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Circumscribing Corporate Communications 27

unions, distributors, suppliers, shareholders and customers, as well as groups whose
relationship is more diffuse and also primarily societal or moral in nature, such as the
media, special interest groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community
members and the government.A breaking point for the stakeholder concept is that
organizations have increasingly become aware of the need for an ‘inclusive’ and ‘bal-
anced’ stakeholder management approach that involves actively communicating with
and being involved with all stakeholder groups upon which the organization is
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dependent and not just with shareholders or customers. Such awareness stems from
high profile cases where undue attention to certain stakeholder groups led to crisis
and severe damage for the organizations concerned, government initiatives in the
US, UK and the European community that favour stakeholder management and
social reporting, and influential think-tanks such as Tomorrow’s Company and man-
agement consultancies that continue to stress its importance.
All of these terms will be discussed in detail in the remainder of the book, but
it is worthwhile already to emphasize how some of them hang together. The nub of
what matters in Table 1.4 is that corporate communications is geared towards estab-
lishing favourable corporate images and reputations with all of its stakeholder groups,
so that these groups act in a way that is conducive to the organization. In other
words, through favourable images and reputations existing and prospective customers
will purchase products and services, members of the community will appreciate the
organization, investors will grant financial resources, and so on. It is the spectre of a
favoured or damaged reputation – of having to make costly reversals in policies or
practices as a result of stakeholder pressure or, worse, as a consequence of a self-
inflicted wound – that overhangs the urgency with which integrated stakeholder
management now needs to be treated.
The definitions and vocabulary presented furthermore point to a number of top-
ics that define this strategic management perspective on corporate communications.
Each of these topics is discussed in more detail in the remaining chapters of this
book. A first central topic involves the process of developing communications strategy
in line with the overall corporate strategy of an organization, and in account of
the important stakeholders and issues that are of concern to that organization. As
Chapter 4 outlines, this requires an understanding of the strategic value and contri-
bution of corporate communications to the organization and a grounded insight into
how strategy is developed, how the organizational environment and its stakeholders
can be analysed and mapped, how strategic action is taken, how communications
programmes are developed, and how the effects of communications can be identi-
fied and tracked.Another important topic involves the question of how communi-
cations practitioners and their work can be best organized. The organization of
communications in terms of the hierarchical position of communications within the
organization, and the integration and coordination of communications work, is cov-
ered in an in-depth manner in Chapter 5.Viewing corporate communications as a
management function also involves an understanding of the various competencies
and skills that it requires of different communications practitioners,and the ‘manager’
and ‘technician’ roles that these practitioners fulfil within the corporation. Chapter 6
deals with the subject of professional roles and competencies and suggests ways in which
communications practitioners can be supported in their work and development.
Each of these topics is, as mentioned, covered in an in-depth manner in the remaining