Page 33 - Corporate Communication

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24 Mapping the Field

A definition of corporate communications has been given.Of course,any definition
has limitations and may lead to lengthy discussions about its exact scope and preci-
sion, and whether everyone would agree with it. In fact, there are different defini-
tions according to different authors.There is also a variety of terms used in relation
to corporate communications, so it is worth devoting a little space to clarifying some
of them. Table 1.4 defines the key terms that readers will come across in this and
other books on corporate communications, and that form the vocabulary of the
management function of corporate communications,and also shows how these relate
to a specific organization – in this case British Airways.
Not all of these terms are always used in corporate communications books.
Moreover, it may or may not be that mission, objectives, strategies and so on are
written down precisely or indeed formally laid down within an organization.As will
be shown in Chapter 4, a mission or corporate identity, for instance, might some-
times more sensibly be conceived as that which is implicit or can be deduced about
an organization from what it is doing and communicating. However, as a general
guideline the following terms are often used in combination with one another.
A mission is a general expression of the overriding purpose of the organization,
which, ideally, is in line with the values and expectations of major stakeholders and
concerned with the scope and boundaries of the organization. It is often referred to
with the simple question ‘what business are we in?’. A vision or strategic intent is the
desired future state of the organization. It is an aspirational view of the general direc-
tion in which the organization wants to go, as formulated by senior management,
and requires the energies and commitment of members of the organization.
Objectives and goals are the more precise (short-term) statements of direction in line
with the formulated vision, which are to be achieved by strategic initiatives or strate-
gies. Strategies involve actions and communications that are linked to objectives, and
are often specified in terms of specific organizational functions (e.g. finance, opera-
tions, human resources, etc.). Operations strategies for streamlining operations and
human resource strategies for staff support and development initiatives are common
to every organization as well as, increasingly, full scale corporate communications
strategies.
Key to having a corporate communications strategy is the notion of a corporate
identity: the basic profile that an organization wants to project to all of its important
stakeholder groups and how it aims to be known by these various groups in terms
of the corporate images and reputations that they hold.To ensure that different stake-
holders indeed conceive of an organization in a favourable and broadly consistent
manner, and also in line with the projected corporate identity, organizations need to
go to great lengths to integrate all of their communications from brochures to websites
in tone, themes, visuals and logos.
The stakeholder concept takes centre stage within corporate communications
management at the expense of considering the environment just in terms of markets
and publics. This is not so much the result of a different way of thinking about
markets and publics, as these are still important groups to be addressed by the organi-
zation, but concerns a shift towards a more inclusive view in which the organization
recognizes a larger number of groups upon which it is dependent (and that literally
hold a ‘stake’ in the organization). Stakeholders include groups that have primarily
an economic or contractual relationship with the organization such as employees,