Page 32 - Corporate Communication

Cornelissen-01.qxd 10/11/2004 4:03 PM Page 23

Circumscribing Corporate Communications 23

fragmented range of tactics that are employed impromptu, but as a strategic and
planned set of actions that follow from the overall corporate strategy.
2. A managerial framework for managing all communications used by an organization to
build reputations and relationships with stakeholders in its environment. This
does not necessarily mean that communications disciplines, and the practition-
ers responsible for them,are integrated into one and the same department.Corporate
communications offers a managerial framework that goes above and beyond
departmental boundaries, and enables the coordination of the work of the commu-
nications practitioners involved.
3. A vocabulary of concepts and sets of techniques for understanding and managing com-
munications between an organization and its stakeholders. Rather than consider-
ing the outside environment of an organization primarily in terms of markets
or publics, many organizations and the communications practitioners who work
within them now view the environment in terms of the various stakeholder
groups upon which the organization is dependent.

Overall, if a definition of corporate communications is required, these characteristics
can provide a basis for one:

Corporate communications is a management function that offers a framework
and vocabulary for the effective coordination of all means of communications
with the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations
with stakeholder groups upon which the organization is dependent.
A consequence of these characteristics of corporate communications is that they are
likely to be complex in nature.This is especially so in organizations with wide geo-
graphic scope, such as multinational firms, or with wide ranges of products or
services, where the coordination of communications often appears to be a balancing
act between corporate headquarters and the various divisions and business units
involved. However, there are other significant problems in developing effective cor-
porate communications strategies. Corporate communications demands an integrated
approach to communications management. Unlike functional problems and a more
specialist frame of reference, corporate communications transcends the specialties of
individual communications practitioners (e.g. advertising, direct marketing, media
relations, etc.) and crosses functional boundaries to harness the strategic interests of the
organization at large.When attuned to the strategic direction and scope of the organi-
zation as a whole, corporate communications is also a way of managing communi-
cations that is relevant for all types of organizations, however large and whatever sector
they operate in. It has often been thought that only large organizations in the private
sector (e.g. Fortune 500 companies) need a vocabulary and tools for orchestrating
their communications.Smaller companies,including small manufacturing companies
and family-owned businesses, as well as larger organizations in the public sector such
as hospitals and universities, may indeed have less communications resources and
little fully-fledged communications disciplines when compared to large private
firms. However, communications to the various stakeholder groups of these kinds of
organizations still needs to be aligned and integrated:a need that can be met by corporate
communications as a guiding philosophy.