking this stuff over the pond." (Hiestand, 2007) According to Michael Hiestand, two-time Super Bowl Champion Coach and Fox NFL analyst Jimmy Johnson said he'd be “a basket case” if he had to coach a regular-season game overseas. Hall of Fame defensive end and Fox NFL analyst Howie Long called the trip “a major distraction” for players. Hall of Fame tight end and ESPN NFL analyst Tom Jackson referred to it as simply “a bad idea.” The greatest issue is the over-commercialization of American sport. “Purists in Britain and Europe object to what they see as a sport that is a television-driven spectacle. In an NFL game you are rarely more than a few minutes from a commercial break.” (Bloom, 2007) Goodell’s response rubbed some the wrong way, as he denied the game is dictated by television’s demands. He indicated that the long stoppages where commercials are aired occur at “natural breaks in the action.” Soccer does not have such breaks, utilizing 45-minute halves. Goodell said, “If we wanted to make a lot more money from a business standpoint we could take all our games and put them on pay television, as has happened with many European soccer competitions, including the Premier League.” Combating Predisposed Negative Attitudes The NFL needed to distance itself from the US traditional attitude that people will simply take to a product when introduced. "Our vision in this market is to be a top five sport," Kirkwood said. "We want to be behind football [soccer], rugby, cricket and formula one and within five years become the number five sport, measured in terms of television audiences and revenue. This game is an accelerator to help us move very quickly." (Staff Reports, 2007) Kirkwood’s statement yields to England’s favorite past times. Rather than replace traditional, British sports, Kirkwood indicated the NFL’s intention to provide an initial complement and someday compete. In an Oct. 25 Reuters interview, Kirkwood said, "It's important how we position ourselves – if you're going outside North America, why not play in London and make a big statement? We've got quite a long way to go before we're seen as an indiginous sport. We've got to play a lot more games and start developing international players at a much higher rate than we've been doing." (Mastrini, 2007) Prior to the game, the British American Football Association (BAFA) and the NFL made a joint presentation to the British Parliament's Committee on Sport. They contended the imported 166 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The National Footbal League Goes Flat: American Football’s Oct. 28 Experiment in London version of football should no longer be seen as 'American,' and thus should receive the same kind of financial support that soccer does. "The sport's had a bit of a roller-coaster ride here," Ken Walters of the BAFA said. “We've got 7,000 players registered. And we're in a position to manage the demand which the NFL is trying to create." (Woods, 2007) In an effort to fight pessimistic ideals about the NFL, the league adopted a three-prong, media formula. They acknowledged native, British sports and praised the city of London, while remaining humble about their product. Their alliance with the BAFA illustrates the desire to not solely sell the NFL, but to nurture its development. A Former Presence The NFL founded the WLAF – a developmental league – in 1991. Over a 15-year timeframe, the league lost millions of dollars. More so, very rarely did NFL teams promote their 'minor league’ talent from the system. In 1991 and 1992, the London Monarchs played their home games at Wembley Stadium and won the first World Bowl Championship on their home field. Crowds at Wembley averaged 40,483 for five home games during the 1992 season. Despite the introduction of a new local rival, the Scottish Claymores, the team’s average attendance ultimately dipped to 16,343 when the league resumed play in 1995. Attendance figures forced a home venue shift to White Hart Lane, home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. By 1997, the team was re-branded the England Monarchs and traveled the country. They played home games at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, Ashton Gate (home of Bristol City F.C.), and Alexander Stadium, an athletics stadium in Birmingham. Yet attendance still plummeted to an average of 5,944. At the end of the 1998 season, the WLAF added a new team, the Berlin Thunder, to replace the Monarchs. According to staff reports at the London Logue, "The support just fell away because fans realized they weren’t seeing the best that was on TV every weekend. Fans had never played the game so that connection wasn’t as strong, and the teams and players were so transient." The Monarchs attendance woes are illustrated in Figure 1. FIGURE 1. Deposed Monarchs Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 167 Wesley R. Heinel Soon, NFL Europe, began with eight teams and slimmed down to six teams – five in Germany and one in Holland. While the teams in London and Scotland folded, the Germans persevered because they do not play rugby as England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Italy, Romania, and Spain do. “I think we've needed to show our regular-season product at the very highest level to really make this work, and that's what this is all about," said Mark Waller, the NFL's senior vice president of sales and marketing. "It's been a matter of refocusing the strategy and reallocating resources away from the NFL Europe league. Sports fans are very sophisticated; the digital age has allowed people to see the sport at the highest level." (Bloom, Sports Business News) Following two feeble attempts to bring American football to Europe, let alone the dire facts about surrounding London’s NFL connection, the league persisted in its quest to etch the sport into British culture. “The NFL switched the focus of its international business strategy to present the NFL to the widest possible global audience, including broader media visibility and the staging of international regular-season games, and will discontinue NFL Europe,” Waller said. “The time is right to re-focus the NFL's strategy on initiatives with global impact, including worldwide media coverage of our sport and the staging of live regular-season NFL games.’” (NFL.com Press Release, 2007) Going Global The NFL said more than 500,000 tickets were requested by about 160,000 fans in the three days following the Feb. 2, 2007 announcement of the match-up. The ticket request process ended Feb. 18, two months before tickets went on sale. Original ticket projections were noninclusive of ticket allocation for Dolphins and Giants season ticket holders. Approximately 90,000 people were forecasted to attend, with 40,000 of those seats sold within the first 90 minutes of tickets becoming available. According to multiple citations, the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Sarah Talalay reported 3,500 Dolphins season ticket holders made the trip. Depending on the exchange rate, the NFL sold tickets ranging from about $92 to $183 to Dolphins season ticket holders. The league also arranged travel packages with tickets, but without airfare, for $1,699 to $3,749. Most Miami fans said they found airfare for between $600 and $800. The NFL’s second global outlet was, and is, television. "The crucial aspect of this strategy is the NFL's understanding that it can't win over a global market with an inferior product. Although most people point to the Super Bowl as evidence of how wildly popular pro football is internationally, the reality is that most foreign fans watch that event just as American fans do – on television." (Chadiha, 2007) Last year’s Super Bowl recorded one the highest ratings ever. For the Oct. 28 game, not only were fans in the United States and England able to watch the game on television, but the game was also broadcast in 214 other countries. "In the UK, interest in American football rocketed after the launch of Channel 4 in 1982, only the fourth British TV channel, and one of their staples was Sunday night NFL." (Staff Reports, 2007) In the UK, SkySports – who is owned by News Corp, who owns Fox (home to nearly 50% of NFL games) – shows two live NFL games back-to-back on Sunday night from 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. (primetime), plus highlight packages through the week. Channel 5 shows the US 168 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The National Footbal League Goes Flat: American Football’s Oct. 28 Experiment in London Monday Night Football game live, starting around 1:00 a.m. UK time, in addition to highlight programs. The Action Ultimately, the New York Giants posted a 13-10 victory over the Miami Dolphins. The contest was played before a crowd of 81,179 – in 55-degree temperatures and a driving rain. The Giants improved to 6-2 at the time, while the Dolphins dropped to 0-8. "It was a part-experiment, part-educational experience. And to the relief of officials here, the only fumbles came on the field ... With no defined ‘home’ support it was hardly surprising that there was an occasional lack of intensity in the bleachers." (Woods, 2007) Soon after the opening kick-off, the field’s turf was in dismal condition. The wet weather limited the ability to throw the ball for both teams. Meanwhile, having a winless Miami franchise represent the remaining 30 NFL squads didn’t shed a positive light on the sport. "On hand was a pro-NFL crowd eager for the type of electric passing, crafty running and unrelenting defense that only a few teams are capable of playing. Instead, London got 67 combined net passing yards in the first half. Instead, London got a winning quarterback who completed 36 percent of his passes. But don't worry ... What transcended the Atlantic this weekend is that NFL games are fun, if ugly." (Wickersham, 2007) In reality, most “fans” attended for the spectacle, more than deep knowledge or passion for the game. By season’s conclusion, the Giants went on a hot streak, winning three postseason games on the road, followed by the Super Bowl on a neutral field versus the previously undefeated New England Patriots. The Dolphins finished the season 1-15, with their lone win coming by virtue of a surprise, 80-yard touchdown pass in overtime. To a less than avid fan, the NFL’s parity seems drastic, as the worst team in the league competed with the future Super Bowl champions. In most football (soccer) or rugby leagues worldwide, this notion is unheard of and reprehensible. Future Endeavors The London game marked the first of two overseas games that will take place in each of the next five seasons, with Germany, Mexico, Canada and China potential hosts. During the week prior to the 2008 Super Bowl, the NFL confirmed that London, and Wembley Stadium, would host a contest each of the next three seasons. The San Diego Chargers (11-5 last season) will face the New Orleans Saints (7-9 last season) on October 26, 2008. Once again, one team who made the playoffs the previous season will take on a non-playoff team. In the teams’ most recent meeting during the 2004 campaign, San Diego dominated New Orleans, 43-17. The Chargers President Dean Spanos was supportive of the league’s decision saying, “We’re proud to be chosen. This is another positive step in the effort to globalize our great sport. It’s an opportunity for the NFL to show off two of its marquee teams and some of its best players as well as a chance for the Chargers to expand our international fan base.” (NFL.com Press Release, 2008) San Diego’s impending trek would mark the longest trip in NFL history at 5,500 miles. Therefore, the Competition Committee informally stated that they would take that into consideration when creating the 2008 composite schedule. Spanos has requested the team play an East Coast opponent in Week No. 7, and if granted, would fly to England and spend the entire week practicing abroad. Both the Giants and Dolphins only spent a handful of days prior to Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 169 Wesley R. Heinel action. The Chargers already know they will have a bye following their Week No. 8 contest in London. When New York played Miami, the match-up featured a then-mediocre squad versus a winless one. There were marquee names, such as Taylor and New York’s Michael Strahan, but no face of the game or heroes in action. The 2008 enterprise features the aforementioned Tomlinson – the elite running back in the sport. It also showcases New Orleans’ running back Reggie Bush, the individual the NFL is currently marketing to take over Tomlinson’s star status. Said Alistair of the 2008 match-up, “In the build up to the Wembley game last October, I said that it was an audition for future games. Clearly, the fans – with their passion and enthusiasm – have convinced the NFL that the UK should be rewarded with another game in 2008.” (NFLUK.com Press Release, 2008) Aside from action in England, the Buffalo Bills petitioned the league and received approval to play eight home games over the next five years in Toronto, Canada (100 miles north) – an effort to generate a new fan base and in turn, increase attendance. Bills’ Team Owner Ralph Wilson, who called the pitch a “regionalization effort,” said, “It helps expand our market in Buffalo. It gives us a major metropolitan area to expand our base.” For the Bills’ plan to pass, 24 of the league’s 32 owners must approve. “Of the Bills’ 48,000 season-ticket holders, 11 percent come from Canada. As many as 15,000 Canadians attend home games.” (Higgins, 2007) In an effort to avoid alienating fans, in both Buffalo and Canada, the Bills created a registration system – in which over 100,000 fans have already registered. The random drawing holds the opportunity to purchase tickets for the series of Bills games in Toronto. However, individual tickets will not be made immediately available. Season ticket holders will have first crack at single games, before they reach the open market. Similar to other big businesses, Buffalo’s franchise seems more concerned with receiving money up front, rather than catering to the unique fan bases it spoke of in its original petition. Conclusion The Oct. 28 game was the proverbial guinea pig for the NFL’s long-term vision. Unfortunately, the product failed to reach expectations defined by the league’s intense marketing efforts. The event of a regular-season football game played outside of North America proved more important than the action on the field. A celebration of the combination of two cultures provided a sufficient blueprint for the tandem of games expected to take place in each of the next five years around the globe. “We should quit trying to save face. If this game's goal was to take the temperature of European fans, then the NFL supplied a representative sample. What we saw is what the NFL is like nowadays. There are a lot of mediocre teams ... If you felt sorry for the fans at Wembley Stadium, then you have to feel sorry for the fans who pack any NFL stadium not named Gillette or RCA. After all, nothing changed but the venue and the kickoff time." (Wickersham, 2007) For the contest to hold more importance, the upper echelon NFL franchises need to be exported. After all, when introducing a sport to a different culture, one desires to put their best product on display. 60 minutes of game-planning for an unparalleled blend of strength and speed is what sells, not just the experience of a new venue. 170 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The National Footbal League Goes Flat: American Football’s Oct. 28 Experiment in London References Baker, G. 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Retrieved 6 April 2008 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8066c7d6&template=with-video&confirm=true Press Release. (2007) “Big JT Arrived.” www.NFLLondon.com. Retrieved 25 October 2007 from the World Wide Web: http://nfllondon2007.com/news.aspx Press Release. (2008) “NFL's International Series returning to UK” NFLUK.com. Retrieved 13 April 2008 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nfluk.com/news-display.php?id=2867 Staff Reports. (2007) “London to get NFL Game.” London Logue. 24 October. Szczepanik, N. (2007) “NFL Takes Giant Strides Onto Word Stage.” UK Times. 26 October. Thompson, A. (2007) “To Tackle Fans in Europe, NFL Tries a New Playbook.” Wall Street Journal. 19 October. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 171 Wesley R. Heinel Wickersham, S. (2007) “Sorry, Brits, but Giants-Dolphins was typical NFL.” ESPN.com. Retrieved 28 October, 2007 from the World Wide Web: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=wickersham_seth&id=3084276 Woods, M. (2007) “NFL Hopes Historic Game Becomes Brits' Cup of Tea.” ESPN.com. Retrieved 20 October, 2007 from the World Wide Web: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3074255 Woods, M. (2007) “London experiment was learning experience for all involved.” ESPN.com. Retrieved 28 October, 2007 from the World Wide Web: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3084319 Graphics Monarchs Attendance (Figure 1) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119274900567464131.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks 172 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Sarbanes-Oxley and its Effect on Markets: Investor Relations in an Increasingly Regulated Global Market Brian D. Higgins MA in Corporate Communications, Baruch College CUNY, USA [email protected] This paper will look into the effects of Sarbanes-Oxley on U.S. Markets as well as its perceived contribution to the unprecedented decline of the U.S. dollar against other world currencies. Is the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley and the subsequent decline of the dollar merely coincidental, or in direct correlation? How have European and other world markets benefited from increased regulations in U.S. markets? From the reaction of the public to rampant corporate scandal, to the response of publicly traded companies to Sarbanes-Oxley (as well as those considering an IPO), this course of events is an ideal case study as a years long progression to a crisis situation. What will be the result of similar legislation underway in the European Union and Japan? Regulation in response to the current crisis regarding the U.S. housing and banking markets has been proposed and will usher in further corporate requirements. All corporations are now subject to the laws intended to reign in the few unscrupulous ones. Investor Relations and Government Relations departments must work in concert to help reform past and shape future legislation. It is imperative for the Investor Relations professional to understand the effect of public policy on their companies, and how they should respond. As corporations continue to abuse the public trust, Investor Relations professionals will have an increasingly difficult and visible role. Corporations today will be held to higher standards based on the unethical actions of others, and will certainly be held accountable for any of its own. No matter what investment sector is under public scrutiny at a certain time, if the scandal is great enough, the entire market will suffer. Times such as these call for carefully planned and executed investor communications to ensure the financial sustainability of a corporation. Investor Relations professionals must be the public steward of the financial bottom line for a company. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been stressed and realized by most, but the environmental and social responsibility of a corporation cannot be fully realized without a strong financial record. As that record falls under greater scrutiny and regulation, corporate IR departments must work in close order with their Public and Governmental counterparts. “The more than 8,000 public companies listed on Wall Street must consider coordinating, if not proactively merging their IR and PR programs.” (Silver, 2004) With the increased level of governmental regulation, companies should look to integrate their government relations program into a comprehensive communications vehicle. As such, it is imperative that Investor Relations and Governmental Relations employees maintain coordinated and productive relationships. Just six years ago, the United States signed into law a piece of legislation touted by President Bush as “the most far reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt”. Sarbanes-Oxley resulted in sweeping reforms as well as the creation of a quasi-governmental body funded by publicly traded corporations to oversee these reforms and the inherent accounting oversights were being met. Now reforms to the financial industry in response to the mortgage crisis are being considered, with multiple oversight institutions to be consolidated into one. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 173 Brian D. Higgins IR, PR and GR employees must coordinate their information and efforts to inform and influence consumers, investors, financial media outlets, and elected officials. The lessons learned from Sarbanes-Oxley, and its hasty drafting and implementation, will play an important role in communicating the needs of corporations to Congress in order to remain competitive in an increasingly competitive environment. In a truly global marketplace, where companies and countries rely on each other in myriac ways, IR professionals must understand not only the workings of foreign governments but also how local law affects procedure and practice. When information can be retrieved in seconds and foreign markets can be accessed from a personal computer, IR professionals must interact with a more informed and savvy investor population. Using Sarbanes-Oxley as a case study in regulation, IR professionals must adapt to the new role that governments will have in shaping the course of business. Incubator of Scandal The economic boom of the 1990’s brought with it prosperity not known in the United States since the end of World War II. Internet start up companies with the prospect of incredible rates of return spurred massive investment in stock markets with nearly all publicly traded companies reaping the benefits. The “Clinton Super Bull” market, officially recognized to have started in November of 1994, resulted in a meteoric 8,000 point Dow Jones rise in six years. On March 29, 1999 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 10,000 points for the first time in its history. By February of 2000, the bull market was already in decline, and by March of 2001 the Dow closed lower than the previous year’s low for the first time since 1982. A steady decline in market value and investments led companies to questionable accounting practices to boost and artificially inflate revenue and stock values. These practices, while temporarily successful, resulted in the largest corporate scandals in recent memory, hundreds of convictions and an overwhelming public distrust of corporate America. The most infamous of the corporate accounting scandals was Enron, a name now synonymous with corporate malfeasance. While not the first corporate accounting scandal, Enron exemplified the worst kind of behavior in corporate America. Employing over 22,000 people at its demise in 2001, Enron rose from a small regional gas company to one of the world’s leading companies with reported revenues of over $111 Billion in 2000. Alarms went off when CEO Jeffrey Skilling retired and the company filed for bankruptcy in October of 2001. As details emerged, the scope of Enron’s dubious accounting practices came to light with partnerships created to hide losses, manipulation of energy and power markets, and bribery of multiple public officials. Shortly after details of how Enron was able to defraud investors, scrutiny was shifted to their accounting firm Arthur Andersen. Arthur Andersen was hired by Enron to act as auditors of their accounting practices and only a month after Enron declared bankruptcy it was learned that Arthur Andersen had been shredding documents. This implicated them of at least turning a blind eye to Enron’s “creative accounting”, if not being an outright accomplice to Enron’s misdeeds. Arthur Andersen also provided consulting services to Enron, resulting in a conflict of interest as criticism of any accounting misdeeds could jeopardize lucrative consulting contracts. These actions led to the demise of one of America’s most revered accounting firms. Over the coming months many other scandals came to light, embroiling formerly well respected corporations often regarded as business leaders. WorldCom overstated cash flows by reporting $3.8 billion in operating expenses as capital expenses and gave CEO Bernard Ebbers over $400 million in off the book loans to cover margin calls, resulting in a restatement of $7.2 billion and the conviction of at least six executives. Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski was indicted for tax evasion and embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars from the company. 174 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Sarbanes-Oxley and its Effect on Markets: Investor Relations in an Increasingly Regulated Global Market Peregrine Systems overstated $100 million in sales by improperly recognizing revenue from third party resellers. Once a leading enterprise software developer, Peregrine’s accounting scandal of May 2002 led to the criminal indictments of 11 executives. Other scandals included Qwest Communications, which inflated revenue to the tune of $1.16 billion in sales. Forced to restate their results from 2000-2002, Qwest found it necessary to sell off their phone directory unit for $7.05 billion to cover debts. The founding Rigas family of Adelphia Communications collected $3.1 billion in off balance sheet loans, forcing the company to overstate results by inflating capital expenses and hiding debt. Three Rigas family members and two executives were indicted for fraud, and investors sued the entire Rigas family for $1 billion for breach and dereliction of duty. Global Crossing inflated revenue and also engaged in a massive document shredding operation to hide their accounting practices. Global Crossing declared Chapter 11, with two foreign telecommunications companies paying $250 million for a majority interest in the company when it emerged from bankruptcy. Implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley The magnitude of these scandals, among others, was beyond comparison. In an attempt to maintain the incredible gains of the Internet bubble years, some corporations went to great and often illegal lengths to show profit. Due to these actions, thousands of jobs were lost, retirement accounts were ruined and the stock market lost over $500 billion in value. Public outcry was deafening. The government needed to step in and take charge of the situation and institute changes to prevent this from happening again. In order to combat these scandals and institute a level of accountability as yet unknown to public corporations, Congress passed the SarbanesOxley Act on July 30th 2002. Sponsored by Senator Paul Sarbanes (D MD.) and Representative Michael G. Oxley (R OH.), the bill was well received. Passing with near unanimous support 99-0 in the Senate and 423-3 in the House the bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush stating that this was “the most far reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” Comprised of 11 titles that describe the changes required for financial reporting, Sarbanes-Oxley (known alternately as SarbOx or SOX) makes provisions for nearly every facet of corporate financial accounting reporting and practices. 2002 was a terrible year for the U.S. Stock Markets, and the signing of Sarbanes-Oxley could not have been more auspicious. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJAI) plummeted from a high of 10632.40 in March over 3000 points to 7286.27 in October. The NASDAQ lost almost half its value, dropping from a January high of 2059.38 to just 1114.11 in October. Sarbanes-Oxley did not result in drastic market improvements, but by January of 2003, both the DJIA and NASDAQ had regained some of their value, with the DJIA regaining over 1000 points to 8332.85 and the NASDAQ back to 1335.51 in the same time. With the market making solid increases after a period of such decline, the primary goal of Sarbanes-Oxley had been achieved; investor confidence had been increased, if not entirely restored. Benefits of Sarbanes-Oxley Looking back at the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley, one can see immediate benefits. In the past five years, investor confidence is back and the DJIA has reached previously unknown heights. When Sarbanes-Oxley was signed, the index stood at just over 7,000 points. Today, it routinely registers at over 12,000. The increased executive responsibility laid out in Title III and Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 175 Brian D. Higgins enhanced white-collar crime penalties of Title IX led to a rash of criminal convictions for corporate executives. In the past 5 years, 214 CEOs, 128 Vice Presidents, 63 CFOs, 23 Corporate Counsels or Attorneys and 1 celebrity (Martha Stewart) have been convicted of crimes related to corporate wrongdoings. Crimes included conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, insider trading, making false statements to investigators and auditors, obstructing justice, fraudulently inflating earnings, falsifying records and bank reports, destruction of financial records, embezzlement and money laundering. Most of these executives (75%) pleaded guilty to the charges leveled against them, while the remainder were convicted in jury trials. One other large change was the creation of the Public Corporate Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) as dictated in Title I. The PCAOB is a quasi-governmental organization established to oversee the “Big Four” auditing firms providing services to publicly traded companies. This board is funded by publicly traded companies and establishes proper practices for the auditing firms. To paraphrase, they are tasked with auditing the auditors. Negative Impact With these benefits have come certain negative ramifications that can be traced back to the arguably heavy handed implementation of the law. The cost of compliance has been criticized as prohibitive, especially for smaller companies. Section 404, which requires management and an external auditor to report the adequacy of a company’s internal control of financial reporting, has been seen as the most costly and redundant section of the law. This section has become a focal point for criticism of the law, especially the disparity of compliance costs between large and small companies. Larger corporations that report revenues exceeding $5 billion annually have average compliance costs totaling .06% of revenues. When compared to smaller companies with revenues of less than $100 million annually, the cost skyrockets to 2.55% of revenues. In addition, since the inception of Sarbanes-Oxley, many companies have chosen to delist or “go dark” by removing their listings from major exchanges. By doing so, they avoid compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, and instead trade their shares on “pink sheets”, an electronic quotation medium for companies not listed on stock exchanges. Companies can also opt to go private by buying back their stocks or reducing the total number of shareholders to 300 or less, the maximum allowed avoid compliance with SOX provisions. A major study by Christian Leuz, professor of accounting at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, reported that 370 companies delisted from a major exchange from 2002-2004. This represents 76% of all companies that delisted from 1998-2004. In 2002, the year Sarbanes-Oxley was enacted, 65 publicly traded companies delisted, while 61 went private. In 2003, 183 public companies delisted and 79 went private. In 2004, 122 delisted and 66 went private or were bought out by other companies. Many foreign companies are choosing to stay away from American markets due to costs associated with Sarbanes-Oxley. In 2007 alone, 43 foreign companies delisted from the NYSE, and 20 have left the NASDAQ. The companies that delisted are some of Europe’s major firms, including Bayer, Fiat, Ducati, British Airways, BASF and Royal Ahold. In a survey by Russel Reynolds Associates, a global executive search firm, found that 58% of European companies listed in the U.S. would consider delisting because of costs associated with SOX. Of the 145 leading European companies interviewed, 70% did not want to obtain a U.S. listing because of SOX. This side effect of Sarbanes-Oxley has resulted in European companies choosing not to 176 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Sarbanes-Oxley and its Effect on Markets: Investor Relations in an Increasingly Regulated Global Market invest in American capital markets, and American companies are choosing to list in countries with fewer regulations. London’s Alternative Investments Market (a major market for small companies) saw its listings increase by 60% from 2005-2006. In order to prosper, markets need the influx of cash that IPOs represent and European markets are now drawing more IPOs than U.S. Markets. In Europe, IPOs increased from 433 in 2004 to 603 in 2005; an increase of 40% while U.S. market IPOs decreased 15% from 260 in 2004 to 221 in 2005. Britain has been a significant beneficiary of IPOs, with $9.1 billion in IPOs hitting their market in the 1st quarter of 2006 compared to only $3 billion in the 1st quarter of 2005. By comparison, in the same time frame, American market IPOs were down from $11.5 billion to $8.6 billion. The decline in IPOs as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley deprived American markets of a much-needed influx of capital at a time when it could ill afford otherwise. In March of 2007, European markets surpassed U.S. market capitalization for the first time since World War I. With $15.61 trillion in capitalization, the European markets closed a 44.5% lead the U.S. markets held in 2003, and have seen their market capitalization increase 160% in the same time. European shares are also outperforming U.S. shares and the Euro has increased more than 26% in value since 2003. With the Euro currently valued at $1.60 and the British Pound valued at $2.00, foreign currencies in general continue to gain against the dollar. While other factors such as the War against Terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq (which require massive amounts of capital), the rising cost of oil and an uncertain job market have contributed to destabilize American markets, one cannot ignore the chronological coincidence of the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley with the devaluation of the U.S. dollar. Pressure to Ease Restrictions In May of 2007, under intense pressure from businesses, investors and Congress, the SEC decided to make it easier for publicly traded companies to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. Realizing that complying with the internal audit control function of SOX was costing companies an average of $3 million dollars annually, some of the restrictions set in place by section 404 will be eased. It became apparent that as companies became more able to conduct their own internal audit functions, external auditors were raising their prices. While the costs incurred by companies to conduct internal audits fell nearly 23 percent from 2005 to 2006, external auditors were increasing their fees by anywhere from 6 to 12 percent. These costs were felt most by smaller companies with a market capitalization of $75 million or less. Roughly 60% of these companies are not currently compliant with SOX due to the costs. With these companies, it costs an average of $1.14 in audit fees per $100 in revenues compared to larger companies with over $1 billion in market capitalization who pay an average of $.13 per $100 in revenues. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has stated that “Investors will benefit from reduced compliance costs” associated with these revisions. Smaller companies feel the effects of SOX more, and the costs associated with SOX often outweigh the benefits of going public. In an ironic turn, it is the smaller companies which need the additional capital and revenues associated with going public to improve their businesses. The capital raised by going public is used to increase productivity, increase efficiency, create jobs and invest in new technologies. Without going public, the growth of new and smaller companies slows, and with it the American economy. As mentioned before, it is section 404, which instructs companies to verify the adequacy of their control over internal auditing that is viewed as the most prohibitive provision of the law. Section 404 has generated the greatest opposition from corporations both large and small, and has been widely criticized as redundant and directly Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 177 Brian D. Higgins responsible for increased corporate delisting as well as a reduction in the number of IPOs offered in American markets. This reduction in fresh capital has caused significant harm not only to American stock markets, but to employment markets as well. Corporations, especially smaller ones, would do well to consider grouping resources with other businesses in petitioning the government. Whether attempting to relax certain provisions of existing legislation deemed prohibitive or attempting to counsel on pending legislation, a unified voice will have greater influence. Such voices will be able to continue the progress made with the SEC to have compliance with some of the more strenuous provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley eased. This past December, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox announced that the SEC would reverse course and extend the deadline by a year for smaller companies ($75 million market cap) to comply with Section 404. This ranks among the most recent easements, as costs and benefits of implementation are taken under consideration. Cox stated that “The SEC staff is preparing to gather and analyze real-world data and … seek to indentify trends and provide comparison to the old (pre-SOX) auditing standard.” House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) strongly supported the delay, stating that “doing so would allow the commission the time it needs to gather meaningful data before small firms are forced to comply with the untested revised rules” of Sarbanes-Oxley. The delay received bipartisan support from the House Committee with equal support coming from its Senate counterpart. While these actions were welcome by the small business community, they were regarded as not enough considering the rigors they must endure. Corporate Action Items The scandals of the early part of this decade proved the need for corporate accountability is necessary. While Sarbanes-Oxley addressed issues sorely in need of attention, the past five years have shown that reform is needed to keep American companies and markets competitive in today’s global environment. The ease of which companies can list with foreign markets, and which traders and investors can access those markets have made them an attractive alternative to American markets once the costs associated with Sarbanes-Oxley are taken into consideration. Since 2003, the European Union has been working on a similar set of rules and regulations set to apply to European markets. Closely following US regulations, EuroSox is currently in a 24-month adoption period. This legislation takes the best provisions from US legislation while effectively increasing oversight and accountability. While different methods will be employed in ensuring compliance, the new European legislation will provide a more standardized system of financial reporting and disclosure. Hopefully for American markets, this will increase parity with their European counterparts in terms of regulatory compliance costs. Japan has also introduced legislation to increase internal controls and financial reporting modeled on U.S. Legislation. Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Law, or J-SOX aims to improve transparency and accountability for all Japanese listed companies. J-SOX will also apply to subsidiaries and affiliates, thus requiring them to engage in disclosure practices in line with parent companies. With EuroSox as well as J-SOX being enacted to increase corporate transparency and disclosure, it is imperative that Investor Relations professionals understand the costs, efforts and procedural ramifications each of these laws will have on investor communications. With these changes, the role of Investor Relations will undoubtedly grow as they assume the mantle of responsibility for rebuilding the public trust in corporations. As legislation on transparency and disclosure mature and become standard across all forms of business, Investor Relations professionals must be the stewards of the financial health of 178 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Sarbanes-Oxley and its Effect on Markets: Investor Relations in an Increasingly Regulated Global Market a company. They must engage in honest communications with not only investors, executives and the board of directors, but also with their peers in Public and Government Relations. They must communicate the “existing corporate governance policies, as well as any changes to those policies” (Sawicki & Hilsen, 2004) to help shape the entirety of a corporation’s communications efforts. Understanding how current and future legislation will affect a company and how to best communicate these effects on the financial bottom line will fall to the Investor and Government Relations employees. IR and GR departments must work in concert to help shape future legislation, freely sharing information and goals. It is the responsibility of IR to present GR with analyst, shareholder and financial concerns in order to direct a portion of the GR effort to address these concerns. To meet these challenges, IR and GR employees must maintain a productive and coordinated relationship that ignores rivalry, marginalizes ego and works for the betterment of the entire corporation rather than the individual “fiefdoms” so common in corporate life. Defeating these often entrenched ideas and attitudes will be one of the challenges corporate communicators face in the near future. With governmental oversight and regulation of business undergoing a period of greatly renewed interest, it becomes incumbent upon Investor Relations professionals to maintain clear and open communications with all of their constituents. Investor Relations must openly and frequently communicate the concerns of analysts and shareholders to Government Relations as they in turn petition the government for redress. Weekly or monthly cross-functional meetings including members of IR, PR and GR would go a long way towards crafting and adopting a comprehensive communications platform that meets the needs of all corporate stakeholders. Responsible corporations must excel in their work with legislative and regulatory bodies to enact fair, competitive and comprehensive reforms that address the needs of investors, corporations and the communities they serve. References Adams, Scott. "Regulations driving business from Wall St.: More U.S. firms opt to stay private or list overseas." National Post's Financial Post & FP Investing (Canada) 18 Mar. 2006: pg. FP11. LexisNexis Academic. LexisNexis. 10 Dec. 2007 <http://web.lexis-nexis.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/us/Inacademic>. Block, Donna. "Small firms' auditing burdened." 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Lida Holtzhausen and Lynnette Fourie School of Communication Studies North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus), South Africa [email protected] / [email protected] In literature it is often found that companies are encouraged to manage their corporate identities, especially the visual elements thereof, in order to manage their reputation. In practice one can easily identify numerous companies spending large amounts of resources on creating modern and unique visual corporate identities in order to separate themselves from their competition. However, companies often neglect those corporate identity aspects which are not visible, but ultimately signify the core of the company. Although a company’s logo, name, architecture etcetera can be valuable assets to the company, even more important is what the company represents though its values and company objectives, and how employees experience these values and objectives. This study aims to explore the possibility to "test" a theoretical model proposed by the primary author in her PhD-study. The PhD study found a link between employees' perceptions of non-visual corporate identity elements and employer-employee relationships. Within the framework of the literature that a symbolic corporate identity goes much further than the logo or company name, the importance of managing a symbolic corporate identity in establishing relationships between a company and its employees as well as the importance thereof in a highly competitive environment has been emphasized in the PhDstudy. As this contradicts to a certain extent previous studies that found a strong link between the successful management of visual corporate identity elements and stakeholder relationships, further investigating is necessary. This is an exploratory study employing mainly a literature review of relevant literature, policy documents of the North-West University and a Culture and Climate survey of the North-West University. Preliminary deductions indicate that further investigation of the theoretical model is viable and justified. The deductions in the paper is primarily based on the findings of the Culture and Climate survey and not on data specifically designed to test the proposed model. Corporate identity management and stakeholder and/or relationship management is without a doubt two of the most important fields within corporate communication, both in academic circles as well as in practice. There have been a number of studies linking effective corporate identity management to a good reputation and ultimately good relationships with stakeholders. This has especially been the case with visual corporate identity elements and external stakeholder relationships (c.f. Grunig, 1993; Ledingham & Bruning, 1998; Grunig & Hon, 1999; Allesandri, 2001). It is therefore not surprising that companies spend large amounts of resources on creating modern and unique visual corporate identities in order to separate themselves from their competition. The visual corporate identity is often over emphasized, even more when companies face name changes or mergers. Companies thus often neglect those corporate identity aspects which are not visible (for example company values and objectives), but ultimately signify the core of the company. Great care is taken to communicate the identity to external stakeholders, but less emphasis is placed on communicating the corporate identity to employees as internal Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 181 Lida Holtzhausen and Lynnette Fourie stakeholders. In the case of a merger, it is just as important to communicate the new corporate identity to the employees as internal stakeholders as to the external stakeholders. A PhD study by Holtzhausen (2008) found, in contrast to previous studies, that the visual corporate identity did not impact employer-employee relationships. However, the non visual elements, especially the company values and objectives did influence employer-employee relationships. It is against this background that this paper assumes that it is important to communicate and reflect through behavior company objectives and values, especially when facing the task to assert a new corporate identity after a merger. The North-West University (NWU) is an example of an institution that was “forced” by legislation to merge. It is the product of the merging of the University of the North West (UNIBO) and the two campuses of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (PU for CHE). This was not a voluntary process and it could be expected to strain employeremployee relationships as well as relationships between the different campuses. The paper aims to explore to what extent the findings of Holtzhausen’s (2008) study bears relevance to the case of the North-West University. This will be done by outlining the theoretical assumptions and describing the formation and structure of NWU’s new corporate identity as well as a climate study conducted. Actual research findings regarding the relationship between employees' perceptions of symbolic corporate identity elements and employer-employee relationships, will not be presented at this time. Rather, this paper serves as a background and motivation for such a study. Theoretical Framework The theoretical model proposed in this paper has its roots in the theory of corporate identity management as well as relationship management and consequently the relationship between employees' perceptions of the corporate identity and the perceptions of their relationship with their employer. The concepts corporate identity management and relationship management used in the model, will be outlined briefly. Corporate identity management For purposes of the current paper, corporate identity is defined as the self-presentation of a company. It consists in the cues that a company offers about itself via behaviour, communication, and symbolism, which are its forms of expression (c.f. Van Riel, 1995:32; Van Riel & Balmer, 1997:342). One of the mediums through which corporate identity is created is the company’s behaviour. Just as individuals are judged by their actions, companies can be judged by the way they behave (operate). This behaviour could, among other thing, refer to the interactions amongst employees, between employees and management, and between employees and other external stakeholders. Companies also express themselves through their communication processes. These include all intentional messages sent by the company to different stakeholders. The use of communication allows the company to send more complex messages to different stakeholders that might not be so successfully conveyed if it were only transmitted through company behaviour. The third element, symbolism, plays a crucial role in representing the company and is often conveyed to stakeholders through the company’s communication activities. Symbolism is seen as the binding agent that should mesh with the other elements of corporate identity. 182 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employees’ Perceptions of Company Values and Objectives and Employer-Employee Relationships There are many views within the literature as to which elements should be included in the symbolic corporate identity of a company as well as how these elements should be characterized (c.f. Olins, 1991; Dowling, 1994; Olins & Selame, 1995; Le Blanc & Nguyen, 1996:48; Gray & Balmer, 1998; Allessandri, 2001; Wilson, 2001; Melewar & Navalekar, 2002:99; Bezuidenhout & Van Heerden, 2003:4; Van Heerden & Badenhorst, 2004:18). Although the focus seems to be more on the visual elements, the literature is not unanimous in the classification of visual and non-visual elements. For the purpose of this paper the following classification was made: • Visual symbolic corporate identity elements: These elements are concrete, tangible and visible to stakeholders. These include, among others, the name; logo; corporate colours; corporate signs and billboards; environment, architecture and facilities and vehicles. • Non-visual symbolic corporate identity elements: These are not visible, concrete or tangible; and are often described as the stakeholders’ experience of the company. They include, among others: company values; company objectives and company structure. A company’s values represent the commitment the company makes towards its stakeholders as well as the environment in which it operates all aspects of its business ventures (Melewar & Wooldridge, 2001:327; Körver & Van Ruler, 2003:201). Objectives are aims a company aspires to in an attempt to keep the company responsible in all its activities. The company structure is seen as both the company structure referring to the communication lines and the reporting responsibilities in the company as well as the virtual structure of the company which is concerned with how the company appears to its stakeholders (Melewar & Wooldridge, 2001:327; Körver & Van Ruler, 2003:201). Company structure is an especially important element in this study, because of the post merger structure of the university. The three campuses function mostly independently each with its own management structure but reports to the Institutional office of the North-West University. The nature of employer-employee relationships Communication researchers (c.f. Grunig & Hon, 1999; Ledingham & Bruning, 2000; Jo, Hon & Brunner, 2004) have identified several aspects that describe the type of relationships and the quality (dimensions) of relationships between companies and their stakeholders. These include trust, control mutuality, commitment and level of relationship satisfaction. These aspects provide a good framework for assessing relationships. Two types of relationships that exist between a company and its stakeholders can be identified, namely exchange and communal relationships (Grunig & Hon, 1999:20). Exchange relationships are defined in terms of mutuality of interests and rewards (Ledingham & Bruning, 2000a13). In an exchange relationship parties involved compare the outcomes of the relationship, defined as the ratio of perceived rewards to perceived costs, with an outcome they have experienced in the past (Jo, Hon & Brunner, 2004:17). This means one party gives benefits to the other only because the other has provided benefits in the past or is expected to do so in the future (Grunig, 2000:1; Hung, 2005:396). In an exchange relationship, a party is thus willing to give benefits to the other because it expects to receive benefits of comparable value. In essence, a party that receives benefits incurs an obligation or debt to return the favour (Clark & Mills, 1993:684; Grunig & Hon, 1999:20). Communal relationships are where the company spends extra time and effort promoting the welfare of stakeholders. In other words, both parties engage in altruistic behaviour (Jo, Hon & Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 183 Lida Holtzhausen and Lynnette Fourie Brunner, 2004:17). Parties are willing to provide benefits to the other because they are genuinely concerned about the welfare of the other – even when they believe they might not receive anything in return (Clark & Mills, 1993:685; Grunig & Hon, 1999:21; Paine, 2003:8; Jo, Hon & Brunner, 2004:17). In these relationships, friendships with mutually beneficial objectives are often built with extremely high value placed on fairness and justice between all parties involved. Communal relationships go hand in hand with commitment amongst all involved, projecting a positive image of the company as an entity that recognizes its social responsibility function (Goffee & Jones, 2000:143; Grunig, 2000:2; Paine, 2003:8). Indicators of the quality of relationships Several research studies have identified an array of dimensions that define the quality of relationships, some of which overlap. Those most applicable to this study include the following (c.f. Grunig & Hon, 1999): Trust basically exists when one party has confidence in an exchange partner’s reliability and integrity. Huang (2001) explains it as one party’s level of confidence in and willingness to open oneself up to the other party. Since trust is built on actual experiences of the relational exchange over time and may be affected by occasional disagreement or conflict between the parties involved, a lack of trust could also lead to further conflict as well as feelings of uncertainty. Trust has several underlying dimensions, namely integrity, dependability and competence that together describe confidence and a willingness to participate in the relationship (Grunig & Hon, 1999: Grunig 2000): • Integrity is the belief that a company is fair and just in how it treats its stakeholders and whether or not the company misleads its stakeholders. • Dependability has to do with consistency between verbal statements and behavioural actions. • Competence represents the extent to which the company or the parties involved in a relationship has the ability to do what it says it will do. It includes stakeholders’ confidence in the company’s skills and abilities. Control mutuality refers to the company and its stakeholders taking each other into account. The company believes the opinions of its stakeholders to be legitimate, affording its stakeholders an opportunity to participate in decision-making processes and giving stakeholders some level of control over situations in the company. Commitment entails that the parties involved feel that the relationship is worth spending energy on. Stakeholders are of the opinion that the company is interested in maintaining a longterm relationship with them. They acknowledge the existence of a special bond between the parties involved, a sense of loyalty from the stakeholders towards the company and stakeholders wanting to work with the company. Level of relationship satisfaction incorporates stakeholders being happy with the company, both parties reaping benefits from the relationship, stakeholders being happy in their interactions with the company, and feeling important to the company. In order to determine the relationship between the perception of corporate identity and employer-employee relationships correlation coefficients were applied to determine the existence of possible relationships or similarities between variables whereas t-tests and ANOVA’s were applied in order to determine any existing differences in variable ratings. The statistical significance level was set at 0.05. With regard to the correlation coefficient correlations (r) ≥0.3 184 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employees’ Perceptions of Company Values and Objectives and Employer-Employee Relationships are considered to have a medium effect and ≥0.5 are considered to have a large effect (see Holtzhausen, 2008). No correlation was found between the visual corporate identity elements and any of the relationship dimensions. In contrast, some of the non-visual corporate identity elements impacted the employeremployee relationships. The mere knowledge of company objectives already had a connection with employer-employee relationships, especially when employees perceived the company to effectively achieve its objectives that it could contribute to stronger, positive relationships between themselves and the company. However, not all company objectives correlated with employer-employee relationships in the company (refer to Figure 1). FIGURE 1. Relationship between non-visual corporate identity elements and employer-employee relationships at Lonmin Platinum Objectives such as accountability, socio-economic empowerment, safe working environment and a healthy working environment reported the highest correlation with specific relationship factors, especially with regard to control mutuality – the company listens to me; commitment – the company wants to maintain a relationship with me; overall relationship quality; relationship type – communal; relationship trust and relationship satisfaction. It was found that when it was perceived that the company achieved the afore-mentioned objectives effectively, employees had more reason to: • Trust the company. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 185 Lida Holtzhausen and Lynnette Fourie • • • • • Feel the company wanted to maintain a relationship with them. Be more satisfied in their relationship with the company. Be happier in their overall relationship. Experience more of a communal relationship. Feel that the company actually listened to them. This study produced clear evidence that objectives such as being accountable, incorporating socio-economic empowerment and establishing a safe and healthy working environment in the company establish maximum difference with regard to the relationship between the company and its employees. The other non-visual symbolic corporate identity elements, unification and family feeling indicated high correlations with the relationship factors control mutuality – the company listens to me and overall relationship quality between the company and its employees. Thus when the employees felt their business units and the company itself owned up to their values of unifying the work-force and creating a family feeling it had a positive return on employer-employee relationships in Lonmin Platinum. With regard to company structure, no specific relationships could be found regarding structure and any of the relationship variables. This study thus highlighted that symbolic corporate identity goes much further than the logo or company name, and emphasized the importance of managing non visual symbolic corporate identity elements in establishing relationships between a company and its employees. As this study contradicts previous studies by finding no relationship between the visual identity elements and employee-employer relationships, further investigation is necessary to substantiate these assumptions. The Case of the North-West University Both the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (PU for CHE) and the University of the North-West (UNW) that came together to create the NWU had deep roots, established traditions, different objectives and values which formed their unique corporate identities. The former PU for CHE was historically committed to Christian values and had a predominantly white, Afrikaans culture, while the UNW with a Setswana culture was established to see to the needs of black students from disadvantages rural backgrounds and communities. The NWU was faced with the problem to amalgamate these very different institutions into one institution that reflected unity within as well as establish a unifying corporate identity that incorporates the essence of the new institution, but still allows each of the entities to operate in their own right. In order to do so, there were three main challenges for developing this unifying strategy of the NWU: According to the final report delivered to the Institution’s Council the entire process was underlined by the Institutional Plan formulating the vision, mission, values (integrity, commitment, accountability and respect) and strategic objectives of the new NWU. The first step in the process was identifying the key stakeholders. The primary stakeholders of the institution were the students (which included prospective, current as well as post graduate students). The other important stakeholders were identified as staff (they will form the focus stakeholder group of this research project), alumni, parents, corporate and government (Report to Council, 2007). Each of these stakeholder groups were identified as having their own distinct reasons for choosing the university, and although not all are discussed here, those attributes that surround the staff’s key driving forces were identified as: for employees of the NWU, the desired outcomes 186 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employees’ Perceptions of Company Values and Objectives and Employer-Employee Relationships through their employment and association with the university included employment benefits, good working environment, job satisfaction and acknowledgement. Visual corporate identity The corporate identity of the university is explained as a hybrid model which is a combination of a monolithic and well as a flexible endorsed approach. The monolithic entails a single identity with a descriptive differentiation for “teaching-learning and research” entities (i.e. institutional office, and operations, campuses, business school, faculties, schools and institutes and centers etc.). The flexible endorsed incorporates individual offerings, which mean individual entities have their own unique identity while leveraging the equity of the parent institution in varying degrees for non-academic (e.g. sports, entertainment, and facilities) social, institutes (e.g. Alabama, Soccer Institute, Rugby Institute), institutional products and services. This hybrid model seeks to bring vibrancy and modernity to holistic identity and to also assist to reconcile consistency (see Figure 2). Essence Everything should ladder up to the pinnacle Empowering Innovative Making a difference Personality Caring, vibrant, youthful; innovative; visionary/progressive; driven and ambitious; recognised; colourful Integrity, Commitment, Accountability and Respect Mafikeng Multinational student community (22) 24h library Setswana Potch Active student community Sports achievements, winning culture Afrikaans High academic standards; widely recognised qualifications; quality teaching-learning & research; careerorientated learning; world-class, multi-lingualism Values Vaal Multicultural Multilingual Physical environment Safety, security & stability; sense of belonging; unity in diversity; socially responsible (citizens); vibrant student life Functional Benefits Emotional Benefits FIGURE 2. Blueprint of the North-West University Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 187 Lida Holtzhausen and Lynnette Fourie Each of the campuses also has certain attributes that differentiate them from each other and as such is used as part of the particular campus' specific traits. The Mafikeng campus is seen as access to a multinational student community of 22 other countries, 24 hour library services and study facilities and a rich Setswana culture. The Potchefstroom campus is depicted as an Afrikaans campus, with an active and vibrant student community and a winning sports culture. The Vaal Triangle campus is distinguished as a multi-lingual, multi-cultural and a beautiful natural environment as the campus is situated on the river banks of the Vaal River. It is against this background that the logo was designed to signify the unity and diversity of the University. The logo represents links of a chain symbolising unity, while the three colours of the links represent the three campuses, blue Mafikeng, red Potchefstroom and green the Vaal Triangle (see Figure 3) FIGURE 3. Logo of the North-West University Non visual identity The character and tone of the NWU was informed by the values and personality traits of the university. The four do-values as endorsed by Institutional Management, namely Integrity, Commitment, Accountability and Respect, have been incorporated into the overall strategy to form the character of the institution. Overall the character of the university is perceived mainly as: innovative, progressive, vibrant, ambitious and recognized. Being aligned with the Institutional Plan the university is now known by the essence of being: “empowering, innovative and making a difference”. Employees perceptions of the values of the NWU From a culture and climate survey commissioned by the University regarding perceptions of the so called do values it can be deducted that not all employees perceive the values the same (NWU Culture and Climate survey, 2007). It is clear that all categories of employees (management academic, management support, academic staff, and support staff) deemed the do-values as important as the aggregate average scores of the importance of the do-values indicated (integrity: 85.7%; commitment: 86.3%; accountability: 85.1% and respect:85.0%). In general, management perceived the do-values as more important as staff and rated all the values above 90% with the exception of academic management rating accountability at 88.7%. The academic and support staff rated none of the values above 90%. The perceptions of the different campuses and the institutional office were much the same. All the campuses as well as the institutional office rated the do-values as important (integrity: 85.6%; commitment: 86.2%; accountability: 84.9% and respect: 84.9%). It is interesting that commitment, which was generally seen as the most important value, but was perceived by the Mafikeng Campus as the least important (81.0%). Mafikeng regarded respect as 188 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Employees’ Perceptions of Company Values and Objectives and Employer-Employee Relationships the most important value (82.3%) while the Potchefstroom (84.0%) and Vaal Triangle (88.3%) campuses regard respect as the least important. This could probably be ascribed to the cultural differences and different traditions of the campuses and is an indication that the endorsement of the do-values could not be done in completely the same manner on the different campuses. The institutional office perceived commitment (91.2%) as the most important value. Despite the differences in perception mentioned, it could be concluded that the do values were generally seen as being important and also accepted by all the parties concerned. When the perceptions whether these values are being upheld are investigated a slightly different picture emerges. The aggregate average scores indicate that only slightly more than half of the employees believe that do-values are being upheld: integrity (56.2%), commitment (59.8%); accountability (55.7%) and respect 55.6%). Interestingly enough it was the support staff that perceived that values as being upheld the most with 60% or more for all the values. Regarding the different perceptions of the campuses whether the values are being upheld, the warning lights start to really flicker. The Mafikeng campus consistently perceived that values are not being upheld (integrity: 42.4%; commitment: 48.6%; accountability: 47.3% and respect 43.1%). It is especially significant that respect, the value deemed most important, is also the value they feel is the least upheld. This could indicate a lack of trust from the Mafikeng campus and could impact negatively on relationships. All categories of staff also perceived the institutional values as important (commitment to excellence: 85.1%; human dignity 83.8%, justice 82.5%, scholarly engagement, 82.4%; equity and equality 79.2%, academic freedom 78.2%, tolerance for other viewpoints and behaviours 77.5% and freedom to adhere to a specific belief system 76.6%.). It would thus seem that commitment to excellence and human dignity were seen as the most important institutional values. Justice and scholarly engagement were also seen as important values. Generally speaking academic management deemed the values as more important than the other categories of employees. When looking at the perception of whether these values are upheld, tolerance for other viewpoints and behaviors (53.3%), equity and equality (54.4%) and justice (56.7%) scored low. Scholarly engagement (64.0%) and commitment to excellence (63.9%) were seen as the values best upheld. It would thus seem that while, all deem the do-values important, they are less optimistic in their view that they are upheld. This perception is especially strong on the Mafikeng campus. According to our proposed model, this could impact negatively on employer-employee relationships. Employer-employee relationships The NWU culture and climate survey did not research the different relationship dimensions and can thus not be applied to the above-mentioned theoretical model. However, the general climate survey could give an indication of employer-employee relationships. The majority of the employees of the Potchefstroom campus (69.8%), Vaal Triangle (76.3%) and the institutional office (70.4%) are happy in their jobs. However, only 50.0% employees of the Mafikeng campus indicated that they were happy in their jobs. Slightly fewer employees felt that they could fulfill their career potential: (Mafikeng: 53.2%, Potchefstroom 62.6%, Vaal Triangle 71.0% and institutional office: 59.3%). Relatively low percentages of employees indicated that they were confident in the institutional management, once again Mafikeng campus (50.2%) had the least confidence Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 189 Lida Holtzhausen and Lynnette Fourie followed by the Potchefstroom campus (62.5%). It is interesting that the Vaal Triangle (60.9%) had more confidence in the institutional office than themselves (68.0%). Another interesting and relevant indicator was a question on employees’ perceptions of management’s focus area. Staff performance was ranked last with 55.6%, while brand image and symbols were ranked as the most important with 65.9%. Furthermore only 61.1% of employees thought that managers were accountable. The following cannot be seen as indisputable conclusions, as the questionnaire was not designed to measure the quality of relationships. However, certain indications can be deducted: • It would seem that employees perceive their relationship to lean more to an exchange relationship rather than a mutual relationship when it is considered that the employees feel that the development of the brand is more important than personnel performance. • Integrity is seen as one of the corner stones of trust. As only 56.2% of employees thought that the value of integrity is being upheld, levels of trust in employeremployee relationships would also probably be low. Having said this, it should also be kept in mind that competence is also a dimension of trust. In this regard commitment to excellence was seen as the one institutional value that were upheld the best (63.9%). Employees thus perceived the Institution as being competent to an extent. • It would also seem that, except for employees on the Mafikeng campus, there was a general level of relationship satisfaction. • It could thus be concluded that also employer-employee relations on average are not bad, but there are certain indicators that raises concern. It is against this background that we feel it is necessary to properly investigate the relationship between employeeemployer relationships and the perception of the institutions’ values and objectives and employer-employee relationships. More specifically the research aims would be: • To determine employees’ perceptions of the NWU’s “do-values”. • To determine employees’ perceptions of their relationship with their employer. • To determine the relationship between employers perceptions of the NWU’s values and their perceptions of employer-employee relationships. Proposed Research Method A quantitative survey will be conducted with a stratified quota sample of 200 employees (c.f. Rubin, Rubin & Piele, 2000; Babbie, 2004). The sample will be stratified according to demographic variables amongst the three campuses, NWU-Potchefstroom, NWU-Mafikeng and NWU-Vaal Triangle, academic staff, support staff, job level and gender. Questionnaires will be translated into Afrikaans, English and Setswana. The quantitative data will be analyzed using the statistica software package. Statistical significance will be set at p≤0.05 which is described as a small effect, but nevertheless statistically significant. 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(1997), “Corporate identity: the concept, its measurement and management”. European journal of marketing, Vol. 31, No. 5/6, pp. 340-355. http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=9708131050&db=buh Date of access: 10 March 2004. Wilson, A.M. (2001), “Understanding organizational culture and the implications for corporate marketing”, European journal of marketing, Vol. 35, No. 3/4, pp. 353-367. 192 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Credibility Discourse of PR Agencies: A Cross-Cultural Study of Corporate Ethos on the Web Maria Isaksson Department of Communication, Culture and Languages Norwegian School of Management BI, Norway [email protected] Poul Erik Flyvholm Jørgensen Centre for Corporate Communication, Aarhus School of Business University of Aarhus, Denmark [email protected] This research examines the credibility discourse posted on the corporate websites of 60 British, Danish and Norwegian public relations agencies. The purpose was to determine the nature and patterns of the statements of credibility that PR agencies from different cultures have considered instrumental in establishing dependable and likeable images of their ethos. More specifically, the study seeks to establish whether there are distinct cross-cultural preferences in PR credibility discourse. Our assumption was that British and Scandinavian PR agencies assign similar relative importance to giving assurance of their expertise, trustworthiness and empathy, thus confirming our overall expectation that corporate credibility discourse is relatively uniform from a European perspective. However, contrary to our assumptions, the results of our study show that PR credibility discourse demonstrates certain cross-cultural preferences within the industry. Historically, companies have always sought to build trust among members of their customer base by giving illustrations of their competencies, their dependability and their inherently benign nature. This has been done across all types of business communication from sales letters to image advertising, newsletters and annual reports. However, corporations now have many more active audiences wanting to scrutinize their activities and expecting transparency and accessibility instead of closed doors. This is the new business reality irrespective of type of industry or type of customers serviced. In the present research project, we specifically wanted to study the trust-building credibility discourse of public relations agencies because we expected them to have the strongest professional awareness of current requirements to corporate communication. By focusing on the PR industry, we restricted our inquiry to the business-tobusiness segment, acknowledging that other segments may be operating to somewhat different rhetorical standards. To satisfy stakeholders’ growing demand for information, corporations must seek out the media and genres best suited for reaching diverse audiences with messages matching different needs and requirements. The Web, with its facility for constructing home pages, would seem the obvious solution to this challenge, allowing each company to universally address its stakeholders with information about a gamut of different themes. The problem with this open approach is that it becomes harder to reach individual stakeholder groups with messages written specially for them; unless, of course, a system of restricted website access is introduced to discriminate between visitors, which is a strategy often employed in the b-to-b segment. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 193 Maria Isaaksson and Poul Erik Flyvholm Jørgensen Concurrently with their adoption of the Web, companies have begun extensively to display their virtues to groups of stakeholders, especially in broad statements of corporate social responsibility, thus committing themselves to behaviors, values and future plans that must be perceived both to be credible and attainable by all stakeholders. However, business ventures must be careful not to lose sight of what types of information their customers or clients afford highest priority. It would seem important for companies not to blur their primary tasks and responsibilities as business ventures by entirely losing themselves in social commitments, philanthropy and justifications of existence. Clearly, stakeholders will always want detailed knowledge about products and services, the expertise supporting them, the immediate reliability and dependability of the company, and its concern with customer service and satisfaction. Therefore, information on the day-to-day business conduct of corporations and on their immediate relationships with clients will be as essential to the reputation and trust they enjoy as will information on their commitment to corporate social responsibility and the world at large. It is this perspective that guides our analysis of credibility discourse in the public relations industry. Purpose and Approach The primary purpose of the study is to determine the nature and patterns of credibility discourse by PR agencies seeking to present dependable and likeable images of themselves to their stakeholders. By mapping the agencies’ rhetorical compositions of credibility, we aim to establish whether their websites take a one-dimensional approach or use more complex rhetorical designs in order to attain positive forms of self-representation. To do this, we list the frequency with which each of the three ethos qualities in our model (see below) are used. While we think it is only natural for PR agencies to try to carefully explain their professional expertise, we venture to suggest that obtaining reassurances of the quality of services, resources and staff is not the main reason for visiting a website. Clients will naturally expect PR agencies to possess the necessary expertise, just as they would take the presence of know-how for granted in seeking the services of solicitors or accountancy firms. If expertise is taken for granted, what other benefits might agencies offer their clients? Thus, we are looking to determine to what extent PR agencies try to build trust and develop bonds with their clients on the basis of their own character and commitment to clients. In other words, we are testing the assumption that PR industry members, as communication professionals, will make multidimensional self-representations and thus go beyond merely claiming expertise in order gain competitive advantage. A second purpose of the study is to demonstrate whether credibility in PR discourse shows cross-cultural consistency within the industry, or whether PR agencies demonstrate possible cross-cultural preferences in their choice of credibility qualities. The study was originally based on the assumptions that PR agencies, like other industries, have moved on to communicate credibility through vision and value statements and that credibility in European PR discourse would not show strong signs of cultural mores and preferences. However, in an early assessment of our empirical data from three different countries, we discovered that vision and value statements are surprisingly rare in corporate PR discourse. This led us to reconsider the scope of our texts and widen the focus to encompass broader text segments of PR website discourse. The fact that we now include broader text segments from a rather more extensive database also caused us to redesign our method, accommodating it to website discourse. However, we still adhere to the original assumption that credibility discourse 194 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Credibility Discourse of PR Agencies: A Cross-Cultural Study of Corporate Ethos on the Web is relatively uniform from a European perspective and, thus, that UK and Scandinavian PR agencies assign similar relative importance to professional credibility discourse. Theory and Model In an article that offers to articulate what public relations is and ought to be, Cheney and Christensen (2001) provide a useful map of the contested territory of the discipline. The authors locate four disciplinary agendas intersecting with public relations: (1) marketing and advertising, (2) organizational and political communication, (3) rhetorical studies and (4) cultural studies and broad societal trends. The present study is at a crossroad between three of these disciplines. Thus, we allocate our object of analysis, i.e. the discourse of PR agencies, to organizational communication, together with the electronic medium of the Web (2), the concepts of ‘ethos’ or ‘credibility’ to rhetorical studies (3), and the three national cultures and the “home” on the Web to cultural studies (4) (see also Hoff Clausen 2002: 29). Our own backgrounds are in the fields of discourse analysis and rhetorical studies, and consequently we take a text-driven approach to the strategic application of ethos in corporate communication. On the basis of our past research, we see the Web as a preferred, if not an ideal, conduit for communicating corporate credibility. Hoff-Clausen (2002: 66) observes that compared to non-electronic documents, the Web has five ethos variables, namely structure, functionality and management in addition to content and style. This extends ethos beyond pure language, and offers us a rich and abundant platform for self-representation. It is this complex relationship between the attractions of the Web as a medium and the pitfalls of corporate sites as a genre for communicating credibility (see Hoff-Clausen 2002: 9) that serves as backdrop for our inquiry. Moreover, we think it necessary to also account for the situational and cultural conditions and preferences guiding PR professionals if we are to obtain a fuller understanding of credibility discourse in practice. While we perceive the notion of credibility to be the kernel of corporate identity and, in turn, of its extension to reputation, we do not pursue these ramifications here. Only, we note that companies, organizations and agencies are today ascribed with a personality and an ethos and want to be perceived as social actors with aims, commitments, beliefs and emotions (Hatch & Schultz 2004: 3-4). To what extent PR agencies see themselves as social actors or corporate persons or collectives with social commitments similar to those of large manufacturing companies or multi-nationals we can only speculate. However, PR agencies are in the business of producing symbols of, by, and for organizations and, as Cheney (1992:170) writes, “public relations is fundamentally concerned with representing major organizations and institutions of our society with values, images, identities, issue-positions, and so forth”. Therefore, he argues, “it is crucial that we probe the structure and meaning of that process of representation” (1992: 170); a process to which the PR industry makes a significant contribution and has immediate insights into. Our present study extends this claim and focuses on self-representation and self-image. The Ethos Model To identify expressions of credibility in different corporate genres, including mission statements and image advertising, we have designed and used an analytical model of selfrepresentation that we call the Ethos model (see Isaksson & Flyvholm Jørgensen, forthcoming, Flyvholm Jørgensen & Isaksson, forthcoming). The Greek word ethos means ‘character’, ‘place of origin’, ‘set of acquired norms’, (‘values’), ‘moral disposition’ and ‘the chosen behavior’ Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 195 Maria Isaaksson and Poul Erik Flyvholm Jørgensen (Fogh Kirkeby, 2005: 308-309). The model takes departure in Aristotle’s (1991: 141) tripartite conceptualization of ethos where the communicator must show common sense (logos), good character (ethos), and goodwill (pathos) towards his/her audience to be persuasive. Echoing Aristotle, the Ethos model adopts McCroskey’s (2001) representation of credibility, consisting of the three basic ethos qualities of expertise, trustworthiness, and empathy (referred to as Perceived caring by McCroskey). We have then conceptualized a total of eleven different credibility appeals for communicating corporate ethos: five credibility appeals of self-promotion expressing expertise, four credibility appeals of self-characterization expressing trustworthiness and two credibility appeals of self-sacrifice expressing empathy (Figure 1). ETHOS QUALITIES Expertise Trustworthiness Empathy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RHETORICAL STRATEGIES CREDIBILITY APPEALS Self-promotion Self-characterization World knowledge Entitlements Enhancements Presence/ Resources Attention Integrity/ Justice Abilities/ Attributes Truthfulness Self-sacrifice Courage Enjoyment Passion Knowledge/ Skills FIGURE 1. Ethos model for analysis of credibility in corporate discourse The eleven credibility appeals (see Isaksson & Flyvholm Jørgensen, forthcoming for detailed definitions of the eleven credibility appeals) constitute the operational level of the model, and in our earlier studies, this operationalization allowed us to determine the strategic content of passages of discourse with a high degree of precision. In this study, we again use the appeal forms to allow us to perform detailed analyses, but we only distinguish between expertise, trustworthiness and empathy, i.e. the top-level ethos qualities of our Ethos model in reporting our findings to make the results more immediately transparent. Issues of Data and Method To capture the presence and nature of credibility in PR discourse, we have analyzed PR website texts collected from 60 PR agencies in the United Kingdom (20), Denmark (20) and Norway (20). The data were collected between 2007 and 2008 from corporate communication, advertising and full-service agencies. In selecting the corpus, we aimed for consistency with 196 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Credibility Discourse of PR Agencies: A Cross-Cultural Study of Corporate Ethos on the Web respect to content at the expense of consistency with respect to length. This criterion required us to carefully consider our procedure for obtaining a representative cross-section of data. The task of developing a workable method to identify representative credibility PR discourse in an erratic website universe turned out to be more than just technical. It was also thematic, and one of the basic questions that concerned us was whether some web-texts could be perceived as more credible than others. For instance, are coherent texts running over an entire page in fact more credible than smart and snappy slogans? Is an honorable history of an agency more credible than its current network of customers? Does the existence of a philosophy and core values make an agency more credible than a demonstration of its awards and achievements? And do pictures of staff members project a stronger ethos than their job record? In a pilot study on credibility discourse of Norwegian and Danish PR agencies our texts, in the form of vision and value statements, were selected on the assumption that they were more credibility loaded than other PR texts. This also turned out to be the case in that 88% of the Danish and 80% of the Norwegian sentences of the value and vision texts contained credibility appeals. However, extending the study to include British vision and value statements revealed that British PR agencies more or less ignore vision and value statements. Therefore, in the present study we work on the assumption that every PR text is intended to build credibility, and we thus include data from the entire text world of each PR agency. As part of the procedure of selecting and analyzing one-hundred and eighty web pages from the sixty agencies, we developed a taxonomy of web page headings. The purpose was to detect whether the types of web pages that we were selecting from the websites, by an essentially mechanical procedure, followed a particular pattern. We thus established two sets of headings with one set consisting of ethos headings naturally imbued with ethos qualities (culture; excellence; philosophy; behavior), and another set incorporating web headings that we would immediately associate with website architecture (about us; home; welcome) and that would potentially contain credibility discourse. So, we ended up with two batches of pre-selected headings reflecting credibility content: 1. Headings immediately reflecting the ethos qualities in the Ethos model (Table 1). 2. Headings not signaling ethos qualities, but potentially offering credibility discourse. (Table 1) In selecting three headings for each of the sixty agencies, we took both a quantitative and a qualitative approach to the data. The quantitative approach included a strict left-right, top-down selection procedure where we were “scanning” the websites for items listed in our two predetermined batches of ethos and web headings. This was done in preference to a bottom-up procedure of sampling strings of text from “beneath” the headings. The data we ended up analyzing thus constituted “fresh” texts that had not undergone any prior screening. This type of procedure we found to be effective for selecting large amounts of data. Through their different rationales, our two batches of headings provide interesting information on how PR agencies choose to build their ethos. The ethos headings correspond to what Hoff-Clausen (2002: 40) calls textual ethos, and the web headings to what she refers to as inter-textual ethos, meaning that expressions of ethos build on several texts, not immediately signaling a consistent connection. 1 1 Hoff-Clausen’s (2002:40) ethos model developed for corporate website texts encompasses four ethos perspectives: textual ethos, inter-textual ethos, exemplary ethos and ritual ethos. Textual ethos corresponds Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 197 Maria Isaaksson and Poul Erik Flyvholm Jørgensen To determine the ethos qualities of each PR agency’s set of three texts, we took a qualitative approach where the texts were carefully assessed and coded for the three ethos qualities of expertise, trustworthiness and empathy. This allowed a maximum credibility score of 3 for each text and, thus, a maximum score of 9 for all three texts from a given PR agency. For the subsequent quantitative analysis, the detailed codings for the entire corpus of PR texts were compiled to show the distribution of the ethos qualities, the accumulation of credibility scores, and the relationship between ethos headings and web headings. TABLE 1. Examples from list of ethos and website headings BATCH E (ethos) BATCH W (website) Accreditation About us Advertising/PR/Design Agency Awards Approach Behavior [company name] Clients Group Capabilities History Collaboration Home Creativity How we do it Culture How we work/operate Disciplines Our business Excellence Purpose Experience Strategy Expertise Vision Location Welcome Manifesto What we believe Our output What we do Partners What we think People Where do we fit Philosophy Who we are Principles Why choose us Profile Why us Promise Why work with us We aimed at consistency and reliability by having both coders separately complete all 60 coding tasks and then compare their respective coding results. Discrepancies in coding were then resolved by carefully discussing the individual item to reach a consensus on the observed ethos quality. This cooperative coding procedure affords increased consistency and reliability and, in our case, produced a uniform result from the data. In negotiating each discrepancy, we were aiming at a fuller comprehension of each text than we would have obtained by simply recording and accounting for the ratios of discrepancy between the two coders for each appeal. to the three ethos qualities in our Ethos model. Hoff-Clausen’s inter-textual-ethos, exemplary ethos and ritual ethos promote specific credibility criteria, consistency, consequentiality, and identification, respectively. 198 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Credibility Discourse of PR Agencies: A Cross-Cultural Study of Corporate Ethos on the Web Cross-Cultural Results and Discussion Our empirical analyses of PR agencies’ websites provide strong confirmation that industry members’ primary concern is with highlighting their expertise. Across the entire text corpus, 159 (55%) out of 287 instances of ethos were coded for this particular quality. We again speculate that this is because the websites are primarily addressing business clients whose principal interest is perceived to be to assess and compare agencies’ resources, abilities or skills. Our data show that the agencies are moderately concerned to appear trustworthy, using somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of their credibility appeals to demonstrate qualities of trustworthiness such as integrity, justice, truthfulness, courage and passion. Since the industry is a relatively young one, often depicted as wild, unscrupulous and manipulative, there would seem to be good reason for offering assurances of impartiality, lawfulness, moral constitution and sincerity to stakeholders. As copy writers are frequently perceived to be talented young people guided by their artistic ambitions, and account managers to be occupied with budget matters, there would seem to be sufficient incentive to demonstrate resolution and commitment and to pledge enthusiasm. Perhaps more to our surprise, the notion of empathy is given rather little priority in the agencies’ descriptions of their competencies. With less than 20% of credibility appeals devoted to the relationship between agency and client, the client’s fortune, or the joy and contentment clients will experience from associating with the agency, we can clearly demonstrate that the interpersonal aspect of relationship-building is not accorded particular significance. TABLE 2. Distributions of ethos qualities Countries Expertise Trustworthiness Empathy Totals Norwegian 53 (53%) 28 (28%) 19 (19%) 100 (100%) Danish 56 (52.3%) 31 (29%) 20 (18.7%) 107 (100%) UK 50 (62.5%) 18 (22.5%) 12 (15%) 80 (100%) 159 77 51 287 Totals In a cross-cultural perspective, the data show persuasively that Norwegian and Danish public relations agencies take an almost identical approach to demonstrating their credibility. In actual numbers, each set of twenty agencies were coded for an almost identical variety of credibility appeals. Moreover, their combination of the dimensions of expertise, trustworthiness and empathy was practically the same. So, even if there may be preferential differences in style and semantics between Norway and Denmark, we obtained a very close match in their rhetorical choice of ethos qualities. This, however, is perhaps only testimony to the general assumption that Norwegian and Danish values, attitudes and behaviors are closely linked and will be naturally reflected in corporate discourse. If we now make the same comparison between the two Scandinavian countries and Britain, we obtain a somewhat different picture. The first thing we note is that, collectively, the UK agencies have a less balanced distribution of ethos qualities. This does not mean that they Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 199 Maria Isaaksson and Poul Erik Flyvholm Jørgensen speak less of their ethos, only that they do not exploit the three ethos qualities with the same frequency across the selected cross-section of web pages. In the UK data, we find that the highest credibility score, obtained by just one agency, is 7 out of a maximum score of 9. In the Norwegian sample, five agencies obtain a score between 7 and 9; and the Danish data show four agencies obtaining scores of 7 and 8. Exactly what this UK result is indicative of we cannot yet say with any certainty. It could be culturally motivated, it could be a professional inclination for consistency, and it could be an industry obsession with expertise. At any rate, we see that British agencies are considerably more focused on expertise (62.5%) than are their Scandinavian counterparts. The British agencies attach more importance to trustworthiness (22.5%) than to empathy (12%), so on this count they strive for the same balance between these two ethos qualities as we see for the Norwegian and Danish agencies. If we dig a bit deeper in to the collective results of the analyses, we see that all 60 agencies describe one aspect or another of their expertise, but as many as ten agencies rely entirely on expertise to communicate their credibility. Fourteen agencies mix expertise and trustworthiness, but only one agency from each of the three countries mix expertise with empathy, leaving out trustworthiness. Significantly, however, fifteen out of the twenty UK agencies do not incorporate any statements of empathy and thus entirely disregard relational aspects or the enjoyment clients may experience from engaging with the agency. Cross-culturally, we see that Norwegian and Danish agencies are practically indistinguishable in their preferences. However, we also note that the three cultures exhibit relative differences on some important issues, and that the UK consistently demonstrates lower credibility with more agencies obtaining a lower credibility score than their Scandinavian counterparts, with no agency obtaining a maximum credibility score, and by showing the lowest frequency (7) of agencies referring to all three ethos qualities. As explained, our study was not designed to account for the visual communication of credibility. We, of course, acknowledge the importance of visuals and of the mutual effects between visuals and text in any type of communication. Thus, we find it pertinent to point out that 3 Norwegian and 2 Danish agencies show portraits of their employees. Clearly, these visuals contribute towards clients’ impressions of credibility, be it both of expertise and trustworthiness. We are surprised by this very modest use of visuals in order to show who actually populates agencies and think that this as an overlooked resource in establishing corporate ethos. Across the three national corpora we obtained a surprisingly uniform result with an overwhelming focus on web headings (NOR 67%, DK 80%, and UK 67%, respectively). We here note that the results for the ethos headings (NOR 33%, DK 20% and UK 33%, respectively) are significant in that they are used quite sparingly to clearly flag the nature of the content on websites whose primary purpose, we would argue, is to establish a sense of ethos with agency clients. Conclusion To sum up, we think it fair to say that Norwegian, Danish and British PR agencies take a somewhat ‘conservative’ approach to the crucial task of building credibility or ethos via their corporate websites. There is an unmistakable focus on the communication of expertise at the expense of the other two building blocks of ethos, namely trustworthiness and empathy. This runs counter to our intuitive expectation that PR agencies, in whom corporate clients vest their confidence for communication solutions, would in their self-representations attach greater significance to their good character and devotion to clients’ projects and successes. 200 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Credibility Discourse of PR Agencies: A Cross-Cultural Study of Corporate Ethos on the Web Cross-culturally, we see that credibility in PR discourse reflect certain cross-cultural preferences, and to a lesser extent some cross-cultural consistency within the industry. The Norwegian and Danish PR agencies exhibit almost identical credibility profiles, whereas the UK agencies demonstrate a slightly different one. Interestingly, we also see some cross-cultural consistency, for instance in the agencies’ preference for the same balance between the ethos qualities, and in the marked tendency for all three countries’ agencies to use web headings signaling typical web rhetoric as opposed to headings triggering notions of ethos. Finally, the methodology used in this study contributes to bringing into focus the specific challenges imposed by systematic collections of website data. The quantitative and qualitative methods were developed to control the selection and coding of broader text segments of website discourse. These methods could also be accommodated to other types of website data. We point out that the current study is supposed to give indication of current national practices of how the public relations industries of three European countries have attempted to make themselves appear credible. Traditionally, the three countries in the study have enjoyed strong political and cultural links and still have extensive trade with one another. From that perspective, it is not entirely surprising that their rhetorical preferences are in some respects almost identical. Since the rhetorical choices are very much alike, a subsequent study is required to determine whether the choices are made on the basis of similar cultural, situational or professional assessments by the three sets of agencies. How do they decide what makes for sound credibility discourse and do they agree? Therefore, this study is part of a wider research effort by the authors to also establish what motivates corporate practices of credibility across a variety of European industries. References Aristotle (1991), The Art Rhetoric, London, Penguin Books. Cheney, G. (1992), The Corporate Person (Re)Presents Itself. In Toth, E.L. and Heath, R.L. (eds.), Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations, Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum, 165-183. Cheney, G. and Christensen, L.T. (2001), Public Relations as Contested Terrain. A Critical Response. In Heath, R.L. (ed.), Handbook of Public Relations, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 167-182. Fogh, O.F. (2005), Leadership as a Possible Mode of Existence. In Bjartveit, S. and Roos, G. (eds.), Scandinavian Perspectives on Management Consulting. Oslo, Cappelen Akademisk Forlag, 304-323. Hatch, M.J. and Schultz, M. (2004), Introduction. In Hatch, M.J. and Schultz, M. (eds.), Organizational Identity: A Reader, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1-6. Hoff-Clausen, E. (2002), Sett Gennem Nettet – Organisationers Troverdighed på Hjemmesider. Frederiksberg, Samfundslitteratur. Isaksson, M. and Jørgensen, P. E. F. (2008), The Rhetoric of Corporate Mission Statements: Virtues and emotions for the Market. In Kelly-Holmes, H. and Mautner, G. (eds.), Language and the Market, New York, Palgrave-MacMillan (Language and Globalization series). Forthcoming. Jørgensen, P.E.F. and Isaksson, M. (2008), ” Building credibility in international banking and financial markets: A study of how corporate reputations are managed through image advertising", Corporate Communications: An Inernational Journal. Forthcoming. McCroskey, J. C. and Teven J. J. (1999), “Goodwill: a re-examination of the construct and its measurement”, Communication Monographs Vol. 66, pp. 90-103. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 201 Maria Isaaksson and Poul Erik Flyvholm Jørgensen 202 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Relational Corporate Selves Focus on Multiplicity in Identity Construction Trine Susanne Johansen Centre for Corporate Communication, Aarhus School of Business University of Aarhus, Denmark [email protected] The paper addresses the proposition that corporate identity – often described in corporate communication research as a coherent, consistent and constant expression of an organisation’s essence - also can be viewed as constructed, fluid and multifaceted narratives. Drawing on organisational and sociological identity studies, the theoretical framework frames identity as multiple within a relational perspective. In addition, a tentative analytical framework for the investigation of relational corporate selves is proposed. Through an explorative, narrative analysis of the LEGO 2006 Sustainability report, the paper proceeds to discuss if and how the corporation constructs multiple identities in relation to different stakeholders by looking at identity roles used when addressing the various groups. Finally, the conceptual implications of the analysis for the proposed identity framework are briefly discussed along with the usefulness of the narrative approach in uncovering multiple identities in a relational perspective. Within corporate communication research, corporate identity is ascribed a boundaryspanning function between an organisation and its surroundings - creating and maintaining relationships with numerous stakeholder groups (e.g. customers, investors, employees, suppliers, the media and the general public) who (potentially) influence and/or are influenced by the organisation (Cornelissen, 2004). One potential implication may be that organisations through self-narratives construct multiple identities by way of the different roles that emerge through different stakeholder relationships. Consequently, there may be a potential discrepancy between corporate communication’s focus on expressing a uniform, constant corporate identity (van Riel, 1995; Balmer & Grey, 2000 and Cornelissen 2004) and the simultaneous demand for stakeholder adaptation and responsiveness (Friedman & Miles, 2006): a discrepancy that calls for greater focus on relational, multiple identity perspectives. Taking a narrative approach to identity, this paper addresses how one organisation communicatively constructs its corporate identity in relation to multiple stakeholders in asking: do perceived relations to different stakeholder groups mean that the organisation, through different identity roles, constructs multiple corporate identities rather than a single identity? In answering this question, the paper also tentatively addresses the conceptual issue of what potential implications such multiple constructions may hold for the corporate identity concept; i.e., if corporate self-representation acknowledges multiple identities, how can the multiplicity be reflected in the definition of corporate identity? The paper thus has a dual purpose of establishing a tentative identity framework for further exploration and of experimenting with narrative analysis within such a framework. Firstly, a theoretical framework for conceptualising multiple corporate identities within a narrative, relational understanding is outlined highlighting the connection between identity and communication. In addition to discussing corporate identity as a multiple construct, a tentative analytical framework for the investigation of multiple selves in a corporate identity perspective is established. Through an explorative analysis of selected texts from the LEGO corporate website, the paper then seeks to investigate whether or not the organisation constructs multiple identities Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 203 Trine Susanne Johansen when addressing different stakeholders. In order to highlight potential multiplicity in identity construction in praxis, a narrative analysis based on Greimas’ actantial model (1966, [1983]) of the identity roles (i.e. actantial positions) used when speaking to the various stakeholder groups in the LEGO 2006 Sustainability report is carried out. Finally, the implications of the actantial analysis for the conceptual identity framework are discussed along with the usefulness of the actantial model in relation to uncovering multiple identities in a relational perspective. Theoretical Framework While discussing corporate identity, organisational and rhetoric researcher George Cheney asks the compelling question: what does it mean to speak with a collective voice? (Cheney, 1991:1) The identity understanding applied in this paper, inspired by a relational approach promoted by e.g. Majken Schultz & Mary Jo Hatch (2000, 2001 and 2002) and Barbara Czarniawska (1997), suggests that the answer to this question can be sought within the social relationships between the organisation and its surrounding environment where identities are said to be narratively constructed. The relational identity approach is founded within interactionist, constructionist and post-modern identity understandings taken from sociology and social psychology (i.e. Mead, 1934; Goffman, 1959; Gergen, 1985 and Jenkins, 2004) where multiple selves are seen as socially emergent. A relationship based approach to identity can furthermore be considered in accordance with a stakeholder framework where organisations view themselves in relation to the many different stakes and interests represented by various stakeholders (Cornelissen, 2004). Conceptualising identity in a corporate context Corporate identity is conceptualised in multiple ways (for an overview see e.g. Balmer, 2001 and 2002). Cornelissen & Harris (2001) list three metaphorical perspectives: 1) corporate identity as an expression of the corporate personality drawing on an inner self 2) corporate identity as organisational reality and 3) corporate identity as all expressions of a company (55). The two first perspectives view identity as an organisation’s core, essence or soul; i.e., as a static or stable entity expressed through communication, behaviour and symbolism (e.g. Balmer & Grey, 2000; van Riel, 1995 and Cornelissen, 2004). Consequently, identity is to be communicated as homogenously as possible ensuring that the communication reflects or transmits the true nature of the organisation. Communication is thus viewed as a process in which meaning is transferred through encoding and decoding as in Shannon & Weaver’s model of the communication process (Fiske, 1990:7); i.e., meaning is encoded by the organisation (identity) and decoded by the stakeholders (image) with correspondence or alignment between the two as a primary goal. Seemingly, the relationship between identity and communication is one where communication is used to express an essential identity which is embedded or rooted in the organisation (Cornelissen & Harris, 2001:55). The third perspective presents a communicative or representational alternative to the personality or reality driven approaches to corporate identity as “something that emerges in enactment and social interaction” (op. cit.: 61). However, the implication held by such a conceptualisation of identity as emerging in communication is said to be that corporate identity can be “created, transformed and restructured by management” (op. cit). As such, the wider implications of relational corporate selves as negotiated through the process of communication are ignored as narrative identity is taken to mean that anything goes; as long as consistency is maintained. Consequently, whether corporate 204 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Relational Corporate Selves Focus on Multiplicity in Identity Construction identity is viewed as an expression of a deeper rooted personality or reality or as emerging in communication or self-presentation, consistency remains a core, defining characteristic. However, a different approach to identity as narration can be found within organisational studies where Czarniawska (1997), for example, operates with a constructionist, narrative approach to identity emphasising autobiographical organisational (self) narration as a continuous process of articulation involving both organisation and stakeholders (49). Consequently, identity is articulated by multiple voices making it dynamic, fluid and relational. The relational dimension of identity is also stressed by Hatch & Schultz (2002) in their dynamic approaches to organisational as well as brand identity. By incorporating external views on the organisation, that is image, as an identity constructing factor, Hatch & Schultz emphasise the importance of stakeholder voices in articulating identity similar to the way that a person’s self is said to rise out of interaction with the surrounding society. This is especially apparent in connection with their organisational identity dynamics model (Hatch & Schultz, 2002) which references George H. Mead’s approach to the self as arising in interaction between the I and the me (see below). In this view, identity is constructed through “a set of processes that continuously cycle within and between cultural self-understandings and images formed by organizational ‘others’” (Hatch & Schultz, 2002:1004). The frameworks established by Czarniawska and Hatch & Schultz build on some of the main contributors to identity research within sociology and social psychology (e.g. Mead, 1934; Goffman, 1959; Jenkins, 2004 and Gergen, 1985). The relationship between identity and communication is one where communication is seen as negotiation of meaning in a social setting rather than as transference of meaning from sender to receiver as it can be said to be the case within the above mentioned perspectives on corporate identity. Narration becomes the arena for identity construction as self-narratives or autobiographies become the narratives that constitute identities (Czarniawska, 1997:142). Relational notions of self The idea that self arises out of interaction with the surrounding society is often traced to the work of social psychologist Mead (e.g. Cerulo, 1997; Holstein & Gubrium, 2000 and Jenkins, 2004). Mead (and fellow pragmatists William James and Charles H. Cooley) reacted to notions of an abstract, enlightened and transcendental self and in response constructed a different view on identity as founded in everyday social interaction (Holstein & Gubrium, 2000). Self is understood as a process of ongoing and simultaneous synthesis of “(internal) self-definition”, understood as a dialogue between I and me, and “(external) definitions of oneself offered by others” in interaction (Jenkins, 2004).Thus, it is possible to talk of selves rather than self as we enter into series of different relationships with different people and thus become “one thing to one man and another thing to another” (Mead, 1934:142) stressing the social or relational dimension of identity as well as the existence of multiple selves. Later identity work within sociology carried out by Peter Berger, Erving Goffman and Howard Becker, among others, has amplified the relational ideas of self expressed by Mead rejecting any essential or core features as the unique property of self (Cerulo, 1997:386). Goffman thus views the self as a social product of the performances put on by individuals in social interactions; i.e.”the presentation of self” and the public validation of such performances. Thus, a central theme in Goffman’s view on social self is that identities are performed in conversations where the views of others determine how individuals present themselves (Goffman, 1959). Both Mead and Goffman view self as socially constituted or performatively enacted in place of an essential, true or pre-social self. Sociologist Richard Jenkins (2004) recognises both Mead and Goffman as being among his primary inspirations and places emphasis on that “we can be different things to different people and in different Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 205 Trine Susanne Johansen circumstances”(3). The multiplicity of identity as framed by social relations is thus continuously stressed. With emerging thoughts on postmodernity, the notion of a reality distinguishable from its representation is brought in to question and even rejected. Consequently, to some (e.g. Baudrillard, 1983), the self is a mere image among many for conveying identity – while to others it is still possible to talk of a socially constructed self. In such a view, the postmodern multiplies and hybridises, but preserves, identities (Holstein & Gubrium, 2000). Belonging to the latter category is psychologist and social constructionist Kenneth Gergen who maintains the reality or existence of self albeit as a self that becomes saturated with meanings. Gergen’s thesis is that social saturation, fuelled by technological developments, leads to a “fragmentation of selfconceptions” brought on by multiple, incoherent and disconnected relationships (2000:139). In Gergen’s relational view on identity the notion of an individual core or essence to which the self remains true is dispelled. Instead, identity is emergent, re-formed and redirected and the notion of self is replaced by the notion of relatedness meaning that it makes more sense to speak of us, rather than of you and I (op. cit.:156). Multiplicity in relational corporate identity The relational identity perspective presented above - inspired by interactionist, social constructionist and post-modern understandings - has been conceptualised primarily through the works of Mead, Goffman, Jenkins and Gergen stressing the multiple nature of self. However, the question becomes what implications such an understanding has for the conceptual development of the corporate identity construct. The main argument is that relational identity has much to offer by way of stressing the interdependent nature of organisation and environment already incorporated into organisational and brand identity studies and as a key element when discussing stakeholder relations and management. With reference to the relational identity framework, it is argued that multiplicity is an overlooked aspect of corporate identity. However, Balmer & Greyser (2002) have suggested that corporate identity indeed can and should be viewed within a multiple identity framework (expressed in the ACI2D model) consisting of five different identities: actual identity, communicated identity, conceived identity, ideal identity and desired identity. Balmer & Greyser thus recognise that several identities can be located in relation to any given organisation. Nevertheless, the notions of unity, coherence and consistency underlie this multiple identities perspective as the different identities must be in alignment since a gap between identities “causes dissonance that can potentially weaken a company”. (Balmer & Greyser, 2002:75) The ACI2D framework can therefore be said to support or sustain, rather than challenge, the corporate identity conceptualisation that characterise the research field as exemplified by the work of e.g. John M.T. Balmer where multiplicity should be management through processes of harmonisation or integration (Moingeon & Soenen, 2002 and van Riel, 1995) Within a narrative identity perspective, multiplicity is found within the concept of polyphony where corporations are said to speak with multiple voices (Christensen et.al., 2008). However, it may be said that polyphony frames multiplicity within a sender-oriented (or inside-out) perspective where the multiplicity stems from within the organisation. The relational approach, on the other hand, frames multiplicity in a receiver-oriented (outside-in) perspective in recognising identity articulations stemming from outside the corporation (Czarniawska, 1997). The underlying theoretical framework suggests that corporate identity can be conceptualised based on the concept of relatedness proposed by Gergen which in turn references earlier works on socially constructed identity. A relational identity understanding suggests that 206 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Relational Corporate Selves Focus on Multiplicity in Identity Construction identity is emergent, context-embedded, discursive and multiple (e.g. Wheterell & Maybin, 1996). In this context, focus will be placed on how relational identity gives way to multiple identity constructions or narratives. It is hypothesised that an organisation which recognises the importance of multiple stakeholders attempts to create and maintain relations through multiple identities which position the organisation according to varying stakeholder interests or stakes. The hypothesis will be explored by analysing the different positions taken by the LEGO Company addressing different stakeholders on its corporate website (www.lego.com). Data Selection and Analytical Approach The LEGO Company is chosen as the analytical focal point due to its active relationships with multiple stakeholder groups. The company continuously seeks to involve its stakeholders both on- and offline by inviting them to participate in dialogues with the organisation: adult LEGO fans are encouraged to share product inventions and constructions, parents are encouraged to share thoughts on LEGO play, children (of all ages) are invited to post their inventions and chat online on the LEGO message boards and educators are involved in using LEGO blocks to further creativity, learning and innovation. In order to analytically approach corporate identity in a multiplicity perspective from a narrative point of view, examples of corporate self-expression or self-narration addressing multiple stakeholder groups is needed given the hypothesis; namely, that organisations qua their relationships with different groups construct different identities to address different stakeholders. Consequently, the LEGO website is chosen as the analytic focal point since websites are assigned a central position within communication between corporation and multiple stakeholders (Nielsen, 2002). As such, they are condensed fora for corporate communication assumingly providing a good basis for analysing how the organisation in question constructs identity roles in relation to a variety of stakeholder groups. The LEGO corporate website addresses multiple stakeholder groups in multiple ways including the dialogues mentioned above. However, the online version of the 2006 LEGO Sustainability report is chosen as the analytical basis. This selection is grounded in the many different stakeholders addressed in the report which provides a condensed, welldefined arena for self-narration directed at different identified stakeholder groups including: consumers, retail trade partners, employees, business partners and suppliers, and society. The actantial model As suggested by Czarniawska (1997), corporate websites, as one form of organisational self-presentation, can be analysed as autobiographic narratives. By selecting texts where the organisation is the narrator, focus is placed on how the organisation narratively constructs its own identity. Analysing self-narratives in order to highlight identity construction by way of Greimas’ actantial model (1966, [1983]) has previously been conducted in relation to individual, personal narratives (Wang & Roberts, 2005). Wang & Roberts draw attention to how this approach to narrative analysis focuses research on the narrator’s ”understandings of character relations” (op. cit. 51) by depicting “characters’ narrative positions” as well as the “links among these positions” (op. cit. 53). It is possible to argue that the actantial model’s focus on identity positions within relationships links to a relational identity understanding which emphasises that identities are socially constructed. Moreover, as shown by Nielsen et al. (2007) the actantial model can be considered a useful approach in uncovering relations between actants and as such the model highlights how identity construction is a relational endeavour. Furthermore, the model forms the basis or framework for contemporary approaches to corporate storytelling frequently Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 207 Trine Susanne Johansen applied in the construction or narration of organisational autobiographies (e.g. Fog, Budtz & Yakaboylu, 2002). Developed within a structuralist frame of reference, the actantial model is an analytical tool which in theory can be used to analyse any action whether real or thematised. However, the model has in particular been applied to action within literary texts and images. Any action can be broken down into the following six actants: Sender → Object → Receiver ↑ Helper → Subject ← Opponent FIGURE 1: Greimas’ actantial model (Greimas, 1966 [1983]: 207) The six actants can be described in relation to three oppositions or axes indicating the relationships between the different actants: the subject seeks or does not seek to be joined to an object (axis of desire or project). The sender instigates action while the receiver benefits from it (axis of transmission or communication). And finally, the helper helps to accomplish the action while the opponent hinders it (axis of power or conflict). An actant does not always respond to a character in the traditional sense of the term. Actants may be anthropomorphic beings, an inanimate element or a concept. An actant may be individual or collective. A single element can be identified in one, several or all actantial positions. Consequently, a given character or actor (e.g. the company or stakeholder groups) may potentially contain several actants from different actantial positions or several actants from the same position have separate actions. The implications in relation to the multiple identity concept are discussed below. Actantial analysis consists in assigning each of the different components or elements of an action to different actantial positions. Consequently, the LEGO identity constructions framed by different stakeholder relations are analysed with reference to the actantial model focusing on the actantial positions assigned to the characters (organisation and stakeholder groups i.e. consumers, retail trade partners, employees, business partners and suppliers and society) in combination with the embedded relations among the actants. It is thus possible to show which subject relations as well as subject positions (Foucault, 2002) are assigned to and by the organisation when addressing different stakeholders. Analysing Relations and Positions The actantial analysis of the LEGO 2006 Sustainability report is structured according to the five main stakeholder groups explicitly addressed in the report: consumers and customers, retail trade partners or customers, employees, business partners and suppliers and society. The questions asked are: which actantial positions are assigned to the organisation and the stakeholders respectively? Does the organisation assign itself different positions when addressing different stakeholder groups? And does the organisation construct multiple, different relations to each of the identified stakeholder groups by assigning different positions? In order to elucidate which actantial positions are assigned by the LEGO organisation to itself and the various stakeholders in the sustainability self-narrative, the actantial model is applied to the communicative constructed relationships between the actors. The results of the 208 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Relational Corporate Selves Focus on Multiplicity in Identity Construction analyses are shown below. For some stakeholder groups one model is constructed (retail trade customers, society) whereas for others (consumers, suppliers and employees) several models are constructed to show how different object-subject relations lead to multiple actantial positions of the identified actors i.e. organisation and stakeholders. Consumers (and customers) are positioned simultaneously as subject and receiver, and as sender and helper dependent upon the object stated in the text. When the object is learning through play the consumers or customers are those who benefit from the expertise of LEGO as seen in the following quote which references the LEGO slogan Joy of building. Pride of creation: “Those words are the essence of the play and building experience we want to give the consumer through our products.” LEGO→ Learning through play → Develop your imagination Creative problem solving Children whose parents buy LEGO Adult LEGO users ↑ Playing with LEGO→ Unique building system and focus on quality and service Customers (Children of all ages) ← Poor quality (LEGO) Safety (LEGO) Customer complaints FIGURE 2: Consumer relationship – LEGO as sender and helper However, LEGO also constructs a reverse relationship where the customers are the ones who act to the company’s benefit when helping with product development positioning LEGO as subject and receiver: “The LEGO Group has increasingly wanted to involve our most enthusiastic consumers in the development of our products, in order to use the tremendous knowledge and creativity these fans possesses.” Customers → Product development→ LEGO (and the customers) ↑ Customers → Customer dialogue LEGO FIGURE 3: Consumer relationship – LEGO as subject and receiver LEGO’s retail trade partners or customers, on the other hand, are positioned solely as the receiver while the organisation is assigned multiple positions as sender, helper, subject, receiver and opponent in relation to the object of financial sustainable development. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 209 Trine Susanne Johansen LEGO→ Financial sustainable development → Retail trade partners LEGO ↑ LEGO → Development of key account management (improved cooperation and dialogue) LEGO ← unsatisfactory delivery service (LEGO) FIGURE 4: Retail trade partner relationship – LEGO as sender, helper, subject, receiver and opponent The employees at the LEGO company are assigned two different sets of positions in that they are subject and receiver when the object is to create and maintain an exiting, challenging and rewarding workplace and helper when the object is to secure a sustainable, successful company as shown in the extract: “The LEGO Group aims to be an exciting and challenging workplace, where good results are rewarded. Our employees are instrumental in the work of creating a sustainable, successful company, where creativity and a stimulating environment provide opportunities to learn every day.” Correspondingly, the organisation is both constructed as sender and helper and subject and receiver in the relationship with the employees. LEGO→ Exiting, challenging and rewarding workplace→ Employees ↑ LEGO → (Employees) Employees ← Changes/outsourcing Financial situation Insufficient employee development FIGURE 5: Employee relationship - LEGO as sender and helper Our employees → A sustainable, successful company→ LEGO ↑ Dialogue and training → Renewed culture LEGO ← Low employee satisfaction and commitment (outsourcing) FIGURE 6: Employee relationship - LEGO as subject and receiver Business partners and suppliers are also assigned multiple positions depending upon the stated object. When the survival of the company is in focus, the suppliers are assigned the position of the opponent since their inability to live up to quality and ethical standards may place 210 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Relational Corporate Selves Focus on Multiplicity in Identity Construction the company at risk. On the other hand, when the object is to meet the standards that are said to secure survival, the suppliers are also assigned the position of sender. LEGO → Survival → Competitiveness and profitability LEGO ↑ Outsourcing → ← Suppliers (not meeting the standards) FIGURE 7: Partner and supplier relationship: LEGO as sender, subject and receiver Suppliers → LEGO Meeting standards → LEGO ↑ Ethical supplier management → Code of conduct LEGO ← Suppliers FIGURE 8: Partner and supplier relationship: LEGO as helper, subject and receiver The final stakeholder which is explicitly addressed is society per se as an embodiment of the organisation’s larger societal responsibility. Society is positioned as the receiver who benefits from the responsibility as an object for the LEGO company: “The LEGO Group has always had the core value of showing consideration for its surroundings and causing as little impact on the local environment as possible.” The extract relates to LEGO’s environmental policy and is followed by statements relating to recycling, selecting chemical substances, energy consumption and LEGO education centres. LEGO → Responsibility → Society ↑ Credibility, honest and timely LEGO communication → Environmental policy FIGURE 9: Societal relationship – LEGO as sender and subject ← Crisis Based on the analyses of the actantial positions assigned in relation to the five stakeholder groups in the 2006 Sustainability report, it is possible to address whether or not the organisation assigns itself different actantial positions when addressing the different groups. The actantial analyses indicate that LEGO to some extent assigns itself different positions in the different stakeholder relationships it constructs in the self-narrative. However, some positions are more frequently assigned than others including sender and helper which the organisation assigns itself in relation to all stakeholders. In addition, the analyses show that LEGO positions itself in all actantial positions expect that of object. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 211 Trine Susanne Johansen In the relationships with both consumers/customers and employees, two different relationships and positions emerge related to stakeholder and organisational objects. When the stakeholders’ objects are in focus (learning through play and an exiting, challenging and rewarding workplace), LEGO assigns itself the position of sender and helper whereas when LEGO’s object is in focus (product development and a sustainable, successful company), the actantial positions are reversed and the organisation is assigned positions as subject and receiver. Another finding is that LEGO also positions itself as opponent in relation to a number of stakeholder groups including consumers, partners and employees where elements such as poor product quality, delivery, ethics, safety and satisfaction are key issues. Thereby LEGO is not positioned explicitly as opponent but responsibility for the issues are assigned to LEGO and thus the organisation implicitly takes on this position. The analyses not only indicate that the organisation constructs multiple, different relations to the identified stakeholder groups by assigning itself and them different actantial positions – but also that the organisation simultaneously through the assigned positions also constructs a partly coherent positioning for LEGO. The question becomes whether or not there is any identifiable pattern or structure in the different positions that leads to coherence? One apparent pattern relates to the position of object as it appears that the object is determining for the relationships and the assigned positions i.e. whether the object is sought after by the organisation or said to be sought after by the stakeholder groups. Despite the identified pattern, there are differences in the positions assigned to the organisation when positioned within different stakeholder relations. The next question that needs to be answered is which implications such multiplicity and unity of actantial relationships and positions hold for the multiplicity said to characterise identity within the relational corporate identity framework? Discussion, Conclusion and Research Implications This paper seeks to tentatively adopt a relational identity approach into a corporate identity framework and argues that this perspective leads to a multiplicity of identities. Through focusing on multiplicity in corporate self-presentation and adopting an organisation-as-narrator approach, the notion of multiple selves as discussed in relation to the corporate identity concept gains some momentum as the narrative analysis highlights how LEGO assigns itself different actantial positions when addressing different stakeholder groups albeit certain positions, notably those of sender and helper, reoccur. The reoccurrence of the sender/helper positions also implies some consistency and unity in the LEGO sustainability narrative. Thus, the analysis shows how both unity and multiplicity can be said to characterise identity construction in the selfpresentation in question. What has been highlighted is the multiplicity perspective; i.e., how the organisation positions itself differently in relation to different stakeholder groups thus assuming different identities in relation to these groups. However, what the analysis does not address is whether the organisation in question has chosen such multiple identities as a deliberate, strategic move in response to different stakeholder interests or whether the different positions and relations emerge unconsciously. Moreover, the tentative, explorative analysis is carried out on the basis of a single set of texts accessible online meaning that more in depth analyses of other texts from the LEGO website may emphasise or de-emphasise the argument supported by this analysis. It is possible that by extending the analysis to all website postings, the outcome may favour either the multiplicity or unity approach. Another possible source of influence on the findings is the scope of the texts analysed which is centred on sustainability. Once again including a wider range of texts from the website or other company materials might change the outcome. 212 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Relational Corporate Selves Focus on Multiplicity in Identity Construction A further cautionary note may be raised in relation to the proposed link between multiple actantial positions and multiple identities. Within the actantial framework, an actor may hold multiple (and sometimes simultaneous and/or conflicting) actantial positions in the same narrative. Thus, it is possible to argue that an organisation may use different positions in its selfpresentation, but still remain the same actor in possession of a single identity which is in line with the three identity perspectives introduced in the theoretical framework. However, given the central argument that identities are constructed or constituted in narration, it is possible to argue in favour of viewing the multiple positions as expressions of multiple identities – with reference to Mead (1934) we might say that the organisation becomes one thing to one stakeholder group and another to another. A conclusion which in part is supported by differences in the assigned positions identified through the analysis. A tentative implication for corporate identity conceptualisation is thus that multiplicity is inherent to identity narration as organisations may be constructing multiple identities when addressing different stakeholder groups. In light of the outcome of the analysis, an argument can be made in favour of further research into the multiplicity of corporate identities. Analysing corporate self-narrative is just one approach to viewing multiple identity construction in praxis placing focus on the organisation’s (un)deliberate construction of different selves. The implication of the relational framework may also call for a dialogue oriented approach which focuses explicitly on the relation taking into account the voices of both the organisation and the stakeholders in identity narration, as proposed by e.g. Czarniawska (1997). The identity perspective constructed in this paper holds that when identity is viewed as relational, the voices or articulations of an organisation’s others i.e. its stakeholders must be included in identity understanding as a basis for the multiplicity of identity. Consequently, there is a need for analysing the conversations in which corporate self-narrations take place if identity is to be viewed in a relational perspective as suggested by the constructed theoretical framework. Bibliography Altbert, S. & Whetten, D.A. 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(2007), Essentials of Corporate Communication, Routledge, London 214 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Relational Corporate Selves Focus on Multiplicity in Identity Construction Wang, Y. & Roberts, C.W. (2005), “Actantial analysis: Greimas’s structural approach to the analysis of self-narratives”, Narrative Inquiry, 15:1 (51-74) Wheterell, M & Maybin, J (1996), “The distributed self: a social constructionist perspective”, Stevens, R. (Ed.). Understanding the Self, Sage Publications, London Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 215 Trine Susanne Johansen 216 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Projects with CSR in Mind: CSR Knowledge Communication in Project Management Constance E. Kampf Department of Language and Business Communication Christa Thomsen Centre for Corporate Communication Aarhus School of Business, University of Aarhus, Denmark [email protected] / [email protected] This paper examines project management as a place where CSR can be operationalized, focusing particularly on project conception processes and co-constructing CSR knowledge with emergent tertiary stakeholders. Two projects which dealt with emergent tertiary stakeholders differently are examined. First, the Finnish company Metsa-Botnia’s paper pulp plant in Uruguay is examined as a project in which a tertiary stakeholder, Argentina, emerged during the early stages of the project. Argentina requested dialogue about the project conception and Metsa Botnia did not include them. In contrast, the Danish emergency services company Falck A/S’s project on redefining CSR is offered as an example of a project transformed through dialogue with the emergent tertiary stakeholder, the county of Aarhus. To analyze the cases, the paper combines Morsing & Schultz’s (2006) dialectic CSR strategy based on sensemaking and sensegiving with Kampf’s (2007) stakeholder model which situates the firm and its stakeholders in a dynamic system. The resulting model can be used to understand diversity in sensemaking and sensegiving knowledge communication processes about corporate projects. The paper applies this model to both cases, demonstrating a negative outcome for Metsa-Botnia and a positive outcome for Falck A/S. The results suggest that corporations need to take CSR into account in the way they deal with tertiary emergent stakeholders during project conception and that project conception which is open to transformation through dialogue with emergent tertiary stakeholders can be advantageous. Metsa-Botnia, a Finnish paper pulp company, initiated a project to build a pulp mill in Uruguay. From the company’s perspective, the project was on-time, within budget, and the factory met international quality and environment standards. (Janhonen, 2008). Although this sounds like a project which has successfully fulfilled the triple constraint in project management methodology, Metsa-Botnia’s perfectly executed project has been at the center of an international controversy initiated by Argentina. Headlines describing the project include: “Pulp friction: the Argentina-Uruguay conflict”, “Solution to paper factory dispute between Argentina and Uruguay more remote than ever: Spain's King tries to help ease tension ” and “Double Interim Relief Denial in Argentina-Uruguay Pulp Mill Dispute before the World Court .” How can this happen in a situation where the Finnish Metsa-Botnia took care to involve the stakeholders from Uruguay? The answer lies in the context—a context which Metsa-Botnia tried to understand and approach from a socially responsible angle. However, this was not enough, and as Lauring and Thomsen (forthcoming) observed, “access to the context is one of the main challenges” for companies trying to engage in socially responsible practices because values and ethics are tacit. As project management increasingly becomes a common strategy for organizing work in corporations, the project itself becomes a site of interaction with stakeholders, and as such, a site where Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) comes into play. Lauring & Thomsen (forthcoming) claim “CSR should be considered a continuously negotiated process between Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 217 Constance E. Kampf and Christa Thomsen companies and stakeholders.” If CSR is understood as a continuously negotiated process between companies and stakeholders, then it follows that CSR can be negotiated from the bottom-up through all stakeholder interactions, including stakeholder interactions via projects. In project conception, stakeholder interactions are part of the communication processes through which the project is defined and via which both companies and stakeholders make sense of the project. Morsing & Schultz (2008) call for a dialectic CSR strategy in dealing with stakeholders by engaging with them in both sensemaking (Weick 1979) and sensegiving (Giora & Chittipeddi 1991), using the corporate annual report as an example of an effective site for interaction with the stakeholder. Sensemaking & sensegiving are processes through which corporations can be understood to engage in knowledge communication about their organization and their CSR (corporate social responsibility) efforts. This paper extends these notions of dialectical sensemaking and sensegiving to the project as a site for interaction and knowledge communication with the stakeholders, and suggests that emergent stakeholders in the early stages of projects offer companies the opportunity to operationalize CSR through engaging in dialogue supporting sensemaking/sensegiving knowledge communication processes in project conception. To examine projects as places where CSR knowledge is negotiated with stakeholders, we need to take the context of the project into account. The major difference between our approach and previous studies is that Morsing and Shultz assume a corporate-centered model of the stakeholder based on Freeman (1984) and Donaldson & Preston (1995), while we assume a situated open systems model of the corporation (Kampf 2007) where the corporation is situated in an open cultural system framed not by geography per se, but by interacting with the institutions, power structures, and norms present within nation states, which, in turn, are open systems affected by the larger context of globalization. This assumption of both corporations and stakeholders as emerging from a shared, external system opens the door for understanding stakeholders with whom the company may not have direct interactions, and who may emerge during processes inherent in project planning and implementation. We use the term “emergent tertiary stakeholders” based on the concept of tertiary stakeholders from Project Management (Warren 2001) to describe these central or local governmental stakeholders who emerge by asking to be directly involved in the project 1. In this paper, we will discuss the two cases in which tertiary stakeholders emerged— Finnish Metsa Botnia’s Paper pulp plant in Uruguay and Falck A/S’s project for defining CSR in Aarhus, Denmark. Although the scope of the projects in these two cases differs, each offers an example of a project in which a tertiary stakeholder emerged early in the project process. In the case of Metsa-Botnia’s Paper pulp plant, the tertiary stakeholder was left out of the dialogue when the World Bank and other global institutions supported the project. The result is negative— on-going protests and tension between Uruguay and Argentina over the plant. In the second case of Danish emergency services company Falck A/S’s CSR definition project, the county of Aarhus saw the project in the news and requested to be involved—and was welcomed by the company, resulting in a productive stakeholder interaction in which the county and Falck A/S worked together to make sense of the project. 1 We define emergent tertiary stakeholders as stakeholders who governmental in nature and are not directly involved with the project. Project Management uses this classification for governmental bodies because tertiary stakeholders are, as governmental bodies, inherently socially responsible. We add the modifier emergent because we are referring to tertiary stakeholder who request to be part of the stakeholder dialogue inherent in project conception. 218 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Projects with CSR in Mind: CSR Knowledge Communication in Project Management Through these examples, we argue for project conception as a place where Morsing & Schultz’s dialectical sensemaking /sensegiving stakeholder involvement strategy for CSR can be deployed and extend their strategy to include an understanding of stakeholders and corporations as dynamic elements in a shared context. To further de-center the corporation from stakeholder models, we offer the concept of emergent tertiary stakeholders to demonstrate how governmental stakeholders which emerge early in the project sensegiving can influence the long term success of the project through shared sensemaking dialogue which may transform the nature of the project. Although one might argue that the projects are difficult to compare due to their difference in scale and the fact that the Falck A/S project worked so closely with the public sector, we suggest that larger scale private projects can learn from a successful example of integrating a tertiary emergent stakeholder in the project early in the project conception process. Projects involving direct interaction with the public sector are useful examples because, as public projects, they are implicitly socially responsible. Our discussion of project management as a location for operationalizing CSR begins with a discussion of Morsing & Schultz’s (2006) bidirectional iterative stakeholder involvement strategy, extending the strategy by grounding it in a systems model of the corporation (Kampf 2007). Then we examine project conception as a dialectical sensemaking/sensegiving process, discussing emergent tertiary stakeholders during the project management process. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the implications of understanding projects as sites for CSR knowledge communication and as such, the implications for understanding emergent tertiary stakeholders and their potential for sensemaking and sensegiving processes inherent in project conception. To support our arguments, we juxtapose the aforementioned two projects—Finnish Metsa-Botnia’s paper pulp plant in Uruguay as a problematic example of tertiary stakeholder interaction concerning Argentina, and Danish Falck A/S’s CSR definition project in Aarhus Denmark as a successful example of tertiary stakeholder interaction concerning the county of Aarhus. A Project Conception Model for Project Management: grounded in iterative stakeholder involvement and a situated systems model of the corporation The iterative stakeholder involvement model defined by Morsing & Schultz (2006) relates to corporate CSR large scale policy initiatives in their discussion of public dialogue and expectations emerging from results of national corporate reputation surveys in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. They call for ongoing, systematic long term stakeholder dialogue which is both iterative and transformative for the company and the stakeholders. (p.328) However, this dialogue is general to the company strategy for reputation building and focuses on recognized stakeholders available to be polled or consulted on a regular basis. This notion of iterative stakeholder involvement can also be extended to specific projects where the company is not engaging in conversations about general reputation or strategy with stakeholders, but rather, making choices in conceiving, planning and implementing projects which affect stakeholders. We argue that it is in projects where iterative stakeholder involvement is possible. Thus, we argue that extending Morsing and Schultz’s iterative dynamic CSR model (2006) beyond the poll to the project opens up possibilities for corporations to operationalize CSR in their project conception practices. In project management processes, companies make sense of their environment and analyze stakeholders in the conception and planning of the project. Some of this sensemaking is inherent in the way in which companies conceive of projects based on their business strategy and predefined risks which are analyzed regarding stakeholders the company is able to identify. As Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 219 Constance E. Kampf and Christa Thomsen the company makes sense of the project, in turn, it works at giving sense to the public and identifiable stakeholders. However, the complete identification of stakeholders in a project is difficult because, as people are affected by the development of the project, unexpected stakeholders can emerge. Examples of this are the protests from Argentina to the Finnish company Metsa-Botnia’s plan to build a paper pulp plant in Uruguay and the county of Aarhus’ request to participate actively in – and benefit from - Falck A/S’s announced plan to define its CSR strategy. In Morsing and Schultz’s dynamic sensegiving/sensemaking CSR model (2006), the basis for their bidirectional iterative process of CSR communication is based on Donaldson & Preston’s stakeholder model of the corporation. However, this understanding of stakeholders is problematic for stakeholder interactions on projects because it reduces the ability of the corporation to see unexpected and diverse understandings of the project. When the corporation understands itself as the center of stakeholder interactions as in Donaldson & Preston’s (1995) stakeholder model of the corporation, Morsing & Schultz’s dialogic sensegiving/sensemaking processes of CSR appear to be initiated by the corporation as part of CSR policy development. This leaves a gap for understanding emergent tertiary stakeholders in projects who, from the internal corporate sensemaking of the project goals and the external corporate sensegiving explaining the project, seem to be “out in left field” or not directly relevant to the corporation’s defined project goals and objectives. To address these emergent tertiary stakeholders in projects, who, according to corporate sensemaking and sensegiving practices inherent in project management goals, seem to be irrelevant, there is a need for basing a dynamic iterative sensemaking/sensegiving CSR model such as Morsing & Schultz’s 2006 model on a stakeholder model which enables understanding diversity in sensemaking and distributes the power of sensegiving among the participants in the context. Diversity in sensemaking can be understood through demonstrating the complexity of the context in which the project is situated. De-centering the corporation in stakeholder analysis allows for understanding diverse sensemaking and sensegiving practices affecting both project conception and project reception by the corporation and stakeholder groups. In basing a dynamic iterative sensemaking/sensegiving CSR model on a decentered stakeholder model, we combine Morsing & Schultz (2006) with Kampf’s (2007) situated model of the corporation. The result is an extension of both models. We begin with Kampf’s model of the stakeholder situated in cultural systems and extend it to include Morsing & Schultz’s dynamic sensemaking/sensegiving CSR processes. The result is a model which incorporates a focused analysis of the context in which both emergent tertiary stakeholders and corporations are engaging in sensemaking and sensegiving processes. Through this focused analysis, diversity in sensemaking and sensegiving practices for different stakeholders can be seen in the interaction between system elements. To de-center the corporation, Figure 1 (Kampf 2007) depicts a stakeholder model which demonstrates corporations (firms) as institutional consequences of dynamic open cultural systems defined through the continuous interaction of origins, norms and the corporations ( along with other institutions). In projects at the national level, the firm can be understood in terms of the legal and social systems in which it is situated. In international and global level projects, the model can be used for each of the national systems involved as a tool of analysis for understanding diversity in sensemaking and sensegiving practices with respect to the project. 220 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Projects with CSR in Mind: CSR Knowledge Communication in Project Management FIGURE 1. The Firm and its Stakeholders Situated in a Cultural System The model in Figure 1 focuses not on definition, but rather interaction. Thus, the level of detail at which the categories are focused can be shifted in order to analyze the context in which projects are situated, rather than the context in which corporations are situated. An example of the model applied at a more detailed level of context within projects to understand the consequent sensegiving and sensemaking practices is shown in Figure 2. FIGURE 2. Sensemaking and Sensegiving practices as consequences of contextual systems. In Figure 2, the focus for consequences in the right box is shifted to sense-making and sense-giving processes inherent in project conception and the norms are shifted to norms and attitudes defining expectations for stakeholder dialogue practices from both the corporation and the stakeholders. Looking at both corporate and stakeholder sense-giving and sense-making practices as consequence of the interaction between norms & attitudes and origins or ecological factors affected by globalization allows for diversity in making sense of the project and offers corporations a tool for analyzing some possible causes of cognitive dissonance between project conception on the part of the corporation and project reception on the part of emergent stakeholders. With a systems model of the corporation from Figure 1, (Kampf 2007), the context for understanding divergence in sensemaking around projects and their impact on society can be clarified through an understanding of stakeholders as part of the social systems and sensemaking Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 221 Constance E. Kampf and Christa Thomsen systems in which the corporation is embedded. This model offers a way of recognizing stakeholders as “anyone who has the potential to affect the success of the project.” (Eiler 2005). To understand the context of sensemaking and sensegiving processes at the intersection of the project and CSR, Figure 2 offers a way of mapping historical, geographical, cultural, and institutional contexts to expand the possibilities for recognizing stakeholders and understanding interactions between primary stakeholders identified by the company (such as Uruguay in MetsaBotnia case) and tertiary stakeholders campaigning to enter the sensemaking and sensegiving processes—such as Argentina. Project conception as a dialectical sensemaking/sensegiving process with emergent tertiary stakeholders Project conception, the first stage in project management (Smith & Umbrie 2007), is the place where thinking through project options and making changes to a project is least costly and most effective. During project conception, stakeholder needs can be examined and the project can be understood as solving a problem for the organization. The understanding of the project is a manner of corporate sensemaking, and as such affects corporate sensegiving strategies. These sensemaking and sensegiving practices underlie knowledge communication about the project. To operationalize sensemaking and sensegiving practices as consequences of contextual systems in order to examine emergent tertiary stakeholders, we will apply the model to two cases of project conception—Finnish Metsa-Botnia’s paper pulp plant in Uruguay as a negative example in which tertiary stakeholders were not engaged in the project conception process and Danish Falck A/S Emergency Services company as a positive example in which tertiary stakeholders were included and allowed to engage in a dialogue which transformed the project. The latter example is an example of CSR in action at the level of project conception. Choosing not to engage with a tertiary, emergent stakeholder: The case of Finnish MetsaBotnia’s Paper Pulp Factory in Uruguay Metsa-Botnia, in beginning their paper pulp project in Uruguay, did the best they could to identify stakeholders and took time to meet with Uruguayans affected by the project. According to Janhonen (2008), the project is a paper pulp factory in Uruguay, and from that perspective, the protests of the Argentineans across the border are difficult to understand, as the Argentineans were not identified as primary stakeholders in the project conception. In other words, MetsaBotnia made sense of the project as a paper pulp plant in Uruguay. In contrast, there were protests from Argentina even as Metsa Botnia sought support from the World Bank for the project. (Mitchell, 2006) These protests indicated an Argentinean sensemaking frame in which the project was understood differently from that in Uruguay, and as a result of this frame not being included in project conception by Metsa-Botnia, charges were filed against Uruguay by Argentina in the International court of Justice at the Hague in connection with the factory (Avila 2007) and protests blocking traffic near the factory have been ongoing (Adams 2008). The Metsa-Botnia case is an example of the potential results when a stakeholder is not recognized and their sensemaking of the project is not acknowledged in a dialectical sensemaking/sensegiving process. But as Janhonen suggested in his description of the case (2008), how can a company building a paper pulp plant in Uruguay understand Argentinean protests to shut it down? From this sensemaking description of the project, the impact of Argentina’s request seems inappropriate and unfathomable because for Metsa Botnia, the context 222 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Projects with CSR in Mind: CSR Knowledge Communication in Project Management is defined as Uruguay, and the World Bank and Uruguay gave legitimacy to this sensemaking frame through support for the project. To look at the divergent sensemaking processes of Metsa-Botnia, Uruguay & Argentina inherent in the Metsa Botnia Paper pulp plant context, the model from Figure 2 in the previous section, depicting divergent sensemaking practices, is applied to the Metsa-Botnia paper pulp plant in Figure 3. Figure 3 demonstrates the divergent sensemaking and sensegiving practices regarding Metsa Botnia’s paper pulp plant project from the perspectives of Metsa-Botnia and Argentina. Metsa Botnia derives it sense of the paper pulp plant as environmentally friendly from the fact that the plant uses fast growing trees which are a renewable resource in the process of making paper pulp, as well as the support from the World Monetary fund and international standards regarding water and air pollution for paper pulp mills (Adams 2008). However, Argentina makes sense of the project differently based on historical experiences with Europe, the border treaty with Uruguay regarding the river next to the plant, and the stakeholder dialogue which omitted not only the Argentinean government, but also the citizens of the border city across the river from the plant. The lack of stakeholder dialogue in project conception lead to an escalation of the situation until Argentina filed claims against Uruguay in the world court. Currently, there is talk about an agreement between Uruguay and Argentina (Talliant 2007) to resolve the dispute which includes considering the removal of Metsa-Botnia’s paper pulp factory—implying that ignoring an emergent tertiary stakeholder might, in extreme cases, lead to project failure. FIGURE 3: Sensemaking and Sensegiving consequences for Metsa-Botnia’s Paper Pulp Plant Project Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 223 Constance E. Kampf and Christa Thomsen Including a tertiary, emergent stakeholder: The case of a Danish emergency services company—Falck A/S The Danish Falck A/S case offers an example of how projects can successfully demonstrate CSR in action by being open to a reconceptualization of the project with emergent tertiary stakeholders. In contrast to Metsa Botnia, the Danish emergency services company Falck A/S made the choice of including an emergent tertiary stakeholder in their dialogue at the early stages of project conception in a project about defining its CSR policy and practice 2. The cooperation was initiated as a project beginning on 1st of January 2000. The project was financed partially by public money distributed by the Coordination Committee for the preventive labour market effort in the municipality of Aarhus. The target group was employees in Falck, nonemployees in Falck and society, here understood as stakeholders in general. The cooperation models developed in the project period have been implemented and disseminated to other parts of Falck A/S’s organization. Today the cooperation is regulated by the law on active employment measures of 10th of June 2003 and the law on the responsibility for and the administration of the active labour market effort of 10th of June 2003. At the beginning of the project, Falck A/S made a public announcement that it would undertake a project to redefine its CSR practice and policy. The head of Jobcenter Aarhus Nord, part of the Aarhus county public administration, read a statement made by Falck A/S’s managing director in a national newspaper, saying that Falck A/S had decided to take a more formalized social responsibility, a decision taken after subtle governmental pressures on major Danish companies. As a result, the head of Jobcenter Aarhus Nord telephoned Falck A/S and asked to be included in the project. Falck A/S chose to include this emergent tertiary stakeholder in the project conception process and as a result, the initially internal project of redefining CSR in Falck A/S was expanded to include a 2 year social partnership development project which was funded by public means. The public partner, Jobcenter Aarhus Nord, was the initiator of the collaboration and assumed the role of project coordinator. From the beginning, the partners agreed upon a crosssector project organization. In this manner, the partnership gave high priority to relationshipbuilding and mutuality. Furthermore, there was a mutual understanding in the partnership that, in order to succeed, it was necessary to take the profitability approach into account in the development of the strategy. Thus, Jobcenter Aarhus Nord and Falck A/S employees were invited to participate in strategy development for the project. The ambition expressed was that the internal practice should come to follow the ideal, and the strategy was negotiated and developed through a participative/dialogical process, a process which was open to adjustments of mutual expectations. This dialogue approach to CSR in the project conception itself made it possible for Falck A/S to express its ideals on CSR externally—not only to Jobcenter Aarhus Nord, but also to other stakeholders. 2 In the Falck A/S case, the primary tools for data collection were observation (e.g. seminars and meetings) and informal conversations using broad questions. The observations were conducted over a two-year period from 2000 to 2002. In this period four seminars, 25 steering group meetings, 11 background meetings, six sparring group meetings, six evaluation meetings, and three to four meetings in the different working groups were held. The researcher also participated in the negotiation process by providing advice and opinions during the seminars and meetings. Observation notes and interview transcripts were collected into a case file (approx. 100 pages) as material for the final analysis. 224 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Projects with CSR in Mind: CSR Knowledge Communication in Project Management The social partnership between Falck A/S and Jobcenter Aarhus Nord worked hard to develop and implement a model for social responsibility for Falck A/S. Some of the most significant efforts in this model were: • • • Job creation/job development for Falck employees with reduced working capabilities Development of vocational rehabilitation activities in the form of job testing, job development or job clarification activities Implementation of a partnership with the municipality of Aarhus to initiate follow-up sessions with employees on extended sick leave These initiatives both satisfied the emergent tertiary stakeholder and demonstrate how the project was redefined through interaction. Not only did Falck gain from dialogue, but also from resources for the project and cooperation and good will from Jobcenter Aarhus Nord and the county of Aarhus. This project expanded from a policy and image project by the top management to one which included the employees and other stakeholders. Employees wanted to know how to work together with people in special consideration jobs (i.e. visual or hearing disabled coworkers), while other stakeholders wanted to know how top management will act in order to ensure agreement between CSR and profitability through this CSR redefinition project. Falck A/S found that it can be an advantage to answer some of these questions in cooperation with a public partner. The county of Aarhus is, for example, better equipped to tell employees why society needs inclusive workplaces. In addition, the public ethos of the county is useful in communicating these initiatives to shareholders because it diminishes questioning of company motives. To demonstrate the sensegiving and sensemaking processes inherent in the Falck A/S case in Denmark, Figure 4 describes contextual factors in which both Falck A/S and Jobcenter Aarhus Nord are situated, leading to opportunities for joint sensemaking. FIGURE 4. Sensemaking and Sensegiving consequences for Falck A/S’s CSR redefinition project Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 225 Constance E. Kampf and Christa Thomsen Figure 4 demonstrates the convergent sensemaking and sensegiving practices in Falck A/S’s CSR redefinition project which emerged when Falck A/S opened the project conception to a request from Jobcenter Aarhus Nord. Through listening to an emergent tertiary stakeholder and being willing to share sensegiving and project conception with a public partner, Falck A/S gained not only the input from the public partner, but also financial support and expertise to complete the project. Although the project was a different one from the original conception, the effects of transformed project achieved the original project goal, to enhance Falck A/S’s reputation as a socially responsibly company. In summary, both Metsa-Botnia and Falck A/S begin with projects defined by internal sensemaking, and encountered emergent tertiary stakeholders during their sensegiving efforts. However, their different reactions led to CSR publicity problems when Metsa-Botnia chose not to include a tertiary emergent stakeholder in sensemaking dialogue about the paper pulp plant project, versus an enhanced CSR image and public funding and expertise offered to help complete the project when a tertiary emergent stakeholder was included by Falck A/S and allowed to engage in transformative dialogue about the project conception. Conclusion: Implications of understanding projects as sites for CSR knowledge communication Projects are locations of interaction between corporations and their stakeholders. As locations of interaction, they function as a “litmus test” for operationalizing CSR. Given that post-hoc analysis is often much easier than making decisions in a situation, we suggest that corporations need to take CSR into account in the way they deal with stakeholders during project conception, and offer a model which synthesizes Morsing & Schultz’s (2006) dynamic iterative sensemaking/sensegiving CSR model with Kampf’s (2007) situated model of the corporation and its stakeholders in a shared context. This synthesis integrates the knowledge communication processes of sensemaking and sensegiving from Morsing & Schultz into a focused analysis of shared context between the corporation and stakeholders. The model for sensemaking & sensegiving in cultural contexts allows detailed analysis of diverse sensemaking/sensgiving practices emerging from the same context. It offers a tool for project managers to extend their understanding of emergent tertiary stakeholders who express interest in engaging in dialogue regarding project conception with the goal of transforming the project. Because the experiences of stakeholders regarding dialogue about the project and the sensemaking sense-giving interactions in projects are more concrete than stakeholder interactions through surveys on corporate reputation, project conception is also a place where CSR principles matter. When corporations consistently make sense of their projects in a way that is aligned with primary, secondary and emergent tertiary stakeholders, they are able to present a dynamic model of CSR in action. Possible directions for further investigations include examining questions correlating sensemaking/sensegiving practices in project conception with project success and resulting publicity. The implications for management include the possibility of acknowledging CSR as not only a policy, but also a part of knowledge communication practices in project conception. When CSR is seen as core to sensemaking/sensegiving interactions around projects, project managers may, at least, prevent tertiary stakeholders from creating crisis situations, and at best, offer examples of CSR in action and fulfil Morsing and Schultz’s call for ongoing stakeholder dialogue through consistent stakeholder acknowledgement in project conception over time. 226 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Managing Projects with CSR in Mind: CSR Knowledge Communication in Project Management References Adams, I. (2008). “Sowing the seeds of Sustainability: Botnia & the Fray Bentos Pulp Mill.” Brand: Pulp & Paper. Available online: <http://hpsweb.honeywell.com/NR/rdonlyres/6FD46D9A-08C1-4DB7-BC80EB02AD61F376/58946/BotniaFrayBentosBook.pdf> Avila, P. (2007). “Uruguay’s approval of paper mill angers Argentina.” Reuters. Available online: < http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09414629.htm> November 9, 2007. Bekker, Pieter H.F. (2007) “Double Interim Relief Denial in Argentina-Uruguay Pulp Mill Dispute before the World Court.” American Society for International Law (ASIL) Insights. 11(2) February 12, 2007. Donaldson, T. & Preston, L.E. (1995). “The stakeholder theory of the corporation: concepts, evidence & implications.” Academy of Management Review. 29(1), pp.65-91. Eiler, T. (2005). Project Management Institute certified project manager, personal communication. Freeman, R.E. (1984) Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Marshfield, MA: Pitman. Gioia, D.A. & Chttipeddi, K. (1991) “Sensemaking & Sensegiving in strategic change initiation.” Strategic Management Journal. 12 (6). Helsingin Sanomat International Edition. (2005) “Argentina demands Botnia abandon their pulp mill undertaking in Uruguay. Botnia: Construction work continues as planned.” August 11, 2005. Available online: <http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Argentina%20demands%20Botnia%20abandon%20their%20pul p%20mill%20undertaking%20in%20Uruguay/1101980567593>. Huhta, K. (2007). “Solution to paper factory dispute between Argentina and Uruguay more remote than ever: Spain's King tries to help ease tension.” Helsingin Sanomat International edition. March 13, 2007. Available online: <http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Solution+to+paper+factory+dispute+between+Argentina+and+U ruguay+more+remote+than+ever/1135225794066> Janhonen, M. “Botnia in Uruguay.” Presentation at the Helsinki School of Economics, February 12, 2008. Kampf, C. 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Available online: <http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Botnia+pulp+factory+centre+of+dispute+between+Argentina+an d+Uruguay/1135218285439 >. Smith, K. & P.K. Umbrie. (2007) Teamwork and project management, 3rd Ed. McGraw–Hill. Szusterman, C. (2008) “Pulp friction: the Argentina-Uruguay conflict” Open Democracy. Jan. 30, 2008. Available online: <http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/globalisation/the_great_divide_the_argentina_uruguay_p ulp_mill_conflict> Taillant, J. D. ” Botnia Pulp Mill Conflict: Uruguay and Argentina Agree to Put Relocation of Mill on the Negotiations Table.” Center for Human Rights & the Environment. April 20, 2007. Available online: <http://www.cedha.org.ar/en/more_information/u-a.php#>. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 227 Constance E. Kampf and Christa Thomsen Warren, P. (2001). “Survey at-a-distance on Assessment of Stakeholder Participation in FAO Field Programme.” Sustainable Development Department, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Available online: <http://www.fao.org/SD/2001/PE0401a_en.htm> Wieck, K. (1995) Sensemaking in Organizations. Thousand Oaks. CA: Sage. 228 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Communication Structure of the Public Sector in India: An Empirical Analysis Saroj Koul Fred C. Manning School of Business Administration Acadia University, Canada [email protected] The organization structures of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in India reveal that initially there was no regular department for corporate communication(/public relations) (CC(/PR)) and that the Marketing & Sales division, the Human Resources department, or the Company Secretariat, took charge of the public relation (PR) activities. Globalization and opening of the Indian economy in early 1990’s heralded the arrival of major multinationals and fortune 500 companies with a strong PR base. This along with the global communication revolution during the same period emphasized an evolutionary transition rather than rapid internal restructuring of the CPSEs. This study aims to measure the efficiency of CC(/PR) department of the 34 operating CPSEs concerned with the development of the engineering industry and administratively overseen by the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) in India. More precisely, this study presents the chronological development of the organization structure, functions (functional groups), budget allocations, staffing and competencies of the CC(/PR) department in these 34 CPSEs from FY 1990-91. This study also attempts to identify the specific organizational goals that influence CC(/PR) department structure and its effectiveness. A review of relevant literature reveals that there is not much recorded on the history of Indian Public Relations (PR). PR began in India over 2000 years ago when the Indian Emperor Asoka institutionalized public information through rock edicts and official reporters (Reddi, 1997:24). Reddi maintains that India’s history in public communication spans centuries and could be explained in three component parts and phases: propaganda, publicity and public information, and public relations as it is known today (Reddi, cited in Singh 2000). In tracing the history of PR in India, the struggle for independence can be considered as the starting point of modern PR in India. The scope and applicability of public relations in its present form is a new concept though its practice in India has been in vogue for decades (Kaul, 1988). The 1950s witnessed the growth in export business dominated by foreign companies such as Dunlop, Unilever (Hindustan Lever) and Philips and the family-run Indian business houses such as the House of Tata that controlled and directed domestic trade and commerce. More and new industrial activity developed, together with a booming print media industry. “PR by its present nomenclature was not commonly known but practiced through in-house peripheral activities such as government liaison, sundry assignments, publicity and support to corporate and product advertising work”(Kaul, 1988: 20). Managing political relationships and “manipulation was invariably a top management function with PR generally in tow” was the practice of the time (Kaul, 1988: 20). The 1960s witnessed rapid industrial development with much diversification. The private sector proliferated and the public sector managed the core industry. With the Government of India (GOI) as the sole investor in public sector enterprises (PSEs), they were answerable to the parliament through bureaucracy. Accountability and transparency became imperative in PSE management and PR became a necessary concomitant to public sector ethos from the very start Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 229 Saroj Koul (Kaul, 1988:20). Because PSEs were funded by taxpayers, they had to be accountable to the public, which necessitated the need for having big public relations departments (Mehta 1997). During this period, as with many other countries, most PR practitioners were recruited from the press, which supported the main PR activity of media exposure through newspapers and radio. Other supporting functions that contributed to organizational communication were house journals, exhibitions, and trade fairs (Kaul, 1988: 34). Most of the early practitioners started their careers as public relations officers (PROs) in such PSEs. PR developed in a style that may be called the public sector style of public relations (Sriramesh 2003; Bardhan and Sriramesh, 2006); the image and status of the profession today bears the mark of public sector philosophies. The private sector on the other hand generally felt no such pressure because it faced negligible competition from multinational companies in a protectionist post-independence economic environment. Therefore, it did not feel the need to engage in dialogue and build relationships with significant publics through the use of strategic public relations management (Sriramesh, 1996). The 1970s saw the “economic development & infra-structural growth as part of the expansion of the public sector industry” (Kaul 1988: 20). This impacted on the activity and development of the private sector and primary industry, which simultaneously saw a growth in PR. In the public sector, in-house PR developed together with the strong support by state of the PR Society of India (Kaul, 1988: 36). Then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, hailed public relations as a crucial function within management (Ghosh 1999: 67). This endorsement from one of the most powerful leaders of modern India provided a boost to the image of PR as a communication profession. Because of the rapid development of PR, both in-house and consultancy PR were born and this decade also saw the development of in-house and consultancy PR working together. Advertising agencies were developing at the same time and offered an opportunity for direct interaction between in-house PR and private advertising agencies. Some of the finest corporate advertising campaigns; printed material and exhibition pavilions marked this decade (Kaul, 1988: 20). At the same time, from a study on 66 PSEs, Narain (1975) found that the importance the chief executive officer of the PSEs attached to public relations was critical to the status and functioning of the public relations department. The 1980s also saw a new development among the media and the journalists. Investigative reporting became the order of the day. New and tighter regulations were imposed, and strategic communication management was required in handling the crisis and in managing the public image of the organization (Kaul, 1988: 38). A further significant development of this decade was the growth of PR agencies, either as independent agencies or as extensions of global advertising agencies. Mel-Cole, and Ogilvy and Mather were among the first multi-national agencies in India. This was followed by Hindustan Thompsons’s IPAN and the Taj Hotel’s Good Relations (Kaul, 1988: 21). From this point forward, the aggressive development of PR as a new model for the service industry was well on its way. The arrival of multi-national agencies also established compatibility between in-house PR and external expertise in the areas of finance, legal, human resource development, and other disciplines generally retained by corporations to augment their resources for efficiency, productivity, competitive edge, and image management. The use of PR agencies was also viewed as an objective measure in handling sensitive issues. While business was adjusting to the new mind-set, the professionalism and usefulness of PR as a management tool was finally gaining ground (Kaul, 1998: 21). The 1990s is generally referred to, in most literature, as the “watershed in the annals of the Indian economy” (Kaul, 1988: 21). With the announcement in 1991, of its new economic policy, the once closed economy was now open to the world, providing a competitive environment, and accelerating movement and development on many fronts in India. Fortune Magazine described India as “one of the five hot markets around the globe” (Fortune, June 1997 230 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Communication Structure of the Public Sector in India: An Empirical Analysis & Oct.’1997). In the last decade, India has undergone audits on its economy, policies, operations, style of governance, the impact of globalization, and its economic reform policies of 1991; moreover, Vision 2020 pressurizes and creates an imposition on public relations as part of strategic communication management (Kalam & Rajan, 1998). An accelerated need in communication management is now evident as India emerges as a world power in economics, trade, and manufacturing, all areas where India seeks to make its contribution to the world. Status of the Corporate Communication profession in the Public Sector From the above developments, it is clear that in its evolution in India, PR is gaining acceptance and recognition. The liberalization of the market provided a fillip to the public relations industry as well as to related fields such as advertising and marketing. According to R.K. Baratan (1999: 44), director of the National Institute for Management Studies, Chennai, the time has come for public relations to ‘claim its rightful place in management and administration’. According to Subir Ghosh (1999: 63), deputy general manager for public relations for Hindustan Paper Corporation, public relations ‘is one of the many methods by which the society can adjust to the process of change and resolve clashes between conflicting attitudes’. It is not difficult to understand the improvement in the status of the PR profession. What is difficult to grasp is the chasm that this process has opened between the new generation of practitioners who follow the philosophy of market globalization and the more traditional public sector PROs who had operated under the socialist paradigm (Sriramesh, 2006). In the CPSEs, PR is not an appendage. In fact, PR policies are stable, the negative stereotype of the ‘fixer’ has receded somewhat, and the relationship between the PROs and management is continuously improving. In this following section, we will examine the public aspect of PR and arrive at the sample CPSEs that are being considered for this study. A brief on the sample set used in the present study Before independence, there was almost no 'Public Sector' in the Indian economy [1]. The only instances worthy of mention were the Railways, the Posts and Telegraphs, the Port Trust, the Ordnance, the Aircraft factories and few Government managed undertakings like the Government salt factories, quinine factories, etc. After political independence, and with the advent of planning, the Government of India (GOI) opted for the dominance of the Public Sector, firmly believing that political independence without economic self-reliance was not in the public interest [1]. It was believed that a dominant public sector would reduce the inequality of income and wealth, and advance the general prosperity of the nation. The planners also seemed to believe that by placing the management and workers in public enterprises in a position of responsibility and trust, they would be so imbued with a sense of the public good that their actions and aspirations would naturally reflect what was best for the country. The Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) comprise companies wherein the equity holding of the GOI is more than 50 per cent. As of March 31, 2007, there were 247 [2, 3] CPSEs in its sectoral / cognate groups / navratna and mini-ratna categories of the economy, which contributed around 11.12 percent to the GDP at market price in 2006-07 [2, 3]. The cumulative investment in all CPSEs has grown from Rupees 29 crores [4] as on 1.4.1951 (5 PSEs) to Rupees 4, 21,089 crores as on 31.3.2007 [2, 3]. At end-March, 2007, all the CPSEs employed over 16.14 lakh [5] people excluding casual workers [2: Economic Survey 2007-08]; nearly one fourth of the employed persons were in the managerial and supervisory cadres. As many as 44 CPSEs are listed on the stock exchanges Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 231 Saroj Koul of India. Market capitalization of all listed CPSEs as a percentage of market capitalization of BSE was 18.35 per cent as on March 31, 2007 [2, 6]. The Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises focuses on promoting the development and growth of capital goods and engineering industry in the country, the framing of policy guidelines for CPSEs, and administratively dealing with 48 CPSEs [7]. Under the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), the CPSEs are engaged in manufacturing, consultancy and contracting services. The enterprises produce a wide range of products ranging from machine tools, industrial machinery, electrical equipment, railway traction equipment, oil field equipment, textile machinery, and consumer products like watches, tea, sugar, etc. [7]. Out of these 48 CPSEs, 8 CPSEs were incorporated during 1951-1960; 9 CPSEs each during 1960-1970 and 1971-1980; 5 CPSEs during 1981-1990; and 3 CPSEs were incorporated during 1991-2000 [2, 3 & 7]. Thus most of these 48 CPSEs have developed along with the economy as the country progressed. Out of 48 CPSEs, 14 CPSEs have either been closed or are not in operation, thus leaving the DHI to oversee 34 operating CPSEs [2]. Apart from 34 operating CPSEs, there are two non-manufacturing holding companies. The total number of employees in all the 34 CPSEs stands at 94,612 of which there are 16,998 executives. Each enterprise structure is a multi-product, multi-location set up. About 25% of the enterprises have set up small offices in different countries. During the year 2006-07, 15 CPSEs have made profits and remaining 19 have made losses. The total investment in the 34 CPSEs under DHI was about Rupees 9,589 crores as on 31st March, 2007. Out of these 34 CPSEs, 50% enterprises have been exporting their products to different countries [2, 3]. There are four Miniratnas and one Navratna company among these 34 operating CPSEs. The Navratna or the Miniratna status is conferred to a profit making CPSE wherein the GOI delegates enhanced powers to CPSEs having the potential to become a global player. Under the powers delegated to the Navratna enterprise, it can enter into technology joint ventures and effect organizational restructuring [2]. With a view to giving greater autonomy to the public sector enterprises, and making them accountable for the achievement of their objectives, all the 34 CPSEs signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the GOI for the year 2007-2008. The MoU is aimed at providing greater autonomy to PSEs vis-à-vis the control of the government with the performance evaluation at the end of the year indicates the extent to which the mutually agreed targets and objectives were achieved [2]. Five CPSEs out of these 34 CPSEs received “Excellent” rating for the year 2007-08 [2]. Also, the 247 CPSEs are categorized into four schedules, namely ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ & ‘D’; categorization being based on norms/criteria such as quantitative factors like investment, capital invested, net sales, profit, number of employees and qualitative factors like national importance, complexity of problems, level of technology, prospects for expansion and diversification of activities and competition from other sectors, etc. At present there are 57 enterprises in the Schedule ‘A’; 75 in Schedule ‘B’; 50 in Schedule ‘C’; 6 in Schedule ‘D’ and the rest 60 are uncategorized PSEs. Of these, 34 CPSEs were examined for this study in this breakdown: 3 CPSEs under A; 10 under “B”; 9 under “C”; and the rest under the “D” category of schedules. Thus the sample taken for purposes of our study is quite broad and reflects most of the salient features of the Public Sector in India. This study was undertaken in the third quarter of 2007-08 using the convenience sample of 34 select CPSEs described above. Key personnel (or designates) in the corporate communication (/public relation) (CC(/PR)) departments were contacted to take the survey. The nomenclature of CC(/PR) is used to coordinate with the CPSEs’ existing department under study. In most of the CPSE’s, this department is identified as PR Department, Publicity Group, Public Relations Group or Government Relations, while in two CPSEs it is called as CC&PR and in only one company it is identified as corporate 232 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Communication Structure of the Public Sector in India: An Empirical Analysis communication department. The questionnaire developed in English was mailed online requesting participation. After 21 days the questionnaire was sent again to those in the list who had not responded. Follow-up was done via telephone and email. Usable responses were received from 24 respondents yielding an effective response rate of 70%. As part of the data collection and analysis procedure, the names and affiliations of the respondents were held in strict confidence, and were not associated with individual responses. Profile of the respondents Of the 24 professionals participating in the survey, 21% (N= 5) of the respondents were in the age group 20–30, 62% (N= 15) were aged 30-45 and 17% (N= 4) were in the oldest age group 45–60, and most of them were males (83%). Nearly 75% (N= 18) of the respondents had post-graduate degrees; about 17% (N= 4) were graduates and 8% (N= 2) had doctoral degrees. Their undergraduate majors range across management, engineering, computer science, language studies and mass communication. One third of the respondents (N= 8) had work experience of less than 5 years; 42% (N= 10) had experience of 5–10 years; 17% (N= 4) had experience of 11–20 years; and 8% (N= 2) had experience of 20–40 years. Two thirds (N= 72) of the respondents described the nature of their job as managerial and about one third (N= 33) as technical. Half (N= 12) of the respondents were transferred to the communication department and did not have a background in language studies or mass communication. Method and Results Instrument Cameron, Sallot, and Weaver-Lariscy (1996, 1997, and 1998) developed and tested a series of 45 items that operationalized the PR professional behaviour. Forman and Argenti (2002) report a tight connection between strategy and communication in “Corporate Communication: At the Center of the Global Organization” and present best practices impacting the bottom line in six global diverse industries. Also, the questions sought in the ‘China Benchmark Study – 2005, 2006, 2007’ by Wang and Goodman — Indian CPSEs moving fast away from the socialistic paradigm and establishing themselves in the global dynamic market place — were found topical for this study. Specifically, 25 items that were found appropriate in the Indian public sector context were selected from the above mentioned studies and categorized into broad areas. Results The data collected was analyzed using SPSS 10.0. For each of the performance standard variables, mean scores (general mean of GM) were computed for the entire sample in aggregate as well as for individual participating CPSEs separately. Present Name of the Department – clarity between PR and CC and preferences Respondents (GM= 4.23) indicated that the name of their department has not changed since its inception and nearly half (GM= 3.04) agreed that there has been at least one instance of change in the reporting of the division during 1990-2005. The term “corporate communication” was new to most of them (GM= 4.21). Only a handful had a clarity between the terms “public relations” and “corporate communication” (GM= 2.19). Most (GM= 4.58) shared a willingness by their department to change its name to Corporate Communication from the present (named as PR Department, Publicity Group, Public Relations Group or Government Relations); however, Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 233 Saroj Koul the respondents (GM= 2.54) were not sure of their management’s keenness to rechristen the department. Half of the respondents were clear (GM= 4.53) on the internal reporting lines within the department. Executives strongly agreed that the designations (GM= 4.83) of the personnel employed at the senior management cadre were in line with the company designations like manager CC(/PR), general manager CC (/PR). Within a multi-location, multi-product enterprise, respondents (GM= 3.32) supported a common department name and similar reporting structure. Role and Responsibility Respondents strongly agreed (GM= 4.55) that the CC(/PR) practitioner should help an organization respond to its constituents. He/she had a responsibility to serve as a liaison between an organization and its stakeholders (GM= 4.35); but did not agree to the same extent that CC(/PR) practitioners have a strong influence over constituent satisfaction (GM= 3.27). On the subject of ethics in CC(/PR), although the practitioners realize that professional ethics codes lead to more socially responsible actions by practitioners (GM= 3.81), they only marginally agree that the professional organizations’ codes of ethics are appropriate (GM= 3.19). Respondents disagree that ethics committees of the organizations properly enforce the ethics code (GM= 2.79). Respondents marginally disagreed that in some instances their organization had found it necessary to deceive their stakeholders (GM= 1.27). How strategic is the field? Respondents strongly believed that CC(/PR) department should strategically set goals and objectives prior to implementing a campaign (GM= 4.68); they should have direct contact with the CMD/CEO [9] (GM= 4.31) and their activities are instrumental to the success of their enterprise (GM= 4.13). Respondents (GM= 4.88) indicated presently no direct reporting to the CMD/CEO of the company and less than one-third (GM= 4.33) never met their functional director. Executives disagreed that management perceives the CC(/PR) role as more technical than managerial (GM = 2.63) and that CC(/PR) is a part of the decision making team (GM = 2.92). Hence, CC(/PR) is still considered an operational function by most organizations and majority feeling is that the CC(/PR) planning has top management support (GM= 3.88) at the time of budget approvals. Also, the CC(/PR) function is indispensable, with the executives strongly believing (GM= 4.39) that it would continue to receive support in the likely event of a budget decrease. Respondents strongly agreed (GM= 4.19) that the existing measurement systems adopted by their company for individual executives, and the departments’ aggregate performance level within the organization, are affecting the bottom line of the company, and the MoU performance evaluation at the Ministry level. The result is one that provides greater autonomy and enhanced powers to CPSEs, spurring them on to become a global players. This shows that the CC(/PR) function is an essential part of the management set up. Functions of CC(/PR) Published material including annual reports, news clippings, website information, presentations and other public documents on the 34 CPSEs was studied. Vital statistics for two companies during the period 1971-1990 was not available. A list of 30 activities being carried out by the CC/PR departments within the public sector realm, were identified. They also included activities like reception, ticketing and transportation for VIPs [10], employee welfare, community development, telecommunication and courier, etc. These activities of the 1970’s and 1980’s are still being carried out today by their CC/PR departments. Respondents were asked to prioritize from this list of 30 activities, ten important functions that they would like to have as part of their organizational structure at the divisional 234 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Communication Structure of the Public Sector in India: An Empirical Analysis level. Findings collectively reveal brand strategy, media relations, internet communications, corporate identity, government relations, investor relations, corporate philanthropy/citizenship, internal communication, crisis communication, and executive communiqué viewed as the key functions 75% (N= 18) of CC(/PR) department. Functions typically associated with public relations, such as internal, executive, and crisis communication and corporate social responsibility were lower down the list. Five functions viz. issue management, ethics code, labor relations, hospitality, and employee welfare received less that 42% (N= 10) response. However, while prioritizing (GM= 4.13) Internet communications as one of the major activities instrumental to the success of their enterprise, nearly half of the respondents indicated a willingness (GM= 2.48) to take care of the associated IT infrastructure (Newman, 2001; Rator, 2001) provided that a specialized training in website management and Intranet communication (Reeves et al., 1996; Kent et al. 1998, Balmer et al., 1999) is given to them. 17% (N= 4) of the enterprises do not have a website as yet or the employees an official company e-mail. Most of the companies (GM= 4.00) had a strong corporate identity system in place and this was accomplished in the last 10 years. The invariable use of approved slogans in all advertisements was identified as a unique feature of these CPSEs. This is consistent with the drive towards branding by the CPSEs. Two thirds of the respondents (GM=3.79) agreed to have a dedicated function for crisis management. Respondents strongly agreed (GM= 4.23) that with the support of the other location groups they have been able to successfully thwart crises faced by the company. Nearly 75% respondents strongly agreed (G= 4.04) utilizing services of third party vendors for select CC(/PR) functions like brand strategy, public relations, internet communications, corporate identity, corporate philanthropy/citizenship and crisis communication. Respondents strongly believed (G= 4.58) that they should continue to enhance their skills through training and approved (G= 3.58) of evaluating training-effectiveness. Nearly 50% respondents strongly agreed (G= 4.45) undergoing self-identified training, while the rest do not favour leaving it up to the individual to seek training on updates on new technology in the field (G= 2.95). Organization structure of CC(/PR) The last three questions were directly related to the prospective organizational structure of the CPSEs, and the specific organizational goals that might influence CC(/PR) department structure. What is the preferred reporting structure of the department with the CMD/CEO? The preferred organizational structure of the CC(/PR) department in the public sector, it being mostly multi-unit, multi-product, was found to be both centralized as well as decentralized. This helps the organizations to speak with one voice (GM= 4.35). What should be the right mix of sub-groups in a CC(/PR) department? With ten functions identified as part of their organizational structure at the divisional level, respondents strongly agreed (GM= 4.00) to have 5-6 sub-groups, each with a minimum of two members. For example, brand strategy, corporate identity and corporate philanthropy/ citizenship to be put in one sub-group; internet communications, internal communication and executive communiqué as one sub-group. A quarter of the respondents preferred a matrix style of organization. How much involvement should third party vendors be permitted in CC/PR functions? Seventy-five percent of respondents agreed to utilizing services of third party vendors for select functions. There is strong belief to continue to enhance their skills, especially employees getting transferred from non-CC functions. Respondents strongly preferred (G= 4.34) supervisory Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 235 Saroj Koul roles to themselves once the job is delegated to third party vendors, and would be critically monitoring major mile stones. Discussion Some of the findings of the present study: Today the term “public relations” is in the public domain and anyone without training, education or ethical behavior, is welcome to use it to describe what he or she professes to do (Bernays, 1993). The term “corporate communication” is strategically aligned with the organization’s vision and mission statement. Hence it is tightly connected to strategy implementation and also to strategy formulation and development; thus, helping the organizations to rise above the role of the ‘image maker/enhancer’. It focuses on areas crucial to the growth of the organization through its support to marketing and commercial functions; enhances the company image, and provides correction of negative perception. The public sector, considered the ‘engine of growth’ with its management-assigned responsibility and trust, would reflect what is best for the country. In some of the public sectors, the CC(/PR) executives with highest credibility are sought for advice about all aspects of a company's business model and not just communication issues. Their advice and views were solicited by the CMD/CEO while considering issues of corporate reputation, the impact of the broader social and political environment on the company's future, and organizational re-design. Five companies held a top-management workshop addressing the needs for an internal reorganization of the company. The present study identifies the key acceptable PR roles of the public sector as ‘to communicate for the desired perception amongst target audience’ and ‘to sustain brand’. This renewed emphasis on strategy has major implications for agencies wishing to work for companies as well as the kinds of people who will be involved in running such departments in the future. If CC(/PR) have to become strategic and be integrated with top management functions, then the professionals need to have grounding in general management. The educational background of the prospective executives being recruited to the CPSEs will become the order of the day. Agencies willing to get associated as third party vendors will have to have proper accreditation. With accountability from the CPSEs well established, corporate communication (/public relations) should also have measurable objectives and the CPSEs willing to invest resources to assess the return on investment in the field. The best reporting structure for the CC(/PR) function is directly to the CMD/CEO in a centralized and a decentralized layout. It symbolically sends a signal to the rest of the organization that communications is important. This helps the organizations to speak with one voice. Also, to hire the best executives, the reporting structure is an important consideration for recruitment to the CPSEs. A very positive revelation for the field is that professional standards have been found high regarding understanding of the roles and responsibilities of CC(/PR) professionals, and continue high throughout development and training. These positives will go a long way in enhancing professionalism in the field in times to come. The organizations studied here are concerned with the development of the engineering industry in India. The industry is booming and the contribution to the national exchequer is substantial. A robust CC(/PR) department has led to several advantages — constant communication, global audience, audience feedback, two-way communication, cost-effectiveness and efficiency. In short, corporate communication departments have speeded up the globalization process beyond imagination. 236 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Communication Structure of the Public Sector in India: An Empirical Analysis Conclusions In the last decade, India has undergone audits on its economy, policies, operations, style of governance, impact of globalization, and its economic reform policies of 1991; moreover, Vision 2020 pressurizes and creates an imposition on public relations as part of strategic communication management (Kalam & Rajan, 1998). An accelerated need in communication management is now evident as India emerges as a world power in economics, trade, and manufacturing, all areas where India seeks to make its contribution to the world. Public relations in organizations is gaining acceptance and recognition. In the public sector enterprises that contributed around 11.12 percent to the GDP at market price in 2006-07, PR initially operated under a socialist paradigm. During the mid-70’s, PR activity was hailed as a crucial function within management (Ghosh, 1999: 67). At the same time, it was found that the importance with which the chief executive officer of the PSEs attached to public relations was critical to the status and functioning of the public relations department (Narain, 1975). The arrival of multi-national agencies also established compatibility between in-house PR and external expertise in the areas of finance, legal, human resource development, and other disciplines generally retained by corporations to augment their resources for efficiency, productivity, competitive edge, and image management. As a discipline, CC in India is new but is taking root quickly. As opposed to the old ‘PR’ in the regulated economy, which was little more than a cover-up, CC is coming into its own as a corporate marketing function. In its new avatar, the function combines media relations, investor relations, and corporate branding and works closely with the CEO/CMD to articulate and communicate the organizational vision to external and internal stakeholders. In many PSUs, the development of full-fledged corporate communication Departments is still at a nascent stage while in others this activity is streamlined with the company’s vision and is well ahead in its maturity as a division. In this study, it has been found that in CC(/PR) departments there are 5-6 major subgroups, the strength is approximately 10-15 executives, with a mix of educational background and the budgets assigned to the department varies between 1-3% of the annual budget. CC promotes the company as a product. It defines the key messages, sets up processes for dialogue, frames disclosure policies, and uses the media, the Internet, meetings, conferences and other channels to convey the message. As such, corporate communication is critical for any organization. It is a strategic management tool, which synchronizes all intentional forms of internal and external communications, thus projecting a favourable image towards its major target groups. It is thus the framework in which the various communication specialists in an organization integrate the organizational message — the integration that will eventually help to define the corporate image and improve corporate performance. With the streamlining of activities during the past decade, the corporate communication function integrated with the organizations’ Strategic Plan, thereby continuously improving its communication to the stakeholders. Some future research questions worth exploring, with respect to the Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) in India, include: a) Is a stakeholder orientation necessary for a PSE in other sectors? b) What are the attributes associated with high-performing CC departments within the PSEs?. Acknowledgements The author is thankful to Acadia University for the Faculty of Professional Studies grant to present this paper at the CCI 2008 Conference. Mr. Shivrup Tiwari, Vice President, Public Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 237 Saroj Koul Relations Society of India, helped in providing valuable insights for this study. The author also acknowledges company officials in the CC(/PR) departments who participated in surveys and answered the questionnaires. End Notes a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. Evolution of the Public Sector in India available at http://www.divest.nic.in/manual/chap3.htm (accessed January 15, 2008) Indian Economic Surveys: 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08. Annual Reports of the 34 CPSEs: available published organization charts for 1970-71, 198081, 1990-91 & 1991-92; 2000-01 to 2006-07. Indian Rupees 4.4 Crores = One Million US Dollars One Lakh = 1,00,000 Union Budget 2008-08: available at http://indiabudget.nic.in/ (accessed march 15, 2008) Annual Reports of the Department of Heavy Industries: 1998-99 to 2007-08 available at http://dhi.nic.in/annual.html (accessed January 25, 2008) Indian Economic Survey 2006-07: mid year review http://dpe.nic.in/midyear0607.pdf CMD/CEO = Chairman & Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer. Most of the CPSEs studied have the head of the organization named as Chairman & Managing Director. VIP = very important person can be a member of the top management team of the CPSE or from the Ministry or the Government of India. References Baratan, R. (1999). “PR Professionals Demand Education”, Public Relations Voice, 2(1): 44. Bardhan, N. & Sriramesh, K. 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Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Wang, J & Goodman, M.B., (2006). Corporate Communication Practices and Trends: A China benchmark Study 2006. Report Corporate Communication Institute, USA. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 239 Saroj Koul 240 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The Campaign to Save Children's Television: Strategies and Impact Rachel Kovacs Department of Media Culture, College of Staten Island, CUNY, USA [email protected] Carole Tongue Sovereign Strategy, UK This study examines activism, by both individuals and groups, on behalf of quality, indigenous children's programming in the U.K. British children's television is currently in the throes of an unprecedented major funding crisis, which has severe repercussions for the production of such programming. In addition, the withdrawal from production and broadcast of children's programs by ITV, the major national commercial channel, has exacerbated an already diminishing showcase for reflection on British life and culture, in all its diversity. Across Britain, individuals and local and national groups have called for a reevaluation of children's TV needs, the program output currently available to them, and that which is ideally suited to those needs. Ofcom, the national communications regulator, and the House of Commons have both weighed in on the issue. The former's nation-wide study, report, and consultation was at least, in part, a result of concerted efforts by individuals and NGOs across nations (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland), sectors (voluntary, industry, and academic), and economic and educational strata. The paper's central focus is the relationships, alliances, and other public relations strategies these NGO and other activists use. Their efforts pave the way for policy change in an area of immense social consequence for the cultural identity and engagement of children and youth in the U.K. and for the future of that society itself. If children are the key to the future, then we must safeguard their welfare by providing audiovisual content that will nurture their minds and spirits and prepare them to take their places as responsible citizens in society. So argue non-governmental organization (NGO) activists and interested others throughout the U.K. They are responding to the current, acute crisis in British children's television, where production is largely revenue-driven and most broadcasters have backed away from their historic public service obligations. In general, activists’ expect broadcasters to fulfill these obligations, which Kovacs (2006, 2007) has associated with corporate social responsibility (CSR). As per the 1991 Broadcasting Act, companies bidding for a commercial broadcasting franchise had to demonstrate that their programs met a "quality threshold" (Parliament, 1990). As the advertising revenue of ITV, the commercial network has declined over the years, and as Childs (2008, of Save Kids' TV [SKTV]) noted, lighter-touch regulations have been the norm. Broadcasters have sought to pull back from public service obligations. Consequently, SKTV's position, said Childs, is that there needs to be a source of public funding for producing quality, indigenous, children's broadcasting across the U.K. Not all British broadcasters agree with this position, nor are they equally willing to finance such productions themselves. Although Childs maintained that commercial broadcasters' obligations have been more specifically terms under which they are licensed to broadcast. The fact that provisions of the 2003 Broadcasting Act, as it concerns children, are voluntary, rather than obligatory, and therefore, Childs has not characterized them as CSR. Nevertheless, Kovacs (2006), in an exploration of frameworks and exemplars for CSR, posited that voluntary benchmarks are pushes from within an organization, Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 241 Rachel Kovacs and Carole Tongue rather than from outside it, and thus are at a higher level. As such, Kovacs would argue that broadcasters' compliance with norms for quality children's broadcasting constitutes CSR. This paper documents the public relations efforts in the U.K. of a handful of individuals, various industry groups, grassroots activists, and broadcasting-centered groups to elicit policy changes and subsidies from broadcasters and ultimately, government, for ongoing, indigenous children's television production. It will identify the main policy issues, the players who bring them into the public sphere for debate, and those empowered to make change. It will explore the relationships built around shared goals of quality, indigenous British programming, including the alliances and tactics stakeholders use to draw attention to their agendas and achieve their goals. The study tracked a public relations response to a crisis in British children's television, which, unlike toxic waste, natural disasters, pandemics, and terrorist attacks, would not rank on most people's top ten crises list. Few citizens, even parents, would prioritize kids' TV over lifethreatening phenomena. Fewer would contemplate that a "short-term" dearth of appropriate programming might result in the long-term impact of foreign content and lack of indigenous, quality drama and other genres that reflect a multicultural British experience. Thus, the failure to perceive such a crisis poses a formidable barrier to an effective public relations campaign and transcends quantity, genres, placement, or audiences of children's programs. The broader concern is the issue's link to the fundamental value placed on public service broadcasting, its role in shaping future participants in civil society, and its provision of the skills needed to deal with a complex, evolving, and highly diverse country. The historic mandate of the BBC, as per its founder, Lord Reith, has been "to inform, to educate, and to entertain," (BBC, 1992). That public service ethos was never limited to the BBC (although the lion's share of the burden for sustaining children's broadcasting has fallen to it) but its implementation across all channels is now at risk. Recent Background Less than one year ago, Britain's independent, commercial television company (ITV) announced it would stop producing and broadcasting kids' TV shows to preempt children's programming for more commercially viable adult shows. Not coincidentally, this news also piggybacked on a new regulation that prohibited advertisements of junk/snack foods during hours designated for kids' programming. A number of activist groups, including Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV-see below) and the European Alliance of Viewer and Listener organizations (EURALVA) had lobbied for food-centered restrictions in the U.K. and Brussels. The commercial broadcasters were already competing for a shrinking pool of advertising pounds and the new ban exacerbated an already difficult situation. Some saw ITV's move as justification for eliminating a less-profitable genre and a "way out" from its public service obligations. Thus, these changes go beyond just revenues lost and programs slashed; they undercut broadcasting's role in serving the public interest and meeting the informational, educational, and entertainment needs of citizens (Crawford Commission, 1926) to keep them civically engaged, provide social cohesion, and sustain democracy. Its obligations to children should be to assist them, as future citizens, in developing an ethos and perspectives that will have a positive impact on British society for generations to come. But the means to fulfill these obligations seem to have been pulled out from under the broadcasters. According to Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV), this situation has been exacerbated by the BBC’s recent statement that it would cut 5% of its children's programming budget for six years. To activists, this is insult after injury, given ITV's decision, above. These developments in children's television follow on the heels of Palmer’s (2006) widely acclaimed book. Toxic Childhood underscores the effects of today's culture and new 242 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The Campaign to Save Children’s Television: Strategies and Impact technologies on children and their learning. Its documentation of negative impact makes these NGOs’ case for purposeful, quality, indigenous programming all the more compelling. Pressure groups and advocacy British groups have a strong record of advocacy around broadcasting issues, going back to at least the Television Act itself. ITV's beginnings in 1956 were preceded by a vigorous industry campaign (Wilson, 1954) but the first broad-based activist push was led by Mary Whitehouse in the late '60s. Her following of church groups, outraged mothers, and concerned others rallied as National Listeners and Viewers Association (NVALA, later Mediawatch UK) a conservative watchdog for taste and dignity (Kovacs, 2004). Since then, activists of many persuasions have continued to push for policy and programming change. The literature of advocacy suggests that effective rhetoric used in a public interest campaign contextualizes and frames that campaign's agenda and strongly contributes to its success (Wallach, Dorfman, Jernigan, & Themba; 1993, Toth & Heath, 1992). Such public interest campaigns frame the problem, whether AIDS, underage drinking, drug abuse, or other public health issues, as stemming from flawed social policies, rather than from individuals' behaviors. Setting the Stage for Broadcasting Activism Broadcasting has an incontrovertible influence, as a public good/interest, on public opinion and cultural norms. Public service broadcasting (PSB) advocates continue to use rhetoric appeals to the reader, viewer, or listener that identify potentially threatening program or policy changes--either to the moral fiber, civic participation, cultural integrity or other "sacred cow" of British citizens. Mary Whitehouse (National Viewers and Listeners Association, now MediawatchUK) suggested the former; Jocelyn Hay (VLV) focused on the latter. Rhetoric used by children's television activists in their campaign will appear below. Coalitions were another strategy historically employed by many British pressure groups. More often than not, these alliances of groups or individuals and groups were ad hoc and issuebased. Nevertheless, a few permanent coalitions existed. Notable among them was the Deaf Broadcasting Council, which represented deaf groups throughout the U.K. Public Voice (2008), a coalition of voluntary groups unrelated to broadcasting, Campaign for Quality Television, a producers' group, VLV, and other activists, rallied about the future of the BBC, the Royal Charter Review of the BBC, and the license fee that funds it. Kids TV alliances are cited below. Activist NGOs were also adroit at navigating the political system. They employed celebrities, frequented party conferences and invited key politicians and civil servants to public media-centered forums, The "good and the great," in turn, provided a voice for the activists by means of questions posed in Parliament, motions, and other legislative maneuvers. This is what Mills (1998) referred to as a “virtuous circle.” These NGOs also cultivated relationships with key journalists of the broadsheet media pages. A comprehensive list of strategies/tactics is listed in Results, below. What follows is an overview of content, methods, and an historical retrospective. Methods This study builds on 12 years of research into British broadcasting activism. The initial focus was on six activist groups that sought greater accountability from broadcasters (Kovacs, 1998) and grew to encompass their regional and global influence, the future of public service Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 243 Rachel Kovacs and Carole Tongue broadcasting, access to digital services, cultural representation in England, Scotland, and the North, and similar issues. Heavy reliance by activist groups on relationship building and relationship management was one of the most significant findings in the early research (Kovacs, 1998). Public relations research has increasingly emphasized relationships (e.g., Ledingham and Bruning, 2000). Subsequent studies of British activism corroborated the value of relationship outcomes for NGOs’ agendas. The campaigns of VLV, a major participant in the children's television campaign, earned it visibility, credibility, and high marks for good relationships. Subsequent follow-up studies tracked the NGO literatures and characteristics that these British NGO activists had in common with others (Kovacs, 2006, Kovacs, 2007). They confirmed what Castells (1999) had suggested: When the nation-state fails to or is incapable of addressing certain issues, NGOs step in to fill the vacuum. Doh (2001) had observed that the rising power of NGOs in a triangle with business and government meant that they could not longer be brushed aside. This was clearly the case with broadcasting NGOs, which like all such organizations, sought to increase targets' corporate social responsibility (CSR). The research then expanded to rubrics and frameworks for CSR and what NG0s could learn from them. Recently, the focus broadened to cultural considerations in the U.K., where the nations’ (Scotland, Wales, and N. Ireland) and the English North’s traditions set them apart and warrant preservation and government subsidy. The current focus on children's TV This paper’s focus is drawn from in-depth interviews with broadcasting executives and advocates, first-hand accounts of campaigns, consultations, and tactics, articles from the broadsheet press, and other sources. Compiled over a six-month period, the data were provided, in large part, by the actors themselves. Among these NGOs are Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV), Save Kids’ TV, a host of industry and voluntary groups, and concerned individuals. In addition, the authors consulted online, including government, documents, coalition members' Web sites, campaign coordination meeting notes, emails circulated among campaign members, Ofcom's (the communications regulator) review of issues and survey data, and Parliamentary records. Although Ofcom's data collection transpired within a six-month period in 2007, its grounding was in public service performance norms originating with the BBC, above. Results The NGO activist groups cited above, together with prominent, concerned individuals, positioned this issue as a crisis of national proportion. Their goal: to preserve endangered, quality indigenous children’s television. They have sought to foster programs that bolster children's selfesteem, pride in diverse British cultures, and provide a foundation for good citizenship. The BBC, the world's most highly-regarded public broadcaster, may be pushing beyond its capacity in producing such programs. The authoritative 2007 report on U.K. children's television by Ofcom, the national communication regulator, describes the state of U.K. children's television, changes in the production marketplace, and if and how output meets the expectations of parents and children and the CSR obligations of broadcasters. Results of the Ofcom Report The Ofcom report disclosed that only 1% of 113,000 hours of children's television programs is British in origin. Although there is more children's television than ever available on the digital channels, the proportion of U.K.-generated programs continues to shrink. Of the 17% 244 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The Campaign to Save Children’s Television: Strategies and Impact shown that is British in origin, much is reruns (Childs, 2008). Some in the advertising industry have blamed Ofcom for precipitating the children's television crisis but the fact remains that without funding provisions, new children's programs will be all but stymied. Ofcom refuted this charge, pointing to a reduced pool of investment in children's TV since 2002 and a relatively small impact of advertising revenues on that genre. The Ofcom report (2007) was followed with a seminar on the future of children's programming sponsored by and featuring panels of children's TV producers, broadcasting executives, activists, a media analyst, a journalist and a House of Lords member. Reaction to the Ofcom Report Author Philip Pullman commented that the crisis was "…the result of dogmatic insistence that the market knows best." "The problem can only be cured by telling the market who is boss," he said. "I hope the government will…safeguard…imaginative, witty, and beautiful television for children. Why should they have…anything less? Public relations has been instrumental in generating a nationwide dialogue about the future of U.K. children's television at a time when revenues for production are at an all-time low and where commercial broadcasters, dependent on advertising, have lost all incentive to produce what NGOs and many parent think children should be able to watch.. Notably, in promoting children’s needs, activists have aimed well beyond the press blitz surrounding the Ofcom's report. The campaign says much about the ability of credible NGOs, coalitions, a well-coordinated series of forums, political lobbying, Web-based petitions to Whitehall, and other key players and tactics to catalyze a major government review and public consultation on this issue. In this case, it heralds an incontrovertible link between public affairs, public relations, CSR from broadcasters, and democratic processes that sustain civil society as reflected below. House of Commons Select Committee Report The involvement of Parliament in the debate attests to the significance of this policy issue in the national consciousness, although the average British citizen is far from fully engaged in the debate. The report (Nov. 6, 2007), which was submitted by the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee, stems from members' reactions to oral and written testimony from NGO groups. It covered five key areas of public service content, of which children's television was but one. Its message was: We believe that a mix of imported and UK-produced content is beneficial for UK children…we believe that U.K.-produced content plays an important role in maintaining children's cultural identity. We note the commitment to children's programming of the BBC, ITV, Five and some digital multichannels and we encourage these broadcasters to continue to contribute to the production of U.K. originated output…we believe that the financial pressure likely to face the main current commercial commissioners…interventions which will restrict advertising revenue…uncertainty about the level of UK produced children's content…We believe that it…is important that there remains a significant amount of UK-produced children's programming on commercial channels as well as the BBC… We therefore recommend that the Government and Ofcom…identify how much UK children's production…is necessary and…If …a shortfall is envisaged, we believe that children's programming should be eligible for assistance Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 245 Rachel Kovacs and Carole Tongue ITV and public service obligations by commercial broadcasters Magnus Brooke (2007), head of public affairs at ITV, discussed the above concerns about commercial TV's children's output. He confirmed ITV’s dilemma in competing for shrinking advertising funds in a multichannel environment. ITV's revenues had declined so much that it could no longer afford children’s programming on terrestrial channels, he said, but he hoped that children’s CITV channel would continue to expand. Nevertheless, as a commercial institution, ITV’s primary responsibility was to its shareholders, he maintained. Despite outside pressure, this seemed to be ITV’s bottom line. Public Relations Strategies Strategies used by groups and individuals on behalf of quality, indigenous children’s TV reflected those cited in the original study (Kovacs, 1998). They included rhetorical framing, as it related to media advocacy (Wallack, et al, 1993), lobbying, letter/petition writing, working, consultation, and written/oral public testimony. The most noticeable difference with the 1998 data was the extent of Internet/Web based activity, which was used for mobilization, exchanging ideas and documents, and correspondence among group members. Most activists used face-to-face or voice-to-voice-based communication. This reinforced the notion that in the U.K., the NGO agenda is still largely interpersonally advanced and its progress still heavily dependent on relationships and networking. The first step to success in this area is identifying key players. Relationship building and strategic targeting of Government and civil servants At a Jan. 31, 2008 meeting of SKTV and other group members and individuals, Tongue suggested three particular foci for targeting key individuals: 1) the Department of Media, Culture, and Sport (DCMS) Convergence Think Tank (a review of digital services and domestic programs); 2) the House of Lords; and 3) senior civil servants regarding the pending Review of Childhood. Activists' ancillary efforts might include, respectively, a SKTV paper to the review body, a SKTV message to Lords, and a note on the centrality and influence of television for kids. Coalitions, their constituent members, and their strategies A number of coalition members strengthened ties with the press and those empowered to make changes. They also organized conferences and forums to which politicians, civil servants, journalists, and other opinion makers were invited. Coalitions used all tactics at the disposal of individual groups. Hutt (2007) pointed out how, in May 2007, VLV was "creating a coalition of concerned individuals, opinion formers and representative organizations, to act as a catalyst for ideas and actions." Among the opinion formers was Lord David Puttnam, renowned producer. Save Kids' TV. This coalition of producer-and broadcasting-based pressure groups and notables, coordinated by Childs (2008), mentioned above and formerly a kids' TV producer and now a consultant, and chaired by Anna Home (2008), former head of BBC Children's Television, draws support from distinguished individuals like author Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials trilogy (Guardian, 2007), like-minded broadcasting groups like VLV, the International Broadcasting Trust (IBT), the U.K. Coalition for Cultural Diversity of Expression, those in other areas of the arts and literature (e.g., Society of Authors [SA]), the Writers' Guild of Great Britain) Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), industry groups like Equity (Actors), The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Producers' Alliance for Cinema and 246 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The Campaign to Save Children’s Television: Strategies and Impact Television (PACT), and Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU ), the Directors' and Producers' Rights Society (DPRS), The Association for Children's Arts ("dedicated to the promotion, development and celebration of all the creative and performing arts for and with children…" [ACA, 200) and the Musicians' Union (MU). A Sampling of Save Kids TV Campaign Coordination and Outreach Campaign coordination meeting notes document the plurality of voices involved in the campaign (see above), the careful attention paid to their suggestions, and the multiplicity of tactics suggested and used at any given time. These included lobbying the Parliamentary Performers and Writers All Party Group. At a recent annual lobby/social event, performing artists had "buttonholed politicians" In the previous Parliament there had been an Early Day Motion (EDM #1375)) on children's television (below). VLV. A broad-based, all-issue membership-based group founded by Jocelyn Hay in 1983 to save BBC Radio 4, it rapidly expanded to television using a range of tactics in defense of public service broadcasting. In 1994, it created the VLV Forum for Children's Television to deal with the attendant issues. It holds conferences and lobbies broadcasters, government, and Ofcom regarding the vital role of children's programming in kids' lives. According to Hutt (2007), VLV deserves much of the credit for getting the Ofcom review in motion. VLV’s Hay (2008) herself added that the combination of overtures she made to key civil servants and the conference and other events VLV organized "put the issue on the public agenda" for Save Kids' TV to promote. Her main regret in this realm is that producers did not heed VLV's warning about the dangers to children's programming earlier, when it would have been less difficult to remedy. Her concern underscores the need for proactive rather than reactive public relations and issue management. Rhetorical framing of issues Activists have feared that budget cuts will deprive U.K. children of the pluralistic, quality domestic productions at which the British have distinguished themselves. VLV (2007) framed its agenda as follows: “It is vitally important therefore that we not only alert all those with an interest in the welfare of children to the dangers that these cuts pose but also encourage them to engage in debate at this time." Similar rhetoric was used Hay (2007b) at VLV's November Children’s Television Conference in London. "Our children are our future…We must persuade the politicians that a viable means must be found to provide programs that nurture them mentally, emotionally, and culturally," a position explicated in earlier remarks (2007a): Our children need to be able to enjoy a wide range of programming which reflects their own rich heritage of language, literature, speech, history, and values. But traditional, high-quality UK-originated children's television as we have known it is under serious threat from changing economics of the digital era. With the right mix of culture, quality, and diversity, good television stimulates mental and social development, and plays a critical role in inspiring the children of tomorrow… Tongue's (2007) letter to the Guardian, written with regard to the suspension of the kids’ program BBC Jam (which was a government-contracted delivery by the BBC of a digital broadband curriculum [Childs, 2008]), argued that "At a time when government education priorities focus heavily on disadvantaged young people, there has been a failure to defend an individual public space and resource that would give access to those, particularly on low incomes, to …curriculum support." Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 247 Rachel Kovacs and Carole Tongue Lobbying Hutt (2007) noted that, "As a result of its lobbying, VLV can claim much credit for Ofcom's decision to launch its current review of the state of children's television in the U.K. VLV strategies heavily involved working with government ministers and civil servants to open the issue for debate in Parliament, government-based conferences, and in dialogue with Department of Media, Culture, and Sport (DCMS), responsible for broadcasting. EDMs Early day motions (EDMs) are formally submitted for debate (but rarely debated) in the House of Commons and meant to publicize the views of individual MPs, an event or campaign, and/or garner parliamentary support for an issue (An MP may add his or her signature to an EDM or submit amendments to an existing one [U.K. Parliament, 2008]). Below, #1375: That this House recognises that children's television production provides significant public value; appreciates… high quality British television programmes… believes that plurality of provision …is essential in ensuring quality…supports the requirements in the Communications Act 2003 for broadcasters to show an appropriate range of home-grown children's programmes; and calls upon Ofcom to ensure that this obligation is met. (Gerrard, 2007) Ultimately, said Childs (2008), this motion was tabled after pressure by professional lobbyists Adjournment Debate The debate, in Westminster Hall, was opened by MP Gerrard on December 4, 2007, initiated by the Performers’ Alliance Parliamentary Group, with support from by PACT. Across political parties, consensus on the need to protect children’s TV in the UK prevailed. Sutcliffe, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Culture Media and Sport, responding to the debate, acknowledged the presence of “respected industry figures" as indicative of the need to "take the issue seriously,” even if it was delayed by its absorption into larger public service broadcasting concerns. (SKTV, 2007).This reinforced the public relations value of credible spokespersons. Research In addition to the initial offer to undertake comprehensive research on children's television, which eventually was conducted by Ofcom (Hay, 2008), the International Broadcasting Trust (IBT) had commissioned research into the extent (hours) of broader content on children's TV. Study results will be available in April 2008. IBT intends to approach MPs with the research results, which are likely to suggest U.S. market dominance. Petitions On its Web site, Save Kids' TV publicized a petition posted by the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) and encouraged visitors to sign it (linked to a government epetition Web site). The brief text is explicit in its request: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure that UK children have access to a wider range of high quality, UK-made public service kids' television programmes that reflect the rich diversity of UK culture." Submitted by Adam Minns of Pact, it already 3,873 signatures before its 2008 deadline. Only 500 signatures were displayed on the Web site, which stressed the following: UK parents place a high value on the role that children's television plays in society…it is particularly important that public service broadcasting for kids reflects their own lives 248 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The Campaign to Save Children’s Television: Strategies and Impact and cultures, and helps them learn more about the world around them. But new programming made in the UK accounts for just 1% of the total…kids TV on offer to UK audiences. The situation is rapidly getting worse: .. There are more kids channels than before… but they are unable to plug the gap left by the main channels…The BBC remains… parents do not want their children to have one perspective - the BBC's. We ask the Government to act now to ensure… a rich variety of UK kids' shows with different voices and views. Its destination was 10 Downing Street, the seat of the Labour Government headed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Save Kids’ TV hoped to gather enough signatures to move the government towards policy change but the response was slow and relatively poor. The Mothers' Union was not interested in the issue. According to Childs (2008), the Women's Institute was "too cumbersome to respond in a timely manner." This is problematic inasmuch as parental support was key to winning politicians' backup for the initiative. Aside from seeking the support of parenting groups, activists focus more on press activity, celebrity support to generate press interest, and reaching young people themselves thorough outreach to schools and large organizations such as the Scouts. VLV engaged in all these activities but specifically sought to involve university students, given the group's aging membership and leadership (Hay, 2006) Letter Writing Viewers, including parents, were encouraged to write to the Member of Parliament (MP) to voice their concerns and/or complaints about the programming changes. PACT provided access to an automated system through which campaign supporters could find their local MP and send a pre-generated letter to an email address (Childs, 2008). Conferences and Forums Above, we mentioned the Ofcom seminar, which followed on the regulator's report (2007) and the VLV conference on children's TV. VLV also organized an event last May at the London Zoo on "The Role of the Media in Contemporary Childhood (Hutt, 2007). In addition, groups unaffiliated with the Save Kids' TV coalition hosted issue-related events. These included the Westminster Media Forum--which brings together activists, interest groups, and politicians (although, according to Childs (2008) few politicians actually attended the children's TV events) and a co-sponsored event by the Social Market Foundation and PACT. Testimony before Select Committee Last month, Hay (2008) gave evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee regarding media ownership and referred to children's TV. This is a recent example of oral and written testimony that comes before Select Committees of both Houses of Parliament, which then report of such testimonies and makes policy recommendations. European Connections and Comparative Policies At a recent SKTV campaign committee meeting, Tongue (2007) suggested invoking to the Government the Television without Frontiers Directive, which dictates the percentage of member nations' programs that must be of European origin. Currently, the official quota for original, indigenous programs is 51%, although that figure may be qualified where not practicable. Perhaps, she felt, such a reminder might move the Government to enforce the statute. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 249 Rachel Kovacs and Carole Tongue Policy Proposals to Ofcom At a recent meeting, Childs (2007) discussed SKTV's response to Ofcom's call for consultation following Ofcom's (2007) report proposal to Ofcom for a Funded Online Destination, which would be funded to commission new programs "but would also feature interactive and participatory enhancements." SKTV had raised money, through donations, to engage a digital communications consultancy company to pull together experts from among SKTV activists "to generate a completely new approach to children’s broadcasting" (Childs, 2008). Channel 4 had already been approached, with positive feedback, An IBT-BBC meeting, in the works, would raise this issue. Web Use On its Web site, SKTV created a compilation video of some of the best children's programs. It was a cooperative effort of these programs' producers and distributors. The goal of the video was to show what would be lost if children’s TV would be permitted to deteriorate. Cultivating journalists and engaging them in advocacy This activist tactic is among the most important. Broadsheet media journalists set the agenda for public discourse on compelling issues, including kids' TV. Thus, VLV goes to great lengths to invite them to their events. Raymond Snoddy (2007) and Maggie Brown a re perhaps the most renowned journalists. Although the campaign for children's television is relatively recent and has been exacerbated by the recent loss of advertising revenues for commercial TV, the crisis itself has been brewing for far longer. Channel proliferation, and the fragmentation of broadcasting through cable, satellite, and now digital services, has overtaken terrestrial television and the race for audiences. The commoditization of childhood, from advertising to market-based synergies rooted in Harry Potter, Disney, and other commercially-exploitable product spin-offs, has left a culturally-stilted taste in the mouths of industry pundits, parents, activists, and observers alike. There is no magic bullet to ameliorate the effects of an exponential growth of available cheap, exported, largely-U.S.-based programming on British minds. Yet British NGOs do not see the situation as irreversible. They see their quest for a funding source and distributor for children’s production as both critical and within reach. The need for some source of funding to sustain culturally-specific, diverse, indigenous, British children’s programming is incontrovertible: Whether there will be a public service publisher, top slicing of the BBC’s revenues (an approach rejected by many), or some other solution, a vehicle for its preservation must be found. U.K. children’s television cannot survive without British financial and artistic support. British children’s values, perspectives, and future are profoundly bound up with their media. U.K. democracy cannot survive without engaged, informed, and inherently British children, the adults of tomorrow. Public relations’ role has been to call attention to and rally resources toward the recognition and protection of the media/citizen connections. NGO activists have been the proactive link among relevant actors and empowered bodies in the children’s TV crisis. 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Pressure groups: The campaign for commercial television in England. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 251 Rachel Kovacs and Carole Tongue 252 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Cross-Cultural and Translingual Communication Strategies of Official Sponsoring Corporations in Beijing Olympics Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR [email protected] / [email protected] In this era of glocalization [mg 1], some of the global corporations tend toward preserving strong national culture while others may uphold strong local culture. Eminent works by Hofstede (1980, 2001) have investigated cultural diversity across nations and identified the distinct cultural values of the Chinese as compared with the West. While national cultural differences have been extensively analyzed, inter-cultural and translingual studies involving corporate communication artifacts between Greater China and the Western countries seem limited. This paper identifies orientations toward national and corporate cultures in Greater China, and probes into correlations between cultural styles and translingual strategies found in corporate communication artifacts. Special foci is placed on official sponsoring corporations of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, whose headquarters are located in Mainland China, Hong Kong, America, Canada and England. Implications of this study pave way for systemic investigations into cross-cultural and translingual norms and practices in corporate communication, especially in Greater China contexts. With the mounting influence of globalization, global corporations often seek to localize their practices by adapting to diverse cultural values of target customers in local markets. Meanwhile, many local corporations attempt to globalize themselves through adopting a Western style of communication. In the push and pull of globalization and localization, corporations may face challenges in deciding their orientations toward national and corporate cultures. Some global corporations may tend toward preserving strong national culture while others may incorporate themselves into local culture. Empirical studies from cross-cultural communication and social psychology disciplines, notably Hofstede (2001), conducted extensive investigations of cultural differences across nations by comparing their values, behaviors, etc. He contends the cultural stereotypes about the Chinese (implicit) versus Western (explicit) styles of communication, and postulates Chinese cultural values as high Power Distance and Long Term Orientation, lower Individualism and Uncertainty Avoidance when compared with the Western countries. While Hofstede’s research is related to national cultures, Johnson and Scholes’ (1997) model of Cultural Web consisting of six interrelated elements viz. stories, rituals and routines, symbols, power structures, organizational structures, and control systems concentrates on corporate culture. Cross-cultural differences have been extensively analyzed, but intra-cultural studies within Greater China and inter-cultural analyses of corporate communication artifacts between China and the West are still limited. This paper aims to identify orientations toward national and corporate cultures in corporate Greater China, and to probe into correlations between cultural styles and translingual strategies deployed in the corporate communication artifacts. Special foci is placed on the official sponsoring corporations of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, including those whose headquarters are in Mainland China, Hong Kong, America, Canada, and/or England. The selection of these corporations aids an inquiry into the extent that local Chinese corporations promote themselves to the world, and the extent that global corporations conform to the stereotypical Chinese style of communication. The study adopts a content-analysis approach and aims to: Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 253 Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng (1) identify corporate cultural values of the sampled artifacts with particular reference to Hofstede’s (2001) Cultural Dimensions (2) investigate inter-lingual and intra-lingual strategies adopted in the artifacts, and (3) address the correlations between (1) and (2) The study may serve as a basis for further investigation of intercultural and translingual norms and practices in corporate communication, especially in Greater China contexts. Findings are expected to yield insights into cultural values and rhetorical strategies adopted in corporate communication in Greater China, and provide corporate communicators with a better understanding of cultural differences between China and the West, as well as between the Mainland and Hong Kong. Methodology The sampled artifacts consist of both written and spoken communication means which promote respective corporate images via sponsoring the Olympic Games. A bilingual corpus was formed by the print and web ads and promotional articles in Chinese and English, as well as TV commercials presented in Putonghua (Mandarin), Cantonese and English targeting the Mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, and English readers. The promotion artifacts of the 22 major official sponsoring corporations serve as the samples for analysis (see Table 1 in the Appendix). The collected samples were analysed based on Hofstede’s five Cultural Dimensions, namely Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long Term Orientation. Comparisons were established across languages and across cultures. First, the Chinese versions of the samples were compared with their English counterparts in order to identify the inter-lingual differences between English and Chinese. Second, the Chinese brands were compared with the Western (i.e. Anglo-American) ones to identify distinctive features between Chinese and the Western cultures. Findings from the analysis were compared with those from Hofstede to investigate if cultural particularities are shared between the two analyses. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Model and related China Indices Admittedly, Hofstede is one of the most influential scholars on differences in cultural groups’ behaviours in terms of value systems. His studies (1980, 2001) focus on the differences of 64 national cultures in a multinational corporation (i.e. IBM) in terms of four independent cultural dimensions, or indices, namely, Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and later supplanted a fifth dimension, Long Term Orientation (Confucian Dynamism) (see also Hofstede & Bond’s study, 1988). Each index essentially serves as both a psychometric testing mechanism and a cultural scale (values of 0 to 100) to measure or rank order the extent to which a certain national culture tends to attach importance to a particular sociocultural value or norm, notated by a score for cross-scale comparisons. Holistically speaking, Power Distance Index refers to the extent of power distribution among members of organizational groups. It is found that Asian nations tend to have a higher score value than Western counterparts in this dimension. It has implications for national cultures’ attitudes toward power relations in context of inequitable wealth distribution. Individualism, as opposed to collectivism, pertains to the extent to which individuals bond with groups in an organizational group or society. In-group versus out-group memberships, personal attainments 254 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Cross-Cultural and Translingual Communication Strategies of Official Sponsoring Corporations in the Beijing Olympics and rights, versus group loyalty and pride are significant bi-polar constructs on such an individualism-collectivism continuum. It is found that Western cultures tend to be higher in score value than Eastern cultures in this dimension. Masculinity Index as opposed to femininity refers to gender role distribution and implied stereotypical socio-psychological behaviors such as assertiveness/competitiveness associated with masculinity, versus modesty/cooperativeness associated with femininity. It is found that masculine values tend to vary more greatly across cultures than do feminine values among societies. Uncertainty Avoidance Index is concerned with the extent to which national cultures exhibit tolerance for uncertainty. That is to say, the higher the score value in the index implies strong intolerance for uncertainty with a certain culture. Conceivably, an uncertainty avoidance score value impacts upon a national culture’s risk management approach in terms of stronger laws and stipulations, or vice versa. Long-Term Orientation Index is fifth and a lastly added dimension arising from a subsequent Chinese value survey involving student subjects across 23 countries. Specifically, this index presents two dichotomous sets of characteristics pertaining to virtue, long-term orientation versus short-term orientation, whereby national cultures gear toward frugality and perseverance on the one end, and reverence for tradition, social obligations and face protection on the other end. It is found that the two polarized orientations find parallel in tendencies in East-West cultures. The case of corporate Greater China (China and Hong Kong) in Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Analysis is summarized in Fig. 1 and 2 in the Appendix for rank order similarities and differences in dimensional values. On Power Distance, Hofstede’s findings indicate that Chinese societies score relatively high in power distance, suggesting a tendency of the Chinese to accept a hierarchy of corporate relations. On Individualism, China scores lower than Hong Kong, suggesting that the former is still a collectivistic society where group loyalty is of paramount importance and strong in-group member bonding is a norm expectation, whereas the latter apparently belongs to a more individualistic culture where in-group membership is not as tight-knit and individual interests seem to prevail. On Masculinity, Chinese societies score fairly high, suggesting an orientation for members in the groups to pursue material success, recognition and career advancement competitively rather than seeking to cooperate for the sake of group rapport. It may be attributed to China’s high-growth, open-door policy in economic realms over the last three decades and Hong Kong’s long standing status as a Western-style, capitalistic financial hub. On Uncertainty Avoidance, China score slightly higher than Hong Kong, revealing a tendency of the sovereign state to prefer tighter regulatory controls and less risk-taking corporate practices than her special administrative polity’s acceptance of more entrepreneurial spirit with lesser regard for regulatory controls and greater risk pursuit. On Long-Term Orientation, Chinese societies score very high, albeit slightly higher score with China than with Hong Kong, thus implicating the lingering influence of Confucian virtues being upheld by the Chinese. Notwithstanding Hofstede’s critically acclaimed and well-grounded theory of global cultural differences on the basis of an American or Western-based multicultural company’s world-wide employees and the fact that there is only one dominant national culture in each country, our study attempts to investigate cultural values as reflected by famous brands of global corporations based in China as well as in the West for a more balanced inter-cultural value comparison. By the same token, whereas Hofstede’s framework of cultural dimensions may seem primarily geared toward an analysis of national cultures, it does opens up an avenue for explicating the selection of various corporate cultural elements within a particular national culture as postulated in Johnson & Scholes’ Culture Web Model (1993), or even makes inroads for such cross-cultural comparisons of corporate cultural practices. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 255 Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng Johnson & Scholes’ Cultrual Web model The Culture Web Model, developed by Johnson and Scholes (1993, 1997), is thought to be capable of analyzing corporate culture and its impact on organizational personnel’s sociocultural behaviours (see Fig. 3 in the Appendix). It was contended that corporate ethos are bound up in seven integral elements among which the organizational paradigm forms the core and together with the peripheral components, organizational structure, power structures, control systems, routines and rituals, symbols, and stories intricately constitute a culture web. A paradigm transcends the written value statements and encompasses the underlying assumptions constituting the mundane interactions in the center stage for understanding the interplays between organizational thinking and behaviours in a systemic and global perspective (1993: 73). Organizational structures cover both formal and informal structures, playing a significant role in driving the core value of an organization. Power structures refer to a group of senior executives leveraging enormous power in context of organizational change or stagnancy. Control systems establish a series of protocols, be they measurements or reward schemes, bearing impact on worker performance and customer satisfaction. Symbols consist of corporate logos, language, status symbols, all of which cater to engender a visible representation of an organization’s culture to both internal and external stakeholders. Stories are narratives of organizational history to be shared by employees and the public, serving to convey key messages of the organization’s culture. Rituals and routines including ceremonies, work rituals, training programmes, etc., through which an organization aligns day-to-day procedures and normative behaviors with corporate style. Studies on cross-cultural values and translingual communication strategies using advertising data in Greater China contexts Among empirical studies on cultural values in East-West and Greater China contexts along the line of Hofstede’s quantitative approach toward exploring cultural value stereotypes, Cheng & Schweitzer’s (1996) was another milestone investigation in which large samples (n=1105) of television commercials from US and China sources were content analysed in order to identify salient cultural values (out of 8) vis-à-vis such variables as product categories and product origins prevalent in both nations. One key finding from their study is that ‘family’, ‘technology’, and ‘tradition’ ranked dominant cultural values in Chinese commercials as opposed to ‘enjoyment’, ‘individualism’, and ‘economy’ in US commercials, with ‘modernity’ and ‘youth’ common to both cultures. Their study also reveals that Chinese commercials tend to exhibit more Eastern cultural values than their American counterparts and such values are closely related to product origins and categories; namely, ‘individualism’ and ‘modernity’ are associated with imported products, and ‘tradition’ is intricately linked to ‘food & beverage’ and ‘medicine’. Interestingly, it appeared to reject their hypothesis that Chinese advertising would tend to use more utilitarian values than US advertising. In a follow-up study using Cheng & Schweitzer’s framework of cultural values, Chan & Cheng (2002) content analyzed 1387 samples occurring in 1993 and 1998 for saliency of intra-cultural values between China and Hong Kong in television commercials. Their findings indicate five distinct sets of dominant cultural values with Chinese and Hong Kong commercials; respectively, ‘modernity’, ‘family’, ‘tradition’, ‘technology’ and ‘collectivism’ for China and ‘quality’, ‘effectiveness’, ‘economy’, ‘enjoyment’ and ‘modernity’ for Hong Kong. They also found that Chinese commercials employed more symbolic values in stark contrast to the tendency of utilitarian ones used by Hong Kong commercials. Holistically, both findings of Cheng & Schweitzer’s (1996) and Chan & Cheng (2002) appear to be in keeping 256 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Cross-Cultural and Translingual Communication Strategies of Official Sponsoring Corporations in the Beijing Olympics with the cultural value stereotype profiles for China and Hong Kong in Hofstede’s (2001) Cultural Dimension Analysis. Lock (2003) examined how visual and linguistic resources of advertisements reflect multiple identities of Hong Kong people. His sample of study is formed by a corpus of 75 ads collected on the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR). Lock argues that the visual and linguistic resources in the ads can be considered as “multiply coded” (p. 195). Different readings depend on interaction between the potential meanings in the texts and the meanings available to the readers from their own cultural contexts. The images and language resources in the bilingual context of Hong Kong are much richer than those in a relatively monolingual and monocultural context. This rich semiotic potential of the ads demonstrates Hong Kong’s multiple identities – “drawing on international, Chinese, Cantonese and local linguistic varieties and visual images” (p. 212). Aside from large-sample, quantitative content analyses, one retrospective qualitative investigation undertaken by Wong (2000) joined forces to attest to evolution of Hong Kong Chinese’s traditional ‘Confucian’ consumer cultural values into Western utilitarian values via scrutiny of two case studies involving television banking advertising for Hang Seng Bank and HSBC in 1970s and early 1980s. In particular, Wong examined from the two banks’ commercial archives and affirmed a value shift from “a focus on savings to encouraging borrowing … from hard work to easy spending … and from harmony with nature to focus on material good” (p. 398) of traditional, collectivistic Confucian virtues to Western-style, individualistic, capitalistic consumerism. In sum, empirical data on cultural value comparisons in the pre-millennium eras seem to be underpinned by the predominant position that while the US is characterized as an individualistic culture, China largely fits into a more collectivistic-oriented national culture (partly attributed to her Marxist-Maoist ideology, see Cheng & Schweitzer, 1996) whereas Hong Kong is considered slightly more individualistic-oriented in terms of national culture.In a similar vein of the aforementioned cross-cultural value studies, scholars have increasingly become interested in examining the cultural change impact of interlocking globalization and localization, or coined as ‘glocalization’ and ‘hybridization’ (see definitions by Robertson (1995) and Wang (2000a)), on advertising communication vis-à-vis translingual practices in Greater China contexts. Alongside several Anglo-Chinese inter-lingual studies of Chinese advertising (Ha, 1998; Lee, 2000; Ye & Qin, 2004), most recent studies (Feng & Wu, 2007; Wu et. al., 2007) largely drew their data from either print advertisements such as newspapers and magazines or commercial web advertisement sources rather than broadcast media such as television commercials. One such study examining 119 web advertisements from top Chinese websites in 2004 by Feng & Wu (2007) paints a highly robust and volatile picture of unconventional language usage (in the form of pervasive Anglo-Chinese mixing) in Chinese web advertisements, which is well underscored by the predominance of Western value and utilitarian appeals. They further contend that such deliberate hybridized language mixing and preferred popular phrases by the youths are indicative of young Chinese’s active construction of their individual identities. Henceforth, the implication of this study inevitably makes one ponder if, only in matter of a decade since the nineties, China is already going down the same path as Hong Kong (back in the last three decades) of transforming from a traditionally collectivistic culture to a more individualistic consumer culture. Another recent quantitative analysis of translingual communication strategies in Greater China is Chen’s (2006) study of Taiwanese advertisements. Chen investigated the mixing of English in magazine advertisements in Taiwan. A total of 226 code-mixed sentences were collected from 43 different magazines published in Taiwan. Chen identified the top ten frequently used English expressions, such as ‘Spa’, ‘easy’, ‘No.1’, and found that noun phrases account for Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 257 Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng nearly half of all the English expressions used. Her study reveals that the mixing of English enhances attraction of an ad and readers adopt a positive view towards the use of English in ads. While a number of studies adopted a quantitative content-analysis approach, some other studies, such as Li (2000) and Wang (2000b), attempt to analyze the reasons for adopting those translingual communication strategies. Li (2000) provides four major reasons or motivations for adopting code-mixing in Hong Kong, namely euphemism, specificity, bilingual punning, and principle of economy. First, the mixing of English in advertisement can avoid making explicit mention of potentially embarrassing notions. Second, an English expression may be preferable due to its specific meaning comparing with its Chinese counterparts. Third, bilingual punning is common in advertisements in Hong Kong, and its effectiveness depends on similarity in pronunciation between the Cantonese and English components to create double meaning. Fourth, the use of mixed-codes may also be because an English expression is more economical compared to Chinese or Cantonese in terms of linguistic effort. Rather similar to Li’s analysis, Wang (2000b) studied the code-mixing phenomenon in the Hong Kong media and concludes three major reasons for code-mixing, namely, making the theme outstanding, clarity and brevity, and specificity. Findings and Discussions Among our cross-cultural and translingual findings using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension framework, the dimension of uncertainty avoidance clearly stands prominent in total agreement with the three-tier comparisons between: (1) Hofstede’s cross-cultural study and the two language sets of samples of this study, (2) Hofstede’s study and our Chinese and Anglo-American brands, and (3) the two language sets and the two major types of brands in our study (see Table 2 in the Appendix for the summary of findings). Similar to Hofstede’s Chinese findings, the Chinese data of the Chinese brands in our study score significantly low in uncertainty avoidance. For instance: 對於中國人保財險的客户来说，亲临奥运赛场的梦想似乎并不算难 (PICC – web) (UAI-) For the customers of PICC, their dream of visiting the Olympic Stadium seems not difficult to be realized. 1 期待更多 (Lenovo – TV) (UAI-) expecting more Besides, the Chinese brands score low in uncertainty avoidance in their English promotional artifacts, in contrast with the American brands, such as McDonald’s. Compare: Accuracy and truth-seeking: We manage our business and make decisions based on carefully understood facts. (Lenovo – web) (UAI-) The ‘Champion kids’ initiative which is part of a wider global program involving 300 children in total, will see hopefully youngsters of through three rounds of testing …, with a view to selecting 100 well-rounded children to represent China s part of McDonald’s Olympics Hospitality Program in Beijing. (McDonald’s – web) (UAI+) 1 Direct English translation of the Chinese example 258 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Cross-Cultural and Translingual Communication Strategies of Official Sponsoring Corporations in the Beijing Olympics The above example of McDonald’s lucidly depicts the “rituals and routines” of the organizational paradigm proposed by Johnson & Scholes (1997). The procedures and normative behaviours are presented in a rather specific manner. Even for the Chinese version of McDonald’s TV commercial, the uncertainty avoidance score is still high, as illustrated by the example below: 早晨,比d新鮮感呢,精選美國A級大雞蛋,爽口洋蔥,回味無窮既頂級煙肉, 攪住mix。 全新煙蔥蛋全餐, 24小時麥當勞零晨4點有售啦 (McDonald’s – TV) (UAI+) Good morning. Give (you) some fresh feelings. Select large Grade-A American eggs, crispy onions, tasty top-class bacon. Mix them all. The brand new whole meal with scrambled eggs with bacon and onion is available from 4 am at 24-hour McDonald’s restaurants. Apparently, this TV commercial in Cantonese is blended or code-mixed with English expressions. Code-mixing, a translingual communication practice, is one of the typical rhetorical strategies adopted in promotion in Greater China contexts, especially in Hong Kong. The adoption of “A級大雞蛋” (large Grade-A eggs) serves the function of specificity (Li, 2000), while the use of the English word “mix” succeeds in rendering the theme more outstanding (Wang, 2000b). The finding of significantly low in uncertainty avoidance score in all three counts of comparison of the Chinese data turns out to be perfectly consistent with Hofstede’s Chinese findings two decades ago. This may be attributed to the ever-growing influence of the Chinese state in economic affairs in both Hong Kong and China. Since Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997, there has been greater economic integration involving the two polities and inevitably Hong Kong’s increased dependence on the motherland’s trade alliances, like CEPA (Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement) in force since 2004 and a new initiative called QDII (Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor) Scheme under way which proposes free flow of professional talents across borders, to sustain the special administrative zone’s powerhouse financial growth in recent years. A probable interpretation of this stereotypic value finding is that the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities are tending toward a more conservative approach in the area of regulatory controls in economic spheres, if not others. On the performance of individualism dimension, our second salient finding of agreement between Chinese language use and Chinese brands is quite indicative of a paradigmatic pursuit of Western style capitalism in contemporary Chinese and Hong Kong economic sectors. For example: 飲飲食食係我既天職 (CocoCola – TV) (IDV+) Eating and drinking is my divine responsibility. 您的最佳選擇 (BoC – TV) (IDV+) Your best choice The above examples adopt an individualistic approach, rather similar to the English versions adopted by corporations from the West, such as: Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 259 Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng Employee Benefits presents the official Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Mascots Exclusively for YOU! (Manulife – print ad) (IDV+) Indeed language, per se, may serve well as a reflective tool to mirror predominant social identities in changing times despite over-arching ideologies in political realms. As this finding indicates, the Chinese are appearing to be more individualistic in orientation as embodied in the symbolic value of entrepreneurish advertising language favoring a more reward and incentive inclined ethos, which is characteristic of members of capitalistic societies, and jointly embraced by Chinese and Hong Kong governments. As opined by Feng & Wu (2007), the prevailing Chinese cultural value has undergone fundamental change in commercial contexts, where coming-of-age consumers are ready to abandon traditional, group-sacrificing cultural value in favor of a more self-serving and incentive-driven consumer culture. The same has been true for Hong Kong consumers ever since her capitalistic colonial heydays. In keeping with Hofstede’s Chinese findings regarding the performance of masculinity dimension, our third results pertaining to comparison between Anglo-Chinese language orientations and Hofstede’s findings are largely consonant. For instance: To win (Manulife – TV) (MAS+) 真正了解你的心意 (BoC – TV) (MAS-) really understand what you think 我地助你實現 (Manulife – TV) (MAS-) we help you to achieve The above examples associated with the femininity value adopt several rhetorical and communication strategies including rapport and intra-lingual code-mixing. The Cantonese expression “我地” (we) mixed with the Standard Chinese one “助你實現” (help you achieve) helps forge a closer tie with the customers. The implications of our masculinity dimension findings are two-fold in view of their significance in cross-cultural and translingual communication inclinations. On the one hand, Hofstede’s Chinese findings indicate a more masculine cultural orientation with USA than China and Hong Kong in respect of scoring slightly higher positive value score in masculinity, whereas his Chinese findings scores more or less the same as the USA finding in respect of low negative score value in this dimension. On the other hand, a congruent picture can be painted when English language use is positively correlated with the positive value score of masculinity dimension and likewise Chinese language use for the negative value score of the same dimension. Such overtly bilingual and bicultural value alignments in advertisements may be explained in terms of the vastly prevalent East-West cultural stereotyping which is said to be associated with certain attitudinal traits such as aggression versus passivity, competition versus cooperation, and so on. A fourth significant finding displays ambivalence in agreements in the performance of long term dimension between Hofstede’s Chinese findings and the two types of brands as well as two types of languages and two types of brands. On the one hand, the Chinese brands show a dually high positive and negative score of long term orientation. For example: 260 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Cross-Cultural and Translingual Communication Strategies of Official Sponsoring Corporations in the Beijing Olympics 讓您更快換取飛行里數或「簽帳得fun禮品集」內的精美禮品 (BoC – print ad) (LTO-) Let you redeem your mileage or gifts from the ‘Bonus-reward Gift Collection’ within a shorter time. 滙奧運文化之精神，讓北京2008年奧運會成為您永久的珍藏 (BoC – print ad) (LTO+) Blend in the spirits of the Olympic culture. Let Beijing Olympics 2008 be your valuable collection. Evidently, the above first example illustrates the “control systems”, reward schemes for customer satisfaction, of the corporation (Johnson & Scholes, 1997). The bilingual punning “fun” is rather common in Hong Kong advertisements. It creates double meaning of “fun” in English and “分” (bonus) in Cantonese. As for the above second example, the application of an idiomatic Chinese expression of “滙奧運文化之精神” (blend in the spirits of Olympic culture) supports Johnson and Scholes’ contention that language is one of the symbols representing corporate culture. As shown, BoC (Bank of China) can be seen as seeking to project itself as a culturally dignified corporation. The dual value can also be found in the English versions of Chinese brands. Compare: These and other market-leading personal computing products catapulted Lenovo to be a leadership position in China for with consecutive years with over 25% market share in 2004. (Lenovo – web) (LTO+) In 2003, Legend changed its brand name to Lenovo, talking the ‘Le’ from Legend, a nod to its heritage, and adding ‘novo’, the Latin word for ‘new’, to reflect the spirit of innovation at the core of the company. (Lenovo – web) (LTO-) As portrayed, the “story” in the above second example which narrates corporate history to be shared by the public serves to convey key messages of the corporate culture (Johnson & Scholes, 1997). The dually high positive and negative score of long term orientation of the Chinese brands can be construed in terms of the insurmountable trend of business globalization and glocalization facing the Chinese advertisers and brand owners alike these days, wherein the sizeably affluent Chinese consumer classes are vastly becoming Westernized in consumer tastes as a result of frequent exposure to Anglo-American new media and advertisements both domestically and internationally. As pointed out by Wu et al. (2007) glocalization and linguistic hybridity are part and parcel in understanding patterns of the Chinese’s consumption of web advertisements. Notwithstanding this, the other sub-finding points to an agreement between the two languages and two types of brands over significantly high negative score of long term orientation dimension. On a national policy front, the Chinese government has of late relaxed Communistic taboo against traditional Chinese festive celebrations in reinstating the Qing Ming Festival as a national public holiday in 2008. This practice shift is undeniably a strong indicator of the Chinese officials’ tolerance of traditional Chinese cultural heritage. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 261 Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng Conclusion In sum, some of our findings are in total alignment with Hofstede’s Chinese data, for example, the apparent low scores of Chinese brands in uncertainty avoidance on both national cultural value and English and code-mixed language uses in promotional artifacts, as opposed to Western brands. This is also supported by strong regulatory control, “ritual and routines” corporate cultural element in Johnson and Scholes’ Model. Yet, there are instances where two of our findings appear to differ from those of Hofstede’s, namely, on the performances of individualism and masculinity. In particular, one could comfortably surmise that owing to the surging tides of globalization forces, at least in economic realms, our Chinese findings take a Western individualistic turn and do not conform to stereotypical cultural value of collectivism as found in Hofstede’s Chinese data. And in the case of masculinity, our Chinese findings turn out to be lower in value score than our Anglo-American counterparts compared with Hofstede’s Chinese finding in this dimension. This interesting outcome may probably seem understandable in light of differential economic developmental stages experienced by China (i.e. highly developing) and Hong Kong (i.e. more advanced) within our Chinese data, which likely discounts to a certain extent expectedly high performance in masculinity dimension for a purely capitalistic economy typified by strong aggression and competitiveness. Furthermore, our findings in regard to bilingual language use and two major brand types also correspond well to culturally stereotypic conventions of a language adopted in our promotion artifacts, which serve to manifest corporate cultures projected by global brands. In this light, the national cultural origin of a global brand is inextricably consistent with respective language strategies in advertising. In other words, Chinese brands are found to be aligned with Chinese linguistic style as opposed to Western brands being congruent with Anglo-American English styles, respectively. While language devices are purportedly one of the symbols or elements representing corporate culture, an appropriate selection of communication and rhetorical strategies, such as rapport-building, identity building, bilingual punning, idiomatic expressions, code-mixing, etc., is shown to be instrumental to ensuring communicative efficacy and for projecting a positive corporate image to stakeholders. Significance Given that a main focus of this paper is on cultural value perceptions toward global brands of Chinese and Western corporations from different industries, our data is perhaps more representative than many other studies on cultural values and applied language studies in their own right, e.g. Hofstede (1980, 2001), Hofstede & Bond (1988), Lock (2003), etc. Moreover, our study has adopted quantitative cum qualitative approaches. A holistic methodology also serves well to address the relationship between translingual (Anglo-Chinese) communication strategies and corporate culture, in addition to ascertaining correlations in national culture similarities and differences across nations. As a cross-fertilizing, inter-disciplinary study involving both intercultural business communication and bilingual communication, it yields some insights into differences across national cultures in corporate communication context. Above all, such a brand perception study is firmly anchored upon the Greater China contexts characterized by demands for messages coded in linguistic and cultural hybridity. Linguistic glocalization, as exemplified by our bicultural and translingual data in global brand advertising contexts, can be viewed as an essential tool for corporate brands with strong national cultural heritage and corporate cultural affiliations to reflect and perpetuate certain 262 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Cross-Cultural and Translingual Communication Strategies of Official Sponsoring Corporations in the Beijing Olympics desirable dominant national and corporate cultures in the wake of an increasingly bilingual and bicultural pan-Chinese audience or readership. In that sense, cultural hybridity and linguistic glocalization are increasingly intertwined in practice, if not integrated, for such strong global brands reaching out to a new generation of consumerism immersed in multilingualism and multiculturalism. Limitations Since this study is primarily concerned with Chinese and global corporations on the sponsoring list of Beijing Olympics, there is room for enlarging the current data samples. The inclusion of a Taiwanese sub-set in the Greater China sample would be appropriate in view of gradually ameliorating cross-strait relations resulting from the recent Chinese Nationalist Party’s (Kuo Min Tang) victory in Taiwanese presidential election, and hence optimistic prospects of direct trades in near future. For example, famous global Taiwanese brands like 旺旺集团 (Want Want Group) could be included in future Chinese samples. Thus, this study is considered, at best, a prelude for further investigations into systemic differences in national and corporate cultural values vis-à-vis bilingual strategies in corporate contexts. In a way, our tentative conclusions may require further examination and validation, as our corpus sample size, though significant, is not very large. Nonetheless, it purports to create a useful platform upon which deployment of the dual framework incorporating Cultural Dimension Analysis and Culture Web Model can be applied toward more such comparative analyses on intercultural and translingual communication studies. Future work It is hoped that within the intercultural communication arena, further work can be extended from merely content analysis of brand perceptions toward national and corporate cultural values, to more end-user centered audience and readership analysis. In addition, on a sociolinguistic front, it should be expanded to cover more global corporate brands so as to form a large corpus for in-depth cross-genre analyses, say, beyond advertising, in other corporate communication contexts. In time, more detailed, intra-lingual and intra-cultural analysis in the Greater China region should also be conducted and consolidated to inform the academia and practitioners alike. References Chan, K., & Cheng, H. (2002). “One country, two systems: Cultural Values reflected in Chinese and Hong Kong television commercials”. Gazzette, 64, pp.385-400. Chen (2006) “The Mixing of English in Magazine Advertisements in Taiwan”. World Englishes, Vol. 25, No.3/4, pp.467-478. Cheng, H. & Schweitzer J. C. (1996). “Cultural Values Reflected in Chinese and U.S. Television Commercials”, Journal of Advertising Research, 36(3), pp.27-44. Feng, J. Y. (2007), “Cultural Value Change in Mainland China’s Commercial Discourse”. In Shi-Xu (ed.), Discourse as Cultural Struggle, pp.73-90, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Feng, J.Y. & Wu, D. (2007). "Cultural Value Change in Mainland China's Commercial Discourse". In Shixu (ed.), Discourse as Cultural Struggle, pp.73-90. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Hofstede, G. (1980, 2001). Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 263 Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng Hofstede, G., & Bond, M. H. (1988). “Confucius & economic growth: New trends in culture’s consequences”. Organizational Dynamics, 16 (4), pp.4-21. Johnson, G. & Scholes, K. (1993, 1997). Exploring corporate strategy: Text and cases. London: Prentice Hall. Lee, M. (2000). “Codeswitching in media texts: Its implications on society and culture in postcolonial Hong Kong, Language and Education in Post-Colonial Hong Kong, edited by David C. S. Li et al., pp.95-127, Hong Kong: Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. Li, D.C.S. (2000). Cantonese-English code-switching research in Hong Kong: A Y2K review. World Englishes 19(3), pp.305-322. Li D.C.S. et al (2000). (eds.). Language and Education in Post-Colonial Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. Lock, G. (2003) “Being International, local and Chinese-advertisements on the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway” Visual Communication 2, pp.195-214. Robertson, R. (1995), “Globcalization: time-space and homogeneity-heterogenity”. In M. Featherstone et al. (ed.), Global Modernities, pp.25-44. CA: Sage Publications. Shi, X. (2007) (ed.). Discourse as Cultural Struggle. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Wang, J. (2000a). “Global Advertising, Chinese Style”. Foreign Advertising in China: Becoming global, becoming local. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press. Wang, J. (王靜) (2000b) <香港媒體語言中的語碼夾雜現像>。<<常熟高專學報>> (“The code-mixing phenomena of media language in Hong Kong”, Journal of Changshu College), Vol. 5, September, 2000, pp.92-119. Wong, W. S. (2000). "The Rise of Consumer Culture in a Chinese society: A Reading of Banking Television Commercials in Hong Kong During the 1970s". Mass Communication & Society, 2000, 3(4), pp.393-413. Wu, D. et al. (2007). “Glocalization and Hybridization of Languages in Chinese Web Advertising”, China Media Research, 3 (2), pp.1-8. Ye, X., & Qin, X. (2004). “Forms and functions of Chinese-English mixing in newspaper advertisements of the Guangzhou region”, Journal of South China University of Technology, 6(3), pp.58-63. Website references Adidas Air China Limited Atos Origin Bank of China (BoC) China Mobile China National Petroleum Corporation China Netcom Coca-Cola Company GE Johnson & Johnson Lenovo Kodak McDonald’s Manulife Financial Omega Panasonic PICC Property and Casualty Co. Ltd. Samsung Sinopec Corp. 264 http://www.adidas.com/cn/shared/home.asp http://www.airchina.com.cn/ http://www.atosorigin.com/en-us/ http://www.bank-of-china.com/ http://www.chinamobile.com/ http://www.cnpc.com.cn/cnpc/ http://www.chinanetcom.com.cn/ http://www.coca-cola.com/glp/d/index.html http://www.ge.com/index.html http://www.jnj.com.cn/ http://www.lenovo.com/ http://www.kodak.com/ http://www.mcdonalds.com/ http://www.manulife.com/ http://www.omegawatches.com/ http://panasonic.net/index.html http://www.piccnet.com.cn/ http://www.samsung.com/hk/index_main.html http://www.sinopec.com.cn/ Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Cross-Cultural and Translingual Communication Strategies of Official Sponsoring Corporations in the Beijing Olympics State Grid Corporation of China Visa Inc. Volkswagenwerk http://www.sgcc.com.cn/default.asp http://www.corporate.visa.com/main.jsp http://www.volkswagen.com.cn/ Appendix Table 1. Major official sponsoring corporations in Beijing Olympics 2008 (N=22) Olympics global partners: Atos Origin The Coca-Cola Company GE Johnson & Johnson Kodak Lenovo McDonald’s Manulife Financial Omega Panasonic Samsung Visa Inc. Beijing Olympics 2008 global partners: Adidas Air China Limited Bank of China (BoC) China Mobile China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) China Netcom PICC Property and Casualty Company Limited State Grid Corporation of China Sinopec Corp. Volkswagenwerk TABLE 2. Comparing Hofstede’s Chinese cum Hong Kong Indices Chinese languages and Chinese & Western brands Hofstede’s Hofstede’s study Languages Cultural China & Canada, Dimensions Hong Kong UK & USA Chinese English UAI+ X X X UAIX X PDI+ X X X PDIX X IDV+ X (~) IDVX MAS+ X (~) X MASX (~) X X LTO+ X X X LTOX : more dominant ~ : highly similar (≤ 5% difference) with our findings on AngloBrands Chinese Western X X X X X X (~) X X X X Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 265 Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng FIGURE. 1 China’s Indices Source: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_china.shtml FIGURE. 2 Hong Kong’s Indices Source: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_hong_kong.shtml 266 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Cross-Cultural and Translingual Communication Strategies of Official Sponsoring Corporations in the Beijing Olympics FIGURE. 3 Johnson & Scholes’ Cultural Web Model (1997) Source: http://www.solutions4training.com/30 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 267 Miranda Y.P. Lee and Patrick P.K. Ng 268 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The State of Leadership in the States: What Businesspeople Say They Value John S. Leipzig Center for Responsible Leadership, Alma College, U.S.A. [email protected] What is going on with leadership in the United States of America? The country is in the grip of a divisive national election, its economy is teetering toward recession, its soldiers languish in multiple conflicts and its reputation in the world community is less than stellar. Perhaps it is once again time to turn to American businesspersons to address the current leadership crisis. In 2007, a national survey of 1000 American business owners, officers, and operators was conducted by Alma College in partnership with EPIC-MRA. In addition to identifying individual superior leaders, the survey identified attributes associated with leaders who were judged to be superior. As anticipated, honesty and integrity headed the list of desired attributes followed by intelligence, vision, communication, compassion and listening. The attributes were submitted for further analysis to ascertain the relative strength of emergent factors. A factor analysis identified five factors which explained 52.2% of the variance in the concept of superior leadership. The top factor included items such as “results orientation”, “work ethic” and “action orientation” which indicated a strong preference for focused action in superior leaders. The second factor was a caring for others factor and included items such as “empathy”, “selflessness” and “generosity”. The third factor included “passion”, “vision” and “creativity”; while the fourth factor highlighted “intelligence” and “superior judgment”. A final factor included “charisma” and “physical attractiveness” which added a small but significant 6% to the overall predictive model. An additional analysis of ten leadership domains indicated that leadership in science and technology, in the military and in volunteer and community service were the most highly rated while leadership in K-12 education, health care and politics/public affairs fared the worst. After detailing the state of business leadership in the States, this paper will detail the full results of the 2007 National Survey on Leadership. The paper will discuss the importance of superior leaders being associated with focused action, having a follower-oriented mindset and possessing the ability to communicate visionary calls for change. The analyses and follow-up discussion will provide insights into the current state of desired leadership qualities by those in American businesses. The final section will detail how higher education can assist in educating future generations of individuals committed to an enhanced conception of leadership directed toward the common good. What is going on with leadership in the United States of America? The country is in the grip of a divisive national election, its economy is teetering toward recession, its soldiers languish in multiple conflicts and its reputation in the world community is less than stellar. Perhaps it is once again time to turn to American businesspersons to see what insights they may provide as to the state of leadership in the States. Cliffe (2008) in a recent Harvard Business Review Editor’s Blog noted “business leaders of a couple generations ago were more engaged with public life – that when the United States needed to go to war in Europe, to build a national highway system, to radically improve math and science education – business executives helped lead the charge” (p. 1). The Current State of Leadership and Business In discussing the current state of executive leadership in the States, Cliffe (2008) offered two fundamental truths: “True thing one: The United States faces big problems. A health care system in disarray; public education that’s dangerously uneven in quality; climate change; muddled foreign economic policy; spiraling energy costs and true thing two: Business leaders are Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 269 John S. Leipzig not a serious part of the national conversation on these issues” (p. 1). A 2006 McKinsey Survey on CEO’s as public leaders indicated that US executives also believe “they should play a much greater role in shaping the debate about socio-political issues and in leading efforts to effect change” (p. 1). When asked about the role of US business executives in addressing public issues, only six percent of the respondents felt that these executives were playing a leadership role versus forty-four percent who believed that they should” (pp. 2-3). This gap is not only noteworthy but representative of the issue at hand. Our business leaders are not engaged in the public dialogue during the time when their expertise may be most needed. Cliffe (2008) noted that “surely it must be clear that business leaders are world-class problem solvers, and that they could help shape our national conversation in constructive ways” (p. 1). As an aside, she noted that “it wouldn’t be a bad thing if U.S. business leaders as a class were perceived as less greedy, and more focused on doing some good things in this world” (p. 1). That aside harbors the root to the problem with leadership in the States today. As a country we have become arrogantly capitalistic and associated with certain business leaders whose annual compensation packages are more than the GNP of some developing countries. Many would agree with Hill (2008) that “it’s worth reexamining our image of the ideal business leader and how and where a person will acquire the attributes needed to become one” (p. 124). While leadership trait research has been around for decades, the criticisms of that research concerns situational generalizability, abstractness of the attributes, inability to link attributes with leadership effectiveness and the omission of behaviors and motivations as mediating variables (Komives, Lucas and McMahon, 2007, p. 48). An interesting side question is whether or not attribute strengths and weaknesses are viewed by raters on a continuum in terms of leadership. As it turns out the answer is “not necessarily” according to a Science Daily (2007) report targeted at looking at what makes a good organizational leader. While “conventional attributes like intelligence, self-discipline, and charisma were seen as common strengths … the common weaknesses reported revealed a surprising picture that was not just the reverse of the strengths” (Ames, p. 1). In terms of weaknesses, assertiveness led the pack with “focused,”, “able,” and “sure” (deficiencies in each case) following (Ames, p. 1). A deficiency in assertiveness was characterized as possessing too little or too much and the conclusion was that “most effective leaders push hard enough to get their way but not so hard that they cannot get along . . . leaders stuck at the extremes of assertiveness may have a narrower repertoire of behavior” (Ames p. 1-2). Lipman-Blumen (2005) took a different tack to discussing weaknesses of toxic leaders. Examples of behaviors and attributes of toxic leaders are: • • • • • • • 270 Leaving their followers worse off than they found them Violating the basic standards of human rights of their own supporters, as well as those of other individuals and groups they do not count among their followers Consciously feeding their followers illusions that enhance the leader’s power and impair the followers’ capacity to act independently Playing to the basest fears and needs of the followers Misleading followers through deliberate untruths and misdiagnoses of issues and problems Insatiable ambition that prompts leaders to put their own sustained power, glory, and fortunes above their followers’ well-being Enormous egos that blind leaders to the shortcomings of their own character and thus limit their capacity for self-renewal Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The State of Leadership in the States: What Business People Say They Value • • Reckless disregard for the costs of their actions to others as well as to themselves Cowardice that leads them to shrink from the difficult choices (pp. 19-22). With all of these attempts to describe or define effective or ineffective (even toxic) leaders, one has to agree with Iwan (2006) when he said “leadership is a theme that has and will continue to fascinate businesspeople due to its imprecise, changing, ephemeral and elusive definition” (p. 1). To be able to offer suggestions for how to positively impact the current state of leadership in the States, one first needs to assess what businesspeople themselves believe to be the current state of leadership in a variety of domains relevant to the lives of those being surveyed. An assessment of those attributes currently seen as important as well as perceptions of superior leaders in the States might provide further insights into the current state of leadership in the USA. In 2007, the Center for Responsible Leadership at Alma College and EPIC-MRA based in Lansing, Michigan conducted a national survey to answer these questions. EPIC-MRA conducted interviews with 1,000 randomly selected American business owners, officers, operators or managers. The sampling error for the businessperson sample is plus or minus three percent. The complete survey results are available at http://www.alma.edu/academics/leadership/ leadership_survey. The author worked with EPIC-MRA to develop the survey instrument and EPIC-MRA completed both the interviews and the follow-up statistical follow-up analyses that are presented in this document which are available in detail on the website noted before in this section. The obtained statistical results will form the basis of the next section of the paper. Results of the Alma College Survey of Leadership Rating the quality of leadership in ten domains Businesspeople were asked to rate the quality of leadership that they felt currently existed in ten areas of American life. A five-point rating scale was used to assess respondent perceptions. A rating of 1 corresponds to excellent, 2 corresponds to very good, 3 corresponds to good, 4 corresponds to fair, and 5 corresponds to poor. The following chart indicates the mean ratings. • • • • • • • • • • Science and technology Military Volunteer and community service Higher Education Business and commerce Local communities Religion and spirituality K-12 education Health care Politics and public affairs 2.63 2.89 3.00 3.10 3.22 3.37 3.59 3.72 3.97 4.11 Leadership in science and technology and in the military were the only domains that businesspeople rated higher than good, and politics and public affairs was the only domain below fair. All other categories were in the fair to good range. While it is heartening that the majority of the categories are in the fair to good range, Americans have every right to expect better leadership across domains. Especially troubling is the finding that the three lowest rated domains are K-12 education, health care and politics and public affairs. Educating youth, caring for the Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 271 John S. Leipzig citizens’ health and governing deserve to be associated with the very best leadership in a country. There appears to be a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the quality of American leadership on the part of businesspeople. Who do businesspeople rate as superior leaders? The respondents in the survey were asked by interviewers to list up to three living individuals that they considered to be superior leaders. In all, five hundred and five distinct individuals were mentioned, as well as the category of none-of-the-above. Having none of the top mentions coming from outside of the United States was due to the slant of the question itself which suggested that the person could come from any area of life and could be a local leader or a national leader which would preclude naming international leaders. Since the paper is most concerned with the perceptions of businesspeople concerning leadership or its lack thereof in the United States, this slant was entirely appropriate. Following is the list of those receiving two percent or more mentions: • • • • • • • • • • • None of the above President George W. Bush President Bill Clinton Reverend Billy Graham General Colin Powell Respondent’s father Microsoft CEO Bill Gates President Jimmy Carter Senator Barack Obama Senator Hillary Clinton Mayor Rudy Giuliani 19.5% 11.0% 5.0% 4.0% 4.0% 3.0% 3.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% Most telling was the fact that one hundred and ninety-five respondents did not mention anyone locally or nationally as coming to mind as a living superior leader. The preponderance of current or former political figures is most likely reflective of a combination of recognition and party support. One religious figure, one business philanthropist, and one family member were included in the top six mentions. Especially troubling was the fact that the few superior leaders that were mentioned were in the political and public affairs category that was also evaluated as the domain rated as less than fair in terms of leadership. Attributes of superior leaders Of the twenty-three attributes presented to respondents in terms of importance for superior leadership, all but two were rated between three and four on a five point importance scale which ranged from least to greatest. This compressed range indicates the possibility of a response set bias or survey fatigue. Another part of the survey asked respondents to mention up to ten attributes that they attributed to superior leaders. Sixty percent of the sample mentioned between one to three attributes. Two attributes, honesty and integrity, emerged both in this exercise and as a combined item on the list of twenty-three attributes as being the most characteristic of superior leaders. Following is a list of the percentage of mentions that were volunteered by at least two percent of businesspeople in the sample. 272 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The State of Leadership in the States: What Business People Say They Value • • • • • • • • • • Honesty Integrity Intelligence Vision Compassion Good listening skills Good communication skills Morality Education Faith/Christianity 11.0% 9.0% 4.0% 3.0% 3.0% 3.0% 3.0% 3.0% 2.0% 2.0% Clearly, honesty and integrity are mentioned more than twice as much as any other attribute by respondents to the survey while communication and other relational skills were mentioned in a number of contexts in the survey as well. When separating out the number of respondents that mentioned a particular attribute, the survey discovered that thirty-two percent mentioned honesty and twenty-four percent mentioned integrity. Vision was mentioned by 9% of the respondents and good listening skills, intelligence and morality by 7%. The mean ratings of the importance of twenty-three attributes scored (5 being of the greatest importance to 1 being the least importance) follow: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Honesty/integrity Work ethic Communication skill Commitment Vision Self-discipline Optimism People skills Intelligence Open-mindedness Judgment Team orientation Results orientation Ability to inspire/motivate Empathy Selflessness Action orientation Passion Generosity Ability to take risks Creativity Charisma Physical attractiveness 3.88 3.68 3.63 3.61 3.57 3.56 3.52 3.50 3.48 3.46 3.44 3.38 3.31 3.28 3.27 3.18 3.14 3.13 3.13 3.09 3.06 2.79 1.49 Once again, honesty/integrity (combined in this survey) was clearly more highly valued than other attributes and charisma and physical attractiveness were the least important attributes. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 273 John S. Leipzig What the data appears to say is that there are a number of attributes that are seen as quite important for superior leaders. To ascertain how these attributes might group together to better explain superior leadership in the minds of US businesspeople was the next part of the analysis. The survey data was submitted to a factor analysis using principal component analysis with a Varimax rotation. The analysis yielded five factors with Eigenvalues greater than 1.0 which together explained 52.2% of the variance in superior leadership. A factor by factor explanation of superior leadership attributes The strongest grouping of attributes was named Character. Character accounted for 13.4% of the variance and had five primary items which loaded at .5 or above and two secondary items which loaded between .4 and .5. Optimistic attitude; Results orientation; Team orientation; Work ethic; Self-discipline; and Honest/integrity loaded in Factor I. Respondents felt superior leaders possessed a constellation of attributes that spoke to strength and morality of character associated with positive qualities that were related to being able to work with others or independently to get things accomplished. The second factor explained 13.3% of the variance and was named Compassion. Compassion had four primary items load at .5 or above and two secondary items load between .4 and .5. Empathy; Selflessness; Generosity, People skills; Communication skills; and Openmindedness were the attributes associated with compassion. American businesspeople value compassionate, caring leadership almost as strongly as strength of character in their leaders. The third factor explained 10.3% of the variance and was named Creativity. Creativity had four primary items load at .5 or above and two secondary items load between .4 and .5. Passion; Takes risks; Creativity; Vision; Action orientation; Inspirational/motivational were the items which groups in this factor. Respondents want their leaders to actively demonstrate passion and visions and find these attributes to be motivational. The fourth factor explained 9.2% of the variance and was named Competence. Competence had two primary items load at .5 or above and two secondary items load between .4 and .5. Intelligence; Superior judgment; Self-discipline and Open-mindedness were the attributes which were associated with competence. The fifth factor explained 6.0% of the variance and was named Charm. Charm had two primary items load at .5 or above and one secondary item load between .4 and .5. Physical Attractiveness; Charisma; and Inspirational/motivational were the attributes associated with charm. One could note that Physical Attractiveness and Charisma were the items seen as least important in the list of twenty-three attributes and Inspirational/motivational was a secondary loading on the two lowest factors. Putting together the five C’s of superior leadership American businesspeople are looking for leaders that demonstrate or are associated with superior levels of character, compassion, creativity, competence and who at times can be charming. These same businesspeople are hard pressed to name living American leaders who possess these attributes. Businesspeople have the most confidence in the leadership in science and technology and in the military but the least in politics and in public affairs (where the highest individuals above none-of-the-above were mentioned). These findings generally parallel the positive attributes associated across the world as shared global leadership dimensions. The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman and Gupta, 2004) noted six global leadership dimensions: 274 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The State of Leadership in the States: What Business People Say They Value • • • • • • Charismatic/Value-Based Leadership is generally reported to contribute to outstanding leadership. The range-of mean societal scores among GLOBE countries is 4.5 to 6.5 on a 7-point scale. (Character and Creativity in the present study). Team Oriented leadership is generally reported to contribute to outstanding leadership. The range of mean societal scores among GLOBE countries is 4.7 to 6.2 on a 7-point scale. (Character and Compassion in the present study). Participative leadership is generally reported to contribute to outstanding leadership, although there are meaningful differences among countries and clusters. The range of mean societal scores among GLOBE counties is 4.5-6.1 on a 7-point scale. (Compassion in the present study). Human-Oriented leadership is reported to be neutral in some societies to moderately contribute to outstanding leadership in others. The range of mean societal scores is 3.8 to 5.6 on a 7-point scale. (Compassion in the present study). Autonomous leadership is reported to range from impeding outstanding leadership to slightly facilitating outstanding leadership. The range of mean societal scores is 2.34.7 on a 7-point scale. (Competence in the present study). Self-Protective leadership is generally reported to impede outstanding leadership. The range of mean societal scores among GLOBE countries is 2.5 to 4.6 on a 7-point scale (pp. 41-42). The importance of this factor/dimension correspondence is highlighted by Link and Gerzon (2006) when they note that “there is too little discussion about what a global leader is” (p. 5). American businesspeople want in their superior leaders much of the same attributes as do other respondents from around the world. The real key now is how do discover and prepare superior leaders? Preparing a new generation of superior leaders The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2008) recently announced a new book authored by William Sullivan and Matthew Rosin published by Jossey-Bass entitled A New Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice. In their highlights to the book, the authors began with the question “What is higher education for?”(p. 3). Insightfully, the introduction continued, “Today’s students will be called upon to meet the practical and professional challenges that await them with insight, technical know-how and discerning moral commitment. Their success will be directly determined by how effectively they have learned to respond to the world in which they live and make informed and responsible judgments about the role they will play within it” (p. 3). Their new model “focused on the interdependence of liberal education and professional training . . . which sets out ways of integrating practices from professional education that engage students in practice and reflections, with teaching practices from the liberal arts which provide sources for the formation of competent and responsible persons” (p. 3). The framers finish with “by reconnecting analytic insight with practical judgment and action, students learn how best to enter situations, how to sustain aims amid changing circumstances, and how to frame and reframe purposes while seeking with others a common good” (p. 3). Warren Bennis and Noel Tichy (2008), when talking about the selection of future leaders, claimed that “the leader’s most important role is making good judgment calls in three domains: key people, strategy and crisis. Great leaders have a high percentage of good judgment calls— Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 275 John S. Leipzig and they are only good if the execution succeeds. The leader’s second most important role is to develop other leaders who make good judgment calls” (p. 5). Hill in Hemp (2008) believes that “the kind of leaders we increasingly need: someone who understands how to create a context or culture in which other people are willing and able to lead” (p. 126). Hill talks about the type of programs that will create future leaders and notes that “people will benefit from programs that require them to deal with challenging situations – say, struggling to accomplish tasks in unfamiliar cultures” (p. 128). Heifetz (2008), in an interview with Brianna Riggio, summed up leadership education for undergraduates by forwarding a strong belief that “leaders are not born but made. Talent needs to be harnessed properly. People can be taught how to practice leadership . . . school is a time for students to practice effective leadership skills both in the classroom and out on campus simply experiencing their everyday lives” (p. 34). Heifetz continues, “At school, personal capacities strengthen and develop, giving students a variety of experiences both in and out of the classroom. Students learn to reflect in the midst of crisis, to orchestrate conflict among multiple parties, to tolerate ambiguity” (p. 34). Later when talking about the field of leadership he “admitted that the field itself is still in developing stages . . . we need to acknowledge that this is a frontier” (p. 34). When asked to define leadership from his perspective, Heifetz (2008) says he believes that “leadership is an activity rather than a set of personality characteristics. It is an activity in relationship to certain problems. It’s not an influence process or set of power dynamics, although those are tools to be applied with skill . . . people are not always consistent leaders nor are they always considered followers. There is no such thing as a leader for all seasons” (p. 33). The present study is informed by Heifetz’s comments. Businesspeople see leadership in reference to particular activities and they see activity in the military and science and technology as being better than good and politics and public affairs as less than fair. When asked to rate individuals as superior leaders, no person rose above the non-mentions further supporting Heifetz's concept that there are not leaders for all seasons. Character is informed by a tolerance for ambiguity; being able to navigate through crises; understanding cultural dynamics and possessing a genuine regard for others and are the key characteristics of superior leaders. Instead of being attributes, these are leadership actions desired by American businesspeople. Placing students in challenging situations where they can reflect on their lived experience is the key to leadership development and for leadership theory building. Our next leaders will be informed by broad cultural experiences and will be able to understand when their skills match the leadership demands of the situation while understanding equally when it does not. Superior leaders develop other superior leaders. These individuals provide others with the opportunities to grow and to learn through their own lived leadership experiences. Superior leaders provide others with the necessary resources to succeed, actively support the decisions of others and silently enjoy the accomplishments of those they mentor more than they do their own personal successes. Businesspeople in America desire a new generation of leaders who act with character, compassion, creativity, competence and charm. As new leaders emerge, America will join the world community as a fully functioning partner dedicated to working with others to solve issues that are will positively impact the common good. 276 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 The State of Leadership in the States: What Business People Say They Value References Ames, R. (2007), “What makes a good leader: The assertiveness quotient”, retrieved April 15, 2008 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070205115220.htm. Bennis, W., & Tichy, N. (2008), “Judgment trumps experience”, Leadership Excellence, February 2008. Bonini, S., McKillop, K., & Whitehouse, A. (2006), “CEOs as public leaders: A McKinsey survey”, The McKinsey Quarterly, December 2006. Cliffe, S. (2008), “Have American business leaders disappeared from the public stage?” retrieved April 15, 2008 from http://www.discussion leader.hbsp.com/hbeditors/2008/03/have_american_leaders_ 1.html. 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(2008), A New Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping a Lie of the Mind for Practice, highlights retrieved April 14, 2008 from http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/dynamic/ publications/elibrary_pdf_715pdf. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 277 John S. Leipzig 278 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Effective Leadership in Crisis: When Should the CEO Step Up to Be the Organization’s Spokesperson? Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University, Singapore [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] Implicit in the crisis literature is the role of the CEO in helping the organizations overcome crisis. One explicit role the CEO can play is to assert leadership by assuming the role of the organization’s spokesperson. But what remains unclear is under what circumstances should the CEO assume this role, and at what point of the crisis. Findings showed that for crises that fall under the “organizational transgressions” category, the CEO played a crucial role in placating publics through assumption of responsibility of the situation. For crises under the “organizational events” category, as these were largely internal affairs, the CEO need not necessarily address an external public, unless the crisis spilsl over to the public realm and the organization’s reputation was on the line. For crises in the “events and actions beyond the organization locus of control” category, the CEO needs to address the public as the magnitude of the damage increased. Findings also showed the CEO needs to step up to revise earlier statements made by organizational representatives and in any situation where the integrity of the organization is called into question. Findings also suggest that the CEO should step up at the beginning of the crisis if the crisis pertains to organizational transgression or when the crisis becomes unbearable to organizational reputation. As counter-intuitive as it may, CEOs should refrain from stepping up at the height of the crisis. It is hoped that this exploratory study provides a basic template that would illuminate practical insights for corporate communications practitioners on when to advise the CEO to front a crisis as spokesperson. To use military parlance, the CEO does not need to appear in every battle as long as the CEO knows how to win the war. The question this study seeks to answer is how does the CEO know in which battle to appear to get the optimal mileage? If there was a cardinal rule in crisis communication, it must certainly be the criticality and centrality of crisis leadership. Implicit in the leadership literature is the role of the CEO in helping the organization overcome crisis. Besides setting the direction for the organization, the CEO reestablishes confidence among stakeholders. Boin, Hart, Stern and Sundelius (2005) enumerated five critical tasks the leadership, which includes the CEO, performs: Sense-making of the crisis, making decisions to deal with the crisis, framing and making meaning of the crisis to stakeholders, terminating the crisis to restore normalcy to the organization, as well as steering the organization to learn from the crisis. Additionally, one explicit role the CEO should play is to assert leadership by assuming the role of the organization’s spokesperson (Englehardt, Sallot, & Springston, 2004; Littlefield & Quenette, 2007; Mintzberg, 1998; Nadler, 2006; Petersen & Martin, 1996). A visible CEO would demonstrate the importance the organization places on the crisis and dispel any notion that the organization might renege its responsibility to stakeholders (Ulmer, Sellnow, & Seeger, 2007). Though the organization spokesman has often been conceived as the organization’s public face and the media contact person, beyond the media glitz would be someone who plays a critical role in shaping organizational message, ensuring the consistency of message, and enabling Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 279 Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang that the organization is seen as a responsible entity, and thereby enhancing image repair (Englehardt, Sallot, & Springston, 2004; Troester, 1991). Wilson and Patterson (1987) argued that organizations should identify one key spokesperson to ensure that the organization speaks with one voice. The spokesperson should preferably not be from the public relations department, but rather, a corporate executive that is trained by public relations professionals (Wilson & Patterson, 1987). Assigning multiple spokespersons would make image repair more defused and ambiguous, as illustrated by the Center for Disease Control’s loss of credibility during the Anthrax crisis (Barrett, 2005). One of the most credible spokespersons an organization can put forward is the head of the organization. This can be the CEO, President or Managing Director if it was a corporate entity or non-profit organization, heads of government if it was a government institution. For easier referencing in this paper, we shall use the term, CEO, to refer to such persons of authority and power. The CEO, by the very nature of the job, must be thoroughly aware of the organization’s objectives, structures and working mechanisms (Mintzberg, 1998), making the person the most credible, if not most qualified. In crisis, a CEO who is at the forefront often becomes the Chief Crisis Manager (Nadler, 2006). While the credibility of the CEO as an organization’s spokesperson is unquestioned, what remains unclear is at what point of the crisis should the CEO assume this role and how does this impact crisis communication. Central to these questions is that, given that the CEO has myriad portfolios to oversee, should the CEO step up to be the organization spokesperson at the hint of a crisis, in every crisis? To do so would arguably be an unwise use of the CEO’s time. Or, are there certain crises where the responsibility can be delegated to corporate communications while the CEO leads from within? With these questions in mind, this study sets out to explore the conditions in which the CEO should assume the spokesperson’s role through meta-analysis of more than 30 cases that have been empirically tested in studies. These cases are in turn empirically tested using image repair strategies. Seeger (2002; 2006) argued that understanding the crisis situation is an important step to assess organizational response. Drawing on this insight, this study aims to explore the conditions in which the CEO should step up to be the organization’s spokesperson by examining crisis types, using Diers’ (2007) taxonomy of 18 crisis types categorized into three broad crisis categories. Framing this study is image repair theory. The key research questions examined are what crisis types were the case studies categorized into? Under what circumstances did the CEO become the organization spokesperson? What were the image repair strategies used by the CEO? How successful were the strategies used? At what point should the CEO become the organization spokesperson? What impact does this have on the crisis? The significance of this study is threefold. First, by studying the circumstances in which the CEO should step up as organization spokesman, it is hoped that this exploratory study can provide the initial operational framework for CEOs on when they should step up. Second, this framework is concomitantly instructive for corporate communications practitioners in organizations as a secondary objective of the study is to understand the circumstances in which it would be sufficient for practitioners can step up instead of activating the CEO. Last but not least, this study clarifies the roles of CEOs in crisis. For instance, Pang (2006) argued in his conflict positioning conceptualization that the dominant coalition, including the CEO, needed to be involved in crisis. That is one of the five critical factors (i.e., condition) in determining the stance (i.e., position) and strategies (i.e., action) the organization would subsequently take. This study sheds light on the degree of involvement and the specific roles and impact the CEO would have in crisis. 280 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Effective Leadership in Crisis: When Should the CEO Step Up to Be the Organization’s Spokesperson The CEO’s Role in Crisis Communication Critical Role of the Spokesperson and Central Role of the CEO in Crisis In any crisis, the spokesperson plays a critical role in crisis management (Ruff & Aziz, 2003). Troester (1991) argued that the spokesperson is the primary source of information for stakeholders and establishes a “positive, long-term, ongoing relationship with the media” (p. 529), which in turn disseminate the actions taken by the organization to these stakeholders. The spokesperson is expected to be the information broker, facilitating speedy transfer of information across the organization internally, as well as packaging necessary information for the external audiences (Ruff & Aziz, 2003). By designating a spokesperson, the organization is empowering and directing the media and stakeholders to the organization’s ordained authoritative source. Mintzberg (1998) carried out a study through observation of the CEOs of five middle-tolarge American corporations, and he identified ten roles of the CEO in three groups. The first group identified the CEO in interpersonal roles. To the organization, the CEO plays a figurehead role. By virtue of the office, the CEO is expected to carry out many social, legal and ceremonial duties, such as attending or presiding over formal dinners, signing important agreements, meeting important officials and meeting important clients (Mintzberg, 1998). The CEO must also serve a leader role and bring direction and training to the organization that the CEO is serving (Mintzberg, 1998). The third interpersonal role is that of a liaison, which means, the CEO must interact with people outside of the organization and developing a network of influential partners for the benefit of the organization (Mintzberg, 1998). The second group, as identified by Mintzberg (1998), is that of an information broker. The CEO is expected to monitor information in and around the organization continually. The CEO then shares this information with the relevant publics, thus serving as a disseminator. The third role identified by Mintzberg (1998) needs special mention as the CEO is also expected to play the role of the spokesman, to inform external publics about the organization progress. Pincus and DeBonis (1994) found that CEOs want to be the external spokesperson of the organization and are moving toward getting more involved in the communication process with key publics. The third group is that of the CEO as a decision-maker. The CEO as an entrepreneur is the responsible agent for change in the organization (Mintzberg, 1998). Another role identified in the decision-maker group is that of a resource allocator, as the CEO is expected to make the key decisions in deciding who is in charge of what, and is the authority for all important decisions in the organization, as the CEO is ultimately responsible for the outcomes (Mintzberg, 1998). The CEO leads the dominant coalition, which determines the function of public relations, among others (Petersen & Martin, 1996). The CEO is a negotiator by virtue of the unique position that allows the CEO to make difficult decisions during the negotiation stages (Mintzberg, 1998). Finally, Mintzberg (1998) also identified the CEO as a disturbance handler, who will take on the role of a crisis manager when the organization is faced with a crisis. The CEO is responsible for risk management, identifying and addressing the full range of risks/crises that could threaten the organization (Nadler, 2006). It is apparent that the CEO plays a critical, and central, role in any crisis, as the CEO will need to deal with managing the situation, communicating with relevant (whether internal or external) stakeholders, and reporting on the progress of the crisis situation. The CEO has the primary responsibility of “leading the institution, marshaling the organization’s internal resources, maintaining continuity and morale, and communicating both inside and outside the organization” (Nadler, 2006, p. 37). Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 281 Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang Crisis Typologies Ulmer, Sellnow, and Seegar (2007) defined crisis as a “specific, unexpected, and nonroutine event or series of events that create high levels of uncertainty and threaten or are perceived to threaten an organization’s high-priority goals” (p. 7, italics in text). A crisis can range from a fire that destroys operations, to financial uncertainty, and at the extreme, death of personnel. Scholars have attempted to categorize the different types of crises using different measures. Pearson and Mitroff (1993), for instance, classified crisis typologies according to the crises’ shared characteristics. They created six clusters of crisis types: megadamage, external economic attacks, external information attacks, breaks, perceptual crises and psycho. They map the clusters on a perceptual map with two dimensions: the vertical axis referring to nature to a crisis and the horizontal axis referring to how the crisis is initiated. They defined the nature of a crisis as ranging from human/social to technical or economic. The horizontal axis, how a crisis was initiated, ranged from crisis emanating from a normal occurrence that escalated to a crisis, to crisis caused by an extreme/deviant occurrence. In each of the quadrants are crises types, for instance, megadamage, characterized by environmental accidents and catastrophes, as initiated by a severe source, lies on the upper quadrants while in the lower quadrant lie perceptual crises, characterized by damage to reputation as emanating from normal occurrences. Coombs and Holladay (2002) classified crisis typologies such that they can be organized and integrated into crisis response strategies. They identified three distinct clusters under which these 13 crisis types are categorized: the victim cluster, whereby the organization is a victim of the crisis and bears minimal responsibility for it, such as in cases of natural disasters, workplace violence, rumors and product tampering; the accidental cluster, whereby the organization did not intend to create the crisis and bears some responsibility for it, such as in cases of challenges, megadamage, and technical breakdowns- accidents and recalls; and the preventable cluster, whereby the organization purposely put the stakeholders at risk, or took inappropriate/ minimal action to prevent the crisis from occurring, such as in cases of human breakdown and organizational misdeeds. In the last cluster the organization bears strong responsibility for the crisis. Diers’ (2007) study consolidated the existing literature and classified them into three broad categories, namely: 1) Organizational Transgressions; 2) Organizational Events; and 3) Events / Actions outside of the Organization Locus and Control. Drawing from past literature, Diers (2007) also identified 18 “types” of crisis that can be broadly categorized into the three overarching classifications. The first broad classification is that of organizational transgressions, or crises which can be attributable to the organization, be it through intentional or unintentional actions (Diers, 2007). Diers (2007) classified eight types of crises under this category: 1) illegal corporate behavior ; 2) technical breakdown accident; 3) technical breakdown leading to product recall; 4) megadamage; 5) human breakdown leading to an industrial accident; 6) human breakdown leading to a product recall; 7) organizational misdeed; and 8) organizational misdeed resulting in injury/death. The second classification is that of organizational events, or crises which can be possibly (but not necessarily) be in the organization’s locus on control, and may or may not have a negative impact on the organization target audience but nonetheless is a crisis to the organization. Diers (2007) listed four types of crises under this category: 1) mergers and failed mergers; 2) strikes; 3) economic downturns resulting in organizational actions; and 4) workplace violence. 282 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Effective Leadership in Crisis: When Should the CEO Step Up to Be the Organization’s Spokesperson The last classification is that of events /actions outside of the organization locus of control, which refers to an event that the organization has no control over, but the resultant impact still brings about crises which the organization has to address. Diers (2007) listed six types of crises under this category: 1) rumors; 2) malevolence / product tampering; 3) challenge; 4) shifting political attitude; 5) natural disasters; and 6) terrorist attacks. In this study, Diers’ (2007) typology is used because it is arguably the most comprehensive classification since it consolidates existing literature. Examining crisis though typologies affords researchers the context so as to determine organizational response (Coombs & Holladay, 1996, 2002; Diers, 2007; Hearit, 1999; Pearson & Mitroff, 1993). In this study, the context would enable the authors to examine the conditions and circumstances for the CEO to step up. Image Repair Theory Understanding what communication strategies the CEO as the organization’s spokesperson uses during crisis is the theoretical lens in which this study was carried out, against the backdrop of crisis typologies. In Benoit’s (1995) image repair theory, he has developed five general image repair strategies, denial, evasion of responsibility, reducing offensiveness of event, corrective action, and mortification. Embedded in each of the general strategies are sub-strategies. Denial There are two ways by which an organization can issue a denial: simple denial, which entails denying the action for which the rhetor (individual speaker or organization) is being accused of (Taylor & Caldiero, 2005), and shift the blame, which entails arguing that another organization is responsible for the act (Benoit, 1997). Evasion of Responsibility There are four ways by which an organization can evade responsibility: provocation, defeasibility, accident and good intentions. In provocation, the rhetor claims that the issue/offensive action is merely a reaction to a previous offensive action by another organization (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). In defeasibility, the organization claims that there was a lack of information about the situation or lack of control over certain elements thereof (Benoit, 1997; Brinson & Benoit, 1996), resulting in the offensive event. In accident, the organization claims that the situation was brought about by an accident (Benoit, 1997). If the public believes that the offensive action was caused by an accident, they are more likely not to blame the organization for it, reducing the impact on the organization’s image (Benoit, 1997). Lastly, in good intentions, an organization claims that the offensive action was initially performed with good intentions (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). Reducing Offensiveness of Event There are six ways by which organizations can attempt to reduce the offensiveness of an event. Bolstering, whereby the organization attempts to restore positive feelings towards them by reminding the public of their positive attributes and by expressing sympathy (Benoit, 1997). Minimization, whereby an organization attempts to downplay the event and make the audience perceive the event to be not as severe as it seems to be (Benoit, 1997). Differentiation, whereby an organization attempts to distinguish the event from other similar, but more offensive situations (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). Transcendence, whereby the organization attempts to place the Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 283 Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang situation in a more positive light (Benoit, 1997; Brinson & Benoit, 1996). Attack the accuser, whereby the organization attempts to reduce the credibility of the accuser and to make their initial accusations less impactful (Benoit, 1997). Lastly, compensation, whereby the organization attempts to provide some sort of remuneration (whether financially or some other form) to the affected publics (Taylor & Caldiero, 2005). Corrective Action When an organization is facing a crisis, they can pledge to correct the situation by restoring the state of conditions to the status quo, and committing to prevent the crisis from reoccurring (Benoit, 1997). Mortification The last strategy entails accepting responsibility for the offensive act, apologizing and asking for forgiveness (Benoit, 1997; Brinson & Benoit, 1996; Taylor & Caldiero, 2005). Against this backdrop, this study examines, RQ 1: What crisis types were the case studies categorized into? RQ 2: (a) Under what circumstances did the CEO become the organization spokesperson? (b) What were the image repair strategies used by the CEO? (c) How successful were the strategies used? RQ 3: (a) At what point should the CEO become the organization spokesperson? (b) What impact does this have on the crisis? Method This study begins with a meta-analysis and review of literature on crisis communication. The meta-analysis method is useful to combine different data in various studies of one topic into one comprehensive study (Dahlel, 2003; Neill, 2006; Wimmer & Dominick, 2006). While it may be useful to survey organizations affected by crisis, the authors argue that as an exploratory study, it would begin by exploring existing case studies and identify the various element in each crisis. Pompper (2007) argued that a review of literature specific to a field, in this case, crisis, would yield a further understanding of its development and identify future areas of research. It is through further detailed examination of these cases that this study seeks to understand the importance of the CEO in crisis communication. Data Collection Literature review As each crisis was unique in its own way, it was important to study as many case studies as possible to understand the various circumstances in which the organization is plunged into a crisis. The first order search criterion centered on the crisis literature. These cases were categorized into the different crisis typologies using Dier’s (2007) framework. In all, 4 books, 33 journal articles and 16 news articles from the newspapers and the Internet were chosen to further understanding of crisis leadership and image repair. Whilst the literature search was not restricted to any particular time frame, attention was paid to ensure that all relevant crises types in the typology had at least one case. While most of the cases occurred before 1995, most of the cases (save one) were published after 1995; after Benoit’s (1995) image repair theory became a useful tool in analyzing crisis situations. In all, 33 cases were identified. 284 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Effective Leadership in Crisis: When Should the CEO Step Up to Be the Organization’s Spokesperson News articles Wimmer and Dominick (1997) asserted that case studies were time-tested means of evaluating business practices. Stake (1995) argued that case study enabled researchers to understand the embeddedness and interactions these processes had with their larger contexts. Case studies, in the context of organizational studies, are in-depth studies of people, processes, and protocol (Stacks, 2002). The essence of case study is, thus, to “illuminate a set of decisions, why they were taken and how they were implemented, and to what result,” argued Yin (2003, p. 12). The second order search centered on news articles. Further information about the cases was explored by diving into the news articles relating to them. Attention was paid to whether the CEO stepped up during the crisis, or if someone else did. Data Analysis Analyzing context The purpose of case studies is to empirically investigate a “contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context” and address a “situation in which the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” (Yin, 1993, p. 59). Each case was analyzed for their intrinsic value (Stake, 1998), in detail and the unique contexts. Themes and patterns were identified from each case, from the literature as well as news articles, with the aim of understanding the context and circumstance of the crisis, and if the CEO had played a crucial role in communicating to the external publics. Analyzing strategies Some of the studies examined were empirical tests using image repair strategies. For the others that were not, the authors examined them by applying the image repair theory on them to identify the strategies used; this was especially so for news articles selected. A two-level approach was thus used to study the cases. The first level entailed re-visiting well-documented journal articles that used prominent crisis situations in recent times as case studies for application of image repair strategies. The second level used news articles that either furthered the understanding of the studied cases; or in the case of Dier’s (2007) typologies of rumours; organizational misdeeds without injury; and product recalls (due to human or technical errors) served as the primary research resource as no other relevant journal article was identified. Journal articles with image repair strategies used as a framework provided ready resource into the insights of the thinking and strategies of the organizations at that time. From the literature, it was then inferred as to when the CEO stepped up (if he did at all), and whether image repair was ultimately successful. For the news articles chosen, Benoit’s (1995) image repair theory was used as a framework in first identifying the strategies used; followed by inferring the timing at which the CEO appeared and to what effect. Findings and Discussion This section is distilled into four categories. First, situations which require the CEO to step up; second, situations when the CEO did not step up; third, situations where the CEO should have stepped up; and four, situations where there is no need for the CEO to step up. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 285 Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang When the CEO needs to step up Accidents (Technical or Human Error) Organizations may find themselves in a situation when a technical or human error by the organization results in an accident. An excellent example is an airline crash where the accident may have been caused by technical faults on the aircraft, or by pilot error. In May 1996, Valujet found itself in this position when its plane crashed shortly after takeoff, an accident which resulted in the deaths of 110 passengers and crew members. Englehardt, Sallot and Springston (2004) analyzed the case to understand Valujet’s crisis communication during this crisis. It was found that mislabeled oxygen canisters, which resulted in a leak and a fire, led to the accident. Civil aviation authorities (like the NSTB) and Sabretech, a contractor with Valujet, alongside family victims were all embroiled in the crisis. Valujet engaged in shifting responsibility to Sabretech for the canister but this was met with little success (Englehardt, Sallot & Springston, 2004). The President of Valujet, Lewis Jordon, stepped out immediately, serving as the organization’s primary spokesperson at the press conference on May 11, 1996 (on the day of the crash), (Englehardt, Sallot & Springston, 2004). He utilized bolstering strategies by empathizing with the families of the victims, and corrective action strategies by announcing the measures they will be undertaking to ensure the safety of their passengers. Valujet’s crisis communication efforts in this situation were largely lauded by PR experts (Englehardt, Sallot & Sprinston, 2004). It can be inferred that the CEO’s appearance to make a statement can be seen as a good move by the organization. Accidents resulting in death or injury with which the organization has great locus of control or at least perceived to have a great locus of control (Coombs, 1995) will undoubtedly cause public perception to be against the organization’s favor. The CEO’s appearance and his statements will be able to set the stage for how the organization is prepared to tackle the crisis, and his presence will provide the public a credible source in which to understand the organization stance. Organizational Misdeed with No Injuries Car manufacturer Chrysler, in 1987, was accused of disconnecting the odometers of brand new cars, allowing executives to use the car and then eventually selling these off as brand new (Holusha, 1987). Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca admitted to this practice but contended that it was not illegal to do so. He maintained that this was a case of bad judgment on their part, and that is was a mistake (Hearit, 1994). Intel, on the contrary, was found to have released the Pentium chip, despite knowing that it may cause calculation errors. CEO Andrew Grove, initially issued a statement in an online IT community, trying to minimize the claim, saying that the error can only occur once in 27,000 years of use (Hearit, 1999). He even issued what seemed like a challenge, saying that if the user has to perform sophisticated enough calculations for the error to be significant, Intel will replace his chip. Subsequently, the error was found to occur more frequently than Intel had claimed, and IBM engineers said it can occur once every 24 days (Hearit, 1999). Soon after, Grove, along with the other executives, appeared in an advertisement announcing that consumers can exchange their current Pentium chip with a new one that doesn’t carry the flaw (Hearit, 1999). Because the transgression was clearly intentionally committed by the organization, even with the argument that it will cause no harm, because it was found out by the public, the CEO had to come out to let their publics know that the organization is sincerely remorseful of their actions. However, by initially appearing somewhat defensive, Intel CEO received a lot of criticism. He was publicly proven wrong and that added to the severity of the situation. 286 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Effective Leadership in Crisis: When Should the CEO Step Up to Be the Organization’s Spokesperson Mortification, corrective action and bolstering often characterized the strategies employed when the organization got its hand “caught in the cookie jar,” to use layman language. Bolstering statements that remind people of the organization’s longstanding good track record and relationship with their consumers deflect the impact of their outright apology. Organizational Misdeed with Injuries In July 1991, Dow Corning Corporation saw the beginning of a public relations nightmare that would ultimately took three years to recover from (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). The crisis arose from the sale of silicon-breast implants, and involved a large number of stakeholders: the organization itself, the Food and Drug Administration, breast implant recipients and their lawyers, and the news media. Brinson and Benoit (1996) analyzed the case as going through three phases in its image repair discourse, with all three phases having a consistent line of messaging – that the silicon-breast implants were safe (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). The first phase was classified as the “simple denial” phase (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). At the behest of a Congressional sub-committee hearing and public complaints, the FDA demanded Corning to show proof of the safety of the silicon-breast implants. The organization responded by releasing documents stating that the breast implants do not increase the risk of breast cancer. The spokesperson quoted was J. Kermit Campbell, one of the group’s vice-presidents. However, the FDA rejected Corning’s explanations, which led to the second phase of the crisis wherein, the FDA continued to question the safety of silicon-breast implants, the misleading information on the “hotline” established by Corning to inform breast implant recipients, and the revelation of internal documents that implied Corning were aware of the potential risks of the product but proceeded to manufacture them anyway (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). The challenge about the safety of silicon-breast implants undermined Dow Corning’s public image, and were met with denials, minimization, attacking the accuser, and bolstering strategies by the organization (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). They continued to deny that the implants were unsafe, asserted that women who have had implants were completely satisfied, attacked the FDA for not reviewing earlier documents released by the organization in detail, and expressed that the organization was willing to do more research on the matter. Subsequently, after damages were awarded to a “victim” of the implants, Dow Corning faced even greater pressure. Internal documents that showed Dow Corning was aware of the potential risk came to public scrutiny. Top executives Robert LeVier and Robert Rylee continued to front the organization, utilizing the earlier strategies, as well as employing transcendence, by saying that the need of the women for breast implants outweigh the perceived risk (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). In the final phase, Dow Corning replaced two senior executives, and designated Keith McKennon to the post of CEO. McKennon immediately went to the forefront, and used mortification and corrective action strategies to soothe public sentiments. He first promised that documents requested for would be released, and set about to assure the public that the organization’s first priority is to its clients, promising help for women who wish to have their implants removed. The apologetic and conciliatory tone used reduced the attention by the FDA and the media considerably (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). In the Dow Corning case, the CEO only stepped up at the peak of the crisis. The initial two phases were met with denials from the organization, utilizing senior executives, but this was not sufficient to placate the key audiences (FDA and the media). It was only with the replacement of the CEO, and with the new CEO stepping out to change image repair strategies (shift to mortification and corrective action strategies) that allowed Dow Corning to gain some measure of success in image repair (Brinson & Benoit, 1996). Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 287 Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang Workplace Violence Pomerenke’s study (1998) looked into the class action sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Mitsubishi Motors (MMMA) in 1996. When the crisis erupted on April 9, with the filing of the lawsuit, MMMA put forward a corporate spokesperson, Gary Shultz, to handle all the public statements by the organization. At this point, the organization’s stand was a firm denial of all the allegations. The employees were divided, with some groups supporting the women who filed the class action, and some supporting the organization. When the MMMA supported a “march” for the organization, the CEO, Tsuneo Ohinouye, came out with a statement in the organization newsletter, thanking the employees who participated (Pomerenke, 1998). Throughout the development of the case, Shultz remained the public spokesperson. Fifteen days later, the organization decided to change its stance with an announcement made by the CEO in his first public statement during the crisis. Ohinouye announced that MMMA would be settling the case and admitted that sexual harassment cases had been filed since the plant opened in 1986 (Pomerenke, 1998). After this, Ohinouye continued to address the public, and later announced changes in MMMA’s corporate policies. Because the organization first had a corporate spokesperson who vehemently denied all the charges, the situation spiraled out of control because all the employees were rallying behind the statements issued on their behalf. Pomerenke (1998) asserted that this denial and defensiveness might have distorted the messages sent to the employees and the public. The CEO’s mortification strategies and promises of corrective action alleviated the tension and allowed MMMA to settle the case and move forward. Challenges In November 1996, Texaco was accused of racism and their hard-won customers started organizing a boycott (Eichenwald, 1996). This happened when a secret tape of a conversation between four top executives was released to the media. In it, the four executives made racist remarks, and soon there was a public outcry over the statements made. The accusations made were widely, negatively, covered in the media and even chairman, Peter I. Bijur, received hostile mails from the organization’s customers (Brinson & Benoit, 1999). Bijur became involved in the management of the crisis right from the start. On the day the article detailing the tape was published, he immediately sent out a news release, and sent letters and a video message to all employees (Brinson & Benoit, 1999). The following day, he appeared on ABC’s Nightline to address the issue. Bijur’s initial press release contained bolstering and corrective action strategies, first reiterating that Texaco did not condone racist behavior, and secondly, the promise that an investigation was underway and that appropriate action would be taken if the allegations were confirmed. During the interview on Nightline, Bijur employed similar strategies, reiterating the same message, and included mortification as well, by apologizing to all African Americans, employees and citizens of the country alike. Finally, he laid the foundation to appropriately shift the blame to the few executives involved and isolate them from the rest of the organization (Brinson & Benoit, 1999). His subsequent press releases and statements, as well as during meetings with African American leaders, all used similar strategies. The end result was telling: Stock prices rebounded and boycotts were called off and in a short span of time, and negative press and criticisms died down (Brinson & Benoit, 1999). Bijur’s image repair effort was evaluated to be successful (Brinson & Benoit, 1999). When the CEO did not step up 288 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Effective Leadership in Crisis: When Should the CEO Step Up to Be the Organization’s Spokesperson Strikes During the 1967- 1977 Los Angeles Herald Examiner labor strike, publisher George Hearst Jr., grandson of Hearst founder William Randolph Hearst, never publicly addressed the crisis (Brennen, 2005). He worked aggressively to break the union and the strike, and to win the labor case brought up against the organization, but he never issued public statements regarding the matter (Brennen, 2005; Time, 1968). Dan Goodgame (1987, as cited in Brennen, 2005) wrote that the Hearsts were not predisposed to talking about their businesses to anyone. Only negotiators and organization spokespersons handled the media coverage the event generated. Similarly, in the 1997 UPS strike, the CEO was not designated as the spokesperson. UPS initially designated its chief negotiator to be the spokesperson, but when the strike started attracting a lot of media attention, the organization started considering CEO James Kelly to be the spokesperson (Miller, 1999). However, Kelly had only joined the organization 7 months prior to the strike, and the organization deemed him unprepared for the media spotlight. The organization designated its national spokespersons to handle the media onslaught. Strikes are inherently internal organizational crises that devolve into the public sphere because of the clamor by the strikers. Because of the nature of the conflict, the CEO does not need to address the general public, unless the reputation of the organization is put on the line because of smear campaigns and increased media attention. Kumar (2001) argued that media coverage of strikes is generally favorable to the organization, so the organization do not necessarily have to generate more attention to themselves by “washing their dirty laundry” in public. Rumor In 1998, Pepsi accused Coke of using intimidation to restrict competition (CNN Money, 1998), and filed an anti-trust lawsuit against them for it. Coke responded by using simple denial. The case was dismissed two years later (Winter, 2000). At the forefront was Coke’s spokesperson Bill Hensel. In cases of rumor, and assuming that the rumor was baseless, it can be posited that the CEO does not need to step up to address the issue. The truth of the matter will eventually come to light, and rigorous defending on the part of a credible spokesperson would suffice. Rumors imply that what is circulated may be false. The real issue stems from an organization’s failure to address it early on. Letting baseless rumors fester allows it to become entrenched in the public’s perceived reality. As Benoit (1997) stated, perception is more important than reality, and managing public perception is key in handling rumors. When the CEO should have stepped up Illegal Corporate Behavior In 2001, investment banking giant Merrill Lynch was accused, and subsequently investigated, of banking fraud by the New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer (Hearit & Brown, 2004). Nearly a year later, on April 9, 2002, the crisis reached its peak when Spitzer announced his findings and accused Merrill Lynch of giving “tainted” advice to clients (McGeehan, 2002b), purposely misleading brokerage clients to invest in “junk” stocks, in the process helping them retain these poorly performing companies as investment banking clients to boost their bottom line (Hearit & Brown, 2004). Soon after, the organization issued statements denying the accusations and attacked Spitzer by minimizing the evidence he presented (McGeehan, 2002c). Official statements were released, and unnamed executives and Vice Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 289 Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang Presidents for various departments also gave out statements (McGeehan, 2002c; Morgenson, 2002). On April 26, over two weeks after Spitzer’s announcement, the CEO, David Komansky, made his first statement regarding the issue in the organization’s annual meeting (McGeehan, 2002a). He spoke to shareholders and apologized for the behavior of some of Merrill’s analysts. He also defended the organization, emphasizing that the action was only done by some of Merrill’s analysts, should not be generalized to the entire organization, and that these actions were not in accordance to their standard practices (McGeehan, 2002a). His statement could be seen as an act of mortification, and, by promising to change policies involving analysts, corrective action. In a similar case, trading organization Putnam also took a while to address the issue to their key publics. The accusations of wrongdoing by some of their analysts started in late 2000, and only when they were legally charged did CEO, Larry Lasser, officially addressed their clients. Lasser released a letter to apologizing to the organization’s clients (Caffrey, Healy, & Kerber, 2003). In both cases, the CEO stepped up at the height of the crisis, issued the corporate apology, and subsequently left the organization. However, it is noticeable that their appearance was directed towards clients and shareholders, two key publics directly affected by the crisis. Shareholders and clients will experience the direct impact of the transgression via a drop in share prices and impediments in business operations. Secondary publics received information on a second-hand basis, through media reports, and were not directly addressed by the CEOs. Legal implications aside, where possible, it is argued that the CEO has to step up when the organization is under fire to assuage the doubts and concerns of stakeholders, and to reestablish faith in the organization. The perception of fraud hits at the very integrity of an organization, it is the core of its survival, and any threats to this, can potentially be fatal to an organization. Megadamage On March 24, 1989, the Exxon-Valdez ran aground in the Prince William Sound in Alaska, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil into the ocean and causing an ecological disaster of enormous magnitude, affecting marine life, as well as the livelihood of many fishermen operating in the area (Pauly & Hutchinson, 2005). Seitel (1994) stated that Exxon did little, said little and lost much in their public relations effort in this situation. Using Benoit’s (1997) image repair theory, Exxon engaged heavily in shifting the blame, trying to pinpoint slow recovery efforts on the Coast Guard for their slow approval processes. They also tried to shift the blame to the captain of the ship, who was purportedly drunk at the time of the incident (Brinson & Benoit, 1999). This ultimately failed and Exxon’s reputation still suffers from the fallout from that incident until today. Although ultimately Exxon did engage in corrective action (spent over two billion dollars to clean up the oil spill), they did not actively publicize their efforts (Seitel, 1994). Throughout the episode, their CEO Lawrence Rawl was not actively involved in the public relations effort and in fact, tried to stay clear of public scrutiny (Pauly & Hutchinson, 2005). When he did appear, he merely explained what the cleanup efforts entailed and appeared aloof and uncaring (Pauly & Hutchinson, 2005). It took Exxon’s chairman a full week to issue a public statement and ten days before it apologised for its role in the crisis (Seitel, 2004). It can be inferred that a megadamage situation, it is imperative that the CEO needs to step up to deliver a public statement to calm the situation by virtue of the authority of the office in portraying the organization to be in control of the situation. Had Lawrence Rawl appeared earlier to take responsibility, Exxon might not have faced such a damning public relations nightmare. 290 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Effective Leadership in Crisis: When Should the CEO Step Up to Be the Organization’s Spokesperson When the CEO need not step up Product Recall (Technical or Human Error) When Sony’s laptop batteries were short-circuiting, causing fires, they issued a global recall of all the battery units, both those sold with laptops and those sold separately (CPSC, 2006). Sony claimed that the recall was done only to alleviate the growing public concern, and maintained that their products remain safe. The day after, Sony’s CEO, Yutaka Nakagawa, issued a statement in a press conference, apologizing for the worries caused by the global recall (Kageyama, 2006). This statement can be seen as a bolstering strategy, instead of mortification, as the apology was offered for the “worries” caused by the recall and not for the faulty products. Likewise, in August 2007, Mattel CEO Robert Eckert, immediately issued a statement following the announced recall of Mattel toys when they were found to have been made with lead paint. In an interview, he admitted that something went wrong when Mattel’s long-time supplier was found to have supplied them with toys made with lead paint (Story, 2007). The CEO also issued a message to its consumers through a written letter and video clip on their website, www.mattel.com. In his video, Eckert outlined the new procedures they have put in place and stressed that he sincerely “apologize for the situation” (Mattel, 2007), further bolstering Mattel’s position as an ‘ally’ to their consumers. Product recalls due to technical breakdowns do not necessarily incriminate organizations, so the appearance of the CEO is merely to “hold their stakeholders’ hand”, to create and/or strengthen a bond with their consumers and key publics. In this case, it is not necessary for CEOs to undertake the task of addressing the public, as long as the thrust of the image repair strategy remains directed towards bolstering their image to consumers, and appropriate corrective actions are implemented. Malevolence/ Product Tampering The case of the Tylenol tampering in 1982 has become a landmark in crisis communication study (Falconi, 2007; Pauly & Hutchison, 2005; Trujillo & Toth, 1987). In September 1982, Johnson & Johnson received word that several deaths have occurred resulting from their Tylenol capsules (Pauly & Hutchison, 2005). It was found that the deaths were caused by Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. J&J received a lot of media attention because of this crisis, but no single event was organized for journalists to report (Carrocci, 1985). J&J did not organize a press conference for journalists but instead talked to the media on an individual basis (Falconi, 2007). However, the involvement of CEO James Burke during the crisis has been largely lauded. He immediately took charge in handling the crisis, forming a crisis management team and developing strategies in containing the crisis. Most importantly, he was immediately available to the media for any questions they may have regarding the situation (Pauly & Hutchison, 2005). He protected the image of Tylenol by successfully employing simple denial and shifting the blame strategies, ensuring that the media, and the public, are aware that the incidents were caused by tampering, and not an inherent flaw in Tylenol’s manufacturing (Pauly & Hutchison, 2005). Despite this finding though, he issued a massive recall of all Tylenol capsules and introduced a new tamper proof container when they released the product back to the shelves (Pauly & Hutchison, 2005). Because the case of the Tylenol tampering has been found to be an act of malevolence by a third party, the messages crafted for the public emphasized this fact. The CEO had an active role in managing the crisis, but his appearance in the media and the public was only as a reliable source. He did not speak in a press conference, nor did the organization provide public Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 291 Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang communication or apologies for the deaths (Trujillo & Toth, 1987). This was perhaps deliberately done so as not to generate media frenzy. In this case where the organization was linked to a heinous act, and yet the locus of control was largely outside of the organization’s scope, the position of the organization became of paramount importance. Because the CEO was PR savvy, his availability for comment was lauded and much appreciated by the media. However, this appearance can only be attributed to his PR savvy qualities and not on the significance of his presence. In this case, had the CEO not been a good public communicator, a more fitting spokesperson can also be elected to do the job. Hostile Takeovers / Mergers and Failed Mergers Another crisis that organizations could be susceptible to is that of hostile takeovers, mergers and failed mergers. Reber, Cropp and Cameron (2003) analyzed the hostile takeover of Conrail by Norfolk Southern Corporation in 1996. This event started in 1996 when Conrail snubbed Norfolk Southern Corporation offer and decided to work with CSX. Norfolk then mounted a legal and financial challenge to take over Conrail (Reber, Cropp & Cameron, 2003). David R. Goode, CEO of Norfolk led the campaign to win the takeover bid. He served as the primary organization spokesperson to argue in the media for Norfolk (Reber, Cropps & Cameron, 2003). The end result was that Norfolk successfully concluded its takeover of Conrail in 1997. Careful analysis of the case however, indicated that while Goode’s rhetoric in the media certainly supported his cause, the main factor in the success was most likely due to legislative victories in court, as well as the ability of Norfolk to put together a better financial offer to Conrail shareholders. Takeovers, mergers and acquisitions and failed mergers are in the domain of the business world, and while the CEO definitely must address the internal audience because they are directly affected by the crisis, it is posited that a competent spokesperson with enough credibility and seniority would suffice to address the general public. Economic Downturns In his study, Christen (1995) looked into the AT&T crisis. AT&T announced its intention for a corporate break-up in view of competition, new technologies and concerns over shareholder value. Chairman and CEO Robert Allen announced the corporate restructuring plans and hinted at potential job-layoffs. The whole affair became a public relations nightmare as financial journalists started speculating at the magnitude of the job-cuts. This was met with simple denial from the organization, which refused to confirm estimated job-cut figures. AT&T finally announced in early 1996 of their plans to dismiss 40,000 workers, and financial journalists immediately wrote negatively about the situation. This was further compounded by the revelation of Robert Allen’s pay package, which was in excess of $2.5 million dollars. Christen (2005) noted that Newsweek described Robert Allen as a CEO who did not know what was going on, which implied that Robert Allen did make public statements using Benoit’s (1997) image repair strategy of bolstering by stating his empathy to the people getting fired. AT&T also engaged in corrective actions, revising their lay-off targets and offering voluntary buy-outs. Their strategy failed however, especially in light of Robert Allen’s pay package (Christen, 2005). In an economic downturn resulting in organization action such as layoffs, the organization can ease public sentiment through the use of sound policies that helped the transition for affected workers (Christen, 2005). Because this matter is largely an internal crisis, a spokesperson can address the public, informing them of the events occurring within the organization. A CEO can choose to appear, and act in his role as a leader to direct the organization through the difficult period (Mintzberg, 1998). 292 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Effective Leadership in Crisis: When Should the CEO Step Up to Be the Organization’s Spokesperson After analyzing the circumstances in which the CEO need or need not step up, the crucial question remains: When should the CEO step up? This is distilled into 3 categories, at the beginning of the crisis; at the height of the crisis, and when the crisis becomes unbearable. When should the CEO step up? At the beginning of the crisis When the organization has been perceived to have caused or have the potential of causing widespread harm to society in general (as in the case of Exxon-Valdez) or to individual members of the public through transgressions committed by its staff or machinery, it is recommended that the CEO steps up immediately as the crisis begins to hit. The CEO’s appearance will set the tone of engagement towards the organization’s internal and external publics; lay down the organization’s stance on the matter and assuage public concerns that such incidents are viewed seriously, and that the organization was doing everything it could to rectify it. Having the organization’s top man fronting public displays shows the severity at which the organization views the crisis, and the resolve it has to return the situation to normalcy. Stepping up early also applies to transgressions caused by the organization that leads to a severe loss in reputation (as in the case of Merrill Lynch and Putnam). Again, although there may not be loss of life or injury, the CEO’s appearance portrays to the public the organization’s recognition of its fault, and paves the way for further image repair. At the height of the crisis In instances where there is no clear accountability when the crisis presented itself, it is recommended that the CEO does not appear at the onset of the crisis. This is especially true when there is a chance that the organization is liable for causing the crisis. Aside from the legal implications of their involvement, the uncertainty surrounding the issue can polarize the public even without sufficient information. Having the CEO step up and take a stand puts the organization at a greater risk of worsening the situation. Another instance when it is recommended the CEO appears is when the organization is forced to take a negative/unpopular stance. Even if the position is justified, warranted, and backed up by facts, it is a bitter pill best served by other authoritative spokespersons lower in rank than the CEO. Only when the negative stance has been articulated and justified does the CEO need to appear to assuage the public and soften the impact of their otherwise harsh position. When the crisis becomes unbearable In the event that an organization’s reputation is threatened, the CEO must appear, regardless of the kind of crisis it is facing. This is because the threat to the reputation becomes of paramount importance, and the underlying circumstances that brought it up become secondary. Whatever remedies the organization will present to correct the situation will be undermined by the fact that trust in the organization is diminishing. As the most authoritative figure in the organization, it is up to the CEO to arrest that downward spiral. He will be the most credible person to diffuse the tension brought about by the threat, and relieve pressure from the organization to prove itself, thereby allowing them to continue on with the strategies that are meant to remedy the original crisis. Conclusion This study has examined when the CEO should step up to be the organization spokesperson, should the CEO step up and at what point can the CEO step up. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 293 Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang There appears to be two recurring trends in the meta-analysis. First, in instances where organizations have to reverse their initial stance, such as when they have to go back on their word or overturn initial claims, often made by an organization spokesperson, the CEO has to step up to give more credence to the new statement/ stance. Second, when a crisis involves the integrity of an organization, the CEO has to step up in order to give the organization a strong, responsible face. As an exploratory study, this study examines and reviews crises that have happened. Even though attention has been paid to examine every crisis type in Dier’s (2007) typology, admittedly, some crises have more prominence, hence more information (even in news coverage), than others. In carrying out a meta-analysis, there are limitations the authors have to accept. First, the authors have not been able to examine other contributing factors in a crisis like the CEO’s personality (i.e., whether he is media savvy, introverted, or stern) on crisis communication. Schoenberg (2005) argued for a crisis leadership model that encompasses personal attributes like integrity, intelligence, vision, courage, amongst others, that measure a leader’s authenticity and in turn enables the leader to assert influence during crisis. Second, it is also not able to capture the effects of the organization’s prior reputation with its publics before the crisis. Lyon and Cameron (2004), for instance, examined the organization’s prior relationship with its publics and found the “halo effect” in organizations with firm reputations as “shining stars of social responsibility” (p. 231) to be usually afforded the benefit of the doubt in times of crises. In that regard, a public apology during or after the crisis would reinforce the publics’ affection for the organization. Last but not least, it is not able to examine the level of enlightenment of the CEO because that would impact on whether the CEO would want to step up in the first place. The level of enlightenment is one of the key measurements of the characteristics of the dominant coalition in the contingency theory (Cancel, Cameron, Sallot, & Mitrook, 1997), which has emerged to be a dominant theory in crisis and conflict management (Pang, 2006). 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Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 297 Marela Lucero, Alywin Tan and Augustine Pang 298 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication and Storytelling – Management by Stories Marianne Wolff Lundholt University of Southern Denmark [email protected] This paper is about communicating change and inspiring others to follow: "Storytelling is the single most powerful tool in a leader’s toolkit.” Dr. Howard Gardner In order to understand why traditional rational communication is not going to change the minds of the listeners, I will briefly point to the complexity of the human psyche by introducing concepts such as `confirmation bias´, `the Asch-effect´ and `group thinking´. This will explain why some employers are hostile to change by nature. I will then turn to alternative ways of communicating change. By changing the outset of communication from logos to pathos through storytelling, we will see a much more effective way of not only getting a message across but also stimulating desire. The former World Bank leader Stephen Denning has pointed out that leaders need to appeal to both heart and mind in order to spark change. However, most leaders only focus on the mind. (Abstract Only) Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 299 Marianne Wolff Lundholt 300 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour Alessandra Mazzei Institute of Economics and Marketing IULM University of Milan, Italy [email protected] This paper draws on the resource-based view of the firm, which highlights the central role of trust relationships and communication as interaction in the knowledge creation process. This approach calls for a concept of communication as constructivism and enactment that, in turn, relay on the active communicational behaviours of all organizational members. Based on this background, the paper suggests a definition of internal communication as the interactive process aimed at creating the two catalyst resources for organizing: knowledge and allegiance. The findings of a qualitative and explorative research based on 10 semi-structured interviews to internal communication managers and professionals support the resource-based model of internal communication. The companies studied show a great awareness of first, the relevance of intangible resources such as knowledge and employees’ attitude to contribute to the company’s success; and second, the necessity of active communication behaviours at all levels in organization. Internal communication is conceived as communication flows that take place inside the organizational boundaries between individuals belonging to the organization itself and that is targeted to employees. Many scholars point out the relevance of effective internal communication to improve the external one and to reinforce the organizational cohesion and internal relations (Argenti, Forman, 2002; Grunig, Grunig, Dozier, 2002; Kitchen, 1997; Sholes, 1997; Grunig, Hunt, 1984). They, implicitly or explicitly, adopt a system perspective considering the organization as a system made of many sub-systems interacting among them and with the external environment. For example: “Organizational communication is the process of creating and exchanging messages within a network of interdependent relationships to cope with environmental uncertainty” (Goldhaber, 1993: 15). Others point out the relevance of internal communication as a relationship management and commitment building function (Cutlip, Center, Broom, 2006; Jo, Shim, 2005; Argenti, 2003; Ledinghan, Bruning, 2000; Grunig, 1992), paying greater attention to the linkages among systems and sub-systems that constitute one organization. Pre-systemic and systemic views distinguish internal communication from the external one referring to the concept of organizational boundaries. This is a weak criterion due to two reasons. First, employees could also be part of external publics, for example an activist group. Second, mass media can reach an internal audience before the internal communication instruments. Thus it is very difficult to isolate internal communication flows. This paper suggests a definition of internal communication that tries to overcome the concept of organizational boundaries as the main criterion for isolating internal communication. Based on the Resource Based Theory and the Dynamic Capabilities Approach, the constructive view of the communication and the Situational Theory of the Publics, the paper proposes a model of internal communication and a qualitative exploratory research aimed at verifying if the model could be suitable to describe the current practices spread among companies. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 301 Alessandra Mazzei The paper begins with the presentation of the literature review which lies at the foundation of the theoretical model. It moves on to the presentation of the research design, the main findings and finally the discussion and some concluding considerations. The definitions and models of internal communication ever present today in international literature are rooted to the systemic vision of a company which leads to define internal communication with reference to a company’s organisational boundaries. In order to overcome this approach, it was useful to draw on the resource-based and knowledge-based view of the firm, the prevalent views of the firm in strategic management studies today. This analysis highlighted the crucial role of communication as interaction, interpretation and enactment. These concepts underline in turn the relevance of communicational behaviours enacted by all those involved in the processes that generate value in an organisation. To understand and be able to make hypotheses on the importance of communicational behaviours, the Situational Theory of Publics proved useful. This paragraph delves into three concepts found in international literature: the Resource Based Theory and the Dynamic Capabilities Approach; the concept of communication as constructivism and enactment; the Situational Theory of Publics. This conceptual framework allows us first, to forward a proposal for a new definition of internal communication together with its aims and processes. Second, to put forward some research hypotheses for a field analysis. The Resource Based Theory and the Dynamic Capabilities Approach A company can be seen as a pool of resources whose aim is to transform those resources into other more valuable resources (Penrose, 1959) or even into distinctive competences (Selznick, 1957). Such conceptions are at the roots of the Resource Based Theory, which states that the competitive advantage stems from the firm-specific resources that a company owns and that assure its uniqueness in its industrial sector (Rumelt, 1984; Barney, 1991). The concept of company resources has been very much broadened by these authors up to the point of including financial, physical, human and organisational resources (Barney, 1995). Companies which are able to choose, guard over and accumulate firm-specific resources are able to acquire a sustainable competitive advantage. The resources at the basis of the competitive advantage should be: - Valuable: that is, apt to support the competitive strategies to seize opportunities and overcome threats coming from the competitive environment; - Rare: that is, not common to other companies and thus allowing exclusive competitive manoeuvres. Common resources to all companies of a given sector are key to success, but only rare resources guarantee a company long-lasting advantage; - In-imitable: that is, obtainable by competitors but only with high investments and, in any case, not perfectly imitable. The most difficult resources to imitate are characterized by causal ambiguity and high social complexity; - Non-substitutable: that is, so unique as to exclude alternative resources that can have the same function and can be easily developed by competitors. The Resource Based Theory is considered as a static paradigm, focused on the appropriation processes of the value created through resources. The Dynamic Capabilities Approach on the contrary is a procedural paradigm centred on the creation of value (Dagnino, 2005; Siano, 2001; Eisenhardt, Martin, 2000; Teece, Pisano, Shuen 1997). According to the Dynamic Capabilities Approach, the competitive advantage does not come from the owning of resources but from the ability of a company to access, use, exchange and combine them (Teece, 302 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour Pisano, Shuen, 1997; Teece, Pisano, 1994). This approach points out that it is not the stock of resources that is important but the process through which a company uses existing resources, and generates new resources and capabilities. At the centre of the Dynamic Capabilities Approach lie the abilities, the routines, the organisational learning, and the co-ordination processes among the individuals that foster the company’s competitive capabilities. Some authors have pointed out that the most in-imitable resources are the knowledge based ones and highlighted the importance of the processes through which individuals integrate their tacit and specialised knowledge with that of groups (Grant, 1996). Others made claim to the social nature of the knowledge generation processes in organisations (Nonaka, 1991 & 1994). Underlying the processes of organizational learning and knowledge generation is a weave of trust relationships which fosters the exchange and sharing of resources both within the organisational community and among organisations and sets up the social capital of a company (Coleman, 1990). Skills, behaviours and interactions of human resources are at the foundation of intangible resources for competitive advantage (Colbert, 2004). And the question regarding how can the resources be obtained is central (Priem, Butler, 2001). This paper tries to explore a communication and behavioural based view of the resources generating process. Effective knowledge creating and sharing process calls for the inclusion of all organizational members and then it is a function of integrated internal communication (Kalla, 2005b). The value of communication could be seen in its contribution to increase the resources of the company (Fiocca, 2002). As most in-imitable and non-substitutable knowledge tends to be implicit and embedded in workers competencies and abilities, companies cannot own their knowledge capital, usually termed also as human capital. Employees own companies’ human capital (Snell, Shadur, Wright, 2001). Furthermore, the process of knowledge creation and sharing depends upon the social interactions and relations among employees and among them and external communities. “These relational elements of learning and competitive advantage extend beyond human capital and highlight the importance of social capital” (Snell, Shadur, Wright, 2001: 653). Together, these concepts highlight two aspects: - intangible resources, and in particular knowledge and trust relationships, are fundamental elements to the competitive capabilities of a company; - communication and relationship processes support co-ordination between individuals and groups, the integration and re-combination of resources. Knowledge creation is enabled by frequent communications that usually take place among close colleagues; by trust among people who reciprocally expect that the information will be delivered on time and will not be disclosed to others; by shared values that guarantee a common background and avoid or limit misunderstanding; by common objectives because the exchange of advice and insights is more pertinent if those who offer them know the context and how they will be used (Kalla, 2005a). All communication channels, one-way and interactive, face-to-face and mediated, are used during socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation of knowledge processes (Nonaka, 1994). These are high relational intensity processes and use the highest number of verbal and non verbal, hot and cold, synchronous and non synchronous signs. Communication as constructivism and enactment Over the last decades, communication theory has evolved from the prevailing rational model to a communication and process-oriented view (McPhee, Scott Poole, 2001). The “rational Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 303 Alessandra Mazzei model” is based on a fallacy reification of communication that is wrapped within a pre-existing organisation that determines it (McPhee, Scott Poole, 2001). Research topics such as the transmission process of information, the formal and informal channels, the information overload, capacity and adequacy, the message distortion and ambiguity, could be related to the rational model (Putnam, Philips, Chapman, 1996). The rational model of communication comprises the dimensional and the configurational approaches (McPhee, Scott Poole, 2001). The dimensional approach identifies the organization variables that in turn determine the communication system. For example, vertical hierarchical levels influence the use of face-to-face communication (MacLeod, Scriven, Wayne, 1992) and the time dedicated to communication (Yammarino, Naughton, 1988). In this view, organization is a container and exists before communication occurs (McPhee, Scott Poole, 2001). The configurational approach considers communication as a variable to take into account when designing the organization structural features. For example organizational structures serve as information transfer functions, and also serve other communication-related functions such as trust building, that are increasingly relevant for new organizational forms such as dynamic networks (Miles, Snow, 1986), shamrock model (Handy, 1989), virtual organizations (Davidow, Malone, 1992), and learning organizations (Nonaka, 1994). Configuration of organizational structures becomes very important in order to foster trust or to enable knowledge creation. The communication and process-oriented view interprets the concept of organizational structure in communication terms. Communication is the foundation of organizational structures and processes. In other words, “structures are constituted by and operate through communication” (McPhee, Scott Poole, 2001: 537). For example when a manager presents a project through oral or written communication he is defining the project structure and the actions to be taken. Tompkins (1984) highlights how many recent studies point out that communication constitutes organization. “Organizations might be viewed as ‘a system of interacting individuals’, who through communication are actively involved in the process of creating and recreating their unique social order” (Tompkins, Wanca-Thibault, 2001: xxi). In this theoretical framework, communication is both figure and ground, it is equivalent to organization, does not mirror reality, rather, it creates the social context of organization (Tompkins, Wanca-Thibault, 2001; Putnam, Philips, Chapman, 1996). Communication is constructive (Miller, 2006) or constitutive (Penman, 2000; Craig, 1999). James R. Taylor (1993 e 2006) attempts to build a communication-based theory of organization. He asserts that conversations are the substance of organisations and organisations are communication systems. In his view, organization is a text produced by means of conversations among many authors. Text is the medium of organizational structure and it stabilizes and grounds the conversation. Conversation, in turn, is the medium of organizational communicative action and it enacts and transforms the text (McPhee, Zaug, 2000). For Weick (1979) organization is the process of organizing through the three processes of enactment, selection and retention of sensemaking action. Based on Giddens studies on constituting communication, McPhee and Zaug (2000) give the following definition of constitution: “a pattern or array of interaction constitute organizations insofar as they make organizations what they are, and insofar as basic features of the organization are implicated in the system interaction” (2000: 4). The authors also bring to the forefront what communicative constitution of organizations specifically is: - all communication has constitutive force, the one of the speaker and the one of the listener, so the locus of constitutive process is the whole process of communication; 304 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour - - in order to constitute a complex organization, a complex relation among organizational communication processes is required; not all communication is organizational, as for example a conversation between friends; each episode of constitutive communication is interactive, involves multiple participants, the results of communication episodes are not physically conveyed; organizations are constituted in four different communicative relations with members, themselves, internal-subgroups, other institutions. These communicative flows are membership negotiation, self-structuring, activity coordination, institutional positioning and are all needed; the process of constituting organization is not in the hands of powerful members in the organization. On the contrary, communication even by members with low power is relevant in the constitutive process. To our aim, it is extremely worthy to notice that all people are forceful to constitutive process and that the latter is made by a chain of interactive episodes. Using a constitutive approach, organizational communication has been defined as the processes of creation, exchange and sharing of meanings within the internal and external networks that constitute the organization its-self and its positioning into environment (Invernizzi, 1996). A new generation of scholars grounds organisational studies in communication theory and considers organization as communicational in nature. Organisation does not have physical appearances, but on the contrary, it is a social reality constructed and transformed by social interaction. At the same time, organisational structures act as a set of rules that shape communication processes (McPhee, Scott Poole, 2001). Organisation could be also seen as a symbolic milieu in which organising is accomplished. Communication is the process of interpreting in order to create, share, and change meanings of events, actions, conversations (Shockely-Zalabak, Morley, Cesaria, 2002; Jablin et al. 1987). Along with overcoming the rational model of communications, scholars are now considering communication as an enactment process. Enactment theory asserts that social reality is enacted by members of organizations through communication. Individuals enact organizations using protocol of interaction coherent with the expectations they share about reciprocal roles (Heath, 1994). Companies exist because their members share meaning and coordinate actions based on the expectations these meanings contain. The meanings that arise in a company are the products of statements and actions by management along with other personnel; meaning is not something managers can predictably use to control employees. It is negotiated by the dialectic of what people do and say (Heath, 1994: 38). This view of organising focuses on communication and relationship processes which allow a company, its members, and its external stakeholders to become mutual meaningful and influential (Heath, 2001). The considerations made so far, show that the constructive approach to communication underlines its crucial role to give shape to social reality, organisational action, the meaning of events, organisational roles and processes. Under this viewpoint, communication is no longer a mix of information and knowledge flows contained in the organisational system or a messages Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 305 Alessandra Mazzei creating and sending function. Communication is a social process of interaction and/or interpretation to give sense and meaning to events. This is the concept of communication most coherent with the Resource-Based Theory and the Dynamic Capabilities Approach analysed earlier. Furthermore, the theory of enactment highlights that the responsibility of effective communication does not lie only in the hands of managers. On the contrary, everyone related and constituting the organisation continuously put enactment processes in place to negotiate meanings and to make the organisation operating through their acts of communication. The Situational Theory of Publics Why and how do people engage in communication? Employees of one company could contribute in very different ways to organizational life, also from the communication point of view. Usually internal targets are considered diverse from their communication needs and expectations viewpoints. Actually, they also engage in different communication actions as senders and users. We can find high-lightening insights from the Situational Theory of Publics in order to understand the different attitudes of interlocutors towards communication (Grunig, Hunt, 1984; Grunig, 1979). Publics are very different and they can passively process information that they receive randomly or otherwise they can actively seek information, make an effort to understand it, spread the information and engage in action. Information found in a pull way are more effective that the ones received in a push way. Active or passive communication behaviours stem from three causes: - problem recognition: is the extend to which people are aware about a situation, think about it, detect it in order to do something to change it. In case of high problem recognition, publics probably seek and process information; - constraints recognition: is the perception of obstacles that reduce the chance to modify the situation. High constraint recognition implies a low likelihood of information seeking; - level of involvement: shows the extent to which people feel affected by a situation. Usually a high level of involvement is tied to a high level of problem recognition and a low constraint recognition. People who are very involved are probably very active in information seeking. Applying this theory to internal publics in many field research studies, Grunig (Grunig, Hunt, 1984) found that more involved employees usually behave more actively. The most spread active communication behaviours differ from the passive ones from many points of view: - communication channel: involved employees engage actively in interpersonal, horizontal and crisscross communication; they spend little time in process information available from formal company media; - scope of action: involved employees search information from sources specialized in their field and from other specialists; - content of communication: involved employees search for management, job and task related information from multiple sources and also from the environment; less involved people search for information concerning the employees’ situation such as pay, benefits, sports, social activities, personal stories from official company media. 306 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour Other scholars point out further behaviours that can be considered active communication behaviours. Ritter (1999) considers the networking competence as the degree of networking management task execution and qualification held by people running inter-organisational relationships. To build and maintain relationship networks with suppliers, clients, competitors, research institutions, and stakeholders represent a competitive advantage because these relationships give contact to knowledge. The network competence of a company is measured by the intensity of interaction with other companies, the position in the communication net, and the corporate success. We can argue that also relationships with colleagues are very important. MacMillan, Money, Downing (2000) state that, among others relationship outcomes, one can add active allegiance, that for example include a person, client or employee, “referring others to the firm or speaking well of it; contradicting others who seem to be falsely critical of the business; informing the management of the business if they believe something they observe is wrong and may harm the business in some way: and, themselves deliberately doing things to preserve or enhance the good name of the business” (MacMillan, Money, Downing, 2000: 11). Trust and willingness and ability to interact positively affect relational action such as cooperation and knowledge sharing (Snell, Shadur, Wright, 2001). People who put active communication behaviours into effect are key for the intangible resources generation. Who are supposed to be the more active publics in an organization? Snell, Shadur and Wright (2001) noticed that some categories of employees, usually core workers and long term partners, tend to have a relational connection with their employer that is, they have a commitment-based or collaborative psychological contract. Other categories of employees, usually job-based employees and contractors, tend to have a transactional connection with their company, that is they have a productivity-based or a compliance-based psychological contract. Psychological contract can assume an increasing motivational investment through many steps: membership, involvement, commitment, engagement, empowerment (Quaglino, 1999). Membership concerns the aptitude to be part of an organization; involvement refers to the availability to be implicated into organizational life; commitment implies to see one’s own advantage into company’s advantage; engagement entails a wider loyalty towards company’s stakeholders; empowerment brings the search for one’s own potentials and the availability to support others’ development and implies the intention of interlocutors to keep the relationship alive thanks to personal contribution. These increasing levels of motivational investment could describe very well the different level of involvement that employees are inclined to have and consequently their attitude to behave in an active manner. The ones who have a high relational psychological contract with their organization are the ones contributing the most to company’s success (Snell, Shadur, Wright, 2001) and one can argue the most active in terms of communicational behaviours. It is worth highlighting one important implication from Grunig’s situational theory. In order to enhance the active communication behaviours of employees, the possible strategy is to raise the commitment of human resources, to eradicate the limits to action, to give evidence to the issue informing a company’s agenda. Research Design and Method From what has been analysed so far, communication is a process of interpretation, interaction, and enactment which helps to generate the intangible resources of an organisation. According to these theoretical suppositions, internal communication can be defined as a set of interactive processes aimed at generating the catalyst resources that make a company Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 307 Alessandra Mazzei work. These resources are knowledge, that fuels working processes, and allegiance of employees with the organization, that brings them to put their knowledge into company processes (Mazzei, 2004 & 2007). Knowledge is an indispensable element for realising the value generating processes of a company, above all in a knowledge based productive setting. And as argued before, knowledge put into working processes lies in employees’ cognitive schemes. What does drive employees to apply their knowledge in favour of the company they belong to or work for? It is the willingness of pursue their own and the company’s advantages and the commitment to keep such a relation alive. Active allegiance is therefore what triggers people to employ knowledge in favour of the organisation. Knowledge and allegiance are thus catalist resources that activate and fuel company productive processes and mutually strengthen each other (Exhibit 1). Knowledge Allegiance EXHIBIT 1: Internal communication to generate knowledge and allegiance Research hypotheses The first hypothesis of this research is that internal communication is no longer a message targeting function, such as to print the house organ, to implement the intranet or manage the annual convention. Internal communication is a network of interactive processes aimed at generating the catalyst resources for organizing, namely knowledge and identification. Most literature asserts that internal communication goals are (Argenti, 2003): - to improve moral; - to foster goodwill between employees and mangers; - to inform; - to explain compensation and benefit plans; - to increase employees understanding of the company (products, organization, ethics, culture, external environment); - to change employees behaviour toward becoming more productive, quality oriented, and entrepreneurial; - to increase employees understanding of health and social issues or trends; - to encourage employees participation in community activities. These are goals related to the sense of belonging to a company and the organizational climate, the sharing of information about the company for a greater awareness of organizational directions and needs, the spreading of information about employees self interest such as rewarding and career setting. Only one of the listed goals is related to employee’s behaviour, and, 308 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour in any case, not related to communication behaviour. Most of the literature is far from highlighting the employees’ role as active communicators. The second hypothesis concerns the characters acting communication processes. Knowledge and allegiance are generated through social interaction in formal and informal contexts such as teamwork, relationships with constituencies, and so forth. Thus, they rely upon the active communication behaviour of each person contributing to the organizational processes: for example employees, co-makers, and suppliers. The main objective of internal communication is to enact active communication behaviours throughout organizational levels. Merging all insights deriving from theory regarding publics and their communication behaviours, we can formulate a proposal for an enlarged list of active communication behaviours: - to search, use, spread, and share information and knowledge purposefully; - to search for informal, horizontal, cross-functional communication; - to engage in adjustment for mutual understanding; - to search information about corporate strategies and values; - to inform managers about potential or already occurred problems; - to spread one’s own company reputation; - to defend one’s own company against attacks; - to keep relations with colleagues, clients, partners alive. In order to test the two hypotheses, a resource-based model (RBM) for internal communication has been drawn in contrast with a system-centred model (SCM) of internal communication, delineating the following features: a) internal communication definition criteria, b) aims, c) interlocutors segmentation variables, d) channels, e) use of internal communication to improve co-workers’ relations, f) internal communication plan frame, g) valued and expected results (Table 1). a) Internal communication definition criteria in SCM are mainly organizational boundaries and distinction between the internal and external environment, while in RBM are intangible resources such as motivation, involvement, trust, loyalty, and knowledge. b) Internal communication aims in SCM are: targeting message, spreading information, delivering communication outputs, bringing people toward company’s objectives, and standards, creating the willingness to be a member of the company. On the contrary, in RBM, the main goal is to enact communication and relational effective behaviours. c) Interlocutors’ segmentation criteria in SCM are: hierarchy, organizational function, age and level of education. In RBM main segmentation criteria are competencies and different relational connection to the company such as, job-based, compliance-based, commitment-based and collaborative (Snell, Shadur, Wright, 2001). In RBM internal communication targets include employees, co-makers, consultants, contractors and partners. d) Channels and instruments in SCM push information and content, while in RBM they offer content in a pull manner and are open to interlocutors generated content and activities. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 309 Alessandra Mazzei Internal communication definition criteria Internal communication aims Interlocutors segmentation criteria System-centred model Organizational boundaries and distinction between internal and external memberships Message targeting, diffusion of information, communication output To bring people towards company objectives and standards To create the willingness to stay and to be part of the organization (membership) Employees Hierarchical level Organizational function Age Education Channels and instruments Information and content push activities Internal communication for coworkers relations Linkages to the human resources management practices; any for human resource development Content: job related information (contracts, benefits, career paths, reward system) Resource-based model Key intangible resources (knowledge, psychological contract and its relational intensity) Enact communication effective behaviours To make people protagonists To stimulate commitment, loyalty, empowerment Employees, co-makers, consultants, contractors, partners Competence: ex. professional community Relational intensity and psychological contract: job-based, compliance-based, commitmentbased, collaborative Information and content pull activities Interlocutor generated content and activities Collaboration with the HR Department and with managers Organizational wellbeing Diversity Management programs Professional development Informal and virtual community Collaborative organizational values Content: strategies and task related Aims and processes Internal communication networks Internal Targets and instruments communication plan structure Valued and expected Out-puts Out-comes results Out-takes Out-growths TABLE 1: System-centred model and Resource-based model of internal communication e) Internal communication for co-workers relations in SCM is centred on spreading job related information such as contracts, benefits, career paths, rewarding system. Whereas, in RBM internal communication is related to human resources management process and practices such as organizational wellbeing, diversity management programmes, professional development, informal and virtual community. Furthermore, conveyed contents are strategy and task related. f) Internal communication plan structure in SCM is centred around targets and instruments, while in RBM it carries out aims and processes, uses internal communication networks, involves non communication specialists, has measurable goals. 310 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour g) Valued and expected results on internal communication in SCM are limited to communication out-puts (for example, number of news items published on the intranet) and out-takes (for example, clicks on the intranet news), while in RBM valued results are out-comes (for example, survey on opinions) and out-growths (for example, quality of employees-employer relationships). Research method The hypotheses here presented have been tested through a qualitative analysis, coherent with the explorative nature of the study (Yin, 1994). The collected data could be used in order to formulate new hypotheses and for future qualitative and quantitative investigation. The study was based firstly, on semi-structured interviews conducted by telephone or by e-mail to internal communication managers and professionals of 10 organizations operating in Italy: GlaxoSmithKline, Honda, IBM, Ikea, illycaffè, Indesit Company, Intesa Sanpaolo, KPMG, WWF, TenarisDalmine. The interviews were carried out in 2008 and were focused on internal communication definition and goals, interlocutors, channels and instruments, linkages to the human resources management, communication planning, auditing and monitoring. Secondly, when available, official documents were collected and analysed: official internal communication presentations, internal communication plans, company brochures, brochures and publications on CSR and diversity management programs, corporate web site sections related to HR issues. Interview transcripts were analysed and a qualitative summary was drawn up, grouping topics, and quoting the respondents’ declarations in an anonymous way. Numerical data was not produced due to the qualitative orientation of the research (Morgan, 1988). The following presents the main findings from the data collection according to the items of the internal communication model. The present study has some limits. First, the companies studied do not represent the universe of companies and non profit organizations in Italy because of the qualitative nature of the research. Future quantitative and statistically consistent research is needed. Second, even though case studies represent many different industries, they were not chosen systematically. Third, the paper presents a preliminary synthesis of findings and the early concluding considerations. Further analysis will be useful in order to draw implications for research and for practice. Findings Information gathered by means of interviews where analysed and in the following are presented the main findings regarding: internal communication definition criteria, goals, interlocutors segmentation criteria, channels and instruments, use of internal communication for co-workers’ relations, internal communication plan frame, valued and expected results. Internal communication definition criteria Many of the companies considered include in their definition of internal communication the concept of information transmission, spreading, and sharing towards co-workers. In certain cases it is explained by the distribution of physical working sites. The level of efficiency of information flows in terms of pertinence to the issues, continuity, timeliness, coherence, diffusion, adequacy for avoiding lack or overload of information is very important. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 311 Alessandra Mazzei Many definitions track a rational metaphor, such as engine, flow transmission, exchange, and contain an implicit or explicit allusion to organizational boundaries. Information sharing is considered an antecedent of the decision to be a member of the organization and for better external communication. These kinds of definitions refer, in the interpretative model of this study, to the SCM. Most of the companies studied give a definition that present both systemic and resource based features. For example: “engine to transmit information and change”, “information and knowledge sharing”, “to reach most people (spread information) in order to create a better day by day working life quality”, “to increase the sense of belonging (membership) and dialogue among organizational units”, “to share information in order to improve working life quality and above all to feel part of the same group”. Information sharing is viewed as an antecedent of commitment and engagement. Some organizations provide a definition centred completely on intangible resources, using expressions as: “to create one single company” (the sense is to use internal communication to create a new internal branding), “knowledge spreading and sharing”, “values and culture sharing”, “internal communication as 360° communication, non characterized by internal reference”, “to create a common language”. Internal communication is also linked to the human resources management process, as for example for a company that considers internal communication as “a human resource management lever and a managerial day by day function”. To sum up, internal communication is defined in many cases completely or partially in systemic terms. At the same time, the relevance of human resource management, of knowledge creation and of allegiance building functions of internal communication emerges. Internal communication goals Many declared that internal communication goals refer to the system model as they express the companies’ willingness of bringing people towards corporate positions, views, and standards. These kinds of goals can be grouped in three main areas: a) information spreading and tools delivering; b) building of membership to the organization; c) values, mission, and goals alignment. a) Information spreading and tools delivering: - to carry out targeted internal communication tools; - to spread institutional and corporate information; - to listen to internal communication needs and interpret organizational climate in order to deliver communications coherent with organizational goals; - to support internal communication activities launched by the Head Quarter; - to spread and share information at all levels. b) Membership building: - to build awareness, sense of belonging, distinctive identity; - to improve organizational climate which is directly influenced by the availability of information. c) Values, mission, goals alignment: - to improve the comprehension of company programs and features; - to share organizational vision; - to share corporate mission and aims. 312 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour The communication source has an advocate orientation: to give information relevant for the company (they fit co-workers needs in order to be more effective); to convince people to be part of the organization (a passive decision); to align people with organization’s self representation. Companies aim at a messages target and communication outputs delivery function. Internal communication goals in most cases overlap the two models. Organizations attempt both to spread messages to internal publics by means of suitable tools and to enact communication behaviours by means of a supportive role towards managers and co-workers. Others declared goals are, on the contrary, related to a behaviours enactment function. For example: - to enable employees to exercise their independence, judgment and creativity - while strengthening a sense of belonging and consistent company brand; - do not communicate internally, but just support managers; - to facilitate task accomplishment; - to support an attitude towards active collaboration, projects building and common results - to spread safety culture and behaviours; - to build internal relations; - to get closer to the organizational units on the field; - to give co-workers the opportunity to easily find the information they are expected to search. To sum up, collected data show that the most spread internal communication aims are devoted to create membership, to align culture and values, to exchange information, and to produce out-puts. It is important to notice that many of those interviewed mentioned aims related to the enabling attitudes and behaviours function. A statement explains the sense of communication behaviours enactment very well: “to encourage active participation avoiding anarchy thanks to a strong identification with the company. As if to say: a thousand flowers bloom but the garden is still recognisable”. The intention to create the conditions to give autonomy with a strong centre of gravity clearly emerges. Interlocutors segmentation criteria The analysis regarding segmentation criteria shows the use of long-established criteria based on: a) organizational variables: hierarchy, that brings the distinction between employees and managers, or otherwise, in flat organizations, brings to communicate to all coworkers; function, for example white and blue collar, quality circles teams; b) socio-demographic variables: such as the age of co-workers; or their professional life phase as for example new-comers; c) geographic and spatial distance: fields, productive sites and consumer services business units, colleagues abroad. The greater the distance the more internal communication is required to move people closer to each other; d) position related to the organization: staff inside the organization, institutional boards, part of the organizational network, external committee relations. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 313 Alessandra Mazzei Organizational, demographic, and spatial differences are used in order to capture different communication needs and expectations. The companies studied use also segmentation criteria that underline physiological contract differences between publics such as: - value chain key roles: key suppliers, partners; - relevance for business strategy: segments that are very important for the current company strategy; - competence and professional areas: professional or practices communities, partners, management, staff. As pointed out before, publics who are supposed to be more aware and more oriented to take actions, are the ones who have commitment and a collaborative psychological contract with the organization, namely partners, professionals, and core workers. Every segmentation criterion that relies upon variables that can make it possible to suppose orientation to action could be useful for the internal communication enactment role. Channels and instruments The channels devoted to information convey in a push manner quoted by the companies studied, are: - information sharing tools; - meetings with managers, among colleagues; - cascading meeting programs; - internal events; - events for client and other stakeholders open to employees which are invited and some; - times transported on company charge; - internal advertising and posters campaigns; - house organ, newsletter; - brochures; - notice board with accurate visual identity, content management, useful to reach store or factory workers; - e-mailing to staff; - external campaigns directed also to staff; - info-points on social, environmental, public interest issues. These kinds of channels and instruments are intensively used but not one of the companies considered use them exclusively. Most organizations use push channels integrated to the pull ones, interactive instruments, and user generated and managed instruments. The inventory resulting from analysis is very long. below some selected examples: events with external testimonials to discuss relevant topics with all co-workers; - online interactive meetings; - online forum or special sessions for brain storming and open discussions; - user generated intranets that contain, for example, sit-coms played by employees, or interviews to co-workers; - call for ideas open to all employees for special projects such as a new communication format; - communication networks with pivot, facilitator, and gatekeeper roles; 314 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour - internal communication committees formed by co-workers; company radio, web TV in streaming, TV on demand. They are innovative tools and have high impact; programs coherent with the corporate mission, such as for example a project for office sustainability in a non profit organization; relax areas with restaurant, library, internet and intranet points; emotional and experience based events for team building such as business theatre, non conventional events such as harvest in a vinery or a workshop to create a company perfume; work outings and spending spare time with colleagues; informal meetings with top managers as monthly welcome lunch with newcomers; knowledge sharing opportunities as presentation of strategic projects, best practices awards, publishing of practices on the company’s intranet, development of methods based on shared best practices; billboards that publish works written or suggested by employees; interactive and open discussion channels such as focus groups, form on line, e-mail, to give voice to co-workers and make them protagonists; corporate responsibility programs carried out by employees such as voluntary work and fundraising for social causes. The main trend is increasingly towards user generated communication, not user oriented communication: “employees are at the same time actors and users of communication services”. Traditional pull internal communication instruments are developed and continuously improved in a creative manner. Those interviewed expect to increase the experience based and user generated tools that enable “people who have an idea feel to have an opportunity to communicate and share it”. Internal communication for co-workers relations All the companies considered care about employees relations and apply internal communication as a human resource management lever because communication with employees affect, in the opinions of those interviewed, organizational climate, motivation, performance, integration. The use of internal communication for co-workers relations has many facets such as job related functions, and human resources development functions. Job related functions are essentially focused on the explanation of performance management system and information on working life. Internal communication is also considered as a human resources management and development lever: - internal communication supports every people management phase from recruitment to selection, to competencies development, to training, and to evaluation; - intranet used to give visibility to individuals through tools for competencies evaluation, and curricula updating. One company declares that communication professionals’ mission is to make it easier to find information, while managers’ roles are to accompany and interpret communication meanings. They are the first communicators. One other company tells that during merger processes internal communication was strategic to build organizational integration. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 315 Alessandra Mazzei In most of the companies studied diversity management programs do not exist or have very little importance from the point of view of internal communication manager. Very few and marginal applications of diversity management such as the representation of a multiracial workforce in internal posters or the foreigner languages version of some internal communication instruments (house organ or intranet) were gathered. Some companies underline that national, racial and cultural diversity is a natural condition. For example in an R&D centre in Italy there are 15 nationalities and the shared language is English. In such circumstances, companies do not care about specific diversity management programs. Gathered data show that internal communication is strongly related to a co-workers relationship management function and hence near to the RBM of internal communication. Internal communication plan frame Some companies have an internal communication plan based on targets or publics, instruments, and channels. This model of communication plan undervalues the potential of internal communication in terms of activating function. It runs the risk of becoming out puts and short term oriented. Other companies have an internal communication plan based on: - indications from internal clients, as human resources managers and other managers - aims and processes; - stable internal networks that carry out the activities; - business strategy. Some examples are particularly relevant. One company has an annual internal communication plan that moves from aims and organizational values and identifies instruments and activities that match the following communication qualities: interactive, dynamic, trans-national, planned. Another company chooses instruments based on languages and function of media: timeliness information and interaction (intranet), go into depth (house organ), get closer to colleagues and organizational life (TV). Another plans its activities aiming at contents such as tasks and roles, company strategies, markets, industry, training and competences development. A further makes decentralized programs inspired by the strategic business plan and to communication priority that is simplicity, clearness, connections, efficiency. Many companies have internal and external communication programs at large based on global guide lines and business goals. Many declare they have a very flexible plan suitable for continuous adaptation, and all workers are sources of information and contents. Valued and expected results The aims of auditing and monitoring could be centred on out-puts, out-takes, out-comes or otherwise on out-growths. On the other hand methods of auditing and monitoring could be based on qualitative and open or on quantitative and structured techniques. Most accepted valued and expected results of internal communication are proper of the system model: - house organ and other publications readership; - TV clips; - clicks on intranet; - published news on intranet; - level of knowledge of organizational values; 316 Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 Internal Communication to Enact Active Communication Behaviour - how co-workers perceive and evaluate internal communication (level of satisfaction). One interviewee pointed out that too many surveys were usually carried out so they could become less useful because people do not have the time to answer. Other valued results, near to the resource based model, are: - shared values and culture; - work and climate satisfaction; - safety behaviours. The companies studied use a wide range of auditing and monitoring methods and techniques: - quantitative analysis also through intranet; - qualitative research such as focus group; - informal and non structured listening for each event to monitor the degree of participation and appreciation. Methods based on open listening are quite spread: - lunch with executives; - informal contacts; - periodic meetings with internal clients; - interviews to people who resign; - continuous relationships between tutors and pupils; - performance evaluation interview; - informal every day working life; - interviews to top managers: employees send questions and observation, and the management answer through an intranet forum and TV on demand. Discussion and Conclusions Data gathering is very recent and this paper contains the early elaboration on findings. Further examination of evidence is required and additional considerations will emerge. For a first preliminary exam, Exhibit 2 shows a visual representation of the findings presented earlier based on a quantification of grouped answers. It appears that the definition of internal communication given by the respondents contains, in most cases, elements from the two models. In other words, companies represent internal communication partially rooted into a systemic view and to some extend projected toward a resource-based view. Reviewing literature, on the contrary, it emerges that a concept of internal communication that does not abandon the systemic view of the company prevails. It is worth noticing that the concept of internal communication referring or completely centred on both models is quite diffused. The theoretical frame of the resource-based model of internal communication is coherent with the explicit ground knowledge about internal communication that internal communication professional posses. Goals, compared to the definition, appear to be more rooted in a system conception view. They are closely linked to the functions of information spreading and tools delivering; building of sense of belonging to the organization; corporate values, mission, and goals alignment. Despite internal communication definition tends to refer to the activation of high relational attitudes of employees, goals are more rooted to information transparency and soft elements of organization. Probably because of organizational resilience that makes past successful practices difficult to be abandoned. Proceedings of the Conference on Corporate Communication 2008 317 Alessandra Mazzei Segmentation criteria refer mostly to socio-demographic and organizational structure items. They do not overcome the established way of analysing publics in terms of information needs. The idea of segmentation criteria based on psychological contract is spread in a limited number of cases. Some companies extended their interlocutors also to external or hinge interlocutors. Definition Goals Segmentation Channels Co-workers relations Plan frame Valued results System Centred Model Resource Based Model Both Answer missing EXHIBIT 2: System and Resource Based internal communication models diffusion This strong evidence is probably due to the lack of awareness of the different relational connections between a
