Enterprises: double Perspective from a Case Study Internal Communication in International L

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Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia D

IPARTIMENTO DI STUDI LINGUISTICI E CULTURALI

CORSO DI LAUREA MAGISTRALE IN

L ANGUAGES FOR COMMUNICATION

IN INTERNATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND ORGANIZATIONS

Internal Communication in International

Enterprises: double Perspective from a Case Study

Prova finale di:

Caterina Lusuardi Relatore:

Prof. Antonie Hornung

Correlatore

Prof. Marina Bondi

Anno Accademico 2017-2018

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to research the topic of internal corporate communication while analysing its different forms and modalities. By starting from the assumption that, in a world that is undergoing continuous technological and social transformations, communication should be adequate to the conditions of the context in which it is realized, the use of communication within a corporate context is described.

While researching the ways in which communication should be organized in a corporate context, specific variables should be recognized: the participants in the exchange, the communicative situation, the language and the channel. The management of internal communication requires, therefore, specific figures for a strategic organization, which could produce positive outcomes in a working environment.

The focus is placed on the existence of an integrated form of corporate communication, which constitutes the wider frame of reference for internal communication. For this reason, an internal exchange of information between managers and employees should not be conceived as separated from communication with external entities.

In the second part of this Master thesis, communications in corporations are investigated from the point of view of the language used. At first, the concept of English Lingua Franca and especially the use of Business English Lingua Franca (BELF) in international corporations is introduced. Some clarifications on the use of the BELF variety in written and in face-to-face corporate communications are provided; subsequently, the third part of this Master thesis presents a double analysis of corporate communication structures within the context of two different enterprises. This experimental insertion of the present dissertation investigates the network of communications within both international enterprises, on the basis of the case study research methodology, through the outcomes produced by two interviews and a survey. After a presentation of the general background of research, details of the study are provided and an attempt is made to answer three research questions.

In conclusion, the third part of the study shows the way communicative variables could find different realizations in diverse corporate contexts and the possibilities of improvements of the pre-existing communicative situation.

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Zusammenfassung

Das Ziel dieser Abschlussarbeit ist eine Analyse des Themas der internen Unternehmens- kommunikation und parallel dazu eine Erforschung über die verschiedenen Formen und Modalitäten dieses Phänomens. Die Tatsache, dass es in unserer Gesellschaft ständige Veränderungen bezüglich der neuen Technologien und der zeitgenössischen Sozialpro- zesse gibt, macht es notwendig, die jeweilige Kommunikation an die Vielheit von Situa- tionen anzupassen.

In Hinsicht auf die Organisierung von Kommunikation in einer beruflichen Umgebung, sind spezifische Variablen zu berücksichtigen: die KommunikationsteilnehmerInnen, die Umstände der Kommunikation, die Sprache und die Austauschkanäle. Für das Manage- ment interner Kommunikation braucht das Unternehmen also Personen, die als Experten agieren können, um strategische Entscheidungen zum Vorteil des Unternehmens zu tref- fen.

Diese Abschlussarbeit bietet einen Überblick über ein integriertes Konzept von Unter- nehmenskommunikation, das als Rahmen vieler internen kommunikativen Austauschpro- zesse dient. Deshalb soll die interne Kommunikation zwischen Managern und Mitarbei- tern nicht von der Interaktion mit externen Einheiten getrennt werden.

Der zweite Teil dieser Masterarbeit erforscht das Thema der Unternehmenskommunika- tion in Bezug auf die Sprache. Zunächst wird das Konzept von English Lingua Franca, im Kontext der Sprachvarietät der Business English Lingua Franca (BELF) in internati- onalen Betrieben eingeführt. Es folgen Erläuterungen zu BELF in geschriebenen und face-to-face Interaktionen; anschließend werden im dritten Teil die Kommunikationssys- teme von zwei verschiedenen Unternehmen geschildert, eine Fallstudie, wofür die Me- thode des Interviews und eines Fragebogens verwendet werden. Auf diese Weise wird dieser Masterarbeit eine experimentelle Komponente hinzugefügt. Nach einer allgemei- nen Präsentation der beiden international operierenden Unternehmen, wird eine Antwort auf drei Forschungsfragen versucht.

Schließlich, stellt der dritte Teil dieser Arbeit verschiedene Realisierungen der Kommu- nikationsvariablen, sowie Vorschläge für eine Verbesserung der existierenden internen Kommunikationssysteme in den unterschiedlichen Unternehmen zur Diskussion.

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Riassunto

Oggetto di questo elaborato di tesi è lo studio della comunicazione interna all’azienda attraverso l’analisi delle diverse forme e modalità che essa può assumere. L’uso della comunicazione in un contesto interno all’azienda è descritto in considerazione del fatto che, in un mondo in continua evoluzione per quanto riguarda la società e le nuove tecno- logie, alla comunicazione è richiesto di evolvere e di adattarsi alle strutture sociali.

In contesto aziendale, è possibile individuare alcune variabili specifiche relative all’orga- nizzazione della comunicazione: i partecipanti all’azione comunicativa, la situazione in cui avviene l’interazione, la lingua e i canali di comunicazione. La gestione della comunicazione interna richiede dunque figure di esperti che siano capaci di organizzare in modo strategico la rete comunicativa, a vantaggio dell’azienda.

Elemento cruciale dell’indagine è la considerazione dell’esistenza di una forma di comunicazione aziendale integrata, che agisce come cornice più ampia rispetto ai processi di comunicazione interna. Per questa ragione, lo scambio comunicativo interno tra manager ed impiegati di azienda non è percepito come un fenomeno separato rispetto alla comunicazione rivolta ad entità esterne.

Nella seconda parte di questa tesi di Laurea, la comunicazione interna all’azienda viene analizzata dal punto di vista della lingua utilizzata. In un primo momento viene introdotto il concetto di English Lingua Franca, con particolare accezione alla varietà comunicativa del Business English Lingua Franca (BELF). Dopo alcune considerazioni legate all’uso del BELF nelle aziende sia per le comunicazioni scritte che nel face-to-face, nel terzo capitolo viene presentato un caso di studio riguardante i sistemi di comunicazione all’interno di due diverse aziende attraverso i metodi dell’intervista e del questionario. Questa sezione dell’elaborato di tesi, che può essere considerata la componente sperimentale di questo scritto, fornisce, quindi, una doppia chiave di lettura sull’argomento. Dopo una prima presentazione di entrambe le aziende in cui l’indagine è svolta, operanti a livello internazionale, si cerca di rispondere a tre domande di ricerca attraverso l’analisi dei dati.

La terza parte dell’elaborato di tesi si pone infine come obiettivo l’individuazione delle variabili comunicative, così come delle possibilità di miglioramento nelle strutture comunicative già esistenti, all’interno delle due diverse realtà aziendali.

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Introduction

In contemporary times, travels and commercial exchanges are ordinary activities and they are accessible to the large majority of people.

Travels and commercial exchanges could be considered as a primary reaction of people to the necessity of establishing contacts with other people and of communicating with them for different purposes from places that are far away, by organizing and monitoring situations that would not otherwise be accessible to them. Such a necessity could also be viewed as the crucial driver that has pushed large enterprises with an international activity and foreign corporate branches to establish complex communication networks.

Investments realized by companies in the field of communication have been expressed through the adoption of communication channels which could allow corporate bodies to manage their internal and external relations in an effective way. As a matter of fact, enterprises could be primarily defined as groups of people and, particularly in our times, the challenge that such international entities continuously face is the one to cultivate a corporate environment that could mainly guarantee the respect of the social nature of work and the attention to corporate members (Holtz 2003: 220).

Fundamental, in a corporate context, is hence the role of internal communication: a solid internal communication structure enables the company to transmit messages to employees and other stakeholder groups through the most appropriate channels, so as to cultivate transparency by making them feel part of the same “family”.

For all these reasons, the institution of an efficient internal communication network is nowadays perceived by many companies as an indispensable choice and communication management is gradually acquiring strategic importance. As a consequence of this turning point, the phenomenon of internal communication, which constitutes just a single component of corporate communication, is therefore gaining considerable independence, by being increasingly distinguished from other professional sectors linked to communication, like Marketing or Human Resources.

All these changes emerge evidently by considering the fact that, in many medium and large international enterprises in which administration of internal communication still

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2 represents an unspecialized area, specific departments are created and the figure of an internal communication manager is assigned to this professional field, for the sake of a corporate progress.

As, according to Paul Watzlawick’s words (1971: 44), it is impossible for men not to communicate, enterprises simply try to perfect their own internal efficiency through the powerful instrument of internal communication, with constant improvements to keep up with changes in our society.

As a consequence of the previous premises, the purpose of the present dissertation is to explore the phenomenon of internal communication under different aspects. The environment in which its evolution is observed is the one of international corporations, whose fundamental achievement in terms of internal communication could be considered not only the coordination of information exchanges within the corporate environment, but also with foreign branches and subsidiaries.

In the first chapter, this paper examines the basic components of internal communication:

starting from the general concept of corporate communication, a broad overview of its role within international companies is offered, as also an explanation of its functions.

Some problems that could be experimented by managers and employees in connection with internal communication in the intriguing environment of corporations are under- lined, as also possible solutions that could be provided against such difficulties.

In subsequent parts of the opening chapter, the phenomenon is described from the point of view of its implementation: the bases of internal communication, from the foundation of its original structures to the appearance of the first communication channels, are presented, with a parallel description of the communication technologies that are proper to the era of “Web 2.0”.

The second chapter explores the phenomenon of internal communication particularly in relation to the language used in interactions with colleagues working abroad. After an initial introduction of the variety of Business English Lingua Franca (BELF), some clarifications on its role in an international corporate environment are given to the reader.

Some possible examples of BELF both in written and in face-to-face communicative

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3 exchanges are illustrated, in order to analyse the role of English as a commonly used language for interactions with foreign colleagues in a real-life context.

The third chapter, which represents the experimental component in this dissertation, is built around a case study: the phenomenon of internal corporate communication is analysed in two major international companies through different research strategies.

The introductory part of the last chapter focusses on the theoretical bases of the case study research methodology whereas the closing section examines the outcomes of the research project carried out at Rossi Spa, an Italian enterprise headquartered in Modena.

First contacts with the enterprise were established during a university traineeship, in which the phenomenon of communication in such an interesting corporate environment showed its complexity and potential implications for the company’s activity.

Data gathered through a parallel research related to an English biopharmaceutical company, Shire Plc, are presented in the third section, too. In this way, the main findings of the research conducted at Rossi offer a possible interpretation of internal corporate communication structures but an alternative perspective in relation to the same phenomenon is provided through Shire’s data.

Evidence provided by the research were collected through the instruments of a survey, available online in two languages and of an interview realized with two corporate managers, experienced in the field of research or currently employed in the corporate communication department. Research processes, however, were supported by background in- vestigations realized at an initial phase of the project.

In the final section, some observations with regard to the implementation of internal communication in the two specific corporate environments are made, with final considerations on the general theme of this dissertation.

In summary, this paper firstly aims at examining communication modalities, participants and channels used within international enterprises, with the aim of providing the reader with a possible key to understanding.

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Chapter 1 Internal Corporate Communication

1.1. The Basics of the Concept

1.1.1. Corporate Communication: Definition

The expression “corporate communication” evokes not just the world of the corporation itself, but also the whole organization of corporate communication studies. Joep Cornel- issen, in his book Corporate Communication. A Guide to Theory and Practice, shows that the Latin word “corpus” could be used to describe all the instruments and forms of communications that, in the context of an enterprise, belong to the same embodied entity, even though there can be different expressions and audiences at which communications are addressed: not only external but also internal stakeholders (2017: 5). The aim of corporate communication, for this reason, appears to be the establishment and maintenance of a favourable reputation with stakeholder groups (Ibid.).

Each of these different forms of communication is essential for the enterprise; on the contrary, the single communicative typologies are only partly useful if taken in their iso- lation; they reach their completeness if they are observed from a wider perspective.

If we consider the simple definition of communication as a transfer of information between people (Coates 2009: 13), the participants in these exchanges, in a corporate context, are located at different levels of the structure: for this reason, their interactions show different purposes, channels and typologies and are associated to a great variety of situations. Nevertheless, there is a common element to all these communicative exchanges: in contrast to everyday conversations, which are produced causally and almost completely without preceding dispositions, the large part of communicative exchanges in the workplace does not simply “happen” in an unorganized way: on the contrary, they are, usually, previously planned and systematically realized (Baeriswyl 2015: 2).

The administration of corporate communication is often associated with managerial activities, still this is only one of its possible expressions: according to the position of the participants in the communicative exchange, communication can occur both in a vertical

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6 and in a horizontal direction. Another variable are the actors in the communicative exchange: as a matter of fact, information could be shared with different kinds of stakeholder groups. Preferred audiences are customers, other companies and external investors but also other practitioners and employees of the same company. As a consequence of these two cases, communication studies distinguish communicative exchanges through the concepts of “internal” and “external” communication. Every form of internal and external communication in this context could consequently be perceived as a complementary part that allows the corporate machinery to work appropriately.

Corporate communication should not be confused with other kinds of communicative exchanges in use in organizations: it is particularly important to mention business communication and management communication. Both of these professional forms of communication are indeed used within restricted contexts; conversely, corporate communication comprises an extended area of communicative exchanges, because it is focussed on the company as a whole (Cornelissen 2017: 10). Not only are the “users” of business and management communication different from the ones of corporate communication, but also the tools: while business communication finds its expression mainly in the written exchange of information among people in the sphere of business, in corporate communication different instruments are adopted and adapted to the needs of communicators. The focus on written products as the core of business communication is due to the fact that

“writing in and for business was conceived as a social action, an activity through which organisational actors create understanding, meaning and knowledge” (Bargiela-Chiappini 2009:2), while, on a wider perspective, in corporate communication a multiplicity of expressions and modalities emerges.

The composite nature of corporate communication studies is mainly due to the overlap of this field of research with other disciplines: not only business but also psychological and communication sciences. A significant connection could be observed, for instance, in the influence of marketing and communication studies on corporate communication.

These two disciplines, which in the past were considered as two different tools commonly used by enterprises to manage external relations, started to be looked at as parts of the same system during the 1980s, when it was clear that their core activities were in common.

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7 The paramount role played by marketing and communication studies within a corporate context for communications addressed to an external audience was also portraited by Oth- mar Baeriswyl, in a scheme which illustrates the basis for the whole corporate communication structure (cf. Figure 1.1).

As far as the management of marketing and public relations is concerned, a series of different models have been adopted over time and many of them have exerted a strong influence on the current conception of an integrated corporate communication. A sign of these experimentations is the choice of many companies to implement various strategies for the persuasion of customers with the objective of selling goods: to name these strategies the label “marketing public relations” (MPR) was used. MPR should be distinguished by “corporate public relations” (CPR), oriented to the achievement of the company’s

goals through public relations both with external and with internal actors (Cornelissen 2017: 20). The creation of these “hybrid” forms of communication, together with the natural balance reached among all these forms are two important motives for the devel- opment of a new “integrated” view of communication.

With regard to the emergence of such a perception, recently accepted by many companies as the result of a long-term evolution, three main categories of drivers have been proposed by Cornelissen. These motivations, which in Cornelissen are identified as the reasons for the reorganization of corporate communication, consider on the one hand market- and

Figure 1.1: Bereiche der Unternehmenskommunikation./Main areas of corporate communication.

Source:Baeriswyl O. (2015) “Unternehmenskommunikation: mit Kommunikation Wirkung erzielen”, http://hslu.blz.ch/kontext2/dokumente_kontext2/handouts/handout_unternehmenskommunikation.pdf, p. 3.

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8 environmental-, on the other hand communication-based drivers and finally organizational drivers, which are strictly linked to the objectives of the organization (2017: 25).

The fact that the stakeholders of the same company could play different roles at the same time requires that different forms of communication could be used with them. This situation, together with the necessity of adopting a transparent language both with internal and with external stakeholders to release communications about the company’s activities represents a valid market- and environment-based driver in favour of an integrated communication structure.

Instead, communication-based drivers derive from the conditions of communication of the contemporary society, which push many companies to research clear and innovative communicative forms, with which the communication clutter of the everyday life can be overcome. An important influence in this respect was exerted by the new media. After the first attempts at using an integrated approach to communication it gradually became clear that the adoption of such a various and complex communicative system could benefit the relationships between companies and stakeholder groups, because “messages in various media can complement one another” (Id.: 24).

The third category of factors which considerably contributed to the foundation of an innovative, integrated view of corporate communication represents the main motives that moved corporations towards this communicative form: organizational drivers. These reasons give voice to the necessity of organizations to develop trustworthy communication systems, which could improve their efficiency in commercial relations and through which the accountability of the communication system itself could be reinforced.

This general change in the corporate communicative structure, which has mainly been possible through the identification of a common frame for all the communicative forms within the company, has also provided a useful basis for the implementation of corporate strategies.

As a consequence of all these motivations, the first simplistic conception of internal corporate communication as an alternative to all the other forms of external communication appears deviating: this concept has already been put into discussion during the 1990s and 2000s and successively substituted by the integrated framework of communication

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9 explained above, under the influence of meaningful changes in the corporate world and the advance of social media (cf. Figure 1.2).

An exemplar phenomenon which followed the rise of integrated corporate communication is shown by the theorization, after “marketing public relations” and “corporate public relations”, of the concept of “Integrated Marketing Communication”. According to Cay- wood (2003, cited by Forétovà 2011: 15) this conception represents an “added value”

aimed at persuading the company’s customers to buy corporate products by combining a series of different marketing strategies: from advertising to sales promotion and public relations. The objectives of this strategy are strongly correlated with the goals of internal corporate communication: as a matter of fact, a parallelism can be traced between the main functions of the two elements. This is due to the fact that internal communication is oriented to the creation and maintenance of an attractive corporate image and reputation through the establishment of an effective communication network within the company:

similarly, Integrated Marketing Communication promotes a company’s products through different instruments, as brochures, direct marketing and the company’s website.

For all these reasons, it could be deduced that the strive of every company to build a solid corporate image which could lead, on the long run, to the construction of a meaningful corporate reputation, can be reached with the help of many different kinds of internal resources, which are then integrated with efficacious marketing methods (i.e. IMC) in order to arouse the interest of the target groups.

Figure 1.2: An integrated approach to communication management.

Source:Cornelissen J. (2017) Corporate Communication, A Guide to Theory and Practice, 5th edition, Lon- don: SAGE Publications, p.26.

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10 According to this view, therefore, integrated marketing communication gives the employees the possibility to use a series of instruments in corporate communication to integrate the other tools.

Hence, in a more general perspective, the essential quality of an integrated form of corporate communication appears to be the accessibility to a great variety of instruments of internal communication and, at the same time, the reinforcement of their effects through the implementation of external communication strategies.

Through this method, a synergy among all communication disciplines within a company can be created, and a fruitful collaboration among the practitioners of the different corporate branches can be fostered. Indeed, in order to persecute the company’s success and to cultivate transparency, an indispensable step is to overcome whatever kind of separation in the enterprise with respect to communication (Cornelissen 2017: 5).

On the basis of this belief, internal corporate communication systems should be treated with great care in order to obtain good results in external relations, that are associated with customers, partner companies or external investors.

The definition of internal communication given by Philip Meier describes it by putting into relation its double role of exchanging information according to the needs of communicators and, at the same time, of promoting the dialogue both between managers and employees and among employees (2000, cited by Baeriswyl 2015: 3). Meier classifies successively different kinds of instruments that can be used to cultivate internal communications by establishing a relation with their specific functions in enterprises: his distinc- tion identifies tools for giving dispositions (e.g. announcements and manuals for new employees), tools aiming at coordinating people (e.g. conferences or weekly planning sessions), implements which serve as an orientation (e.g. corporate tv, corporate maga- zine, newsletter) and tools for creating and maintaining a contact among colleagues (e.g.

corporate trips, open days).

A fundamental component of internal corporate communication, the creation of contacts, is summarized in the concept of public relations (PR). This dimension, which is also present in external corporate communication, is crucial for the realization of an effective

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11 management style and contributes to infusing vitality in the corporation through the influence and collaboration of external entities.

While, on the one hand, internal public relations imply a type of communication that is necessary to orient the employee’s work behaviour and attitudes in a company (Holà 2007: 108), on the other hand, from an external perspective, public relations are devoted to the management of issues of public concern (Cornelissen 2017:18).

Thanks to the new, integrated perception of corporate communication, the important influence of public relations, initially observed as a simple mechanism of external corporate communication, has been also extended to an internal sphere.

As a result, internal and external public relations, which nominally belong to two diverse contexts, are, nowadays considered as two equally indispensable communicative forms:

their prosperity requires a wide range of personal qualities, management skills and a mix- ture of marketing strategies and valid company communication infrastructures (Holà 2007: 108).

Although internal and external public relations can both be assimilated into the context of corporate communication, the tools which they make use of and the audience at which they are addressed are completely different. As for internal and external corporate communication, they necessitate a different kind of approach. At first, internal PR are oriented to an internal target group, so that they require instruments which the company already controls and possesses. These implements should allow a communicator to easily reach all the other colleagues and employees, included the managers and employees who work in foreign branches and subsidiaries. At the same time, particular occasions or events should be organized by a careful enterprise to provide employees with the possibility for cultivating face-to-face communication and human relations, which are not only a guarantee for major clarity in information exchange, but also precious opportunities to lay the basis of a really solid entrepreneurial structure. As a consequence, corporate magazines and blackboards and, to higher degree, corporate meetings and business trips represent for a company immediate and irreplaceable instruments for exchanging information with other members of the corporate body (Ibeschitz et al., no date).

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12 As illustrated above, internal and external PR aim at reaching different audiences: this primary differentiation obviously implies a further difference in the use of a variety of tools. In the case of external communication, marketing strategies are always essential, as also sponsorships and any other opportunity provided by the new media. Corporate open days are also very important: they provide an external public with the occasion for knowing the enterprise and, at the same time, are an efficacious resource for making the employees feel responsible of their work and positively creating self-awareness.

There are many advantages which derive from an integrated model of communication:

on the basis of such an approach, the goals and resources of internal corporate communication, despite their different context of action, are added to the ones of external corporate communication, for a major success of the company.

From a study carried out on the multinational corporation Siemens, as an example, Joep Cornelissen (2017: 32) listed as the most noticeable consequence of a process of change and promotion of an integrated communication structure an enhancement in the efficiency of the communication network within the organization, through the centralization of the responsibilities in a single office. This proceeding allowed Siemens to cut on internal expenses while reaching a leaner corporate structure.

A second advantage observed by Cornelissen in relation to Siemens was a consolidation of the corporate entity, reached through a general reorganization of the staff and resources and a modification in communication structure.

However, in addition to all the above listed progresses which could be realized through the centralization of the corporate communicative structure in an integrated form, some kinds of modifications on the long run are possible only starting from the internal structure of the company. A work on the company’s image and reputation, in fact, is exclu- sively possible whether changes are encouraged from the core of the organization, that is, starting from the relationships upon which the corporate structure is built. In this respect, internal communication is the necessary tool to implement such a profound modification.

Taking care of an organization from the point of view of the relationships among the employees and between the CEO and the employees means, therefore, trying to cultivate a positive and serene climate; at the same time, a peaceful working environment

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13 contributes to giving life to constructive and even interesting dialogues, generating a vir- tuous circle.

1.1.2. Internal Corporate Communication: Functions

Forging a Coherent Corporate Identity, Image and Reputation

A primary goal of internal corporate communication, as it was already introduced above, could be illustrated by considering the linkage between corporate image and reputation¹, corporate vision and corporate culture, as the main frame in which corporations and enterprises are established. Strong internal mechanisms of control of these three elements, as a matter of fact, are easily developed by enterprises that have the jurisdiction of the way in which employees, as also managers and stakeholders, communicate.

Companies have a great interest in providing external stakeholders with an appealing self- representation: they are interested in giving them a positive image. The image, which is the perception that outside stakeholder groups have of the company (Cornelissen 2017:

97), is fundamental for a company to achieve the success and to dominate the market over competitors: Richard Normann describes it as a “powerful weapon, with which to exert influence” (2001: 150).

The strict control over a variety of communication channels could be achieved by the enterprise through different strategies: as an example, the attention devoted to face-to- face communications, especially favoured by the organization of places, such as the caf- eteria or the entrance hall of the office, in which employees have the possibility to con- versate and have a break; additional important factors to the creation of an interesting corporate image could be the perceived efficiency of the information exchange between the offices and the speed at which internal decisions are taken.

1Even though the two elements are connected, the concepts of corporate image and reputation have di- verse connotations: corporate image is given by a series of associations that could be triggered in a person who receive specific messages or information from and about the company at a certain point in time; corporate reputation is the general impression that the person has elaborated about the company over time through contacts with it. (Cornelissen 2017: 7)

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14 The observation of all these factors could drive external stakeholders to appreciate the company’s activity, because they all contribute to “position” the company positively in the eyes of external groups. According to the “positioning paradigm”, indeed, an enterprise could promote specific strategies to plan and design its messaging with the objective to convey to other people exactly the reputational idea that the company wants (Cornel- issen 2007: 11). The role of a company’s manager is, to this extent, fundamental: management is, as a matter of fact, the capacity to induce certain behaviours and cause certain reactions through combined and coordinated human actions. In this case, the power of management lies exactly in the ability to influence different stakeholder groups by alter- ing their perception of the company (Kets de Vries 1980, cited by Normann 2001: 150).

The dark side of this conception is represented by the possibility that, in a similar situation, the manager could achieve such a power to effectively “manage” the minds of his stakeholders and, in the end, to dominate over them.

This perception of the dynamics that occur between manager and employees have nevertheless, under different external pressures, undergone remarkable changes and the “positioning paradigm” has been gradually replaced by the idea of a major stakeholder involvement, in which other firms, financers and shareholders are engaged in decision-making processes and not just passive participants in the life of the company (Cornelissen 2007:

11).

In each case, when the company is able to structure the whole system of internal relationships so as to enjoy a good fame over a long time, it is able to establish a brilliant corporate reputation.

However, the primary aim of internal corporate communication is not just the construction of the company’s image: this element alone should be looked at as incomplete, because it should be combined with the company’s culture (i.e. the way in which employees perceive the company’s main values) and vision (i.e. the aspirations and plans that man- gers have for their organization) (Id.: 97). For this reason, internal corporate communication could be considered as an essential tool for aligning image, corporate culture and management vision. After that the company’s vision has been correctly transmitted by managers to employees in the form of a common corporate culture, a corporate image

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15 which is “aligned” with these concepts can finally be proposed to external stakeholder groups.

In terms of corporate communication, this means that, after a general “internal” organi- sation of these concepts, the company is expected to present them, through means of external communication, to outside stakeholders.

Creating a Dialogue about Corporate Social Responsibility Issues

Internal corporate communication, especially in its integrated form, is particularly important for an honest and transparent dialogue both between manager and employees and in communications among employees. As a matter of fact, companies try to show their engagement in social, environmental and economic issues (Dahlsrud 2008: 6) producing CSR reports, which are normally accessible to everybody in the enterprise. As Joep Cor- nelissen underlines (2007: 258), however, these documents are often perceived as instruments of persuasion rather than objective descriptions of the company’s concern about the reported topics. In this situation, the value of transparency in communication, not only on an internal but also on an external dimension, appears altered and, in many cases, not respected. Some companies, despite the control of audit agencies, generate CSR reports in which data are just partially listed and some other enterprises disclose “critical” data by selecting the reported elements.

In other cases, companies show the tendency to exaggerate the reported data, and this communication strategy often provokes opposite reactions in the readers, so that companies run the risk, in this case, that external and internal stakeholders clearly perceive their aim of boosting their own performances.

Corporate Social Responsibility, defined by the Commission of the European Communi- ties as the phenomenon whereby the social and environmental engagement of the company emerge “on a voluntary basis” both in interactions with stakeholders and with regard to business (2001: 6), constitutes, in fact, a delicate theme which, as such, should be com- municated carefully, paying attention to some particular criteria. A good strategy, to this extent, could be the one of engaging stakeholders in corporate decisions, sharing power with this category. To reach this objective, both managers and stakeholders should have the opportunity to give voice to their own ideas and, at the same time, the company should

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16 favour relationships which are not based on authority but on a mutual exchange; in addition, the company which has the intention to involve its stakeholders in decisional processes should be able to know precisely what their interests and intentions are, as also to test alternative claims in the discussion (Cornelissen 2017: 258). Besides these premises, the company should also be ready to share honestly with its stakeholders its own views and plans, starting from internal stakeholders, who could contribute to reinforcing the company’s image in the interaction with external stakeholders.

Communication strategies, and especially a stakeholder involvement strategy, could make the difference at all levels between the creation of alliances between the company and its stakeholders and the establishment of a more detached relation, based on mutual respect but, ultimately, on indifference between parties.

It is for this reason that the attention paid by the enterprise to relations with people who are linked, in various ways, to the company structure starts mainly from the attention devoted to the way in which communications are carried out with them. Communicating

“transparently” with internal stakeholders about themes of Corporate Social Responsibil- ity, from the production of sincere CSR reports to the maintenance of an effective dialogue about social and environmental topics should, therefore, be considered as an essential premise in order to create a successful corporate reputation. Only through a similar mechanism the enterprise will be able to offer a coherent winning image to outside stakeholders; in such a way, the company will reach the desired alignment between its internal vision, culture and the external impression that will make it attractive to external stakeholders.

In recent times, to monitor communications within companies especially in the field of CSR reports, some documents and institutions aiming at offering parameters and bench- marks to companies have emerged: the Global Reporting Initiative and the Integrated Reporting Framework are probably the most authoritative examples² (Id: 97). They

2 The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an international organization which works since 1997 for making companies sensitive about particular issues, as human rights, environmental sustainability and societal problems. It aims at empowering positive decisions in enterprises around the world; the International Inte- grated Reporting Council (IIRC), in a similar way, is an international non-profit institution that works particularly for the achievement of an integrated form of communication. The company aims at aligning

“capital allocation and corporate behaviour to wider goals of financial stability and sustainable develop- ment”. (Sources: GRI website About GRI, https://www.globalreporting.org/Information/about-

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17 propose their principles to a multitude of large and medium-sized companies, by especially guiding them at the moment of the production of CSR reports, in order to improve transparency of communications. This serves as an instrument for the reorganization of companies according to sustainable standards.

Cultivating Transparency

As it was already introduced in the preceding paragraph, internal communication plays a crucial role as regards the maintenance of an honest and transparent corporate conduct.

In order to understand the concept of transparency, it is essential to develop its connec- tions with corporate identity and its communication and transmission to internal and external stakeholder groups. Fombrun and Rindova clarify that transparency is a state in which not only the internal identity of the enterprise is organized according to the plans and expectations of key stakeholders, but also the opposite is true: stakeholders cultivate plans and beliefs in line with the internal corporate identity (2007, cited by Cornelissen 2007: 97).

Transparency is an essential value for cultivating honesty at all levels of the organization, among people who share the same workplace, not only from a horizontal perspective (i.e.

among colleagues), but also on a vertical dimension, between CEO and employees. The one of transparency is a necessary value at the basis of a solid corporate identity and reputation, therefore it is always recommended to the manager who wants to create, through transparency in communication, a positive and engaging working environment.

As regards the figure of the CEO, however, there could be some exceptions: in some situations, it could be opportune for him to resort to communicative methods which are ambiguous and flexible instead of aiming at transparency and clarity.

In fact, the complicated network of relationships in which the CEO is involved within the enterprise requires, on his side, the ability to adopt different kinds of communicative behaviour, which could variate according to the situations and the communicators: for this reason, the CEO could profit from being versatile and adapting his communicative skills to the various circumstances which he lives. As a consequence, the priority, in such

gri/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed:04.11.2018; International Integrated Reporting Council website The IIRC, http://integratedreporting.org/the-iirc-2/. Accessed:04.11.2018).

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18 communicative situations, will not emerge from the manager’s ability to produce clear and direct utterances, but from the transmission of specific values which underlie these communicative exchanges (Kitchen and Schultz 2001:39).

A central advantage for the manager which derives from an ambiguous language is flexibility of interpretation: in this way, the manager has the possibility to address his own messages to a variety of audiences at the same time, because they will be able to receive and elaborate the message on the basis of their own various parameters and needs. Kitchen and Schultz (Ibid.) recall, about this concept, the common conclusion at the basis of the theory of strategic ambiguity and theory of common starting points proposed respectively by Eisenberg and van Riel: both of these studies show the importance of mixing, in the manager’s discourse, clarity and comprehensibility with ambiguity and flexibility³. Inter- nal communication could, therefore, be the instrument through which CEOs and managers could balance transparency with ambiguity to their advantage in working relations.

The degree of transparency and openness in communications at work is also discussed by Eisenberg and Marsha (1987: 420). They explain that the degree of openness of people at work is linked to three different interpretations: it could be seen as the disclosure of personal information, the disclosure of non-personal information and, as a third alternative, the way in which the two preceding perceptions of openness overlap.

A positive working climate and a solid relation among colleagues, for all these reasons, demand a higher degree of transparency in internal communications and, at the same time, an optimal balance about personal and non-personal information in communicative exchanges, as expressed by Eisenberg’s third dimension. This could be a simple but efficacious strategy to create trust and a consequently pleasant working environment.

3 In his book Strategic ambiguities. Essays on Communication, Organization and Identity, Eisenberg (2007) explains his “Theory of Strategic Ambiguities” by clarifying that in enterprises managers are expected to achieve different goals, so that they make use of communication strategies which allow them to transmit flexible and even ambiguous messages, because they may be effective with different audiences.

At the same time, van Riel (1995, cited by Geller 2009: 8) proposed the concept of “orchestration of communications”, within companies, through common starting points. According to the theorist, this could be possible whether communications are constructed according to the strategic triangle “corporate strategy- corporate identity-corporate image”, essential for the prosperity of the company.

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19 Building Trust

Whether it is true that “the essence of all corporate brand relationships is trust” (Kitchen and Schultz 2001: 12), trust is an indispensable element at the basis of healthy relationships in corporate organizations. Because of the fact that trust stems especially from the way in which interactions between people are carried out, the establishment of a trustworthy communication network should be an essential goal for every organization.

From the point of view of internal communication, the construction of a relation based on trust is possible in presence of a two-way communication: particularly important is, to this extent, the way in which a manager shares information with his employees, because from this starting point a solid and fruitful collaboration could be generated. In this case, the acquisition of employee’s trust, on the manager’s part, could be accessed only by trusting them at first (Hynes 2015); otherwise, the risk of falling into a spiralling distrust- ful relationship is a menace to the whole corporate body.

According to Geraldine Hynes (Ibid.), whether a manager should aim at the achievement of a trustworthy relation with his employees, he should pay attention not only to the respect of the worker’s independence to the extent that is convenient, but also to the possibility of letting them free to express their opinions. This second ingredient, which is connected to the openness in communicative exchanges as anticipated in the previous paragraph, is a primary expression of the importance of cultivating a transparent communication within enterprises.

Nonetheless, a manager should pay particular attention to the way in which information is

shared with employees and colleagues, because by letting other people perceive that there is a collaboration among all the roles and parties, among managers and workers, they will feel involved in the life of the company and they will be engaged in their work. This will promote a working climate based on trust, because it will increase the sense of belonging of employees and will make them feel as if they “share the same mission” of their em- ployer (Boynton et al. 2014: 197). All the messages provided by the enterprise will,

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20 consequently, highlight the creation of a sense of unity (i.e. “Wir-Gefühl”) among all the members of the enterprise⁴.

In concrete terms, some communicative strategies for engaging the employees while building trust should be mentioned: at first the necessity, on the managers’ part, of sharing information as much and as often as possible with employees, by demonstrating transparency in corporate actions. A strategic advantage of frequent communications is that, even though employees should not agree with the contents of them, they allow the workers to understand the actions of their CEO and make them more predictable for them. As a consequence, the employees will almost inevitably be more prone to trust the conduct of their CEO. The third meaningful element which could encourage the creation of a trustworthy relation between employees and managers is the consistency in words and behaviour (Hynes 2015). When the employees perceive that the plans and vision of the company really correspond to its actions, a faithful reaction will probably be triggered in them, and the company will have gained its worker’s trust.

According to Hynes (Ibid.), from the point of view of the conversation, a strategic expe- dient which could be successfully adopted by the manager suggests the use of an inclusive language in internal communications: the frequent repetition of collective pronouns (e.g.

“we”, “us”, ”our”), as a matter of fact, contribute on creating the idea of the corporate team and convinces the audience of the reliability of the message.

Conversely, in case the fundamental attention to the way interactions between manager and employees are constructed should lack, the whole enterprise is exposed to risks, because communication has the power to influence trust and relationships, therefore it is paramount for the benefit of the company itself (Boynton et al. 2014: 186). The devas- tating consequences which follow the absence of trust in internal communication clearly emerge from the words of Kitchen and Schultz (2001: 12), when they reflect on a possible degradation of the relationships among the manager and his employees: “Trust is more keenly felt as betrayal when employees are disheartened and communicate their negative impressions to other listening and impressionable publics”.

4 Source: Interne Kommunikation – Was ist das eigentlich?, video available on Youtube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRWhLqQe9hI (Accessed: 04.09.2018) and lecture Interne Un- ternehmenskommunikation, October 19^th, 2017.

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21 Most of the cases in which employees start distrusting their company are related to a lack of communication and they usually start as communication problems which arise within the enterprise and mutate the previous trust into a state of distrust; an unclear language, as also an inconsistent behaviour and the use of ambiguous or lofty words could be the causes for doubts about the honesty of the management style.

Particularly interesting, in this field, is the general tendency provided by the Edelman Trust Barometer, an international index which annually analyses the level of trust around the world in percentage⁵. The general situation depicted by the Edelman Barometer for the year 2018 is one of stagnant distrust, with the percentage of trust in Italy in the area of business demonstrating a slight decrease in 2018 in comparison to 2016. In general, however, Edelman also underlines that the percentage of trust placed in figures of experts, with respect to the past, is increased in 2018, with a boost which amounts to seven percent.

As clarified in the preceding paragraphs, trust in institutions is a fundamental value; this is true also for corporate institutions. However, in some periods more than ever, companies should be particularly cautious with the way in which internal communication is administered because it could be a powerful incentive to the employee’s trust. Moments of transition, mergers or other kinds of changes are, in this respect, exceptionally delicate.

Communicating Changes

While it is true that changes of whatever kind in a corporate context are carried out through organization plans, communications between the members of the organization during a change are fundamental to coordinate the correct implementation of these plans and the interactions between the members. Not only large but also small and medium- sized enterprises continuously undergo changes: they could be small and “convergent”

(e.g. particularly connected to a specific sector as a result of a complaint related to that corporate area), as well as big and “radical” changes, oriented to the whole company (Cornelissen 2007: 233).

5 The Edelman Trust Barometer is an international research program which collects data annually about the level of trust in institutions (i.e. governments, business, media and NGOs). The data, which are gathered through online surveys across the world and analysed since 2001, are elaborated in percentage; it is possible to consult them according to specific categories: institutions, gender, age and audience. In addition, the website provides a mechanism of research which allows the visitors to examine the levels of trust separately in the single countries. (Source: 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, https://www.edel-

man.com/trust-barometer. Accessed: 06.11.2018)

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22 The central element in these various circumstances is, however, leadership: the action of the leader is crucial for providing the appropriate guidance and engaging employees and colleagues in the change. Indeed, processes as mergers, acquisitions of new technological tools within the company and reorganizations of the offices are nowadays very common and require figures who could be able to tackle these challenges while guiding employees.

Leaders are expected to “act as role models for the change” (Id.: 242), hence it is important that, as the critical moment arrives, they could be instructed about specific measures to facilitate the process of change for the different stakeholder groups. For these reasons, they should be able to master specific communicative strategies with which changes can be best explained and to persuade the workers about the appropriateness of these changes.

As the leader’s task is to “articulate inspiring visions” (Id.: 233) in the people who work for them, their actions start from the persuasion of the employees and are aimed at the consolidation of changes, after that they have been approved and institutionalized.

A valid framework for the management of changes is proposed by the professor John P.

Kotter, in his book Leading Change (2012: 23): according to Kotter, from the point of view of internal communication, the implementation of changes in a corporate context should at first be “introduced” by the leader. He is asked to find the most appropriate communication strategy to urge the employees about the adjustments which are required from them. As this goal is achieved, the second stage of the process consists in an elabo- ration of this project, which should be explained to key players, in a way that a team, or

“coalition”, of people who are able to monitor the process is created. Successive to this, the articulation of a specific vision about the process, which should be proposed and presented to the employees at all levels of the organization, is given as a fourth step (cf.

Figure 1.3 on the following page).

A subsequent phase comprehends an action of empowerment of other people as promoters of the adjustments required by the enterprise; this stage is then followed by a reinforcement of the positive expectations created about the change through the strategic communication of the initial successes achieved by the company (sixth step). In this phase, as for the last two passages, essential is the attention paid by the leader to communication tech- niques used to transmit information internally to his employees: his motivations and

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23 passion for the process started should be enough to induce the other workers to support the change and to keep on working for it. The final step of Kotter’s model is represented by the institutionalization of the change, which has finally rooted in the corporate structure.

For each of these phases, eight common mistakes are identified by Kotter; the most dam- aging could nevertheless be observed in the final steps, when the company has already initiated the process of change and managers are convinced that the work is almost completely done: a neglect of communication in the constant promotion of the change with internal stakeholder groups easily causes a complete decay and disappearance of the initiated process within a short time.

An optimal solution to this eventuality could be, therefore, to repeatedly send information, at every level of the company and through different channels, which could remind the colleagues and employees of the new regulations introduced (Jäggi and Egli, eds.

Figure 1.3: Eight steps for managing change.

Source:Cornelissen J. (2017) Corporate Communication, A Guide to Theory and Practice, 5th edition, Lon- don: SAGE Publications, p.26.

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24 2007:82). In addition to the insistence on the same news and the attention that no other contrasting information is transmitted, measures adopted to support the changing process could be further strengthened, according to the financial possibilities and the means of the company, thanks to the intervention of corporate website, intranet and other media.

In fact, the integration of old communication channels with new ones is crucial for a company because it allows the promotion of the positive results gained during the change process through all means: in this respect, an integrated communication vision, which does not separate internal from external means, could be of a great help to the enterprise (Id.: 192). A similar achievement should, in fact, be the guarantee of a successful transmission of the information, pursued through the interaction of various channels.

As explained above, the difficult role of the leader is strictly connected to the ability to motivate and guide the employees for the benefit of the company: managers are expected to show their leadership by influencing others about the correctness of their decision and, at the same time, by being open to external influences on the employee’s part (Cornelissen 2007: 232).

This could be explained by saying that people who exercise leadership should be sensitive to the needs and opinions of their colleagues and employees. A lack of communication in the context of the enterprise, especially during a change, could cause distrust and even resistance from the employees. For this reason, a good manager should be able to maintain a continuous connection with his employees: an efficacious way to do so could be, as an example, trying to gather feedback as often as possible from them. This means especially to be available for communication with them, without imposing changes directly in a vertical way (top-down).

Instead, by collaborating with them to understand their necessities and dissatisfaction, there is the possibility to initiate modifications within the company from the employees’

level, so that the manager will easily be able to engage them to a larger extent, by making them feel part of the change and not simple gears of a mechanism that they cannot understand. For all these reasons, in a situation of change, the bottom-up strategy should generally be preferred to achieve a situation of internal communication and a joint collaboration (Id.: 241), because it allows an equal involvement on the employees’ and the manager’s part.

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25

1.1.3. Description of Functions

The variety of functions performed by internal communication, among which, as an example, the creation of trustworthy relations or the expression of delicate corporate issues as the Corporate Social Responsibility contents, have been categorized by Philip Meier on the basis of four different orientations, which Meier matched with different kinds of instruments. These instruments, according to Meier, are used in enterprises to give dispositions (Anordnungsinstrumente), coordinate people (Koordinationsinstrumente), orient people in their working life (Orientierungsinstru- mente) and establish contacts among people (Kontaktinstrumente). By observing these groups, it emerges that, in the four cases, all the functions of internal communication instruments could be, more generally, associated to the distribution of infor- mation or the creation of a dialogue (2000, cited by Baeriswyl 2015: 4).

A further representation of the phenomenon of communication is provided by Hein- rich Löffler (2010: 82, 88, cited in Sprachvarietäten, Lecture 6^th April, 2017): in his studies about the language, he explored the linguistic varieties from different per- spectives. In this paper, a particular importance is devoted to the category of Medi- olekte, because it offers a useful classification of communicative expressions in re- lation to their medium. Such an exploration of communicative modalities also offers, in relation to our research, a key interpretation of the characteristics of internal corporate communication instruments. Löffler classifies the different media on the basis of their use in spoken (gesprochene Sprache) or in written language (geschriebene Sprache).

A scheme related to Loffler’s classification obtained from the analysis of linguistic expressions of the spoken language is proposed on the following page (cf. Figure 1.4).

Whether these instruments are regarded in the context of the corporate communication, it could be observed, on the one hand, that, in certain kinds of spoken interactions, information is transmitted exactly at the moment of the utterance. This is the case, as an example, of conversations, meetings, corporate TV channels or telephonic conversations.

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26 On the other hand, when information is transmitted to the interlocutor in a different moment from the one in which it has been produced, the intermediation of an external support is necessary, be it a paper sheet (i.e. transcript) or an electronic medium ( e.g.

audio messages, answering machine).

In the case of the written language, on the contrary, the differentiation is traced in relation to a direct (i.e. in presence) or indirect (i.e. in absence) transmission of the message.

An indirect transmission could be realized through a monodirectional or bidirectional dialogue: e-mails, chats and other kinds of messaging devices are clear expressions of a bidirectional dialogue, because they allow two or more people to interact together in real time, while the media, as also corporate books and manuals, all belong to the group of monodirectional devices. The last noticeable category is the one of communication varieties that necessitate the use of external supports but, at the same time,

Figure 1.4: Mediolekte. Gesprochene Sprache/Mediolekte in spoken language.

Source: Löffler H. (2010) Germanistische Soziolinguistik [1985], 4., neu bearb. Aufl., Berlin: Schmidt (Grundlagen der Germanistik 28), p.28, in Interkulturelle Kommunikation und Sprachvarietäten, Lecture 06 Apr. 2017: materials.

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27 require the presence of a person who could be able to use these instruments for an effective conversation. This group, in which a direct usage of the materials from the communicator is implied, is exemplified by Power point presentations or electronic blackboards because of the fact that information could circulate through a combined action of the man and the machine.

However, the effectiveness of whatever kind of communication instrument or channel should be judged in relation with the communicative situation for which it is required: in an interaction between colleagues which share the same office, face-to- face communication could be sufficient to fully achieve the objective of a transparent internal communication, while in case of a communication that the CEO should send to the whole group of the employees, a more efficient and quick communication channel is necessitated. In this case, a very useful instrument could be represented by the corporate intranet or even simple e-mails.

In fact, another crucial factor in the organization of internal communications is the social positioning of the communicators as regards the corporate structure: according to this differentiation, internal communication will be planned in a way that could respect the status of the people and facilitate the exchange of information. It is for this reason that internal corporate communication could be structured both as formal and as informal interaction. In addition, the interaction could involve two or more people who communicate at the same level of the organization (i.e. same role or same

“working status”) as also people who belong to different social levels within the organization because they have different kinds of responsibilities. On the basis of this variable, therefore, communications will be structured in a vertical or a horizontal direction. Interactions that occur in a vertical direction will normally follow a formal pattern of conversation, while the ones that are structured in a horizontal direction will commonly exhibit an informal pattern of conversation. A connection to this concept could also be identified in Paul Watzlawick’s fifth Axiom, which asserts that

“inter-human communication procedures” are “symmetric or complementary, de- pending on whether the relationship of the partners is based on differences or parity"

(1967, cited by Coates 2009: 170).