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Chapter 5
The Organization of Communications:

Theory and Practice

Central themes

There is an increased interest in the subject of communications organization on both the
academic and practitioner side as a result of the integration trend and the rise of corporate
communications as a guiding philosophy for managing communications.

The overall organization of communications consists of the vertical structure – the depart-
mental arrangement and location of communications disciplines within the organization’s
hierarchy – and the horizontal structure – the coordination mechanisms that are laid over
departments and across disciplines.

There are differences of opinion as to whether factors within the power structure of the
organization or its environment determine (and therefore explain) the vertical and horizon-
tal structuring of communications.

Regardless of what explains structures, the vertical structure that seems to work for most
companies (with the exception of small firms) is to have an independent communications
department at a central place within the organization, which includes all communications dis-
ciplines except for marketing communications disciplines, which are placed under marketing.

Regardless of what explains structures, companies often opt for having sufficient horizon-
tal structures in place exercised through a range of coordination mechanisms including con-
ference and networking facilities, project teams, process documentation, job rotation and
council meetings.

5.1 Introduction

Recent years have seen an increased interest in the subject of the organization of
communications disciplines on both the academic and practitioner side as a result of
the integration trend identified in Chapter 2 and the increased importance of corpo-
rate communications for contemporary organizations. This trend signalled that
whereas communications had previously been organized and operated in a rather
fragmented manner, different organizational forms and coordination mechanisms
were now needed that would integrate the work of various communications practi-
tioners and, when pulled together, would enable the communications function as a
whole to have an input into strategic decision making at the corporate level. Many